This etext was produced by Dave Keyston <heal@christianscience.org>





Science and Health
With
Key to The Scriptures

by MARY BAKER EDDY




YE shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. JOHN viii. 32.

THERE is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. SHAKESPEARE

OH! Thou hast heard my prayer;
And I am blest!
This is Thy high behest :-
Thou here, and /everywhere/. MARY BAKER EDDY




SCIENCE AND HEALTH - Table Of Contents

PREFACE
CHAPTER I - PRAYER
CHAPTER II - ATONEMENT AND EUCHARIST
CHAPTER III - MARRIAGE
CHAPTER IV - CHRISTIAN SCIENCE VERSUS SPIRITUALISM
CHAPTER V - ANIMAL MAGNETISM UNMASKED
CHAPTER VI - SCIENCE, THEOLOGY, MEDICINE
CHAPTER VII - PHYSIOLOGY
CHAPTER VIII - FOOTSTEPS OF TRUTH
CHAPTER IX - CREATION
CHAPTER X - SCIENCE OF BEING
CHAPTER XI - SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED
CHAPTER XII - CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PRACTICE
CHAPTER XIII - TEACHING CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
CHAPTER XIV - RECAPITULATION

KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES
CHAPTER XV - GENESIS
CHAPTER XVI - THE APOCALYPSE
CHAPTER XVII - GLOSSARY
CHAPTER XVIII - FRUITAGE




PREFACE

vi:1    To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is
        big with blessings. The wakeful shepherd beholds
vi:3    the first faint morning beams, ere cometh the full radiance
        of a risen day. So shone the pale star to the prophet-
        shepherds; yet it traversed the night, and came where, in
vi:6    cradled obscurity, lay the Bethlehem babe, the human
        herald of Christ, Truth, who would make plain to be-
        nighted understanding the way of salvation through Christ
vi:9    Jesus, till across a night of error should dawn the morn-
        ing beams and shine the guiding star of being. The Wise-
        men were led to behold and to follow this daystar of
vi:12   divine Science, lighting the way to eternal harmony.

        The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent
        of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the
vi:15   portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and
        the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling
        away. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-
vi:18   stone to faith. The only guarantee of obedience is a
        right apprehension of Him whom to know aright is
        Life eternal. Though empires fall, "the Lord shall
vi:21   reign forever."

        A book introduces new thoughts, but it cannot make
        them speedily understood. It is the task of the sturdy
vi:24   pioneer to hew the tall oak and to cut the rough
        granite. Future ages must declare what the pioneer
        has accomplished.

vi:27   Since the author's discovery of the might of Truth in
vii:1   the treatment of disease as well as of sin, her system has
        been fully tested and has not been found wanting; but
vii:3   to reach the heights of Christian Science, man must live
        in obedience to its divine Principle. To develop the full
        might of this Science, the discords of corporeal sense
vii:6   must yield to the harmony of spiritual sense, even as the
        science of music corrects false tones and gives sweet con-
        cord to sound.

vii:9   Theology and physics teach that both Spirit and
        matter are real and good, whereas the fact is that
        Spirit is good and real, and matter is Spirit's oppo-
vii:12  site. The question, What is Truth, is answered by
        demonstration, by healing both disease and sin; and
        this demonstration shows that Christian healing con-
vii:15  fers the most health and makes the best men. On this
        basis Christian Science will have a fair fight. Sickness
        has been combated for centuries by doctors using ma-
vii:18  terial remedies; but the question arises, Is there less
        sickness because of these practitioners? A vigorous
        "No" is the response deducible from two connate
vii:21  facts, - the reputed longevity of the Antediluvians,
        and the rapid multiplication and increased violence of
        diseases since the flood.

vii:24  In the author's work, RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPEC-
        TION, may be found a biographical sketch, narrating
        experiences which led her, in the year 1866, to the dis-
vii:27  covery of the system that she denominated Christian
        Science. As early as 1862 she began to write down and
        give to friends the results of her Scriptural study, for
vii:30  the Bible was her sole teacher; but these compositions
        were crude, the first steps of a child in the newly dis-
        covered world of Spirit.

ix:1    She also began to jot down her thoughts on the
        main subject, but these jottings were only infantile
ix:3    lispings of Truth. A child drinks in the outward world
        through the eyes and rejoices in the draught. He is
        as sure of the world's existence as he is of his own; yet
ix:6    he cannot describe the world. He finds a few words,
        and with these he stammeringly attempts to convey his
        feeling. Later, the tongue voices the more definite
ix:9    thought, though still imperfectly.

