Chapter 6 107
Science, Theology, Medicine
But I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it,
but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. — Paul.
The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took,
and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. — Jesus.
1 In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or
divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and Christian
3 named my discovery Christian Science. God Science
had been graciously preparing me during many discovered
years for the reception of this final revelation of the ab-
6 solute divine Principle of scientific mental healing.
This apodictical Principle points to the revelation of
Immanuel, "God with us," — the sovereign ever-pres-
9 ence, delivering the children of men from Mission of
every ill "that flesh is heir to." Through Christian
Christian Science, religion and medicine are Science
12 inspired with a diviner nature and essence; fresh pinions
are given to faith and understanding, and thoughts ac-
quaint themselves intelligently with God.
15 Feeling so perpetually the false consciousness that life
inheres in the body, yet remembering that in Discontent
reality God is our Life, we may well tremble with life
18 in the prospect of those days in which we must say, "I
have no pleasure in them."
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 108
1 Whence came to me this heavenly conviction, — a con-
viction antagonistic to the testimony of the physical senses?
3 According to St. Paul, it was "the gift of the grace of
God given unto me by the effectual working of His power."
It was the divine law of Life and Love, unfolding to me
6 the demonstrable fact that matter possesses neither sen-
sation nor life; that human experiences show the falsity
of all material things; and that immortal cravings, "the
9 price of learning love," establish the truism that the
only sufferer is mortal mind, for the divine Mind cannot
suffer.
12 My conclusions were reached by allowing the evidence
of this revelation to multiply with mathematical certainty
and the lesser demonstration to prove the Demonstrable
15 greater, as the product of three multiplied by evidence
three, equalling nine, proves conclusively that three times
three duodecillions must be nine duodecillions, — not
18 a fraction more, not a unit less.
When apparently near the confines of mortal existence,
standing already within the shadow of the death-valley,
21 I learned these truths in divine Science: that Light shining
all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and in darkness
that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-
24 present; that the opposite of Truth, — called error, sin,
sickness, disease, death, — is the false testimony of false
material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense
27 evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which
this same so-called mind names matter, thereby shutting
out the true sense of Spirit.
30 My discovery, that erring, mortal, misnamed New lines
mind produces all the organism and action of of thought
the mortal body, set my thoughts to work in new channels,
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 109
1 and led up to my demonstration of the proposition that
Mind is All and matter is naught as the leading factor in
3 Mind-science.
Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that Mind
is All-in-all, that the only realities are the divine Mind
6 and idea. This great fact is not, however, seen Scientific
to be supported by sensible evidence, until its evidence
divine Principle is demonstrated by healing the sick and
9 thus proved absolute and divine. This proof once seen,
no other conclusion can be reached.
For three years after my discovery, I sought the solu-
12 tion of this problem of Mind-healing, searched the Scrip-
tures and read little else, kept aloof from so- Solitary
ciety, and devoted time and energies to dis- research
15 covering a positive rule. The search was sweet, calm, and
buoyant with hope, not selfish nor depressing. I knew
the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God,
18 and that cures were produced in primitive Christian
healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the
Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute
21 conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and dem-
onstration. The revelation of Truth in the understand-
ing came to me gradually and apparently through divine
24 power. When a new spiritual idea is borne to earth, the
prophetic Scripture of Isaiah is renewedly fulfilled:
"Unto us a child is born, . . . and his name shall be
27 called Wonderful."
Jesus once said of his lessons: "My doctrine is not
mine, but His that sent me. If any man will do His will,
30 he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or
whether I speak of myself." (John vii. 16, 17.)
The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omni-
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 110
1 presence, omniscience, — Spirit possessing all power,
filling all space, constituting all Science, — contradict
3 forever the belief that matter can be actual. God's
These eternal verities reveal primeval exist- allness
ence as the radiant reality of God's creation, learned
6 in which all that He has made is pronounced by His wis-
dom good.
Thus it was that I beheld, as never before, the awful
9 unreality called evil. The equipollence of God brought
to light another glorious proposition, — man's perfecti-
bility and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on
12 earth.
