0.0 – Science & Health by Mary Baker Eddy Chapter 6 – Section 3 of 3 – Science, Theology and Medicine – 1910 Edition Mary Baker Eddy Chapter 6c ~ Medicine ~ Index Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy ~ 1910 Final Ed. 1. Description ~ Please see below 2. Text Content ~ Please see below ALL CHAPTERS ....CHPT 6 INDEX ....SUBTITLES ....Science, Theology, Medicine ~ PDF Description: MEDICINE …and that conviction medicines or heals the human condition of apparent separation from our Father. Science gives us the Christ view, which heals and changes and resurrects everything in the human. We see evidence of this in the next chapter. ~ DISSOLVING BARRIERS, The Healing Work of Christian Science by John L. Morgan Text Content: SHOW ALL MEDICINE Which was first, Mind or medicine? If Mind was 27 first and self-existent, then Mind, not matter, must have been the first medicine. God being All-in- Question of all, He made medicine; but that medicine was precedence 30 Mind. It could not have been matter, which departs from the nature and character of Mind, God. Truth Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 143 1 is God's remedy for error of every kind, and Truth de- stroys only what is untrue. Hence the fact that, to-day, 3 as yesterday, Christ casts out evils and heals the sick. It is plain that God does not employ drugs or hygiene, 6 nor provide them for human use; else Jesus would have recommended and employed them in his heal- Methods ing. The sick are more deplorably lost than rejected 9 the sinning, if the sick cannot rely on God for help and the sinning can. The divine Mind never called matter medicine, and matter required a material and human be- 12 lief before it could be considered as medicine. Sometimes the human mind uses one error to medi- cine another. Driven to choose between two difficulties, 15 the human mind takes the lesser to relieve the Error not greater. On this basis it saves from starva- curative tion by theft, and quiets pain with anodynes. You 18 admit that mind influences the body somewhat, but you conclude that the stomach, blood, nerves, bones, etc., hold the preponderance of power. Controlled by 21 this belief, you continue in the old routine. You lean on the inert and unintelligent, never discerning how this de- prives you of the available superiority of divine Mind. 24 The body is not controlled scientifically by a negative mind. Mind is the grand creator, and there can be no power 27 except that which is derived from Mind. If Mind was first chronologically, is first potentially, and Impossible must be first eternally, then give to Mind the coalescence 30 glory, honor, dominion, and power everlastingly due its holy name. Inferior and unspiritual methods of healing may try to make Mind and drugs coalesce, but the two will Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 144 1 not mingle scientifically. Why should we wish to make them do so, since no good can come of it? 3 If Mind is foremost and superior, let us rely upon Mind, which needs no cooperation from lower powers, even if these so-called powers are real. 6 Naught is the squire, when the king is nigh; Withdraws the star, when dawns the sun's brave light. The various mortal beliefs formulated in human philoso- 9 phy, physiology, hygiene, are mainly predicated of matter, and afford faint gleams of God, or Truth. Soul and The more material a belief, the more obstinately sense 12 tenacious its error; the stronger are the manifestations of the corporeal senses, the weaker the indications of Soul. Human will-power is not Science. Human will belongs 15 to the so-called material senses, and its use is to be con- demned. Willing the sick to recover is not the Will-power metaphysical practice of Christian Science, but detrimental 18 is sheer animal magnetism. Human will-power may in- fringe the rights of man. It produces evil continually, and is not a factor in the realism of being. Truth, and 21 not corporeal will, is the divine power which says to disease, "Peace, be still." Because divine Science wars with so-called physical 24 science, even as Truth wars with error, the old schools still oppose it. Ignorance, pride, or prejudice Conservative closes the door to whatever is not stereotyped. antagonism 27 When the Science of being is universally understood, every man will be his own physician, and Truth will be the universal panacea. 