        So was it with the author. As a certain poet says of
        himself, she "lisped in numbers, for the numbers
ix:12   came." Certain essays written at that early date are
        still in circulation among her first pupils; but they are
        feeble attempts to state the Principle and practice of
ix:15   Christian healing, and are not complete nor satisfac-
        tory expositions of Truth. To-day, though rejoicing
        in some progress, she still finds herself a willing dis-
ix:18   ciple at the heavenly gate, waiting for the Mind of
        Christ.

        Her first pamphlet on Christian Science was copy-
ix:21   righted in 1870; but it did not appear in print until
        1876, as she had learned that this Science must be
        1876, as she had learned that this Science must be
        demonstrated by healing, before a work on the subject
ix:24   could be profitably studied. From 1867 until 1875,
        copies were, however, in friendly circulation.

        Before writing this work, SCIENCE AND HEALTH, she
ix:27   made copious notes of Scriptural exposition, which
        have never been published. This was during the years
        1867 and 1868. These efforts show her comparative
ix:30   ignorance of the stupendous Life-problem up to that
        time, and the degrees by which she came at length
        to its solution; but she values them as a parent
x:1     may treasure the memorials of a child's growth, and
        she would not have them changed.

x:3     The first edition of SCIENCE AND HEALTH was pub-
        lished in 1875. Various books on mental healing have
        since been issued, most of them incorrect in theory
x:6     and filled with plagiarisms from SCIENCE AND HEALTH.
        They regard the human mind as a healing agent,
        whereas this mind is not a factor in the Principle of
x:9     Christian Science. A few books, however, which are
        based on this book, are useful.

        The author has not compromised conscience to suit
x:12    the general drift of thought, but has bluntly and hon-
        estly given the text of Truth. She has made no effort
        to embellish, elaborate, or treat in full detail so in-
x:15    finite a theme. By thousands of well-authenticated
        cases of healing, she and her students have proved the
        worth of her teachings. These cases for the most part
x:18    have been abandoned as hopeless by regular medical
        attendants. Few invalids will turn to God till all
        physical supports have failed, because there is so little
x:21    faith in His disposition and power to heal disease.

        The divine Principle of healing is proved in the
        personal experience of any sincere seeker of Truth. Its
x:24    purpose is good, and its practice is safer and more po-
        tent than that of any other sanitary method. The un-
        biased Christian thought is soonest touched by Truth,
x:27    and convinced of it. Only those quarrel with her
        method who do not understand her meaning, or dis-
        cerning the truth, come not to the light lest their
x:30    works be reproved. No intellectual proficiency is req-
        uisite in the learner, but sound morals are most de-
        sirable.

xi:1    Many imagine that the phenomena of physical heal-
        ing in Christian Science present only a phase of the
xi:3    action of the human mind, which action in some unex-
        plained way results in the cure of disease. On the con-
        trary, Christian Science rationally explains that all
xi:6    other pathological methods are the fruits of human
        faith in matter, faith in the workings, not of Spirit,
        but of the fleshly mind which must yield to Science.

xi:9    The physical healing of Christian Science results
        now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine
        Principle, before which sin and disease lose their real-
xi:12   ity in human consciousness and disappear as naturally
        and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and
        sin to reformation. Now, as then, these mighty works
xi:15   are not supernatural, but supremely natural. They are
        the sign of Immanuel, or "God with us," a divine
        influence ever present in human consciousness and re-
xi:18   peating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime,

             To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense],
             And recovering of sight to the blind,
xi:21        To set at liberty them that are bruised.

        When God called the author to proclaim His Gospel
        to this age, there came also the charge to plant and
xi:24   water His vineyard.

        The first school of Christian Science Mind-healing
        was started by the author with only one student in
xi:27   Lynn, Massachusetts, about the year 1867. In 1881,
        she opened the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in
        Boston, under the seal of the Commonwealth, a law
xi:30   relative to colleges having been passed, which enabled
        her to get this institution chartered for medical pur-
xii:1   poses. No charters were granted to Christian Scien-
        tists for such institutions after 1883, and up to that
xii:3   date, hers was the only College of this character which
        had been established in the United States, where
        Christian Science was first introduced.

xii:6   During seven years over four thousand students
        were taught by the author in this College. Meanwhile
        she was pastor of the first established Church of
xii:9   Christ, Scientist; President of the first Christian Sci-
        entist Association, convening monthly; publisher of
        her own works; and (for a portion of this time) sole
xii:12  editor and publisher of the Christian Science Journal,
        the first periodical issued by Christian Scientists. She
        closed her College, October 29, 1889, in the height of
xii:15  its prosperity with a deep-lying conviction that the
        next two years of her life should be given to the prep-
        aration of the revision of SCIENCE AND HEALTH, which
xii:18  was published in 1891. She retained her charter, and
        as its President, reopened the College in 1899 as auxil-
        iary to her church. Until June 10, 1907, she had never
xii:21  read this book throughout consecutively in order to elu-
        cidate her idealism.

