Poison defined mentally
If a dose of poison is swallowed through mistake, and
the patient dies even though physician and
177:27 patient are expecting favorable results, does
human belief, you ask, cause this death? Even
so, and as directly as if the poison had been intentionally
177:30 taken.
In such cases a few persons believe the potion swal-
lowed by the patient to be harmless, but the vast ma-
178:1 jority of mankind, though they know nothing of this par-
ticular case and this special person, believe the arsenic,
178:3 the strychnine, or whatever the drug used, to be poi-
sonous, for it is set down as a poison by mortal mind.
Consequently, the result is controlled by the majority of
178:6 opinions, not by the infinitesimal minority of opinions in
the sick-chamber.
Heredity is not a law. The remote cause or belief
178:9 of disease is not dangerous because of its priority and
the connection of past mortal thoughts with present.
The predisposing cause and the exciting cause are
178:12 mental.
Perhaps an adult has a deformity produced prior to his
birth by the fright of his mother. When wrested from
178:15 human belief and based on Science or the divine Mind, to
which all things are possible, that chronic case is not
difficult to cure.
Animal magnetism destroyed
178:18 Mortal mind, acting from the basis of sensation in
matter, is animal magnetism; but this so-called mind,
from which comes all evil, contradicts itself,
178:21 and must finally yield to the eternal Truth, or
the divine Mind, expressed in Science. In pro-
portion to our understanding of Christian Science, we are
178:24 freed from the belief of heredity, of mind in matter or ani-
mal magnetism; and we disarm sin of its imaginary power
in proportion to our spiritual understanding of the status
178:27 of immortal being.
Ignorant of the methods and the basis of metaphysical
healing, you may attempt to unite with it hypnotism,
178:30 spiritualism, electricity; but none of these methods can
be mingled with metaphysical healing.
Whoever reaches the understanding of Christian Science
179:1 in its proper signification will perform the sudden cures
of which it is capable; but this can be done only by
179:3 taking up the cross and following Christ in the daily
life.
Absent patients
Science can heal the sick, who are absent from their
179:6 healers, as well as those present, since space is no ob-
stacle to Mind. Immortal Mind heals what eye
hath not seen; but the spiritual capacity to ap-
179:9 prehend thought and to heal by the Truth-power, is won
only as man is found, not in self-righteousness, but re-
flecting the divine nature.
Horses mistaught
179:12 Every medical method has its advocates. The prefer-
ence of mortal mind for a certain method creates a demand
for that method, and the body then seems to re-
179:15 quire such treatment. You can even educate a
healthy horse so far in physiology that he will take cold
without his blanket, whereas the wild animal, left to his
179:18 instincts, sniffs the wind with delight. The epizootic is
a humanly evolved ailment, which a wild horse might
never have.
Medical works objectionable
179:21 Treatises on anatomy, physiology, and health, sustained
by what is termed material law, are the pro-
moters of sickness and disease. It should not
179:24 be proverbial, that so long as you read medical works you
will be sick.
The sedulous matron - studying her Jahr with homoe-
179:27 opathic pellet and powder in hand, ready to put you
into a sweat, to move the bowels, or to produce sleep -
is unwittingly sowing the seeds of reliance on matter,
179:30 and her household may erelong reap the effect of this
mistake.
Descriptions of disease given by physicians and adver-
180:1 tisements of quackery are both prolific sources of sickness.
As mortal mind is the husbandman of error, it should be
180:3 taught to do the body no harm and to uproot its false
sowing.
The invalid's outlook
The patient sufferer tries to be satisfied when he sees
180:6 his would-be healers busy, and his faith in their efforts is
somewhat helpful to them and to himself; but
in Science one must understand the resusci-
180:9 tating law of Life. This is the seed within itself bearing
fruit after its kind, spoken of in Genesis.
Physicians should not deport themselves as if Mind
180:12 were non-existent, nor take the ground that all causation
is matter, instead of Mind. Ignorant that the human
mind governs the body, its phenomenon, the invalid may
180:15 unwittingly add more fear to the mental reservoir already
overflowing with that emotion.
Wrong and right way
Doctors should not implant disease in the thoughts of
180:18 their patients, as they so frequently do, by declaring dis-
ease to be a fixed fact, even before they go to
work to eradicate the disease through the ma-
180:21 terial faith which they inspire. Instead of furnishing
thought with fear, they should try to correct this turbulent
element of mortal mind by the influence of divine Love
180:24 which casteth out fear.
When man is governed by God, the ever-present
Mind who understands all things, man knows that with
180:27 God all things are possible. The only way to this
living Truth, which heals the sick, is found in the Science
of divine Mind as taught and demonstrated by Christ
180:30 Jesus.
The important decision
To reduce inflammation, dissolve a tumor, or cure or-
ganic disease, I have found divine Truth more potent than
181:1 all lower remedies. And why not, since Mind, God, is
the source and condition of all existence? Before decid-
181:3 ing that the body, matter, is disordered, one
should ask, "Who art thou that repliest to
Spirit? Can matter speak for itself, or does
181:6 it hold the issues of life?" Matter, which can neither
suffer nor enjoy, has no partnership with pain and pleas-
ure, but mortal belief has such a partnership.
Manipulation unscientific
181:9 When you manipulate patients, you trust in electricity
and magnetism more than in Truth; and for
that reason, you employ matter rather than
181:12 Mind. You weaken or destroy your power when you re-
sort to any except spiritual means.