30 It is a question to-day, whether the ancient inspired healers understood the Science of Christian healing, or Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 145 1 whether they caught its sweet tones, as the natural musician catches the tones of harmony, without being 3 able to explain them. So divinely imbued Ancient were they with the spirit of Science, that the healers lack of the letter could not hinder their work; and that 6 letter, without the spirit, would have made void their practice. The struggle for the recovery of invalids goes on, not 9 between material methods, but between mortal minds and immortal Mind. The victory will be on The struggle the patient's side only as immortal Mind and victory 12 through Christ, Truth, subdues the human belief in disease. It matters not what material method one may adopt, whether faith in drugs, trust in hygiene, or reliance 15 on some other minor curative. Scientific healing has this advantage over other meth- ods, — that in it Truth controls error. From this fact 18 arise its ethical as well as its physical ef- Mystery of fects. Indeed, its ethical and physical effects godliness are indissolubly connected. If there is any mystery 21 in Christian healing, it is the mystery which godliness always presents to the ungodly, — the mystery always arising from ignorance of the laws of eternal and unerr- 24 ing Mind. Other methods undertake to oppose error with error, and thus they increase the antagonism of one form of 27 matter towards other forms of matter or error, Matter and the warfare between Spirit and the flesh versus matter goes on. By this antagonism mortal mind must con- 30 tinually weaken its own assumed power. The theology of Christian Science includes healing the sick. Our Master's first article of faith propounded Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 146 1 to his students was healing, and he proved his faith by his works. The ancient Christians were healers. Why 3 has this element of Christianity been lost? How healing Because our systems of religion are governed was lost more or less by our systems of medicine. The first idol- 6 atry was faith in matter. The schools have rendered faith in drugs the fashion, rather than faith in Deity. By trusting matter to destroy its own discord, health and 9 harmony have been sacrificed. Such systems are barren of the vitality of spiritual power, by which material sense is made the servant of Science and religion becomes 12 Christlike. Material medicine substitutes drugs for the power of God — even the might of Mind — to heal the body. 15 Scholasticism clings for salvation to the per- Drugs and son, instead of to the divine Principle, of the divinity man Jesus; and his Science, the curative agent of God, 18 is silenced. Why? Because truth divests material drugs of their imaginary power, and clothes Spirit with suprem- acy. Science is the "stranger that is within thy gates," 21 remembered not, even when its elevating effects prac- tically prove its divine origin and efficacy. Divine Science derives its sanction from the Bible, 24 and the divine origin of Science is demonstrated through the holy influence of Truth in healing sick- Christian ness and sin. This healing power of Truth Science as 27 must have been far anterior to the period in old as God which Jesus lived. It is as ancient as "the Ancient of days." It lives through all Life, and extends throughout 30 all space. Divine metaphysics is now reduced to a system, to a form comprehensible by and adapted to the thought of Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 147 1 the age in which we live. This system enables the learner to demonstrate the divine Principle, Reduction 3 upon which Jesus' healing was based, and to system the sacred rules for its present application to the cure of disease. 6 Late in the nineteenth century I demonstrated the divine rules of Christian Science. They were submitted to the broadest practical test, and everywhere, when honestly ap- 9 plied under circumstances where demonstration was hu- manly possible, this Science showed that Truth had lost none of its divine and healing efficacy, even though cen- 12 turies had passed away since Jesus practised these rules on the hills of Judaea and in the valleys of Galilee. Although this volume contains the complete Science of 15 Mind-healing, never believe that you can absorb the whole meaning of the Science by a simple perusal Perusal and of this book. The book needs to be studied, practice 18 and the demonstration of the rules of scientific healing will plant you firmly on the spiritual groundwork of Christian Science. This proof lifts you high above the 21 perishing fossils of theories already antiquated, and en- ables you to grasp the spiritual facts of being hitherto unattained and seemingly dim. 24 Our Master healed the sick, practised Christian heal- ing, and taught the generalities of its divine Principle to his students; but he left no definite rule for A definite rule 27 demonstrating this Principle of healing and discovered preventing disease. This rule remained to be discovered in Christian Science. A pure affection takes form in good- 30 ness, but Science alone reveals the divine Principle of goodness and demonstrates its rules. Jesus never spoke of disease as dangerous or as difficult Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 