In following these leadings of scientific revelation,
the Bible was my only textbook. The Scriptures were
15 illumined; reason and revelation were recon- Scriptural
ciled, and afterwards the truth of Christian foundations
Science was demonstrated. No human pen nor tongue
18 taught me the Science contained in this book, SCIENCE
AND HEALTH; and neither tongue nor pen can over-
throw it. This book may be distorted by shallow criti-
21 cism or by careless or malicious students, and its ideas
may be temporarily abused and misrepresented; but the
Science and truth therein will forever remain to be dis-
24 cerned and demonstrated.
Jesus demonstrated the power of Christian Science to
heal mortal minds and bodies. But this power was lost
27 sight of, and must again be spiritually dis- The
cerned, taught, and demonstrated according demonstration
to Christ's command, with "signs following." lost and found
30 Its Science must be apprehended by as many as believe
on Christ and spiritually understand Truth.
No analogy exists between the vague hypotheses of
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 111
1 agnosticism, pantheism, theosophy, spiritualism, or
millenarianism and the demonstrable truths of Chris-
3 tian Science; and I find the will, or sensuous Mystical
reason of the human mind, to be opposed to antagonists
the divine Mind as expressed through divine Science.
6 Christian Science is natural, but not physical. The
Science of God and man is no more supernatural than
is the science of numbers, though departing Optical
9 from the realm of the physical, as the Science illustration
of God, Spirit, must, some may deny its right to of Science
the name of Science. The Principle of divine metaphysics
12 is God; the practice of divine metaphysics is the utiliza-
tion of the power of Truth over error; its rules demon-
strate its Science. Divine metaphysics reverses perverted
15 and physical hypotheses as to Deity, even as the ex-
planation of optics rejects the incidental or inverted
image and shows what this inverted image is meant to
18 represent.
A prize of one hundred pounds, offered in Oxford Uni-
versity, England, for the best essay on Natural Science,
21 — an essay calculated to offset the tendency of Pertinent
the age to attribute physical effects to physical proposal
causes rather than to a final spiritual cause, — is one of
24 many incidents which show that Christian Science meets
a yearning of the human race for spirituality.
After a lengthy examination of my discovery and its
27 demonstration in healing the sick, this fact became evi-
dent to me, — that Mind governs the body, Confirmatory
not partially but wholly. I submitted my tests
30 metaphysical system of treating disease to the broad-
est practical tests. Since then this system has gradually
gained ground, and has proved itself, whenever scien-
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 112
1 tifically employed, to be the most effective curative agent
in medical practice.
3 Is there more than one school of Christian Science?
Christian Science is demonstrable. There can, there-
fore, be but one method in its teaching. Those who de-
6 part from this method forfeit their claims to One school
belong to its school, and they become adher- of Truth
ents of the Socratic, the Platonic, the Spencerian, or some
9 other school. By this is meant that they adopt and ad-
here to some particular system of human opinions. Al-
though these opinions may have occasional gleams of
12 divinity, borrowed from that truly divine Science which
eschews man-made systems, they nevertheless remain
wholly human in their origin and tendency and are not
15 scientifically Christian.
From the infinite One in Christian Science comes one
Principle and its infinite idea, and with this infinitude
18 come spiritual rules, laws, and their demon- Unchanging
stration, which, like the great Giver, are "the Principle
same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;" for thus are
21 the divine Principle of healing and the Christ-idea charac-
terized in the epistle to the Hebrews.
Any theory of Christian Science, which departs from
24 what has already been stated and proved to be true, af-
fords no foundation upon which to establish On sandy
a genuine school of this Science. Also, if any foundations
27 so-called new school claims to be Christian Science, and
yet uses another author's discoveries without giving that
author proper credit, such a school is erroneous, for it
30 inculcates a breach of that divine commandment in the
Hebrew Decalogue, "Thou shalt not steal."
God is the Principle of divine metaphysics. As there
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 113
1 is but one God, there can be but one divine Principle of
all Science; and there must be fixed rules for the demon-
3 stration of this divine Principle. The letter Principle and
of Science plentifully reaches humanity to-day, practice
but its spirit comes only in small degrees. The vital part,
6 the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love. With-
out this, the letter is but the dead body of Science, —
pulseless, cold, inanimate.