It is foolish to declare that you manipulate patients but
181:15 that you lay no stress on manipulation. If this be so, why
manipulate? In reality you manipulate because you are
ignorant of the baneful effects of magnetism, or are not
181:18 sufficiently spiritual to depend on Spirit. In either case
you must improve your mental condition till you finally
attain the understanding of Christian Science.
Not words but deeds
181:21 If you are too material to love the Science of Mind and
are satisfied with good words instead of effects, if you
adhere to error and are afraid to trust Truth,
181:24 the question then recurs, "Adam, where art
thou?" It is unnecessary to resort to aught besides
Mind in order to satisfy the sick that you are doing some-
181:27 thing for them, for if they are cured, they generally know
it and are satisfied.
"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
181:30 If you have more faith in drugs than in Truth, this faith
will incline you to the side of matter and error. Any
hypnotic power you may exercise will diminish your
182:1 ability to become a Scientist, and /vice versa./ The act
of healing the sick through divine Mind alone, of casting
182:3 out error with Truth, shows your position as a Christian
Scientist.
Physiology or Spirit
The demands of God appeal to thought only; but the
182:6 claims of mortality, and what are termed laws of nature,
appertain to matter. Which, then, are we to
accept as legitimate and capable of producing
182:9 the highest human good? We cannot obey both physi-
ology and Spirit, for one absolutely destroys the other,
and one or the other must be supreme in the affections.
182:12 It is impossible to work from two standpoints. If we
attempt it, we shall presently "hold to the one,
and despise the other."
182:15 The hypotheses of mortals are antagonistic to Science and cannot mix with it. This is clear to those, who heal the sick on the basis of Science.
No material law
182:18 Mind's government of the body must supersede the so-
called laws of matter. Obedience to material law pre-
vents full obedience to spiritual law, - the law
182:21 which overcomes material conditions and puts
matter under the feet of Mind. Mortals entreat the di-
vine Mind to heal the sick, and forthwith shut out the aid
182:24 of Mind by using material means, thus working against
themselves and their prayers and denying man's God-
given ability to demonstrate Mind's sacred power. Pleas
182:27 for drugs and laws of health come from some sad incident,
or else from ignorance of Christian Science and its tran-
scendent power.
182:30 To admit that sickness is a condition over which God
has no control, is to presuppose that omnipotent power
is powerless on some occasions. The law of Christ, or
183:1 Truth, makes all things possible to Spirit; but the so-
called laws of matter would render Spirit of no avail, and
183:3 demand obedience to materialistic codes, thus departing
from the basis of one God, one lawmaker. To suppose
that God constitutes laws of inharmony is a mistake; dis-
183:6 cords have no support from nature or divine law, however
much is said to the contrary.
Can the agriculturist, according to belief, produce a
183:9 crop without sowing the seed and awaiting its germina-
tion according to the laws of nature? The answer is no,
and yet the Scriptures inform us that sin, or error, first
183:12 caused the condemnation of man to till the ground, and
indicate that obedience to God will remove this necessity.
Truth never made error necessary, nor devised a law to
183:15 perpetuate error.
Laws of nature spiritual
The supposed laws which result in weariness and dis-
ease are not His laws, for the legitimate and only possible
183:18 action of Truth is the production of harmony.
Laws of nature are laws of Spirit; but mortals
commonly recognize as law that which hides the power of
183:21 Spirit. Divine Mind rightly demands man's entire obe-
dience, affection, and strength. No reservation is made
for any lesser loyalty. Obedience to Truth gives man
183:24 power and strength. Submission to error superinduces
loss of power.
Belief and understanding
Truth casts out all evils and materialistic methods
183:27 with the actual spiritual law, - the law which gives
sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, voice
to the dumb, feet to the lame. If Christian
183:30 Science dishonors human belief, it honors spir-
itual understanding; and the one Mind only is entitled to
honor.
184:1 The so-called laws of health are simply laws of mortal
belief. The premises being erroneous, the conclusions
184:3 are wrong. Truth makes no laws to regulate sickness,
sin, and death, for these are unknown to Truth and should
not be recognized as reality.
184:6 Belief produces the results of belief, and the penal-
ties it affixes last so long as the belief and are insepara-
ble from it. The remedy consists in probing the trouble
184:9 to the bottom, in finding and casting out by denial the
error of belief which produces a mortal disorder, never
honoring erroneous belief with the title of law nor yield-
184:12 ing obedience to it. Truth, Life, and Love are the only
legitimate and eternal demands on man, and they are
spiritual lawgivers, enforcing obedience through divine
184:15 statutes.
Laws of human belief
Controlled by the divine intelligence, man is harmoni-
ous and eternal. Whatever is governed by a false belief
184:18 is discordant and mortal. We say man suffers
from the effects of cold, heat, fatigue. This
is human belief, not the truth of being, for matter cannot
184:21 suffer. Mortal mind alone suffers, - not because a law
of matter has been transgressed, but because a law of this
so-called mind has been disobeyed. I have demonstrated
184:24 this as a rule of divine Science by destroying the delusion
of suffering from what is termed a fatally broken physical
law.
184:27 A woman, whom I cured of consumption, always
breathed with great difficulty when the wind was from
the east. I sat silently by her side a few moments. Her
184:30 breath came gently. The inspirations were deep and nat-
ural. I then requested her to look at the weather-vane.
She looked and saw that it pointed due east. The wind
185:1 had not changed, but her thought of it had and so her diffi-
culty in breathing had gone. The wind had not produced
185:3 the difficulty. My metaphysical treatment changed the
action of her belief on the lungs, and she never suffered
again from east winds, but was restored to health.
