Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 65

A Christian Scientist's medicine is Mind, the divine Truth 453:30 that makes man free. A Christian Scientist never recom- mends material hygiene, never manipulates. He does not trespa.s.s on the rights of mind nor can he practise 454:1 animal magnetism or hypnotism. It need not be added that the use of tobacco or intoxicating drinks is not in 454:3 harmony with Christian Science.

Impotence of hate

Teach your students the omnipotence of Truth, which ill.u.s.trates the impotence of error. The understanding, 454:6 even in a degree, of the divine All-power de- stroys fear, and plants the feet in the true path, - the path which leads to the house built without hands 454:9 "eternal in the heavens." Human hate has no legiti- mate mandate and no kingdom. Love is enthroned.

That evil or matter has neither intelligence nor power, 454:12 is the doctrine of absolute Christian Science, and this is the great truth which strips all disguise from error.

Love the incentive

He, who understands in sufficient degree the Princi- 454:15 ple of Mind-healing, points out to his student error as well as truth, the wrong as well as the right practice. Love for G.o.d and man is the true 454:18 incentive in both healing and teaching. Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to 454:21 speech and action. Love is priestess at the altar of Truth. Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept.

454:24 Patience must "have her perfect work."

Continuity of interest

Do not dismiss students at the close of a cla.s.s term, feeling that you have no more to do for them. Let your 454:27 loving care and counsel support all their feeble footsteps, until your students tread firmly in the straight and narrow way. The superiority of spir- 454:30 itual power over sensuous is the central point of Chris- tian Science. Remember that the letter and mental argument are only human auxiliaries to aid in bringing 455:1 thought into accord with the spirit of Truth and Love, which heals the sick and the sinner.

Weakness and guilt

455:3 A mental state of self-condemnation and guilt or a faltering and doubting trust in Truth are unsuitable conditions for healing the sick. Such mental 455:6 states indicate weakness instead of strength.

Hence the necessity of being right yourself in order to teach this Science of healing. You must utilize the moral 455:9 might of Mind in order to walk over the waves of error and support your claims by demonstration. If you are yourself lost in the belief and fear of disease or sin, and 455:12 if, knowing the remedy, you fail to use the energies of Mind in your own behalf, you can exercise little or no power for others' help. "First cast out the beam out 455:15 of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

The trust of the All-wise

The student, who receives his knowledge of Christian 455:18 Science, or metaphysical healing, from a human teacher, may be mistaken in judgment and demonstra- tion, but G.o.d cannot mistake. G.o.d selects 455:21 for the highest service one who has grown into such a fitness for it as renders any abuse of the mission an im- possibility. The All-wise does not bestow His highest 455:24 trusts upon the unworthy. When He commissions a mes- senger, it is one who is spiritually near Himself. No per- son can misuse this mental power, if he is taught of G.o.d 455:27 to discern it.

Integrity a.s.sured

This strong point in Christian Science is not to be overlooked, - that the same fountain cannot send forth 455:30 both sweet waters and bitter. The higher your attainment in the Science of mental healing and teaching, the more impossible it will be- 456:1 come for you intentionally to influence mankind adverse to its highest hope and achievement.

Chicanery impossible

456:3 Teaching or practising in the name of Truth, but con- trary to its spirit or rules, is most dangerous quackery.

Strict adherence to the divine Principle and 456:6 rules of the scientific method has secured the only success of the students of Christian Science.

This alone ent.i.tles them to the high standing which 456:9 most of them hold in the community, a reputation ex- perimentally justified by their efforts. Whoever af- firms that there is more than one Principle and method 456:12 of demonstrating Christian Science greatly errs, igno- rantly or intentionally, and separates himself from the true conception of Christian Science healing and from 456:15 its possible demonstration.

No dishonest concessions

Any dishonesty in your theory and practice betrays a gross ignorance of the method of the Christ-cure. Science 456:18 makes no concessions to persons or opinions.