9 The fundamental propositions of divine metaphysics
are summarized in the four following, to me, self-evident
propositions. Even if reversed, these proposi- Reversible
12 tions will be found to agree in statement and propositions
proof, showing mathematically their exact relation to
Truth. De Quincey says mathematics has not a foot to
15 stand upon which is not purely metaphysical.
1. God is All-in-all.
2. God is good. Good is Mind.
18 3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter.
4. Life, God, omnipotent good, deny death, evil, sin,
disease. — Disease, sin, evil, death, deny good, omnipo-
21 tent God, Life.
Which of the denials in proposition four is true? Both
are not, cannot be, true. According to the Scripture,
24 I find that God is true, "but every [mortal] man a
liar."
The divine metaphysics of Christian Science, like the
27 method in mathematics, proves the rule by inversion.
For example: There is no pain in Truth, and Metaphysical
no truth in pain; no nerve in Mind, and no inversions
30 mind in nerve; no matter in Mind, and no mind in mat-
ter; no matter in Life, and no life in matter; no matter
in good, and no good in matter.
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 114
1 Usage classes both evil and good together as mind;
therefore, to be understood, the author calls sick and sin-
3 ful humanity mortal mind, — meaning by this Definition of
term the flesh opposed to Spirit, the human mortal mind
mind and evil in contradistinction to the divine Mind, or
6 Truth and good. The spiritually unscientific definition
of mind is based on the evidence of the physical senses,
which makes minds many and calls mind both human and
9 divine.
In Science, Mind is one, including noumenon and phe-
nomena, God and His thoughts.
12 Mortal mind is a solecism in language, and involves an
improper use of the word mind. As Mind is immortal,
the phrase mortal mind implies something un- Imperfect
15 true and therefore unreal; and as the phrase terminology
is used in teaching Christian Science, it is meant to
designate that which has no real existence. Indeed, if
18 a better word or phrase could be suggested, it would
be used; but in expressing the new tongue we must
sometimes recur to the old and imperfect, and the new
21 wine of the Spirit has to be poured into the old bottles of
the letter.
Christian Science explains all cause and effect as men-
24 tal, not physical. It lifts the veil of mystery from Soul and
body. It shows the scientific relation of man Causation
to God, disentangles the interlaced ambiguities mental
27 of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought. In divine
Science, the universe, including man, is spiritual, harmoni-
ous, and eternal. Science shows that what is termed mat-
30 ter is but the subjective state of what is termed by the
author mortal mind.
Apart from the usual opposition to everything new,
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 115
1 the one great obstacle to the reception of that spiritual-
ity, through which the understanding of Mind-science
3 comes, is the inadequacy of material terms for Philological
metaphysical statements, and the consequent inadequacy
difficulty of so expressing metaphysical ideas as to make
6 them comprehensible to any reader, who has not person-
ally demonstrated Christian Science as brought forth in
my discovery. Job says: "The ear trieth words, as the
9 mouth tasteth meat." The great difficulty is to give the
right impression, when translating material terms back
into the original spiritual tongue.
12 SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF IMMORTAL MIND
GOD: Divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Divine
Soul, Spirit, Mind. synonyms
15 MAN: God's spiritual idea, individual, per- Divine
fect, eternal. image
IDEA: An image in Mind; the immediate Divine
18 object of understanding. — Webster. reflection
SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF MORTAL MIND
First Degree: Depravity.
21 PHYSICAL. Evil beliefs, passions and appetites, fear,
depraved will, self-justification, pride, envy, de- Unreality
ceit, hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, disease,
24 death.
Second Degree: Evil beliefs disappearing.
MORAL. Humanity, honesty, affection, com- Transitional
27 passion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance. qualities
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 116
1 Third Degree: Understanding.
SPIRITUAL. Wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding,
3 spiritual power, love, health, holiness. Reality
In the third degree mortal mind disappears, and man as
God's image appears. Science so reverses the evidence
6 before the corporeal human senses, as to make Spiritual
this Scriptural testimony true in our hearts, universe
"The last shall be first, and the first last," so that God
9 and His idea may be to us what divinity really is and
must of necessity be, — all-inclusive.
A correct view of Christian Science and of its adapta-
12 tion to healing includes vastly more than is at first seen.