A so-called mind-cure
185:6 No system of hygiene but Christian Science is purely
mental. Before this book was published, other books
were in circulation, which discussed "mental
185:9 medicine" and "mind-cure," operating through
the power of the earth's magnetic currents to regulate life
and health. Such theories and such systems of so-called
185:12 mind-cure, which have sprung up, are as material as the
prevailing systems of medicine. They have their birth
in mortal mind, which puts forth a human conception
185:15 in the name of Science to match the divine Science of im-
mortal Mind, even as the necromancers of Egypt strove
to emulate the wonders wrought by Moses. Such theories
185:18 have no relationship to Christian Science, which rests on
the conception of God as the only Life, substance, and
intelligence, and excludes the human mind as a spiritual
185:21 factor in the healing work.
Jesus and hypnotism
Jesus cast out evil and healed the sick, not only with-
out drugs, but without hypnotism, which is
185:24 the reverse of ethical and pathological Truth-
power.
Erroneous mental practice may seem for a time to bene-
185:27 fit the sick, but the recovery is not permanent. This is
because erroneous methods act on and through the ma-
terial stratum of the human mind, called brain, which is
185:30 but a mortal consolidation of material mentality and its
suppositional activities.
False stimulus
A patient under the influence of mortal mind is healed
186:1 only by removing the influence on him of this mind, by
emptying his thought of the false stimulus
186:3 and reaction of will-power and filling it with
the divine energies of Truth.
Christian Science destroys material beliefs through the
186:6 understanding of Spirit, and the thoroughness of this work
determines health. Erring human mind-forces can work
only evil under whatever name or pretence they are em-
186:9 ployed; for Spirit and matter, good and evil, light and
darkness, cannot mingle.
Evil negative and self-destructive
Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth.
186:12 It is nothing, because it is the absence of something. It
is unreal, because it presupposes the absence
of God, the omnipotent and omnipresent.
186:15 Every mortal must learn that there is neither
power nor reality in evil.
Evil is self-assertive. It says: "I am a real entity, over-
186:18 mastering good." This falsehood should strip evil of all
pretensions. The only power of evil is to destroy itself. It
can never destroy one iota of good. Every attempt of evil
186:21 to destroy good is a failure, and only aids in peremptorily
punishing the evil-doer. If we concede the same reality to
discord as to harmony, discord has as lasting a claim upon
186:24 us as has harmony. If evil is as real as good, evil is also as
immortal. If death is as real as Life, immortality is a myth.
If pain is as real as the absence of pain, both must be im-
186:27 mortal; and if so, harmony cannot be the law of being.
Ignorant idolatry
Mortal mind is ignorant of self, or it could never be
self-deceived. If mortal mind knew how to be better, it
186:30 would be better. Since it must believe in some-
thing besides itself, it enthrones matter as deity.
The human mind has been an idolater from the beginning,
187:1 having other gods and believing in more than the one
Mind.
187:3 As mortals do not comprehend even mortal existence,
how ignorant must they be of the all-knowing Mind and
of His creations.
187:6 Here you may see how so-called material sense creates
its own forms of thought, gives them material names, and
then worships and fears them. With pagan blindness,
187:9 it attributes to some material god or medicine an ability
beyond itself. The beliefs of the human mind rob and
enslave it, and then impute this result to another illusive
187:12 personification, named Satan.
Action of mortal mind
The valves of the heart, opening and closing for the pas-
sage of the blood, obey the mandate of mor-
187:15 tal mind as directly as does the hand, ad-
mittedly moved by the will. Anatomy allows the mental
cause of the latter action, but not of the former.
187:18 We say, "My hand hath done it." What is this /my/ but
mortal mind, the cause of all materialistic action? All
voluntary, as well as miscalled /involuntary/, action of the
187:21 mortal body is governed by this so-called mind, not by
matter. There is no involuntary action. The divine Mind
includes all action and volition, and man in Science is gov-
187:24 erned by this Mind. The human mind tries to classify
action as voluntary and involuntary, and suffers from the
attempt.
Death and the body
187:27 If you take away this erring mind, the mortal material
body loses all appearance of life or action, and this so-
called mind then calls itself dead; but the hu-
187:30 man mind still holds in belief a body, through
which it acts and which appears to the human mind to
live, - a body like the one it had before death. This body
188:1 is put off only as the mortal, erring mind yields to God,
immortal Mind, and man is found in His image.
Embryonic sinful thoughts
188:3 What is termed disease does not exist. It is neither
mind nor matter. The belief of sin, which has grown
terrible in strength and influence, is an uncon-
188:6 scious error in the beginning, - an embryonic
thought without motive; but afterwards it
governs the so-called man. Passion, depraved appetites,
188:9 dishonesty, envy, hatred, revenge ripen into action, only to
pass from shame and woe to their final punishment.
Disease a dream
Mortal existence is a dream of pain and pleasure in
188:12 matter, a dream of sin, sickness, and death; and it is like
the dream we have in sleep, in which every one
recognizes his condition to be wholly a state of
188:15 mind. In both the waking, and the sleeping dream, the
dreamer thinks that his body is material and the suffering
is in that body.
188:18 The smile of the sleeper indicates the sensation pro-
duced physically by the pleasure of a dream. In the
same way pain and pleasure, sickness and care, are
188:21 traced upon mortals by unmistakable signs.
Sickness is a growth of error, springing from mortal
ignorance or fear. Error rehearses error. What causes
188:24 disease cannot cure it. The soil of disease is mortal
mind, and you have an abundant or scanty crop of disease,
according to the seedlings of fear. Sin and the fear of
188:27 disease must be uprooted and cast out.
Sense yields to understanding
When darkness comes over the earth, the physical
senses have no immediate evidence of a sun.