        In the spirit of Christ's charity, as one who "hopeth
xii:24  all things, endureth all things," and is joyful to bear
        consolation to the sorrowing and healing to the sick,
        she commits these pages to honest seekers for Truth.

                                          MARY BAKER EDDY

             NOTE. - The author takes no patients,
             and declines medical consultation.




        CHAPTER I - PRAYER

        For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this
        mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and
        shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those
        things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have
        whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things
        soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,
        and ye shall have them.
        Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask
        Him. - CHRIST JESUS.

1:1     THE prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the
        sick is an absolute faith that all things are
1:3     possible to God,- a spiritual understanding of Him,
        an unselfed love. Regardless of what another may say
        or think on this subject, I speak from experience.
1:6     Prayer, watching, and working, combined with self-im-
        molation, are God's gracious means for accomplishing
        whatever has been successfully done for the Christian-
1:9     ization and health of mankind.

        Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine
        Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from
1:12    trusting God with our desires, that they may be
        moulded and exalted before they take form in words
        and in deeds.

                              Right motives

2:1     What are the motives for prayer? Do we pray to
        make ourselves better or to benefit those who hear us,
2:3     to enlighten the infinite or to be heard of
        men? Are we benefited by praying? Yes,
        the desire which goes forth hungering after righteous-
2:6     ness is blessed of our Father, and it does not return
        unto us void.

                           Deity unchangeable

        God is not moved by the breath of praise to do more
2:9     than He has already done, nor can the infinite do less
        than bestow all good, since He is unchang-
        ing wisdom and Love. We can do more for
2:12    ourselves by humble fervent petitions, but the All-lov-
        ing does not grant them simply on the ground of lip-
        service, for He already knows all.

2:15    Prayer cannot change the Science of being, but it
        tends to bring us into harmony with it. Goodness at-
        tains the demonstration of Truth. A request that
2:18    God will save us is not all that is required. The mere
        habit of pleading with the divine Mind, as one pleads
        with a human being, perpetuates the belief in God as
2:21    humanly circumscribed,- an error which impedes spirit-
        ual growth.

                             God's standard

        God is Love. Can we ask Him to be more? God is
2:24    intelligence. Can we inform the infinite Mind of any-
        thing He does not already comprehend?
        Do we expect to change perfection? Shall
2:27    we plead for more at the open fount, which is pour-
        ing forth more than we accept? The unspoken desire
        does bring us nearer the source of all existence and
2:30    blessedness.

        Asking God to /be/ God is a vain repetition. God is
        "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;" and
3:1     He who is immutably right will do right without being
        reminded of His province. The wisdom of man is not
3:3     sufficient to warrant him in advising God.

                        The spiritual mathematics

        Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the
        principle of mathematics to solve the problem? The
3:6     rule is already established, and it is our
        task to work out the solution. Shall we
        ask the divine Principle of all goodness to do His own
3:9     work? His work is done, and we have only to avail
        ourselves of God's rule in order to receive His bless-
        ing, which enables us to work out our own salvation.

3:12    The Divine Being must be reflected by man, - else
        man is not the image and likeness of the patient,
        tender, and true, the One "altogether lovely;" but to
3:15    understand God is the work of eternity, and demands
        absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire.

                          Prayerful ingratitude

        How empty are our conceptions of Deity! We admit
3:18    theoretically that God is good, omnipotent, omni-
        present, infinite, and then we try to give
        information to this infinite Mind. We plead
3:21    for unmerited pardon and for a liberal outpouring of
        benefactions. Are we really grateful for the good
        already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the
3:24    blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more.
        Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of
        thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech.

3:27    If we are ungrateful for Life, Truth, and Love, and
        yet return thanks to God for all blessings, we are in-
        sincere and incur the sharp censure our Master pro-
3:30    nounces on hypocrites. In such a case, the only
        acceptable prayer is to put the finger on the lips and
        remember our blessings. While the heart is far from
4:1     divine Truth and Love, we cannot conceal the ingrati-
        tude of barren lives.

                          Efficacious petitions

4:3     What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire
        for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness,
        love, and good deeds. To keep the com-
4:6     mandments of our Master and follow his
        example, is our proper debt to him and the only
        worthy evidence of our gratitude for all that he has
4:9     done. Outward worship is not of itself sufficient to
        express loyal and heartfelt gratitude, since he has
        said: "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

4:12    The habitual struggle to be always good is unceas-
        ing prayer. Its motives are made manifest in the
        blessings they bring,- blessings which, even if not
4:15    acknowledged in audible words, attest our worthiness
        to be partakers of Love.