Works on metaphysics leave the grand point Aim of
untouched. They never crown the power of Science
15 Mind as the Messiah, nor do they carry the day against
physical enemies, — even to the extinction of all belief in
matter, evil, disease, and death, — nor insist upon the fact
18 that God is all, therefore that matter is nothing beyond an
image in mortal mind.
Christian Science strongly emphasizes the thought that
21 God is not corporeal, but incorporeal, — that is, Divine
bodiless. Mortals are corporeal, but God is personality
incorporeal.
24 As the words person and personal are commonly and
ignorantly employed, they often lead, when applied to
Deity, to confused and erroneous conceptions of divinity
27 and its distinction from humanity. If the term personality,
as applied to God, means infinite personality, then God is
infinite Person, — in the sense of infinite personality, but
30 not in the lower sense. An infinite Mind in a finite form
is an absolute impossibility.
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 117
1 The term individuality is also open to objections, be-
cause an individual may be one of a series, one of many,
3 as an individual man, an individual horse; whereas God
is One, — not one of a series, but one alone and without
an equal.
6 God is Spirit; therefore the language of Spirit must
be, and is, spiritual. Christian Science attaches no physi-
cal nature and significance to the Supreme Spiritual
9 Being or His manifestation; mortals alone do language
this. God's essential language is spoken of in the last
chapter of Mark's Gospel as the new tongue, the spir-
12 itual meaning of which is attained through "signs
following."
Ear hath not heard, nor hath lip spoken, the pure lan-
15 guage of Spirit. Our Master taught spirituality by simili-
tudes and parables. As a divine student he The miracles
unfolded God to man, illustrating and demon- of Jesus
18 strating Life and Truth in himself and by his power over
the sick and sinning. Human theories are inadequate to
interpret the divine Principle involved in the miracles
21 (marvels) wrought by Jesus and especially in his mighty,
crowning, unparalleled, and triumphant exit from the
flesh.
24 Evidence drawn from the five physical senses relates
solely to human reason; and because of opaci- Opacity of
ty to the true light, human reason dimly re- the senses
27 flects and feebly transmits Jesus' works and words. Truth
is a revelation.
Jesus bade his disciples beware of the leaven of the
30 Pharisees and of the Sadducees, which he de- Leaven
fined as human doctrines. His parable of the of Truth
"leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 118
1 of meal, till the whole was leavened," impels the infer-
ence that the spiritual leaven signifies the Science of Christ
3 and its spiritual interpretation, — an inference far above
the merely ecclesiastical and formal applications of the
illustration.
6 Did not this parable point a moral with a prophecy,
foretelling the second appearing in the flesh of the
Christ, Truth, hidden in sacred secrecy from the visi-
9 ble world?
Ages pass, but this leaven of Truth is ever at work. It
must destroy the entire mass of error, and so be eternally
12 glorified in man's spiritual freedom.
In their spiritual significance, Science, Theology, and
Medicine are means of divine thought, which include spirit-
15 ual laws emanating from the invisible and in- The divine
finite power and grace. The parable may and human
import that these spiritual laws, perverted by contrasted
18 a perverse material sense of law, are metaphysically pre-
sented as three measures of meal, — that is, three modes
of mortal thought. In all mortal forms of thought, dust
21 is dignified as the natural status of men and things, and
modes of material motion are honored with the name of
laws. This continues until the leaven of Spirit changes
24 the whole of mortal thought, as yeast changes the chemical
properties of meal.
The definitions of material law, as given by natural
27 science, represent a kingdom necessarily divided against
itself, because these definitions portray law as Certain
physical, not spiritual. Therefore they con- contradictions
30 tradict the divine decrees and violate the law of Love, in
which nature and God are one and the natural order of
heaven comes down to earth.
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 119
1 When we endow matter with vague spiritual power, —
that is, when we do so in our theories, for of course we
3 cannot really endow matter with what it does Unescapable
not and cannot possess, — we disown the Al- dilemma
mighty, for such theories lead to one of two things. They
6 either presuppose the self-evolution and self-government
of matter, or else they assume that matter is the product
of Spirit. To seize the first horn of this dilemma and con-
9 sider matter as a power in and of itself, is to leave the cre-
ator out of His own universe; while to grasp the other
horn of the dilemma and regard God as the creator of
12 matter, is not only to make Him responsible for all disas-
ters, physical and moral, but to announce Him as their
source, thereby making Him guilty of maintaining perpet-
15 ual misrule in the form and under the name of natural
law.