148 1 to heal. When his students brought to him a case they had failed to heal, he said to them, "O faithless gen- 3 eration," implying that the requisite power Jesus' own to heal was in Mind. He prescribed no drugs, practice urged no obedience to material laws, but acted in direct 6 disobedience to them. Neither anatomy nor theology has ever described man as created by Spirit, — as God's man. The former ex- 9 plains the men of men, or the "children of The man of men," as created corporeally instead of spir- anatomy and itually and as emerging from the lowest, in- of theology 12 stead of from the highest, conception of being. Both anatomy and theology define man as both physical and mental, and place mind at the mercy of matter for every 15 function, formation, and manifestation. Anatomy takes up man at all points materially. It loses Spirit, drops the true tone, and accepts the discord. Anatomy and the- 18 ology reject the divine Principle which produces harmo- nious man, and deal — the one wholly, the other primarily — with matter, calling that man which is not the counter- 21 part, but the counterfeit, of God's man. Then theology tries to explain how to make this man a Christian, — how from this basis of division and discord to produce the con- 24 cord and unity of Spirit and His likeness. Physiology exalts matter, dethrones Mind, and claims to rule man by material law, instead of spiritual. When 27 physiology fails to give health or life by this Physiology process, it ignores the divine Spirit as unable deficient or unwilling to render help in time of physical need. 30 When mortals sin, this ruling of the schools leaves them to the guidance of a theology which admits God to be the healer of sin but not of sickness, although our great Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 149 1 Master demonstrated that Truth could save from sickness as well as from sin. 3 Mind as far outweighs drugs in the cure of disease as in the cure of sin. The more excellent way is divine Science in every case. Is materia medica a Blunders and 6 science or a bundle of speculative human blunderers theories? The prescription which succeeds in one in- stance fails in another, and this is owing to the different 9 mental states of the patient. These states are not com- prehended, and they are left without explanation except in Christian Science. The rule and its perfection of opera- 12 tion never vary in Science. If you fail to succeed in any case, it is because you have not demonstrated the life of Christ, Truth, more in your own life, — because you have 15 not obeyed the rule and proved the Principle of divine Science. A physician of the old school remarked with great 18 gravity: "We know that mind affects the body some- what, and advise our patients to be hopeful Old-school and cheerful and to take as little medicine as physician 21 possible; but mind can never cure organic difficulties." The logic is lame, and facts contradict it. The author has cured what is termed organic disease as readily as she 24 has cured purely functional disease, and with no power but the divine Mind. Since God, divine Mind, governs all, not partially but 27 supremely, predicting disease does not dignify therapeutics. Whatever guides thought spiritually benefits Tests in mind and body. We need to understand the our day 30 affirmations of divine Science, dismiss superstition, and demonstrate truth according to Christ. To-day there is hardly a city, village, or hamlet, in which are not to Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 150 1 be found living witnesses and monuments to the virtue and power of Truth, as applied through this Christian 3 system of healing disease. To-day the healing power of Truth is widely demon- strated as an immanent, eternal Science, instead of a 6 phenomenal exhibition. Its appearing is the The main coming anew of the gospel of "on earth peace, purpose good-will toward men." This coming, as was promised 9 by the Master, is for its establishment as a permanent dispensation among men; but the mission of Christian Science now, as in the time of its earlier demonstration, 12 is not primarily one of physical healing. Now, as then, signs and wonders are wrought in the metaphysical heal- ing of physical disease; but these signs are only to demon- 15 strate its divine origin, — to attest the reality of the higher mission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of the world. 