One must abide in the _morale_ of truth or he cannot demonstrate the divine Principle. So long as 456:21 matter is the basis of practice, illness cannot be effica- ciously treated by the metaphysical process. Truth does the work, and you must both understand and abide by the 456:24 divine Principle of your demonstration.

This volume indispensable

A Christian Scientist requires my work SCIENCE AND HEALTH for his textbook, and so do all his students and 456:27 patients. Why? _First_: Because it is the voice of Truth to this age, and contains the full statement of Christian Science, or the Science of healing 456:30 through Mind. _Second_: Because it was the first book known, containing a thorough statement of Christian Science. Hence it gave the first rules for demonstrating 457:1 this Science, and registered the revealed Truth uncon- taminated by human hypotheses. Other works, which 457:3 have borrowed from this book without giving it credit, have adulterated the Science. _Third_: Because this book has done more for teacher and student, for healer and 457:6 patient, than has been accomplished by other books.

Purity of science

Since the divine light of Christian Science first dawned upon the author, she has never used this newly discovered 457:9 power in any direction which she fears to have fairly understood. Her prime object, since entering this field of labor, has been to prevent suffering, 457:12 not to produce it. That we cannot scientifically both cure and cause disease is self-evident. In the legend of the s.h.i.+eld, which led to a quarrel between two knights 457:15 because each of them could see but one face of it, both sides were beautiful according to their degree; but to mental malpractice, prolific of evil, there is no good as- 457:18 pect, either silvern or golden.

Backsliders and mistakes

Christian Science is not an exception to the general rule, that there is no excellence without labor in a direct 457:21 line. One cannot scatter his fire, and at the same time hit the mark. To pursue other vocations and advance rapidly in the demonstration of 457:24 this Science, is not possible. Departing from Christian Science, some learners commend diet and hygiene.

They even practise these, intending thereby to initiate 457:27 the cure which they mean to complete with Mind, as if the non-intelligent could aid Mind! The Scientist's demonstration rests on one Principle, and there must 457:30 and can be no opposite rule. Let this Principle be ap- plied to the cure of disease without exploiting other means.

Mental charlatanism

458:1 Mental quackery rests on the same platform as all other quackery. The chief plank in this platform is the 458:3 doctrine that Science has two principles in partners.h.i.+p, one good and the other evil, - one spiritual, the other material, - and that these two 458:6 may be simultaneously at work on the sick. This theory is supposed to favor practice from both a mental and a material standpoint. Another plank in the plat- 458:9 form is this, that error will finally have the same effect as truth.

Divinity ever ready

It is anything but scientifically Christian to think of 458:12 aiding the divine Principle of healing or of trying to sus- tain the human body until the divine Mind is ready to take the case. Divinity is always 458:15 ready. _Semper paratus_ is Truth's motto. Having seen so much suffering from quackery, the author desires to keep it out of Christian Science. The two-edged sword 458:18 of Truth must turn in every direction to guard "the tree of life."

The panoply of wisdom

Sin makes deadly thrusts at the Christian Scientist as 458:21 ritualism and creed are summoned to give place to higher law, but Science will ameliorate mortal malice.

The Christianly scientific man reflects the 458:24 divine law, thus becoming a law unto himself. He does violence to no man. Neither is he a false accuser. The Christian Scientist wisely shapes his course, and is hon- 458:27 est and consistent in following the leadings of divine Mind. He must prove, through living as well as heal- ing and teaching, that Christ's way is the only one 458:30 by which mortals are radically saved from sin and sickness.

Advancement by sacrifice

Christianity causes men to turn naturally from matter 459:1 to Spirit, as the flower turns from darkness to light.

Man then appropriates those things which "eye hath 459:3 not seen nor ear heard." Paul and John had a clear apprehension that, as mortal man achieves no worldly honors except by sacrifice, 459:6 so he must gain heavenly riches by forsaking all worldli- ness. Then he will have nothing in common with the worldling's affections, motives, and aims. Judge not the 459:9 future advancement of Christian Science by the steps already taken, lest you yourself be condemned for fail- ing to take the first step.

