Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 9

Permanent obligation

59:27 The nuptial vow should never be annulled, so long as its moral obligations are kept intact; but the frequency of divorce shows that the sacredness of this re- 59:30 lations.h.i.+p is losing its influence, and that fatal mistakes are undermining its foundations. Separation never should take place, and it never would, if both 60:1 husband and wife were genuine Christian Scientists.

Science inevitably lifts one's being higher in the scale of 60:3 harmony and happiness.

Permanent affection

Kindred tastes, motives, and aspirations are necessary to the formation of a happy and permanent companion- 60:6 s.h.i.+p. The beautiful in character is also the good, welding indissolubly the links of affec- tion. A mother's affection cannot be weaned from her 60:9 child, because the mother-love includes purity and con- stancy, both of which are immortal. Therefore maternal affection lives on under whatever difficulties.

60:12 From the logic of events we learn that selfishness and impurity alone are fleeting, and that wisdom will ultimately put asunder what she hath not joined 60:15 together.

Centre for affections

Marriage should improve the human species, becoming a barrier against vice, a protection to woman, strength to 60:18 man, and a centre for the affections. This, however, in a majority of cases, is not its present tendency, and why? Because the education of 60:21 the higher nature is neglected, and other considerations, - pa.s.sion, frivolous amus.e.m.e.nts, personal adornment, display, and pride, - occupy thought.

Spiritual concord

60:24 An ill-attuned ear calls discord harmony, not appreciat- ing concord. So physical sense, not discerning the true happiness of being, places it on a false basis.

60:27 Science will correct the discord, and teach us life's sweeter harmonies.

Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, 60:30 and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal 61:1 man. We cannot circ.u.mscribe happiness within the limits of personal sense. The senses confer no real 61:3 enjoyment.

Ascendency of good

The good in human affections must have ascendency over the evil and the spiritual over the animal, or happi- 61:6 ness will never be won. The attainment of this celestial condition would improve our progeny, diminish crime, and give higher aims to ambi- 61:9 tion. Every valley of sin must be exalted, and every mountain of selfishness be brought low, that the highway of our G.o.d may be prepared in Science. The offspring 61:12 of heavenly-minded parents inherit more intellect, better balanced minds, and sounder const.i.tutions.

Propensities inherited

If some fortuitous circ.u.mstance places promising chil- 61:15 dren in the arms of gross parents, often these beautiful children early droop and die, like tropical flowers born amid Alpine snows. If perchance 61:18 they live to become parents in their turn, they may re- produce in their own helpless little ones the grosser traits of their ancestors. What hope of happiness, what n.o.ble 61:21 ambition, can inspire the child who inherits propensities that must either be overcome or reduce him to a loath- some wreck?

61:24 Is not the propagation of the human species a greater responsibility, a more solemn charge, than the culture of your garden or the raising of stock to increase your flocks 61:27 and herds? Nothing unworthy of perpetuity should be transmitted to children.

The formation of mortals must greatly improve to 61:30 advance mankind. The scientific _morale_ of marriage is spiritual unity. If the propagation of a higher human species is requisite to reach this goal, then its material con- 62:1 ditions can only be permitted for the purpose of gener- ating. The foetus must be kept mentally pure and the 62:3 period of gestation have the sanct.i.ty of virginity.

The entire education of children should be such as to form habits of obedience to the moral and spiritual law, 62:6 with which the child can meet and master the belief in so- called physical laws, a belief which breeds disease.

Inheritance heeded

If parents create in their babes a desire for incessant 62:9 amus.e.m.e.nt, to be always fed, rocked, tossed, or talked to, those parents should not, in after years, complain of their children's fretfulness or fri- 62:12 volity, which the parents themselves have occasioned.

Taking less "thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink"; less thought "for your body what 62:15 ye shall put on," will do much more for the health of the rising generation than you dream. Children should be allowed to remain children in knowledge, and should 62:18 become men and women only through growth in the understanding of man's higher nature.

The Mind creative

We must not attribute more and more intelligence 62:21 to matter, but less and less, if we would be wise and healthy. The divine Mind, which forms the bud and blossom, will care for the human 62:24 body, even as it clothes the lily; but let no mortal inter- fere with G.o.d's government by thrusting in the laws of erring, human concepts.

Superior law of Soul

62:27 The higher nature of man is not governed by the lower; if it were, the order of wisdom would be reversed.

Our false views of life hide eternal harmony, 62:30 and produce the ills of which we complain.