18 The science (so-called) of physics would have one be- lieve that both matter and mind are subject to disease, and that, too, in spite of the individual's pro- Exploded 21 test and contrary to the law of divine Mind. doctrine This human view infringes man's free moral agency; and it is as evidently erroneous to the author, and will be to 24 all others at some future day, as the practically rejected doctrine of the predestination of souls to damnation or salvation. The doctrine that man's harmony is gov- 27 erned by physical conditions all his earthly days, and that he is then thrust out of his own body by the operation of matter, — even the doctrine of the superiority of matter 30 over Mind, — is fading out. The hosts of Aesculapius are flooding the world with diseases, because they are ignorant that the human mind Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 151 1 and body are myths. To be sure, they sometimes treat the sick as if there was but one factor in the case; but 3 this one factor they represent to be body, not Disease mind. Infinite Mind could not possibly create mental a remedy outside of itself, but erring, finite, human mind 6 has an absolute need of something beyond itself for its redemption and healing. Great respect is due the motives and philanthropy of 9 the higher class of physicians. We know that if they un- derstood the Science of Mind-healing, and were Intentions in possession of the enlarged power it confers respected 12 to benefit the race physically and spiritually, they would rejoice with us. Even this one reform in medicine would ultimately deliver mankind from the awful and oppres- 15 sive bondage now enforced by false theories, from which multitudes would gladly escape. Mortal belief says that death has been occasioned by 18 fright. Fear never stopped being and its action. The blood, heart, lungs, brain, etc., have nothing Man governed to do with Life, God. Every function of the by Mind 21 real man is governed by the divine Mind. The human mind has no power to kill or to cure, and it has no con- trol over God's man. The divine Mind that made man 24 maintains His own image and likeness. The human mind is opposed to God and must be put off, as St. Paul declares. All that really exists is the divine Mind and 27 its idea, and in this Mind the entire being is found har- monious and eternal. The straight and narrow way is to see and acknowledge this fact, yield to this power, and 30 follow the leadings of truth. That mortal mind claims to govern every organ of the mortal body, we have overwhelming proof. But this so- Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 152 1 called mind is a myth, and must by its own consent yield to Truth. It would wield the sceptre of a monarch, but 3 it is powerless. The immortal divine Mind Mortal mind takes away all its supposed sovereignty, and dethroned saves mortal mind from itself. The author has endeavored 6 to make this book the Aesculapius of mind as well as of body, that it may give hope to the sick and heal them, although they know not how the work is done. Truth 9 has a healing effect, even when not fully understood. Anatomy describes muscular action as produced by mind in one instance and not in another. Such errors 12 beset every material theory, in which one All activity statement contradicts another over and over from thought again. It is related that Sir Humphry Davy once ap- 15 parently cured a case of paralysis simply by introducing a thermometer into the patient's mouth. This he did merely to ascertain the temperature of the patient's body; 18 but the sick man supposed this ceremony was intended to heal him, and he recovered accordingly. Such a fact illustrates our theories. 21 The author's medical researches and experiments had prepared her thought for the metaphysics of Christian Science. Every material dependence had The author's 24 failed her in her search for truth; and she can experiments now understand why, and can see the means in medicine by which mortals are divinely driven to a spiritual source 27 for health and happiness. Her experiments in homoeopathy had made her skep- tical as to material curative methods. Jahr, from 30 Aconitum to Zincum oxydatum, enumerates Homoeopathic the general symptoms, the characteristic attenuations signs, which demand different remedies; but the drug Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 153 1 is frequently attenuated to such a degree that not a ves- tige of it remains. Thus we learn that it is not the drug 3 which expels the disease or changes one of the symptoms of disease. The author has attenuated Natrum muriaticum (com- 6 mon table-salt) until there was not a single saline property left. The salt had "lost his savour;" and yet, Only salt with one drop of that attenuation in a goblet of and water 9 water, and a teaspoonful of the water administered at in- tervals of three hours, she has cured a patient sinking in the last stage of typhoid fever. The highest attenuation 12 of homoeopathy and the most potent rises above matter into mind. This discovery leads to more light. From it may be learned that either human faith or the divine Mind is 15 the healer and that there is no efficacy in a drug. You say a boil is painful; but that is impossible, for