                         Watchfulness requisite

        Simply asking that we may love God will never
4:18    make us love Him; but the longing to be better
        and holier, expressed in daily watchful-
        ness and in striving to assimilate more of
4:21    the divine character, will mould and fashion us
        anew, until we awake in His likeness. We reach the
        Science of Christianity through demonstration of the
4:24    divine nature; but in this wicked world goodness
        will "be evil spoken of," and patience must bring
        experience.

                           Veritable devotion

4:27    Audible prayer can never do the works of spiritual
        understanding, which regenerates; but silent prayer,
        watchfulness, and devout obedience enable
4:30    us to follow Jesus' example. Long prayers,
        superstition, and creeds clip the strong pinions of love,
        and clothe religion in human forms. Whatever mate-
5:1     rializes worship hinders man's spiritual growth and keeps
        him from demonstrating his power over error.

                         Sorrow and reformation

5:3     Sorrow for wrong-doing is but one step towards reform
        and the very easiest step. The next and great step re-
        quired by wisdom is the test of our sincerity,
5:6     - namely, reformation. To this end we are
        placed under the stress of circumstances. Temptation
        bids us repeat the offence, and woe comes in return for
5:9     what is done. So it will ever be, till we learn that there
        is no discount in the law of justice and that we must pay
        "the uttermost farthing." The measure ye mete "shall
5:12    be measured to you again," and it will be full "and run-
        ning over."

        Saints and sinners get their full award, but not always
5:15    in this world. The followers of Christ drank his cup.
        Ingratitude and persecution filled it to the brim; but God
        pours the riches of His love into the understanding and
5:18    affections, giving us strength according to our day. Sin-
        ners flourish "like a green bay tree;" but, looking farther,
        the Psalmist could see their end, - the destruction of sin
5:21    through suffering.

                        Cancellation of human sin

        Prayer is not to be used as a confessional to cancel sin.
        Such an error would impede true religion. Sin is forgiven
5:24    only as it is destroyed by Christ, - Truth and
        Life. If prayer nourishes the belief that sin is
        cancelled, and that man is made better merely by praying,
5:27    prayer is an evil. He grows worse who continues in sin
        because he fancies himself forgiven.

                           Diabolism destroyed

        An apostle says that the Son of God [Christ] came to
5:30    "destroy the /works/ of the devil." We should
        follow our divine Exemplar, and seek the de-
        struction of all evil works, error and disease included.
6:1     We cannot escape the penalty due for sin. The Scrip-
        tures say, that if we deny Christ, " he also will deny us."

                          Pardon and amendment

6:3     Divine Love corrects and governs man. Men may
        pardon, but this divine Principle alone reforms the
        sinner. God is not separate from the wis-
6:6     dom He bestows. The talents He gives we
        must improve. Calling on Him to forgive our work
        badly done or left undone, implies the vain supposition
6:9     that we have nothing to do but to ask pardon, and
        that afterwards we shall be free to repeat the offence.

        To cause suffering as the result of sin, is the means
6:12    of destroying sin. Every supposed pleasure in sin
        will furnish more than its equivalent of pain, until be-
        lief in material life and sin is destroyed. To reach
6:15    heaven, the harmony of being, we must understand
        the divine Principle of being.

                        Mercy without partiality

        "God is Love." More than this we cannot ask,
6:18    higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go. To
        suppose that God forgives or punishes sin
        according as His mercy is sought or un-
6:21    sought, is to misunderstand Love and to make prayer
        the safety-valve for wrong-doing.

                             Divine severity

        Jesus uncovered and rebuked sin before he cast it
6:24    out. Of a sick woman he said that Satan had bound
        her, and to Peter he said, "Thou art an of-
        fence unto me." He came teaching and
6:27    showing men how to destroy sin, sickness, and death.
        He said of the fruitless tree, "[It] is hewn down."

        It is believed by many that a certain magistrate,
6:30    who lived in the time of Jesus, left this record: "His
        rebuke is fearful." The strong language of our Mas-
        ter confirms this description.

7:1     The only civil sentence which he had for error was,
        "Get thee behind me, Satan." Still stronger evidence
7:3     that Jesus' reproof was pointed and pungent is found
        in his own words,- showing the necessity for such
        forcible utterance, when he cast out devils and healed
7:6     the sick and sinning. The relinquishment of error de-
        prives material sense of its false claims.

                             Audible praying

        Audible prayer is impressive; it gives momentary
7:9     solemnity and elevation to thought. But does it pro-
        duce any lasting benefit? Looking deeply
        into these things, we find that "a zeal . . .
7:12    not according to knowledge" gives occasion for reac-
        tion unfavorable to spiritual growth, sober resolve, and
        wholesome perception of God's requirements. The mo-
7:15    tives for verbal prayer may embrace too much love of
        applause to induce or encourage Christian sentiment.