In one sense God is identical with nature, but this na-
18 ture is spiritual and is not expressed in matter. The law-
giver, whose lightning palsies or prostrates in God and
death the child at prayer, is not the divine ideal nature
21 of omnipresent Love. God is natural good, and is repre-
sented only by the idea of goodness; while evil should be
regarded as unnatural, because it is opposed to the nature
24 of Spirit, God.
In viewing the sunrise, one finds that it contradicts
the evidence before the senses to believe that the earth
27 is in motion and the sun at rest. As astron- The sun
omy reverses the human perception of the and Soul
movement of the solar system, so Christian Science re-
30 verses the seeming relation of Soul and body and makes
body tributary to Mind. Thus it is with man, who
is but the humble servant of the restful Mind, though it
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 120
1 seems otherwise to finite sense. But we shall never under-
stand this while we admit that soul is in body or mind in
3 matter, and that man is included in non-intelligence.
Soul, or Spirit, is God, unchangeable and eternal; and
man coexists with and reflects Soul, God, for man is God's
6 image.
Science reverses the false testimony of the physical
senses, and by this reversal mortals arrive at the funda-
9 mental facts of being. Then the question in- Reversal of
evitably arises: Is a man sick if the material testimony
senses indicate that he is in good health? No! for matter
12 can make no conditions for man. And is he well if the
senses say he is sick? Yes, he is well in Science in which
health is normal and disease is abnormal.
15 Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor
can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the sub-
ject of health. The Science of Mind-healing Health and
18 shows it to be impossible for aught but Mind the senses
to testify truly or to exhibit the real status of man. There-
fore the divine Principle of Science, reversing the testi-
21 mony of the physical senses, reveals man as harmoniously
existent in Truth, which is the only basis of health; and
thus Science denies all disease, heals the sick, overthrows
24 false evidence, and refutes materialistic logic.
Any conclusion pro or con, deduced from supposed sen-
sation in matter or from matter's supposed consciousness
27 of health or disease, instead of reversing the testimony of
the physical senses, confirms that testimony as legitimate
and so leads to disease.
30 When Columbus gave freer breath to the Historic
globe, ignorance and superstition chained the illustrations
limbs of the brave old navigator, and disgrace and star-
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 121
1 vation stared him in the face; but sterner still would have
been his fate, if his discovery had undermined the favor-
3 ite inclinations of a sensuous philosophy.
Copernicus mapped out the stellar system, and before
he spake, astrography was chaotic, and the heavenly fields
6 were incorrectly explored.
The Chaldean Wisemen read in the stars the fate of
empires and the fortunes of men. Though no higher
9 revelation than the horoscope was to them dis- Perennial
played upon the empyrean, earth and heaven beauty
were bright, and bird and blossom were glad in God's
12 perennial and happy sunshine, golden with Truth. So
we have goodness and beauty to gladden the heart; but
man, left to the hypotheses of material sense unexplained
15 by Science, is as the wandering comet or the desolate
star — "a weary searcher for a viewless home."
The earth's diurnal rotation is invisible to the physical
18 eye, and the sun seems to move from east to west, instead
of the earth from west to east. Until rebuked Astronomic
by clearer views of the everlasting facts, this unfoldings
21 false testimony of the eye deluded the judgment and in-
duced false conclusions. Science shows appearances often
to be erroneous, and corrects these errors by the simple
24 rule that the greater controls the lesser. The sun is the
central stillness, so far as our solar system is concerned,
and the earth revolves about the sun once a year, besides
27 turning daily on its own axis.
As thus indicated, astronomical order imitates the
action of divine Principle; and the universe, the reflec-
30 tion of God, is thus brought nearer the spiritual fact, and
is allied to divine Science as displayed in the everlasting
government of the universe.
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 122
1 The evidence of the physical senses often reverses the
real Science of being, and so creates a reign of discord, —
3 assigning seeming power to sin, sickness, and Opposing
death; but the great facts of Life, rightly un- testimony
derstood, defeat this triad of errors, contradict their false
6 witnesses, and reveal the kingdom of heaven, — the actual
reign of harmony on earth. The material senses' re-
versal of the Science of Soul was practically exposed nine-
9 teen hundred years ago by the demonstrations of Jesus;
yet these so-called senses still make mortal mind tributary
to mortal body, and ordain certain sections of matter, such
12 as brain and nerves, as the seats of pain and pleasure,
from which matter reports to this so-called mind its status
of happiness or misery.