matter without mind is not painful. The boil simply 18 manifests, through inflammation and swell- Origin ing, a belief in pain, and this belief is called a of pain boil. Now administer mentally to your patient a high 21 attenuation of truth, and it will soon cure the boil. The fact that pain cannot exist where there is no mortal mind to feel it is a proof that this so-called mind makes its 24 own pain — that is, its own belief in pain. We weep because others weep, we yawn because they yawn, and we have smallpox because others have it; but 27 mortal mind, not matter, contains and carries Source of the infection. When this mental contagion is contagion understood, we shall be more careful of our mental con- 30 ditions, and we shall avoid loquacious tattling about disease, as we would avoid advocating crime. Neither sympathy nor society should ever tempt us to cherish Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 154 1 error in any form, and certainly we should not be error's advocate. 3 Disease arises, like other mental conditions, from as- sociation. Since it is a law of mortal mind that certain diseases should be regarded as contagious, this law ob- 6 tains credit through association, — calling up the fear that creates the image of disease and its consequent manifes- tation in the body. 9 This fact in metaphysics is illustrated by the following incident: A man was made to believe that he occupied a bed where a cholera patient had died. Imme- Imaginary 12 diately the symptoms of this disease appeared, cholera and the man died. The fact was, that he had not caught the cholera by material contact, because no cholera patient 15 had been in that bed. If a child is exposed to contagion or infection, the mother is frightened and says, "My child will be sick." 18 The law of mortal mind and her own fears gov- Children's ern her child more than the child's mind gov- ailments erns itself, and they produce the very results which might 21 have been prevented through the opposite understanding. Then it is believed that exposure to the contagion wrought the mischief. 24 That mother is not a Christian Scientist, and her affec- tions need better guidance, who says to her child: "You look sick," "You look tired," "You need rest," or "You 27 need medicine." Such a mother runs to her little one, who thinks she has hurt her face by falling on the carpet, and says, moaning 30 more childishly than her child, "Mamma knows you are hurt." The better and more successful method for any mother to adopt is to say: "Oh, never mind! You're not Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 155 1 hurt, so don't think you are." Presently the child forgets all about the accident, and is at play. 3 When the sick recover by the use of drugs, it is the law of a general belief, culminating in individual faith, which heals; and according to this faith will the effect Drug-power 6 be. Even when you take away the individual mental confidence in the drug, you have not yet divorced the drug from the general faith. The chemist, the botanist, the 9 druggist, the doctor, and the nurse equip the medicine with their faith, and the beliefs which are in the majority rule. When the general belief endorses the inanimate 12 drug as doing this or that, individual dissent or faith, un- less it rests on Science, is but a belief held by a minority, and such a belief is governed by the majority. 15 The universal belief in physics weighs against the high and mighty truths of Christian metaphysics. This errone- ous general belief, which sustains medicine and Belief in 18 produces all medical results, works against physics Christian Science; and the percentage of power on the side of this Science must mightily outweigh the power of 21 popular belief in order to heal a single case of disease. The human mind acts more powerfully to offset the discords of matter and the ills of flesh, in proportion as it puts less 24 weight into the material or fleshly scale and more weight into the spiritual scale. Homoeopathy diminishes the drug, but the potency of the medicine increases as the 27 drug disappears. Vegetarianism, homoeopathy, and hydropathy have Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 156 diminished drugging; but if drugs are an antidote to 30 disease, why lessen the antidote? If drugs Nature of are good things, is it safe to say that the drugs less in quantity you have of them the better? If drugs 1 possess intrinsic virtues or intelligent curative qualities, these qualities must be mental. Who named drugs, and 3 what made them good or bad for mortals, beneficial or injurious? A case of dropsy, given up by the faculty, fell into 6 my hands. It was a terrible case. Tapping had been employed, and yet, as she lay in her bed, the Dropsy cured patient looked like a barrel. I prescribed without drugs 9 the fourth attenuation of Argentum