                          Emotional utterances

        Physical sensation, not Soul, produces material ec-
7:18    stasy and emotion. If spiritual sense always guided
        men, there would grow out of ecstatic mo-
        ments a higher experience and a better life
7:21    with more devout self-abnegation and purity. A self-
        satisfied ventilation of fervent sentiments never makes
        a Christian. God is not influenced by man. The "di-
7:24    vine ear" is not an auditory nerve. It is the all-hearing
        and all-knowing Mind, to whom each need of man is
        always known and by whom it will be supplied.

                       Danger from audible prayer

7:27    The danger from prayer is that it may lead us into temp-
        tation. By it we may become involuntary hypocrites, ut-
        tering desires which are not real and consoling
7:30    ourselves in the midst of sin with the recollection
        that we have prayed over it or mean to ask for-
        giveness at some later day. Hypocrisy is fatal to religion.

8:1     A wordy prayer may afford a quiet sense of self-
        justification, though it makes the sinner a hypocrite.
8:3     We never need to despair of an honest heart; but
        there is little hope for those who come only spasmodi-
        cally face to face with their wickedness and then seek to
8:6     hide it. Their prayers are indexes which do not correspond
        with their character. They hold secret fellowship with
        sin, and such externals are spoken of by Jesus as "like
8:9     unto whited sepulchres . . . full . . . of all uncleanness."

                           Aspiration and love

        If a man, though apparently fervent and prayerful,
        is impure and therefore insincere, what must be the
8:12    comment upon him? If he reached the
        loftiness of his prayer, there would be no
        occasion for comment. If we feel the aspiration, hu-
8:15    mility, gratitude, and love which our words express,-
        this God accepts; and it is wise not to try to deceive
        ourselves or others, for "there is nothing covered that
8:18    shall not be revealed." Professions and audible pray-
        ers are like charity in one respect,- they "cover the
        multitude of sins." Praying for humility with what-
8:21    ever fervency of expression does not always mean a
        desire for it. If we turn away from the poor, we are
        not ready to receive the reward of Him who blesses
8:24    the poor. We confess to having a very wicked heart
        and ask that it may be laid bare before us, but do
        we not already know more of this heart than we are
8:27    willing to have our neighbor see?

                           Searching the heart

        We should examine ourselves and learn what is the
        affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way
8:30    only can we learn what we honestly are. If a
        friend informs us of a fault, do we listen pa-
        tiently to the rebuke and credit what is said? Do we not
9:1     rather give thanks that we are "not as other men"?
        During many years the author has been most grateful
9:3     for merited rebuke. The wrong lies in unmerited cen-
        sure,- in the falsehood which does no one any good.

                          Summit of aspiration

        The test of all prayer lies in the answer to these
9:6     questions: Do we love our neighbor better because of
        this asking? Do we pursue the old selfish-
        ness, satisfied with having prayed for some-
9:9     thing better, though we give no evidence of the sin-
        cerity of our requests by living consistently with our
        prayer? If selfishness has given place to kindness,
9:12    we shall regard our neighbor unselfishly, and bless
        them that curse us; but we shall never meet this great
        duty simply by asking that it may be done. There is
9:15    a cross to be taken up before we can enjoy the fruition
        of our hope and faith.

                           Practical religion

        Dost thou "love the Lord thy God with all thy
9:18    heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind"?
        This command includes much, even the sur-
        render of all merely material sensation, affec-
9:21    tion, and worship. This is the El Dorado of Christianity.
        It involves the Science of Life, and recognizes only the
        divine control of Spirit, in which Soul is our master,
9:24    and material sense and human will have no place.

                         The chalice sacrificial

        Are you willing to leave all for Christ, for Truth, and
        so be counted among sinners? No! Do you really desire
9:27    to attain this point? No! Then why make long
        prayers about it and ask to be Christians,
        since you do not care to tread in the footsteps of our
9:30    dear Master? If unwilling to follow his example, why
        pray with the lips that you may be partakers of his
        nature? Consistent prayer is the desire to do right.
10:1    Prayer means that we desire to walk and will walk in
        the light so far as we receive it, even though with bleed-
10:3    ing footsteps, and that waiting patiently on the Lord,
        we will leave our real desires to be rewarded by Him.

        The world must grow to the spiritual understanding
10:6    of prayer. If good enough to profit by Jesus' cup of
        earthly sorrows, God will sustain us under these sor-
        rows. Until we are thus divinely qualified and are
10:9    willing to drink his cup, millions of vain repetitions
        will never pour into prayer the unction of Spirit in
        demonstration of power and "with signs following."
10:12   Christian Science reveals a necessity for overcoming the
        world, the flesh, and evil, and thus destroying all error.