188:30 The human eye knows not where the orb of
day is, nor if it exists. Astronomy gives the
desired information regarding the sun. The human or
189:1 material senses yield to the authority of this science, and
they are willing to leave with astronomy the explanation of
189:3 the sun's influence over the earth. If the eyes see no sun
for a week, we still believe that there is solar light and
heat. Science (in this instance named natural) raises
189:6 the human thought above the cruder theories of the
human mind, and casts out a fear.
In like manner mortals should no more deny the power
189:9 of Christian Science to establish harmony and to explain
the effect of mortal mind on the body, though the cause
be unseen, than they should deny the existence of the sun-
189:12 light when the orb of day disappears, or doubt that the sun
will reappear. The sins of others should not make good
men suffer.
Ascending the scale
189:15 We call the body material; but it is as truly mortal
mind, according to its degree, as is the material brain
which is supposed to furnish the evidence
189:18 of all mortal thought or things. The human
mortal mind, by an inevitable perversion, makes all
things start from the lowest instead of from the highest
189:21 mortal thought. The reverse is the case with all the
formations of the immortal divine Mind. They proceed
from the divine source; and so, in tracing them, we con-
189:24 stantly ascend in infinite being.
Human reproduction
From mortal mind comes the reproduction of the
species, - first the belief of inanimate, and then of ani-
189:27 mate matter. According to mortal thought,
the development of embryonic mortal mind
commences in the lower, basal portion of the brain, and
189:30 goes on in an ascending scale by evolution, keeping always
in the direct line of matter, for matter is the subjective
condition of mortal mind.
190:1 Next we have the formation of so-called embryonic
mortal mind, afterwards mortal men or mortals, - all this
190:3 while matter is a belief, ignorant of itself, ignorant of what
it is supposed to produce. The mortal says that an inani-
mate unconscious seedling is producing mortals, both body
190:6 and mind; and yet neither a mortal mind nor the immortal
Mind is found in brain or elsewhere in matter or in mortals.
Human stature
This embryonic and materialistic human belief called
190:9 mortal man in turn fills itself with thoughts
of pain and pleasure, of life and death, and
arranges itself into five so-called senses, which presently
190:12 measure mind by the size of a brain and the bulk of a
body, called man.
Human frailty
Human birth, growth, maturity, and decay are as the
190:15 grass springing from the soil with beautiful green blades,
afterwards to wither and return to its native
nothingness. This mortal seeming is temporal;
190:18 it never merges into immortal being, but finally disap-
pears, and immortal man, spiritual and eternal, is found
to be the real man.
190:21 The Hebrew bard, swayed by mortal thoughts, thus
swept his lyre with saddening strains on human existence:
As for man, his days are as grass:
190:24 As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone;
And the place thereof shall know it no more.
190:27 When hope rose higher in the human heart, he sang:
As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness:
I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.
. . . . .
190:30 For with Thee is the fountain of life;
In Thy light shall we see light.
191:1 The brain can give no idea of God's man. It can take no cognizance of Mind. Matter is not the organ of infi- 191:3 nite Mind.
As mortals give up the delusion that there is more than
one Mind, more than one God, man in God's likeness will
191:6 appear, and this eternal man will include in that likeness
no material element.
The immortal birth
As a material, theoretical life-basis is found to be a
191:9 misapprehension of existence, the spiritual and divine
Principle of man dawns upon human thought,
and leads it to "where the young child was,"
191:12 - even to the birth of a new-old idea, to the spiritual
sense of being and of what Life includes. This the whole
earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light,
191:15 chasing away the darkness of error.
Spiritual freedom
The human thought must free itself from self-imposed
materiality and bondage. It should no longer
191:18 ask of the head, heart, or lungs: What are
man's prospects for life? Mind is not helpless. Intelli-
gence is not mute before non-intelligence.
191:21 By its own volition, not a blade of grass springs up, not
a spray buds within the vale, not a leaf unfolds its fair
outlines, not a flower starts from its cloistered cell.
191:24 The Science of being reveals man and immortality as
based on Spirit. Physical sense defines mortal man as
based on matter, and from this premise infers the mor-
191:27 tality of the body.
No physical affinity
The illusive senses may fancy affinities with their op-
posites; but in Christian Science, Truth never mingles
191:30 with error. Mind has no affinity with matter,
and therefore Truth is able to cast out the ills
of the flesh. Mind, God, sends forth the aroma of Spirit,
192:1 the atmosphere of intelligence. The belief that a pulpy
substance under the skull is mind is a mockery of intelli-
192:3 gence, a mimicry of Mind.
We are Christian Scientists, only as we quit our reliance
upon that which is false and grasp the true. We are not
192:6 Christian Scientists until we leave all for Christ. Human
opinions are not spiritual. They come from the hearing
of the ear, from corporeality instead of from Principle,
192:9 and from the mortal instead of from the immortal. Spirit
is not separate from God. Spirit /is/ God.
Human power a blind force
Erring power is a material belief, a blind miscalled force,
192:12 the offspring of will and not of wisdom, of the mortal mind
and not of the immortal. It is the headlong
cataract, the devouring flame, the tempest's
192:15 breath. It is lightning and hurricane, all that is selfish,
wicked, dishonest, and impure.
The one real power
Moral and spiritual might belong to Spirit, who holds
192:18 the "wind in His fists;" and this teaching accords with
Science and harmony. In Science, you can
have no power opposed to God, and the physi-
192:21 cal senses must give up their false testimony. Your in-
fluence for good depends upon the weight you throw into
the right scale. The good you do and embody gives you
192:24 the only power obtainable. Evil is not power. It is a
mockery of strength, which erelong betrays its weakness
and falls, never to rise.