nitratum with occa- sional doses of a high attenuation of Sulphuris. She im- proved perceptibly. Believing then somewhat in the 12 ordinary theories of medical practice, and learning that her former physician had prescribed these remedies, I began to fear an aggravation of symptoms from their 15 prolonged use, and told the patient so; but she was unwilling to give up the medicine while she was re- covering. It then occurred to me to give her un- 18 medicated pellets and watch the result. I did so, and she continued to gain. Finally she said that she would give up her medicine for one day, and risk the 21 effects. After trying this, she informed me that she could get along two days without globules; but on the third day she again suffered, and was relieved by 24 taking them. She went on in this way, taking the unmedicated pellets, — and receiving occasional visits from me, — but employing no other means, and she was 27 cured. Metaphysics, as taught in Christian Science, is the next stately step beyond homoeopathy. In metaphysics, 30 matter disappears from the remedy entirely, A stately and Mind takes its rightful and supreme advance place. Homoeopathy takes mental symptoms largely Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 157 1 into consideration in its diagnosis of disease. Christian Science deals wholly with the mental cause in judging and 3 destroying disease. It succeeds where homoeopathy fails, solely because its one recognized Principle of healing is Mind, and the whole force of the mental element is em- 6 ployed through the Science of Mind, which never shares its rights with inanimate matter. Christian Science exterminates the drug, and rests on 9 Mind alone as the curative Principle, acknowledging that the divine Mind has all power. Homoeopathy The modus mentalizes a drug with such repetition of of 12 thought-attenuations, that the drug becomes homoeopathy more like the human mind than the substratum of this so- called mind, which we call matter; and the drug's power 15 of action is proportionately increased. If drugs are part of God's creation, which (according to the narrative in Genesis) He pronounced good, then 18 drugs cannot be poisonous. If He could cre- Drugging ate drugs intrinsically bad, then they should unchristian never be used. If He creates drugs at all and designs 21 them for medical use, why did Jesus not employ them and recommend them for the treatment of disease? Matter is not self-creative, for it is unintelligent. Erring 24 mortal mind confers the power which the drug seems to possess. Narcotics quiet mortal mind, and so relieve the body; 27 but they leave both mind and body worse for this sub- mission. Christian Science impresses the entire corpore- ality, — namely, mind and body, — and brings out the 30 proof that Life is continuous and harmonious. Science both neutralizes error and destroys it. Mankind is the better for this spiritual and profound pathology. Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 158 1 It is recorded that the profession of medicine originated in idolatry with pagan priests, who besought the gods to 3 heal the sick and designated Apollo as "the god Mythology of medicine." He was supposed to have dic- and materia tated the first prescription, according to the medica 6 "History of Four Thousand Years of Medicine." It is here noticeable that Apollo was also regarded as the sender of disease, "the god of pestilence." Hippocrates turned 9 from image-gods to vegetable and mineral drugs for heal- ing. This was deemed progress in medicine; but what we need is the truth which heals both mind and 12 body. The future history of material medicine may correspond with that of its material god, Apollo, who was banished from heaven and endured great sufferings 15 upon earth. Drugs, cataplasms, and whiskey are stupid substitutes for the dignity and potency of divine Mind and its effi- 18 cacy to heal. It is pitiful to lead men into Footsteps to temptation through the byways of this wil- intemperance derness world, — to victimize the race with intoxicating 21 prescriptions for the sick, until mortal mind acquires an educated appetite for strong drink, and men and women become loathsome sots. 24 Evidences of progress and of spiritualization greet us on every hand. Drug-systems are quitting their hold on matter and so letting in matter's higher stra- Advancing 27 tum, mortal mind. Homoeopathy, a step in degrees advance of allopathy, is doing this. Matter is going out of medicine; and mortal mind, of a higher attenuation 30 than the drug, is governing the pellet. A woman in the city of Lynn, Massachusetts, was etherized and died in consequence, although her physi- Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 159 1 cians insisted that it would be unsafe to perform a needed surgical operation without the ether. After the autopsy, 3 her sister testified