        Seeking is not sufficient. It is striving that enables
10:15   us to enter. Spiritual attainments open the door to a
        higher understanding of the divine Life.

                           Perfunctory prayers

        One of the forms of worship in Thibet is to carry a
10:18   praying-machine through the streets, and stop at the
        doors to earn a penny by grinding out a
        prayer. But the advance guard of progress has
10:21   paid for the privilege of prayer the price of persecution.

                              Asking amiss

        Experience teaches us that we do not always receive
        the blessings we ask for in prayer. There is some mis-
10:24   apprehension of the source and means of
        all goodness and blessedness, or we should
        certainly receive that for which we ask. The Scrip-
10:27   tures say: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask
        amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." That
        which we desire and for which we ask, it is not always
10:30   best for us to receive. In this case infinite Love will
        not grant the request. Do you ask wisdom to be mer-
        ciful and not to punish sin? Then "ye ask amiss."
11:1    Without punishment, sin would multiply. Jesus' prayer,
        "Forgive us our debts," specified also the terms of
11:3    forgiveness. When forgiving the adulterous woman he
        said, "Go, and sin no more."

                          Remission of penalty

        A magistrate sometimes remits the penalty, but this
11:6    may be no moral benefit to the criminal, and at best, it
        only saves the criminal from one form of
        punishment. The moral law, which has the
11:9    right to acquit or condemn, always demands restitu-
        tion before mortals can "go up higher." Broken law
        brings penalty in order to compel this progress.

                         Truth annihilates error

11:12   Mere legal pardon (and there is no other, for divine
        Principle never pardons our sins or mistakes till they
        are corrected) leaves the offender free to re-
11:15   peat the offence, if indeed, he has not already
        suffered sufficiently from vice to make him turn from it
        with loathing. Truth bestows no pardon upon error, but
11:18   wipes it out in the most effectual manner. Jesus suffered
        for our sins, not to annul the divine sentence for an in-
        dividual's sin, but because sin brings inevitable suffering.

                           Desire for holiness

11:21   Petitions bring to mortals only the results of mor-
        tals' own faith. We know that a desire for holiness is
        requisite in order to gain holiness; but if we
11:24   desire holiness above all else, we shall sac-
        rifice everything for it. We must be willing to do this,
        that we may walk securely in the only practical road
11:27   to holiness. Prayer cannot change the unalterable
        Truth, nor can prayer alone give us an understanding
        of Truth; but prayer, coupled with a fervent habitual
11:30   desire to know and do the will of God, will bring us
        into all Truth. Such a desire has little need of audible
        expression. It is best expressed in thought and in life.

                           Prayer for the sick

12:1    "The prayer of faith shall save the sick," says the
        Scripture. What is this healing prayer? A mere re-
12:3    quest that God will heal the sick has no
        power to gain more of the divine presence
        than is always at hand. The beneficial effect of
12:6    such prayer for the sick is on the human mind, mak-
        ing it act more powerfully on the body through a blind
        faith in God. This, however, is one belief casting out
12:9    another, - a belief in the unknown casting out a belief
        in sickness. It is neither Science nor Truth which
        acts through blind belief, nor is it the human under-
12:12   standing of the divine healing Principle as manifested
        in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and con-
        scientious protests of Truth, - of man's likeness to
12:15   God and of man's unity with Truth and Love.

        Prayer to a corporeal God affects the sick like a
        drug, which has no efficacy of its own but borrows its
12:18   power from human faith and belief. The drug does
        nothing, because it has no intelligence. It is a mortal
        belief, not divine Principle or Love, which causes a
12:21   drug to be apparently either poisonous or sanative.

        The common custom of praying for the recovery of the
        sick finds help in blind belief, whereas help should come
12:24   from the enlightened understanding. Changes in belief
        may go on indefinitely, but they are the merchandise of
        human thought and not the outgrowth of divine Science.

                      Love impartial and universal

12:27   Does Deity interpose in behalf of one worshipper,
        and not help another who offers the same measure of
        prayer? If the sick recover because they
12:30   pray or are prayed for audibly, only peti-
        tioners (/per se/ or by proxy) should get well. In divine
        Science, where prayers are mental, /all/ may avail them-
13:1    selves of God as "a very present help in trouble."
        Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and
13:3    bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, "Ho,
        every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters."