192:27 We walk in the footsteps of Truth and Love by follow-
ing the example of our Master in the understanding of
divine metaphysics. Christianity is the basis of true heal-
192:30 ing. Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed
love, receives directly the divine power.
Mind cures hip-disease
I was called to visit Mr. Clark in Lynn, who had been
193:1 confined to his bed six months with hip-disease, caused by
a fall upon a wooden spike when quite a boy. On enter-
193:3 ing the house I met his physician, who said that
the patient was dying. The physician had just
probed the ulcer on the hip, and said the bone was carious
193:6 for several inches. He even showed me the probe, which
had on it the evidence of this condition of the bone. The
doctor went out. Mr. Clark lay with his eyes fixed and
193:9 sightless. The dew of death was on his brow. I went to
his bedside. In a few moments his face changed; its
death-pallor gave place to a natural hue. The eyelids
193:12 closed gently and the breathing became natural; he was
asleep. In about ten minutes he opened his eyes and
said: "I feel like a new man. My suffering is all gone."
193:15 It was between three and four o'clock in the afternoon
when this took place.
I told him to rise, dress himself, and take supper with
193:18 his family. He did so. The next day I saw him in the
yard. Since then I have not seen him, but am informed
that he went to work in two weeks. The discharge from
193:21 the sore stopped, and the sore was healed. The diseased
condition had continued there ever since the injury was
received in boyhood.
193:24 Since his recovery I have been informed that his physi-
cian claims to have cured him, and that his mother has
been threatened with incarceration in an insane asylum
193:27 for saying: "It was none other than God and that woman
who healed him." I cannot attest the truth of that
report, but what I saw and did for that man, and what
193:30 his physician said of the case, occurred just as I have
narrated.
It has been demonstrated to me that Life is God
194:1 and that the might of omnipotent Spirit shares not its
strength with matter or with human will. Review-
194:3 ing this brief experience, I cannot fail to discern the
coincidence of the spiritual idea of man with the divine
Mind.
Change of belief
194:6 A change in human belief changes all the physical symp-
toms, and determines a case for better or for
worse. When one's false belief is corrected
194:9 Truth sends a report of health over the body.
Destruction of the auditory nerve and paralysis of the
optic nerve are not necessary to ensure deafness and blind-
194:12 ness; for if mortal mind says, "I am deaf and blind," it
will be so without an injured nerve. Every theory op-
posed to this fact (as I learned in metaphysics) would
194:15 presuppose man, who is immortal in spiritual under-
standing, a mortal in material belief.
Power of habit
The authentic history of Kaspar Hauser is a useful hint
194:18 as to the frailty and inadequacy of mortal mind. It
proves beyond a doubt that education consti-
tutes this so-called mind, and that, in turn,
194:21 mortal mind manifests itself in the body by the false
sense it imparts. Incarcerated in a dungeon, where
neither sight nor sound could reach him, at the age of
194:24 seventeen Kaspar was still a mental infant, crying and
chattering with no more intelligence than a babe, and
realizing Tennyson's description:
194:27 An infant crying in the night,
An infant crying for the light,
And with no language but a cry.
194:30 His case proves material sense to be but a belief formed
by education alone. The light which affords us joy gave
195:1 him a belief of intense pain. His eyes were inflamed by
the light. After the babbling boy had been taught to
195:3 speak a few words, he asked to be taken back to his dun-
geon, and said that he should never be happy elsewhere.
Outside of dismal darkness and cold silence he found no
195:6 peace. Every sound convulsed him with anguish. All
that he ate, except his black crust, produced violent
retchings. All that gives pleasure to our educated senses
195:9 gave him pain through those very senses, trained in an
opposite direction.
Useful knowledge
The point for each one to decide is, whether it is mortal
195:12 mind or immortal Mind that is causative. We
should forsake the basis of matter for meta-
physical Science and its divine Principle.
195:15 Whatever furnishes the semblance of an idea governed
by its Principle, furnishes food for thought. Through as-
tronomy, natural history, chemistry, music, mathematics,
195:18 thought passes naturally from effect back to cause.
Academics of the right sort are requisite. Observa-
tion, invention, study, and original thought are expansive
195:21 and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of it-
self, out of all that is mortal.
It is the tangled barbarisms of learning which we
195:24 deplore, - the mere dogma, the speculative theory, the
nauseous fiction. Novels, remarkable only for their
exaggerated pictures, impossible ideals, and specimens
195:27 of depravity, fill our young readers with wrong tastes
and sentiments. Literary commercialism is lowering the
intellectual standard to accommodate the purse and to
195:30 meet a frivolous demand for amusement instead of for
improvement. Incorrect views lower the standard of
truth.
196:1 If materialistic knowledge is power, it is not wisdom.
It is but a blind force. Man has "sought out many inven-
196:3 tions," but he has not yet found it true that knowledge can
save him from the dire effects of knowledge. The power
of mortal mind over its own body is little understood.
Sin destroyed through suffering
196:6 Better the suffering which awakens mortal mind from
its fleshly dream, than the false pleasures
which tend to perpetuate this dream. Sin
196:9 alone brings death, for sin is the only element
of destruction.
"Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body
196:12 in hell," said Jesus. A careful study of this text allows
that here the word soul means a false sense or material
consciousness. The command was a warning to beware,
196:15 not of Rome, Satan, nor of God, but of sin. Sickness,
sin, and death are not concomitants of Life or Truth.
No law supports them. They have no relation to God
196:18 wherewith to establish their power. Sin makes its own
hell, and goodness its own heaven.
