Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 59

It were better to be exposed to every plague on earth than to endure the c.u.mulative effects of a guilty con- 405:24 science. The abiding consciousness of wrong- doing tends to destroy the ability to do right.

If sin is not regretted and is not lessening, then it is 405:27 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 405:30 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.

The leaves of healing

406:1 The Bible contains the recipe for all healing. "The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

406:3 Sin and sickness are both healed by the same Principle. The tree is typical of man's divine Principle, which is equal to every emergency, offering 406:6 full salvation from sin, sickness, and death. Sin will submit to Christian Science when, in place of modes and forms, the power of G.o.d is understood and demonstrated 406:9 in the healing of mortals, both mind and body. "Per- fect Love casteth out fear."

Sickness will abate

The Science of being unveils the errors of sense, and 406:12 spiritual perception, aided by Science, reaches Truth.

Then error disappears. Sin and sickness will abate and seem less real as we approach the 406:15 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 406:18 should be as fearless on the question of disease.

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 406:21 shall, so rise as to avail ourselves in every direc- tion of the supremacy of Truth over error, Life over death, and good over evil, and this growth will go 406:24 on until we arrive at the fulness of G.o.d's idea, and no more fear that we shall be sick and die. Inharmony of any kind involves weakness and suffering, - a loss of 406:27 control over the body.

Morbid cravings

The depraved appet.i.te for alcoholic drinks, tobacco, tea, coffee, opium, is destroyed only by Mind's mastery 406:30 of the body. This normal control is gained through divine strength and understanding.

There is no enjoyment in getting drunk, in becoming a 407:1 fool or an object of loathing; but there is a very sharp remembrance of it, a suffering inconceivably terrible to 407:3 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.

Universal panacea

407:6 Man's enslavement to the most relentless masters - pa.s.sion, selfishness, envy, hatred, and revenge - is con- quered only by a mighty struggle. Every 407:9 hour of delay makes the struggle more severe.

If man is not victorious over the pa.s.sions, they crush out happiness, health, and manhood. Here Christian 407:12 Science is the sovereign panacea, giving strength to the weakness of mortal mind, - strength from the immortal and omnipotent Mind, - and lifting humanity above 407:15 itself into purer desires, even into spiritual power and good-will to man.

Let the slave of wrong desire learn the lessons of Chris- 407:18 tian Science, and he will get the better of that desire and ascend a degree in the scale of health, happiness, and existence.

Immortal memory

407:21 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- 407:24 ous in every action. Let the perfect model be present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized op- posite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light, 407:27 and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your consciousness.

Sin a form of insanity

There are many species of insanity. All sin is insan- 407:30 ity in different degrees. Sin is spared from this cla.s.sification, only because its method of madness is in consonance with common mortal belief.

408:1 Every sort of sickness is error, - that is, sickness is loss of harmony. This view is not altered by the fact 408:3 that sin is worse than sickness, and sickness is not ac- knowledged nor discovered to be error by many who are sick.

408:6 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- 408:9 tific diagnosis, s.h.i.+eld the individual case from the special name of insanity. Those unfortunate people who are committed to insane asylums are only so many distinctly 408:12 defined instances of the baneful effects of illusion on mor- tal minds and bodies.

Drugs and brain-lobes

The supposition that we can correct insanity by the use 408:15 of purgatives and narcotics is in itself a mild species of insanity. Can drugs go of their own accord to the brain and destroy the so-called inflam- 408:18 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 408:21 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, 408:24 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 408:27 different.

Matter and animate error

The unconscious thought in the corporeal substra- tum of brain produces no effect, and that condition of 408:30 the body which we call sensation in matter is unreal. Mortal mind is ignorant of it- self, - ignorant of the errors it includes and of their 409:1 effects. Intelligent matter is an impossibility. You may say: "But if disease obtains in matter, why do 409:3 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- 409:6 ment, - animate error called nerves, brain, mind, - the more prolific it is likely to become in sin and disease- beliefs.