Because mortals believe in material laws and reject the Science of Mind, this does not make materiality first and 63:1 the superior law of Soul last. You would never think that flannel was better for warding off pulmonary disease 63:3 than the controlling Mind, if you understood the Science of being.

Spiritual origin

In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beauti- 63:6 ful, good, and pure const.i.tute his ancestry. His origin is not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor does he pa.s.s through material conditions prior 63:9 to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ulti- mate source of being; G.o.d is his Father, and Life is the law of his being.

The rights of woman

63:12 Civil law establishes very unfair differences between the rights of the two s.e.xes. Christian Science furnishes no precedent for such injustice, and civilization 63:15 mitigates it in some measure. Still, it is a marvel why usage should accord woman less rights than does either Christian Science or civilization.

Unfair discrimination

63:18 Our laws are not impartial, to say the least, in their discrimination as to the person, property, and parental claims of the two s.e.xes. If the elective fran- 63:21 chise for women will remedy the evil with- out encouraging difficulties of greater magnitude, let us hope it will be granted. A feasible as well as rational 63:24 means of improvement at present is the elevation of society in general and the achievement of a n.o.bler race for legislation, - a race having higher aims and 63:27 motives.

If a dissolute husband deserts his wife, certainly the wronged, and perchance impoverished, woman should be 63:30 allowed to collect her own wages, enter into business agreements, hold real estate, deposit funds, and own her children free from interference.

64:1 Want of uniform justice is a crying evil caused by the selfishness and inhumanity of man. Our forefathers 64:3 exercised their faith in the direction taught by the Apostle James, when he said: "Pure religion and undefiled before G.o.d and the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and 64:6 widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

Benevolence hindered

Pride, envy, or jealousy seems on most occasions to 64:9 be the master of ceremonies, ruling out primitive Chris- tianity. When a man lends a helping hand to some n.o.ble woman, struggling alone with 64:12 adversity, his wife should not say, "It is never well to interfere with your neighbor's business." A wife is sometimes debarred by a covetous domestic tyrant from 64:15 giving the ready aid her sympathy and charity would afford.

Progressive development

Marriage should signify a union of hearts. Further- 64:18 more, the time cometh of which Jesus spake, when he declared that in the resurrection there should be no more marrying nor giving in marriage, 64:21 but man would be as the angels. Then shall Soul re- joice in its own, in which pa.s.sion has no part. Then white-robed purity will unite in one person masculine wis- 64:24 dom and feminine love, spiritual understanding and per- petual peace.

Until it is learned that G.o.d is the Father of all, mar- 64:27 riage will continue. Let not mortals permit a disregard of law which might lead to a worse state of society than now exists. Honesty and virtue ensure the stability of 64:30 the marriage covenant. Spirit will ultimately claim its own, - all that really is, - and the voices of physical sense will be forever hushed.

Blessing of Christ

65:1 Experience should be the school of virtue, and human happiness should proceed from man's highest nature.

65:3 May Christ, Truth, be present at every bridal altar to turn the water into wine and to give to human life an inspiration by which man's spiritual and 65:6 eternal existence may be discerned.

Righteous foundations

If the foundations of human affection are consistent with progress, they will be strong and enduring. Divorces 65:9 should warn the age of some fundamental error in the marriage state. The union of the s.e.xes suffers fearful discord. To gain Christian Science and its 65:12 harmony, life should be more metaphysically regarded.

Powerless promises

The broadcast powers of evil so conspicuous to-day show themselves in the materialism and sensualism of 65:15 the age, struggling against the advancing spiritual era. Beholding the world's lack of Christianity and the powerlessness of vows to make home 65:18 happy, the human mind will at length demand a higher affection.

Transition and reform

There will ensue a fermentation over this as over many 65:21 other reforms, until we get at last the clear straining of truth, and impurity and error are left among the lees. The fermentation even of fluids is 65:24 not pleasant. An unsettled, transitional stage is never desirable on its own account. Matrimony, which was once a fixed fact among us, must lose its present slippery foot- 65:27 ing, and man must find permanence and peace in a more spiritual adherence.

The mental chemicalization, which has brought con- 65:30 jugal infidelity to the surface, will a.s.suredly throw off this evil, and marriage will become purer when the sc.u.m is gone.

Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of humanity: 66:3 Sweet are the uses of adversity; Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

Salutary sorrow

66:6 Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, - a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not half remember this in the suns.h.i.+ne of joy 66:9 and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are proofs of G.o.d's care. Spiritual development germi- 66:12 nates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes, but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each suc- 66:15 cessive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love.