Dangerous shoals avoided
Such books as will rule disease out of mortal mind, -
196:21 and so efface the images and thoughts of dis-
ease, instead of impressing them with forcible
descriptions and medical details, - will help
196:24 to abate sickness and to destroy it.
Many a hopeless case of disease is induced by a single
/post mortem/ examination, - not from infection nor from
196:27 contact with material virus, but from the fear of the
disease and from the image brought before the mind; it
is a mental state, which is afterwards outlined on the
196:30 body.
Pangs caused by the press
The press unwittingly sends forth many sorrows and
diseases among the human family. It does this by giv-
197:1 ing names to diseases and by printing long descriptions
which mirror images of disease distinctly in thought. A
197:3 new name for an ailment affects people like a
Parisian name for a novel garment. Every one
hastens to get it. A minutely described dis-
197:6 ease costs many a man his earthly days of comfort. What
a price for human knowledge! But the price does not ex-
ceed the original cost. God said of the tree of knowledge,
197:9 which bears the fruit of sin, disease, and death, "In the
day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
Higher standard for mortals
The less that is said of physical structure and laws, and
197:12 the more that is thought and said about moral
and spiritual law, the higher will be the stand-
ard of living and the farther mortals will be re-
197:15 moved from imbecility or disease.
We should master fear, instead of cultivating it. It
was the ignorance of our forefathers in the departments
197:18 of knowledge now broadcast in the earth, that made them
hardier than our trained physiologists, more honest than
our sleek politicians.
Diet and dyspepsia
197:21 We are told that the simple food our forefathers ate
helped to make them healthy, but that is a mistake.
Their diet would not cure dyspepsia at this
197:24 period. With rules of health in the head
and the most digestible food in the stomach, there would
still be dyspeptics. Many of the effeminate constitutions
197:27 of our time will never grow robust until individual opin-
ions improve and immortal belief loses some portion of its
error.
Harm done by physicians
197:30 The doctor's mind reaches that of his patient. The
doctor should suppress his fear of disease, else his belief
in its reality and fatality will harm his patients even more
198:1 than his calomel and morphine, for the higher stratum of
mortal mind has in belief more power to harm man than
198:3 the substratum, matter. A patient hears the
doctor's verdict as a criminal hears his death-
sentence. The patient may seem calm under it, but he is
198:6 not. His fortitude may sustain him, but his fear, which
has already developed the disease that is gaining the
mastery, is increased by the physician's words.
Disease depicted
198:9 The materialistic doctor, though humane, is an art-
ist who outlines his thought relative to disease, and then
fills in his delineations with sketches from text-
198:12 books. It is better to prevent disease from
forming in mortal mind afterwards to appear on the
body; but to do this requires attention. The thought of
198:15 disease is formed before one sees a doctor and before
the doctor undertakes to dispel it by a counter-irritant,
- perhaps by a blister, by the application of caustic or
198:18 croton oil, or by a surgical operation. Again, giving an-
other direction to faith, the physician prescribes drugs,
until the elasticity of mortal thought haply causes a
198:21 vigorous reaction upon itself, and reproduces a picture
of healthy and harmonious formations.
A patient's belief is more or less moulded and formed
198:24 by his doctor's belief in the case, even though the doctor
says nothing to support his theory. His thoughts and his
patient's commingle, and the stronger thoughts rule the
198:27 weaker. Hence the importance that doctors be Christian
Scientists.
Mind over matter
Because the muscles of the blacksmith's arm are
198:30 strongly developed, it does not follow that
exercise has produced this result or that a
less used arm must be weak. If matter were the cause
199:1 of action, and if muscles, without volition of mortal
mind, could lift the hammer and strike the anvil, it
199:3 might be thought true that hammering would enlarge
the muscles. The trip-hammer is not increased in size
by exercise. Why not, since muscles are as material as
199:6 wood and iron? Because nobody believes that mind is
producing such a result on the hammer.
Muscles are not self-acting. If mind does not move
199:9 them, they are motionless. Hence the great fact that
Mind alone enlarges and empowers man through its
mandate, - by reason of its demand for and supply of
199:12 power. Not because of muscular exercise, but by rea-
son of the blacksmith's faith in exercise, his arm becomes
stronger.
Latent fear subdued
199:15 Mortals develop their own bodies or make them sick,
according as they influence them through mortal mind.
To know whether this development is produced
199:18 consciously or unconsciously, is of less impor-
tance than a knowledge of the fact. The feats of the gym-
nast prove that latent mental fears are subdued by him.
199:21 The devotion of thought to an honest achievement makes
the achievement possible. Exceptions only confirm this
rule, proving that failure is occasioned by a too feeble
199:24 faith.
Had Blondin believed it impossible to walk the rope
over Niagara's abyss of waters, he could never have
199:27 done it. His belief that he could do it gave his thought-
forces, called muscles, their flexibility and power which
the unscientific might attribute to a lubricating oil. His
199:30 fear must have disappeared before his power of putting
resolve into action could appear.
Homer and Moses
When Homer sang of the Grecian gods, Olympus was
200:1 dark, but through his verse the gods became alive in a
nation's belief. Pagan worship began with muscularity,
200:3 but the law of Sinai lifted thought into the
song of David. Moses advanced a nation to
the worship of God in Spirit instead of matter, and il-
200:6 lustrated the grand human capacities of being bestowed
by immortal Mind.
A mortal not man
Whoever is incompetent to explain Soul would be wise
200:9 not to undertake the explanation of body. Life is, always
has been, and ever will be independent of
matter; for life is God, and man is the idea
200:12 of God, not formed materially but spiritually, and not
subject to decay and dust. The Psalmist said: "Thou
madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy
200:15 hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet."