                          Public exaggerations

        In public prayer we often go beyond our convictions,
13:6    beyond the honest standpoint of fervent desire. If we
        are not secretly yearning and openly striv-
        ing for the accomplishment of all we ask,
13:9    our prayers are "vain repetitions," such as the heathen
        use. If our petitions are sincere, we labor for what we
        ask; and our Father, who seeth in secret, will reward
13:12   us openly. Can the mere public expression of our de-
        sires increase them? Do we gain the omnipotent ear
        sooner by words than by thoughts? Even if prayer is
13:15   sincere, God knows our need before we tell Him or our
        fellow-beings about it. If we cherish the desire hon-
        estly and silently and humbly, God will bless it, and
13:18   we shall incur less risk of overwhelming our real
        wishes with a torrent of words.

                           Corporeal ignorance

        If we pray to God as a corporeal person, this will
13:21   prevent us from relinquishing the human doubts and
        fears which attend such a belief, and so we
        cannot grasp the wonders wrought by infi-
13:24   nite, incorporeal Love, to whom all things are possible.
        Because of human ignorance of the divine Principle,
        Love, the Father of all is represented as a corporeal
13:27   creator; hence men recognize themselves as merely
        physical, and are ignorant of man as God's image or re-
        flection and of man's eternal incorporeal existence. The
13:30   world of error is ignorant of the world of Truth, - blind
        to the reality of man's existence, - for the world of sen-
        sation is not cognizant of life in Soul, not in body.

                             Bodily presence

14:1    If we are sensibly with the body and regard omnipo-
        tence as a corporeal, material person, whose ear we
14:3    would gain, we are not "absent from the
        body" and "present with the Lord" in the
        demonstration of Spirit. We cannot "serve two mas-
14:6    ters." To be "present with the Lord" is to have, not
        mere emotional ecstasy or faith, but the actual demon-
        stration and understanding of Life as revealed in
14:9    Christian Science. To be "with the Lord" is to be in
        obedience to the law of God, to be absolutely governed
        by divine Love,- by Spirit, not by matter.

                       Spiritualized consciousness

14:12   Become conscious for a single moment that Life and
        intelligence are purely spiritual, - neither in nor of
        matter, - and the body will then utter no
14:15   complaints. If suffering from a belief in
        sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well. Sorrow
        is turned into joy when the body is controlled by spir-
14:18   itual Life, Truth, and Love. Hence the hope of the
        promise Jesus bestows: "He that believeth on me,
        the works that I do shall he do also; . . . because I
14:21   go unto my Father," - [because the Ego is absent from
        the body, and present with Truth and Love.] The
        Lord's Prayer is the prayer of Soul, not of material
14:24   sense.

        Entirely separate from the belief and dream of mate-
        rial living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual under-
14:27   standing and the consciousness of man's dominion
        over the whole earth. This understanding casts out
        error and heals the sick, and with it you can speak
14:30   "as one having authority."

        "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and,
        when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father
15:1    which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in
        secret, shall reward thee openly."

                           Spiritual sanctuary

15:3    So spake Jesus. The closet typifies the sanctuary of
        Spirit, the door of which shuts out sinful sense but
        lets in Truth, Life, and Love. Closed to
15:6    error, it is open to Truth, and /vice versa/.
        The Father in secret is unseen to the physical senses,
        but He knows all things and rewards according to
15:9    motives, not according to speech. To enter into the
        heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be
        closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent,
15:12   that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine
        Principle, Love, which destroys all error.

                          Effectual invocation

        In order to pray aright, we must enter into the
15:15   closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and
        silence the material senses. In the quiet
        sanctuary of earnest longings, we must
15:18   deny sin and plead God's allness. We must resolve to
        take up the cross, and go forth with honest hearts to
        work and watch for wisdom, Truth, and Love. We
15:21   must "pray without ceasing." Such prayer is an-
        swered, in so far as we put our desires into practice.
        The Master's injunction is, that we pray in secret and
15:24   let our lives attest our sincerity.

                         Trustworthy beneficence

        Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden
        from the world, but known to God. Self-forgetfulness,
15:27   purity, and affection are constant prayers.
        Practice not profession, understanding not
        belief, gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence and
15:30   they assuredly call down infinite blessings. Trustworthi-
        ness is the foundation of enlightened faith. Without a
        fitness for holiness, we cannot receive holiness.

                           Loftiest adoration

16:1    A great sacrifice of material things must precede this
        advanced spiritual understanding. The highest prayer
16:3    is not one of faith merely; it is demonstra-
        tion. Such prayer heals sickness, and must
        destroy sin and death. It distinguishes between Truth
16:6    that is sinless and the falsity of sinful sense.

                       The prayer of Jesus Christ

        Our Master taught his disciples one brief prayer,
        which we name after him the Lord's Prayer. Our Mas-
16:9    ter said, "After this manner therefore pray
        ye," and then he gave that prayer which
        covers all human needs. There is indeed some doubt
16:12   among Bible scholars, whether the last line is not an
        addition to the prayer by a later copyist; but this does
        not affect the meaning of the prayer itself.