Dictation of error

409:9 Unconscious mortal mind - _alias _matter, brain - can- not dictate terms to consciousness nor say, "I am sick."

The belief, that the unconscious substratum 409:12 of mortal mind, termed the body, suffers and reports disease independently of this so-called conscious mind, is the error which prevents mortals from knowing 409:15 how to govern their bodies.

So-called superiority

The so-called conscious mortal mind is believed to be superior to its unconscious substratum, matter, and 409:18 the stronger never yields to the weaker, ex- cept through fear or choice. The animate should be governed by G.o.d alone. The real man is 409:21 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 409:24 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.

Death no benefactor

409:27 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 409:30 of Life, and expect to find beyond the grave a reward for this ignorance. Death will not make us harmonious and immortal as a recompense for ignorance.

410:1 If here we give no heed to Christian Science, which is spiritual and eternal, we shall not be ready for spiritual 410:3 Life hereafter.

Life eternal and present

"This is life eternal," says Jesus, - _is_, not _shall be_; and then he defines everlasting life as a present knowledge 410:6 of his Father and of himself, - the knowledge of Love, Truth, and Life. "This is life eter- nal, that they might know Thee, the only true G.o.d, and 410:9 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 G.o.d," show- 410:12 ing that Truth is the actual life of man; but mankind objects to making this teaching practical.

Love casteth out fear

Every trial of our faith in G.o.d makes us stronger.

410:15 The more difficult seems the material condition to be overcome by Spirit, the stronger should be our faith and the purer our love. The Apostle 410:18 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- 410:21 tion of Christian Science.

MENTAL TREATMENT ILl.u.s.tRATED

Be not afraid

The Science of mental practice is susceptible of no 410:24 misuse. Selfishness does not appear in the practice of Truth or Christian Science. If mental prac- tice is abused or is used in any way except to 410:27 promote right thinking and doing, the power to heal mentally will diminish, until the pract.i.tioner's healing ability is wholly lost. Christian scientific practice be- 410:30 gins with Christ's keynote of harmony, "Be not afraid!"

411:1 Said Job: "The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me."

Naming diseases

411:3 My first discovery in the student's practice was this: If the student silently called the disease by name, when he argued against it, as a general rule the body 411:6 would respond more quickly, - just as a per- son replies more readily when his name is spoken; but this was because the student was not perfectly attuned to 411:9 divine Science, and needed the arguments of truth for reminders. If Spirit or the power of divine Love bear witness to the truth, this is the ultimatum, the scientific 411:12 way, and the healing is instantaneous.

Evils cast out

It is recorded that once Jesus asked the name of a dis- ease, - a disease which moderns would call _dementia_.

411:15 The demon, or evil, replied that his name was Legion. Thereupon Jesus cast out the evil, and the insane man was changed and straightway be- 411:18 came whole. The Scripture seems to import that Jesus caused the evil to be self-seen and so destroyed.

Fear as the foundation

The procuring cause and foundation of all sickness is 411:21 fear, ignorance, or sin. Disease is always induced by a false sense mentally entertained, not destroyed.

Disease is an image of thought externalized.

411:24 The mental state is called a material state. Whatever is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is imaged forth on the body.

Unspoken pleading

411:27 Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear of patients. Silently rea.s.sure them as to their exemp- tion from disease and danger. Watch the re- 411:30 sult of this simple rule of Christian Science, and you will find that it alleviates the symptoms of every disease. If you succeed in wholly removing the fear, 412:1 your patient is healed. The great fact that G.o.d lovingly governs all, never punis.h.i.+ng aught but sin, is your stand- 412:3 point, from which to advance and destroy the human fear of sickness. Mentally and silently plead the case scien- tifically for Truth. You may vary the arguments to meet 412:6 the peculiar or general symptoms of the case you treat, but be thoroughly persuaded in your own mind concern- ing the truth which you think or speak, and you will be 412:9 the victor.

Eloquent silence