Dangerous knowledge

459:12 Any attempt to heal mortals with erring mortal mind, instead of resting on the omnipotence of the divine Mind, must prove abortive. Committing the 459:15 bare process of mental healing to frail mor- tals, untaught and unrestrained by Christian Science, is like putting a sharp knife into the hands of a blind 459:18 man or a raging maniac, and turning him loose in the crowded streets of a city. Whether animated by malice or ignorance, a false pract.i.tioner will work mis- 459:21 chief, and ignorance is more harmful than wilful wicked- ness, when the latter is distrusted and thwarted in its incipiency.

Certainty of results

459:24 To mortal sense Christian Science seems abstract, but the process is simple and the results are sure if the Science is understood. The tree must be good, which 459:27 produces good fruit. Guided by divine Truth and not guesswork, the _theologus_ (that is, the student - the Christian and scientific expounder - of the divine 459:30 law) treats disease with more certain results than any other healer on the globe. The Christian Scientist should understand and adhere strictly to the rules of divine meta- 460:1 physics as laid down in this work, and rest his demonstra- tion on this sure basis.

Ontology defined

460:3 Ontology is defined as "the science of the necessary const.i.tuents and relations of all beings," and it under- lies all metaphysical practice. Our system of 460:6 Mind-healing rests on the apprehension of the nature and essence of all being, - on the divine Mind and Love's essential qualities. Its pharmacy is moral, 460:9 and its medicine is intellectual and spiritual, though used for physical healing. Yet this most fundamental part of metaphysics is the one most difficult to understand and 460:12 demonstrate, for to the material thought all is material, till such thought is rectified by Spirit.

Mischievous imagination

Sickness is neither imaginary nor unreal, - that is, 460:15 to the frightened, false sense of the patient. Sickness is more than fancy; it is solid conviction. It is therefore to be dealt with through right ap- 460:18 prehension of the truth of being. If Christian healing is abused by mere smatterers in Science, it becomes a tedious mischief-maker. Instead of scientifically effect- 460:21 ing a cure, it starts a petty crossfire over every cripple and invalid, buffeting them with the superficial and cold a.s.sertion, "Nothing ails you."

Author's early instructions

460:24 When the Science of Mind was a fresh revelation to the author, she had to impart, while teaching its grand facts, the hue of spiritual ideas from her own 460:27 spiritual condition, and she had to do this orally through the meagre channel afforded by language and by her ma.n.u.script circulated among the students. As for- 460:30 mer beliefs were gradually expelled from her thought, the teaching became clearer, until finally the shadow of old errors was no longer cast upon divine Science.

Proof by induction

I do not maintain that anyone can exist in the flesh without food and raiment; but I do believe that the 461:3 real man is immortal and that he lives in Spirit, not matter. Christian Science must be accepted at this period by induction. We admit the 461:6 whole, because a part is proved and that part ill.u.s.trates and proves the entire Principle. Christian Science can be taught only by those who are morally advanced and 461:9 spiritually endowed, for it is not superficial, nor is it discerned from the standpoint of the human senses.

Only by the illumination of the spiritual sense, can 461:12 the light of understanding be thrown upon this Science, because Science reverses the evidence before the material senses and furnishes the eternal interpretation of G.o.d and 461:15 man.

If you believe that you are sick, should you say, "I am sick"? No, but you should tell your belief sometimes, 461:18 if this be requisite to protect others. If you commit a crime, should you acknowledge to yourself that you are a criminal? Yes. Your responses should differ because 461:21 of the different effects they produce. Usually to admit that you are sick, renders your case less curable, while to recognize your sin, aids in destroying it. Both sin and 461:24 sickness are error, and Truth is their remedy. The truth regarding error is, that error is not true, hence it is unreal.

To prove scientifically the error or unreality of sin, you 461:27 must first see the claim of sin, and then destroy it.

Whereas, to prove scientifically the error or unreality of disease, you must mentally unsee the disease; then you 461:30 will not feel it, and it is destroyed.