The great truth in the Science of being, that the real
man was, is, and ever shall be perfect, is incontrovertible;
200:18 for if man is the image, reflection, of God, he is neither
inverted nor subverted, but upright and Godlike.
The suppositional antipode of divine infinite Spirit
200:21 is the so-called human soul or spirit, in other words
the five senses, - the flesh that warreth against Spirit.
These so called material senses must yield to the infinite
200:24 Spirit, named God.
St. Paul said: "For I determined not to know any-
thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
200:27 (I Cor. ii. 2.) Christian Science says: I am determined
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and
him glorified.
Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people; wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of Thine anointed. - PSALMS.
Practical preaching
201:1 THE best sermon ever preached is Truth practised
and demonstrated by the destruction of sin, sickness,
201:3 and death. Knowing this and knowing too
that one affection would be supreme in us and
take the lead in our lives, Jesus said, "No man can serve
201:6 two masters."
We cannot build safely on false foundations. Truth
makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away
201:9 and "all things are become new." Passions, selfishness,
false appetites, hatred, fear, all sensuality, yield to spirit-
uality, and the superabundance of being is on the side
201:12 of God, good.
The uses of truth
We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be
emptied. Let us disrobe error. Then, when
201:15 the winds of God blow, we shall not hug our
tatters close about us.
The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour
201:18 in truth through flood-tides of Love. Christian perfec-
tion is won on no other basis.
Grafting holiness upon unholiness, supposing that sin
202:1 can be forgiven when it is not forsaken, is as foolish as
straining out gnats and swallowing camels.
202:3 The scientific unity which exists between God and man
must be wrought out in life-practice, and God's will must
be universally done.
Divine study
202:6 If men would bring to bear upon the study of the
Science of Mind half the faith they bestow upon the so-
called pains and pleasures of material sense,
202:9 they would not go on from bad to worse,
until disciplined by the prison and the scaffold; but
the whole human family would be redeemed through
202:12 the merits of Christ, - through the perception and ac-
ceptance of Truth. For this glorious result Christian
Science lights the torch of spiritual understanding.
Harmonious life-work
202:15 Outside of this Science all is mutable; but immortal
man, in accord with the divine Principle of His being,
God, neither sins, suffers, nor dies. The days
202:18 of our pilgrimage will multiply instead of di-
minish, when God's kingdom comes on earth; for the
true way leads to life instead of to death, and earthly
202:21 experience discloses the finity of error and the infinite
capacities of Truth, in which God gives man dominion
over all the earth.
Belief and practice
202:24 Our beliefs about a Supreme Being contradict the practice growing out of them. Error abounds where Truth should "much more abound." We
202:27 admit that God has almighty power, is "a
very present help in trouble;" and yet we rely on a drug
or hypnotism to heal disease, as if senseless matter or err-
202:30 ing mortal mind had more power than omnipotent Spirit.
Sure reward of righteousness
Common opinion admits that a man may take cold in
the act of doing good, and that this cold may produce
203:1 fatal pulmonary disease; as though evil could overbear
the law of Love, and check the reward for do-
203:3 ing good. In the Science of Christianity, Mind
- omnipotence - has all-power, assigns sure
rewards to righteousness, and shows that matter can
203:6 neither heal nor make sick, create nor destroy.
Our belief and understanding
If God were understood instead of being merely be-
lieved, this understanding would establish health. The
203:9 accusation of the rabbis, "He made himself
the Son of God," was really the justification
of Jesus, for to the Christian the only true
203:12 spirit is Godlike. This thought incites to a more exalted
worship and self-abnegation. Spiritual perception brings
out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught
203:15 but God, and so makes man the image of his Maker in
deed and in truth.
Suicide and sin
We are prone to believe either in more than one Su-
203:18 preme Ruler or in some power less than God. We im-
agine that Mind can be imprisoned in a sensuous body.
When the material body has gone to ruin, when evil has
203:21 overtaxed the belief of life in matter and destroyed it,
then mortals believe that the deathless Principle, or
Soul, escapes from matter and lives on; but this is not
203:24 true. Death is not a stepping-stone to life, immortality,
and bliss. The so-called sinner is a suicide.
Sin kills the sinner and will continue to kill
203:27 him so long as he sins. The foam and fury of illegiti-
mate living and of fearful and doleful dying should
disappear on the shore of time; then the waves of sin,
203:30 sorrow, and death beat in vain.
God, divine good, does not kill a man in order to give
him eternal Life, for God alone is man's life. God is at
204:1 once the centre and circumference of being. It is evil
that dies; good dies not.
Spirit the only intelligence and substance
204:3 All forms of error support the false conclusions that
there is more than one Life; that material history is as
real and living as spiritual history; that mortal
204:6 error is as conclusively mental as immortal
Truth; and that there are two separate, an-
tagonistic entities and beings, two powers, - namely,
204:9 Spirit and matter, - resulting in a third person (mortal
man) who carries out the delusions of sin, sickness, and
death.
204:12 The first power is admitted to be good, an intelligence or
Mind called God. The so-called second power, evil, is the
unlikeness of good. It cannot therefore be mind, though
204:15 so called. The third power, mortal man, is a supposed
mixture of the first and second antagonistic powers, in-
telligence and non-intelligence, of Spirit and matter.
Unscientific theories
204:18 Such theories are evidently erroneous. They can never
stand the test of Science. Judging them by their fruits,
they are corrupt. When will the ages under-
204:21 stand the Ego, and realize only one God, one
Mind or intelligence?