15 The optical focus is another proof of the illusion of
material sense. On the eye's retina, sky and tree-tops
apparently join hands, clouds and ocean meet Testimony of
18 and mingle. The barometer, — that little the senses
prophet of storm and sunshine, denying the testimony of
the senses, — points to fair weather in the midst of murky
21 clouds and drenching rain. Experience is full of instances
of similar illusions, which every thinker can recall for
himself.
24 To material sense, the severance of the jugular vein
takes away life; but to spiritual sense and Spiritual
in Science, Life goes on unchanged and sense of life
27 being is eternal. Temporal life is a false sense of
existence.
Our theories make the same mistake regarding Soul
30 and body that Ptolemy made regarding the solar system.
They insist that soul is in body and mind therefore tribu-
tary to matter. Astronomical science has destroyed the
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 123
1 false theory as to the relations of the celestial bodies, and
Christian Science will surely destroy the greater error as
3 to our terrestrial bodies. The true idea and Ptolemaic
Principle of man will then appear. The Ptole- and psychical
maic blunder could not affect the harmony of error
6 being as does the error relating to soul and body, which
reverses the order of Science and assigns to matter the
power and prerogative of Spirit, so that man becomes
9 the most absolutely weak and inharmonious creature in
the universe.
The verity of Mind shows conclusively how it is that
12 matter seems to be, but is not. Divine Science, Seeming
rising above physical theories, excludes matter, and being
resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of
15 material sense with spiritual ideas.
The term CHRISTIAN SCIENCE was introduced by
the author to designate the scientific system of divine
18 healing.
The revelation consists of two parts:
1. The discovery of this divine Science of Mind-
21 healing, through a spiritual sense of the Scriptures and
through the teachings of the Comforter, as promised by
the Master.
24 2. The proof, by present demonstration, that the so-
called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a
dispensation now ended, but that they illustrated an
27 ever-operative divine Principle. The operation of this
Principle indicates the eternality of the scientific order
and continuity of being.
30 Christian Science differs from material sci- Scientific
ence, but not on that account is it less scien- basis
tific. On the contrary, Christian Science is pre-emi-
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 124
1 nently scientific, being based on Truth, the Principle of
all science.
3 Physical science (so-called) is human knowledge, — a
law of mortal mind, a blind belief, a Samson shorn of his
strength. When this human belief lacks organ- Physical
6 izations to support it, its foundations are gone. science a
Having neither moral might, spiritual basis, blind belief
nor holy Principle of its own, this belief mistakes effect
9 for cause and seeks to find life and intelligence in matter,
thus limiting Life and holding fast to discord and death.
In a word, human belief is a blind conclusion from material
12 reasoning. This is a mortal, finite sense of things, which
immortal Spirit silences forever.
The universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science
15 from its divine Principle, God, and then it can be under-
stood; but when explained on the basis of Right
physical sense and represented as subject to interpretation
18 growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is,
and must continue to be, an enigma.
Adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of
21 Mind. They belong to divine Principle, and support
the equipoise of that thought-force, which All force
launched the earth in its orbit and said to the mental
24 proud wave, "Thus far and no farther."
Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all
things. We tread on forces. Withdraw them, and
27 creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them
forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they
belong wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this
30 Mind, and so restores them to their rightful home and
classification.
The elements and functions of the physical body and
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 125
1 of the physical world will change as mortal mind changes
its beliefs. What is now considered the best condition
3 for organic and functional health in the human Corporeal
body may no longer be found indispensable changes
to health. Moral conditions will be found always har-
6 monious and health-giving. Neither organic inaction
nor overaction is beyond God's control; and man will
be found normal and natural to changed mortal thought,
9 and therefore more harmonious in his manifestations than
he was in the prior states which human belief created and
sanctioned.