that the deceased protested Effects against inhaling the ether and said it would kill of fear her, but that she was compelled by her physicians to take 6 it. Her hands were held, and she was forced into sub- mission. The case was brought to trial. The evidence was found to be conclusive, and a verdict was returned that 9 death was occasioned, not by the ether, but by fear of inhaling it. Is it skilful or scientific surgery to take no heed of men- 12 tal conditions and to treat the patient as if she were so much mindless matter, and as if matter were Mental the only factor to be consulted? Had these conditions 15 unscientific surgeons understood metaphysics, to be heeded they would have considered the woman's state of mind, and not have risked such treatment. They would either 18 have allayed her fear or would have performed the opera- tion without ether. The sequel proved that this Lynn woman died from 21 effects produced by mortal mind, and not from the disease or the operation. The medical schools would learn the state of man 24 from matter instead of from Mind. They examine the lungs, tongue, and pulse to ascertain how False source much harmony, or health, matter is permit- of knowledge 27 ting to matter, — how much pain or pleasure, action or stagnation, one form of matter is allowing another form of matter. 30 Ignorant of the fact that a man's belief produces dis- ease and all its symptoms, the ordinary physician is liable to increase disease with his own mind, when he Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 160 1 should address himself to the work of destroying it through the power of the divine Mind. 3 The systems of physics act against metaphysics, and vice versa. When mortals forsake the material for the spiritual basis of action, drugs lose their healing force, 6 for they have no innate power. Unsupported by the faith reposed in it, the inanimate drug becomes powerless. 9 The motion of the arm is no more dependent upon the direction of mortal mind, than are the organic action and secretion of the viscera. When this so-called Obedient 12 mind quits the body, the heart becomes as tor- muscles pid as the hand. Anatomy finds a necessity for nerves to convey the man- 15 date of mind to muscle and so cause action; but what does anatomy say when the cords contract and be- Anatomy come immovable? Has mortal mind ceased and mind 18 speaking to them, or has it bidden them to be impotent? Can muscles, bones, blood, and nerves rebel against mind in one instance and not in another, and become cramped 21 despite the mental protest? Unless muscles are self-acting at all times, they are never so, — never capable of acting contrary to mental 24 direction. If muscles can cease to act and become rigid of their own preference, — be deformed or symmetrical, as they please or as disease directs, — they must be self- 27 directing. Why then consult anatomy to learn how mor- tal mind governs muscle, if we are only to learn from anatomy that muscle is not so governed? 30 Is man a material fungus without Mind Mind over to help him? Is a stiff joint or a contracted matter muscle as much a result of law as the supple and Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 161 1 elastic condition of the healthy limb, and is God the lawgiver? 3 You say, "I have burned my finger." This is an exact statement, more exact than you suppose; for mor- tal mind, and not matter, burns it. Holy inspiration 6 has created states of mind which have been able to nullify the action of the flames, as in the Bible case of the three young Hebrew captives, cast into the Babylonian furnace; 9 while an opposite mental state might produce spontaneous combustion. In 1880, Massachusetts put her foot on a proposed 12 tyrannical law, restricting the practice of medicine. If her sister States follow this example in har- Restrictive mony with our Constitution and Bill of Rights, regulations 15 they will do less violence to that immortal sentiment of the Declaration, "Man is endowed by his Maker with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the 18 pursuit of happiness." The oppressive state statutes touching medicine re- mind one of the words of the famous Madame Roland, 21 as she knelt before a statue of Liberty, erected near the guillotine: "Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!" 24 The ordinary practitioner, examining bodily symptoms, telling the patient that he is sick, and treating the case ac- cording to his physical diagnosis, would natu- Metaphysics 27 rally induce the very disease he is trying to cure, challenges even if it were not already determined by mor- physics tal mind. Such unconscious mistakes would not occur, if 30 this old class of philanthropists looked as deeply for cause and effect into mind as into matter. The physician agrees with his "adversary quickly," but upon different terms Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 162 1 than does the metaphysician; for the matter-physician agrees with the disease, while the metaphysician agrees 3 only with health and challenges disease. Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science 6 acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth an Truth. It changes the secretions, expels hu- alterative mors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores 9 carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind. 12 Experiments have favored the fact that Mind governs the body, not in one instance, but in every instance. The indestructible faculties of Spirit exist without Practical 15 the conditions of matter and also without the success false beliefs of a so-called material existence. Working out the rules of Science in practice, the author has re- 18 stored health in cases of both acute and chronic disease in their severest forms. Secretions have been changed, the structure has been renewed, shortened limbs have been 21 elongated, ankylosed joints have been made supple, and carious bones have been restored to healthy conditions. I have restored what is called the lost substance of lungs, and 24 healthy organizations have been established where disease was organic. Christian Science heals organic disease as surely as it heals what is called functional, for it requires 27 only a fuller understanding of the divine Principle of Christian Science to demonstrate the higher rule. With due respect for the faculty, I kindly Testimony 30 quote from Dr. Benjamin Rush, the famous of medical Philadelphia teacher of medical practice. He teachers declared that "it is impossible to calculate the mischief Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 163 1 which Hippocrates has done, by first marking Nature with his name, and afterward letting her loose upon sick 3 people." Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, Professor in Harvard Uni- versity, declared himself "sick of learned quackery." 6 Dr. James Johnson, Surgeon to William IV, King of England, said: "I declare my conscientious opinion, founded on long 9 observation and reflection, that if there were not a single physician, surgeon, apothecary, man-midwife, chemist, druggist, or drug on the face of the earth, there would be 12 less sickness and less mortality." Dr. Mason Good, a learned Professor in London, said: 15 "The effects of medicine on the human system are in the highest degree uncertain; except, indeed, that it has already destroyed more lives than war, pestilence, and 18 famine, all combined." Dr. Chapman, Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Physic in the University of Pennsylvania, in a published 21 essay said: "Consulting the records of our science, we cannot help being disgusted with the multitude of hypotheses 24 obtruded upon us at different times. Nowhere is the imagination displayed to a greater extent; and perhaps so ample an exhibition of human invention might gratify 27 our vanity, if it were not more than compensated by the humiliating view of so much absurdity, contradiction, and falsehood. To harmonize the contrarieties of med- 30 ical doctrines is indeed a task as impracticable as to arrange the fleeting vapors around us, or to reconcile the fixed and repulsive antipathies of nature. Dark and Science and Health – Science, Theology, Medicine 164 1 perplexed, our devious career resembles the groping of Homer's Cyclops around his cave." 3 Sir John Forbes, M.D., F.R.S., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London, said: "No systematic or theoretical classification of diseases 6 or of therapeutic agents, ever yet promulgated, is true, or anything like the truth, and none can be adopted as a safe guidance in practice." 9 It is just to say that generally the cultured class of medi- cal practitioners are grand men and women, therefore they are more scientific than are false claimants to Chris- 12 tian Science. But all human systems based on material premises are minus the unction of divine Science. Much yet remains to be said and done before all mankind is 15 saved and all the mental microbes of sin and all diseased thought-germs are exterminated. If you or I should appear to die, we should not be 18 dead. The seeming decease, caused by a majority of human beliefs that man must die, or produced by mental assassins, does not in the least disprove Christian Science; 21 rather does it evidence the truth of its basic proposition that mortal thoughts in belief rule the materiality mis- called life in the body or in matter. But the forever fact 24 remains paramount that Life, Truth, and Love save from sin, disease, and death. "When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on 27 immortality [divine Science], then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory" (St. Paul).SHOW ALL