False and self-assertive theories have given sinners the
204:24 notion that they can create what God cannot, - namely,
sinful mortals in God's image, thus usurping the name
without the nature of the image or reflection of divine
204:27 Mind; but in Science it can never be said that man
has a mind of his own, distinct from God, the /all/
Mind.
204:30 The belief that God lives in matter is pantheistic. The
error, which says that Soul is in body, Mind is in matter,
and good is in evil, must unsay it and cease from such
205:1 utterances; else God will continue to be hidden from hu-
manity, and mortals will sin without knowing that they
205:3 are sinning, will lean on matter instead of Spirit, stumble
with lameness, drop with drunkenness, consume with dis-
case, - all because of their blindness, their false sense
205:6 concerning God and man.
Creation perfect
When will the error of believing that there is life in
matter, and that sin, sickness, and death are creations of
205:9 God, be unmasked? When will it be under-
stood that matter has neither intelligence, life,
nor sensation, and that the opposite belief is the prolific
205:12 source of all suffering? God created all through Mind,
and made all perfect and eternal. Where then is the
necessity for recreation or procreation?
Perceiving the divine image
205:15 Befogged in error (the error of believing that matter
can be intelligent for good or evil), we can catch clear
glimpses of God only as the mists disperse,
205:18 or as they melt into such thinness that we per-
ceive the divine image in some word or deed
which indicates the true idea, - the supremacy and real-
205:21 ity of good, the nothingness and unreality of evil.
Redemption from selfishness
When we realize that there is one Mind, the divine law
of loving our neighbor as ourselves is unfolded;
205:24 whereas a belief in many ruling minds hinders
man's normal drift towards the one Mind, one
God, and leads human thought into opposite channels
205:27 where selfishness reigns.
Selfishness tips the beam of human existence towards
the side of error, not towards Truth. Denial of the one-
205:30 ness of Mind throws our weight into the scale, not of
Spirit, God, good, but of matter.
When we fully understand our relation to the Divine,
206:1 we can have no other Mind but His, - no other Love,
wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no con-
206:3 sciousness of the existence of matter or error.
Will-power unrighteous
The power of the human will should be exercised only
in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judg-
206:6 ment and free the lower propensities. It is the
province of spiritual sense to govern man.
Material, erring, human thought acts injuriously both
206:9 upon the body and through it.
Will-power is capable of all evil. It can never heal
the sick, for it is the prayer of the unrighteous; while
206:12 the exercise of the sentiments - hope, faith, love - is the
prayer of the righteous. This prayer, governed by Science
instead of the senses, heals the sick.
206:15 In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that
whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with
the loaves and the fishes, - Spirit, not matter, being the
206:18 source of supply.
Birth and death unreal
Does God send sickness, giving the mother her child
for the brief space of a few years and then taking it away
206:21 by death? Is God creating anew what He
has already created? The Scriptures are defi-
nite on this point, declaring that His work was/ finished/,
206:24 nothing is new to God, and that it was /good/.
Can there be any birth or death for man, the spiritual
image and likeness of God? Instead of God sending
206:27 sickness and death, He destroys them, and brings to light
immortality. Omnipotent and infinite Mind made all
and includes all. This Mind does not make mistakes
206:30 and subsequently correct them. God does not cause man
to sin, to be sick, or to die.
No evil in Spirit
There are evil beliefs, often called evil spirits; but
207:1 these evils are not Spirit, for there is no evil in Spirit.
Because God is Spirit, evil becomes more apparent and
207:3 obnoxious proportionately as we advance spir-
itually, until it disappears from our lives.
This fact proves our position, for every scientific state-
207:6 ment in Christianity has its proof. Error of statement
leads to error in action.
Subordination of evil
God is not the creator of an evil mind. Indeed, evil
207:9 is not Mind. We must learn that evil is the awful decep-
tion and unreality of existence. Evil is not
supreme; good is not helpless; nor are the
207:12 so-called laws of matter primary, and the law of Spirit
secondary. Without this lesson, we lose sight of the per-
fect Father, or the divine Principle of man.
Evident impossibilities
207:15 Body is not first and Soul last, nor is evil mightier than
good. The Science of being repudiates self-
evident impossibilities, such as the amalgama-
207:18 tion of Truth and error in cause or effect. Science sepa-
rates the tares and wheat in time of harvest.
One primal cause
There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can
207:21 be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no
reality in aught which does not proceed from
this great and only cause. Sin, sickness, dis-
207:24 ease, and death belong not to the Science of being. They
are the errors, which presuppose the absence of Truth,
Life, or Love.
207:27 The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things.
The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the
whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth.
207:30 Spiritual facts are not inverted; the opposite discord,
which bears no resemblance to spirituality, is not real.
The only evidence of this inversion is obtained from
208:1 suppositional error, which affords no proof of God,
Spirit, or of the spiritual creation. Material sense de-
208:3 fines all things materially, and has a finite sense of the
infinite.
Seemingly independent authority
The Scriptures say, "In Him we live, and move, and
208:6 have our being." What then is this seeming power, in-
dependent of God, which causes disease and
cures it? What is it but an error of belief, -
208:9 a law of mortal mind, wrong in every sense,
embracing sin, sickness, and death? It is the very anti-
pode of immortal Mind, of Truth, and of spiritual law.
208:12 It is not in accordance with the goodness of God's char-
acter that He should make man sick, then leave man to
heal himself; it is absurd to suppose that matter can both
208:15 cause and cure disease, or that Spirit, God, produces
disease and leaves the remedy to matter.