12 As human thought changes from one stage to an-
other of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and
joy, — from fear to hope and from faith to understand-
15 ing, — the visible manifestation will at last be man gov-
erned by Soul, not by material sense. Reflecting God's
government, man is self-governed. When subordinate
18 to the divine Spirit, man cannot be controlled by sin or
death, thus proving our material theories about laws of
health to be valueless.
21 The seasons will come and go with changes of time and
tide, cold and heat, latitude and longitude. The agri-
culturist will find that these changes cannot The time
24 affect his crops. "As a vesture shalt Thou and tide
change them and they shall be changed." The mariner
will have dominion over the atmosphere and the great
27 deep, over the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air.
The astronomer will no longer look up to the stars, —
he will look out from them upon the universe; and the
30 florist will find his flower before its seed.
Thus matter will finally be proved nothing more
than a mortal belief, wholly inadequate to affect a man
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 126
1 through its supposed organic action or supposed exist-
ence. Error will be no longer used in stating truth. The
3 problem of nothingness, or "dust to dust," will Mortal
be solved, and mortal mind will be without nothingness
form and void, for mortality will cease when man beholds
6 himself God's reflection, even as man sees his reflection
in a glass.
All Science is divine. Human thought never pro-
9 jected the least portion of true being. Human belief
has sought and interpreted in its own way A lack of
the echo of Spirit, and so seems to have originality
12 reversed it and repeated it materially; but the human
mind never produced a real tone nor sent forth a positive
sound.
15 The point at issue between Christian Science on the
one hand and popular theology on the other is this: Shall
Science explain cause and effect as being Antagonistic
18 both natural and spiritual? Or shall all that questions
is beyond the cognizance of the material senses be called
supernatural, and be left to the mercy of speculative
21 hypotheses?
I have set forth Christian Science and its application
to the treatment of disease just as I have discovered them.
24 I have demonstrated through Mind the effects Biblical
of Truth on the health, longevity, and morals basis
of men; and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern
27 systems on which to found my own, except the teachings
and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of
prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only au-
30 thority. I have had no other guide in "the straight and
narrow way" of Truth.
If Christendom resists the author's application of the
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 127
1 word Science to Christianity, or questions her use of the
word Science, she will not therefore lose faith in Chris-
3 tianity, nor will Christianity lose its hold upon Science and
her. If God, the All-in-all, be the creator of Christianity
the spiritual universe, including man, then everything
6 entitled to a classification as truth, or Science, must be
comprised in a knowledge or understanding of God, for
there can be nothing beyond illimitable divinity.
9 The terms Divine Science, Spiritual Science, Christ
Science or Christian Science, or Science alone, she em-
ploys interchangeably, according to the re- Scientific
12 quirements of the context. These synony- terms
mous terms stand for everything relating to God, the in-
finite, supreme, eternal Mind. It may be said, however,
15 that the term Christian Science relates especially to
Science as applied to humanity. Christian Science re-
veals God, not as the author of sin, sickness, and death,
18 but as divine Principle, Supreme Being, Mind, exempt
from all evil. It teaches that matter is the falsity, not
the fact, of existence; that nerves, brain, stomach, lungs,
21 and so forth, have — as matter — no intelligence, life, nor
sensation.
There is no physical science, inasmuch as all truth
24 proceeds from the divine Mind. Therefore truth is not
human, and is not a law of matter, for matter No physical
is not a lawgiver. Science is an emanation of science
27 divine Mind, and is alone able to interpret God aright.
It has a spiritual, and not a material origin. It is a divine
utterance, — the Comforter which leadeth into all truth.
30 Christian Science eschews what is called natural science,
in so far as this is built on the false hypotheses that matter
is its own lawgiver, that law is founded on material con-
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 128
1 ditions, and that these are final and overrule the might of
divine Mind. Good is natural and primitive. It is not
3 miraculous to itself.
The term Science, properly understood, refers only to
the laws of God and to His government of the universe,
6 inclusive of man. From this it follows that Practical
business men and cultured scholars have found Science
that Christian Science enhances their endurance and
9 mental powers, enlarges their perception of character,
gives them acuteness and comprehensiveness and an
ability to exceed their ordinary capacity. The human
12 mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding, becomes
more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes
somewhat from itself, and requires less repose. A knowl-
15 edge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities
and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of
thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher
18 realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight
and perspicacity.
An odor becomes beneficent and agreeable only in pro-
21 portion to its escape into the surrounding atmosphere.
So it is with our knowledge of Truth. If one would
not quarrel with his fellow-man for waking him from
24 a cataleptic nightmare, he should not resist Truth, which
banishes — yea, forever destroys with the higher testi-
mony of Spirit — the so-called evidence of matter.
27 Science relates to Mind, not matter. It rests on fixed
Principle and not upon the judgment of false sensation.
The addition of two sums in mathematics must Mathematics
30 always bring the same result. So is it with and scientific
logic. If both the major and the minor propo- logic
sitions of a syllogism are correct, the conclusion, if properly
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 129
1 drawn, cannot be false. So in Christian Science there
are no discords nor contradictions, because its logic is as
3 harmonious as the reasoning of an accurately stated syl-
logism or of a properly computed sum in arithmetic.
Truth is ever truthful, and can tolerate no error in
6 premise or conclusion.
If you wish to know the spiritual fact, you can dis-
cover it by reversing the material fable, be the Truth by
9 fable pro or con, — be it in accord with your inversion
preconceptions or utterly contrary to them.
Pantheism may be defined as a belief in the intelli-
12 gence of matter, — a belief which Science overthrows.
In those days there will be "great tribulation Antagonistic
such as was not since the beginning of the theories
15 world;" and earth will echo the cry, "Art thou [Truth]
come hither to torment us before the time?" Animal
magnetism, hypnotism, spiritualism, theosophy, agnos-
18 ticism, pantheism, and infidelity are antagonistic to true
being and fatal to its demonstration; and so are some
other systems.
21 We must abandon pharmaceutics, and take up ontol-
ogy, — "the science of real being." We must look deep
into realism instead of accepting only the out- Ontology
24 ward sense of things. Can we gather peaches needed
from a pine-tree, or learn from discord the concord of
being? Yet quite as rational are some of the leading
27 illusions along the path which Science must tread in its
reformatory mission among mortals. The very name,
illusion, points to nothingness.
30 The generous liver may object to the author's small
estimate of the pleasures of the table. The sinner sees,
in the system taught in this book, that the demands of
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 130
1 God must be met. The petty intellect is alarmed by con-
stant appeals to Mind. The licentious disposition is dis-
3 couraged over its slight spiritual prospects. Reluctant
When all men are bidden to the feast, the ex- guests
cuses come. One has a farm, another has merchandise,
6 and therefore they cannot accept.
It is vain to speak dishonestly of divine Science, which
destroys all discord, when you can demonstrate Excuses for
9 the actuality of Science. It is unwise to doubt ignorance
if reality is in perfect harmony with God, divine Principle,
— if Science, when understood and demonstrated, will
12 destroy all discord, — since you admit that God is om-
nipotent; for from this premise it follows that good and
its sweet concords have all-power.
15 Christian Science, properly understood, would dis-
abuse the human mind of material beliefs which war
against spiritual facts; and these material Children
18 beliefs must be denied and cast out to make and adults
place for truth. You cannot add to the contents of a
vessel already full. Laboring long to shake the adult's
21 faith in matter and to inculcate a grain of faith in God, —
an inkling of the ability of Spirit to make the body har-
monious, — the author has often remembered our Master's
24 love for little children, and understood how truly such as
they belong to the heavenly kingdom.
If thought is startled at the strong claim of Science
27 for the supremacy of God, or Truth, and doubts the su-
premacy of good, ought we not, contrari- All evil
wise, to be astounded at the vigorous claims unnatural
30 of evil and doubt them, and no longer think it natural to
love sin and unnatural to forsake it, — no longer imagine
evil to be ever-present and good absent? Truth should
Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 131
1 not seem so surprising and unnatural as error, and error
should not seem so real as truth. Sickness should not seem
3 so real as health. There is no error in Science, and our
lives must be governed by reality in order to be in har-
mony with God, the divine Principle of all being.
6 When once destroyed by divine Science, the false evi-
dence before the corporeal senses disappears. Hence the
opposition of sensuous man to the Science of The error of
9 Soul and the significance of the Scripture, "The carnality
carnal mind is enmity against God." The central fact of
the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power. SHOW ALL
EVIL ~ A life of taking ~ Divides & Subtracts From GOOD
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