16:15   In the phrase, "Deliver us from evil," the original
        properly reads, "Deliver us from the evil one." This
        reading strengthens our scientific apprehension of the peti-
16:18   tion, for Christian Science teaches us that "the evil one," or
        one evil, is but another name for the first lie and all liars.

        Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and
16:21   sin, can we reach the heaven-born aspiration and spir-
        itual consciousness, which is indicated in the Lord's
        Prayer and which instantaneously heals the sick.
16:24   Here let me give what I understand to be the spir-
        itual sense of the Lord's Prayer:

        Our Father which art in heaven,
16:27      /Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious/,

        Hallowed be Thy name.
           /Adorable One./

16:30   Thy kingdom come.
           /Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present./

17:1    Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
           /Enable us to know,- as in heaven, so on earth,- God is
17:3          omnipotent, supreme/.

        Give us this day our daily bread;
           /Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections;/

17:6    And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
           /And Love is reflected in love;/

        And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
17:9         evil;
           /And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth
             us from sin, disease, and death./

17:12   For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
             glory, forever.
           /For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over
             all, and All./




        CHAPTER II - ATONEMENT AND EUCHARIST

        And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the
        affections and lusts. - PAUL.

        For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.
        - PAUL.

        For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine,
        until the kingdom of God shall come. - JESUS.

                             Divine oneness

18:1    ATONEMENT is the exemplification of man's unity
        with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life,
18:3    and Love. Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated
        man's oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him
        endless homage. His mission was both in-
18:6    dividual and collective. He did life's work
        aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to
        mortals,- to show them how to do theirs, but not to do
18:9    it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility.
        Jesus acted boldly, against the accredited evidence of the
        senses, against Pharisaical creeds and practices, and he
18:12   refuted all opponents with his healing power.

                          Human reconciliation

        The atonement of Christ reconciles man to God, not
        God to man; for the divine Principle of Christ is God,
18:15   and how can God propitiate Himself? Christ
        is Truth, which reaches no higher than itself.
        The fountain can rise no higher than its source. Christ,
18:18   Truth, could conciliate no nature above his own, derived
19:1    from the eternal Love. It was therefore Christ's purpose
        to reconcile man to God, not God to man. Love and
19:3    Truth are not at war with God's image and likeness.
        Man cannot exceed divine Love, and so atone for him-
        self. Even Christ cannot reconcile Truth to error, for
19:6    Truth and error are irreconcilable. Jesus aided in recon-
        ciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love,
        the divine Principle of Jesus' teachings, and this truer
19:9    sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter,
        sin, and death by the law of Spirit,- the law of divine
        Love.

19:12   The Master forbore not to speak the whole truth, de-
        claring precisely what would destroy sickness, sin, and
        death, although his teaching set households at variance,
19:15   and brought to material beliefs not peace, but a
        sword.

                         Efficacious repentance

        Every pang of repentance and suffering, every effort
19:18   for reform, every good thought and deed, will help us to
        understand Jesus' atonement for sin and aid
        its efficacy; but if the sinner continues to pray
19:21   and repent, sin and be sorry, he has little part in the atone-
        ment,- in the /at-one-ment/ with God,- for he lacks the
        practical repentance, which reforms the heart and enables
19:24   man to do the will of wisdom. Those who cannot dem-
        onstrate, at least in part, the divine Principle of the teach-
        ings and practice of our Master have no part in God. If
19:27   living in disobedience to Him, we ought to feel no secur-
        ity, although God is good.

                          Jesus' sinless career

        Jesus urged the commandment, "Thou shalt have no
19:30   other gods before me," which may be ren-
        dered: Thou shalt have no belief of Life as
        mortal; thou shalt not know evil, for there is one Life,-
20:1    even God, good. He rendered "unto Caesar the things
        which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are
20:3    God's." He at last paid no homage to forms of doctrine
        or to theories of man, but acted and spake as he was moved,
        not by spirits but by Spirit.

20:6    To the ritualistic priest and hypocritical Pharisee
        Jesus said, "The publicans and the harlots go into the
        kingdom of God before you." Jesus' history made a
20:9    new calendar, which we call the Christian era; but he
        established no ritualistic worship. He knew that men
        can be baptized, partake of the Eucharist, support the
20:12   clergy, observe the Sabbath, make long prayers, and yet
        be sensual and sinful.

                             Perfect example

        Jesus bore our infirmities; he knew the error of mortal
20:15   belief, and "with his stripes [the rejection of error] we are
        healed." "Despised and rejected of men,"
        returning blessing for cursing, he taught mor-
20:18   tals the opposite of themselves, even the nature of God;
        and when error felt the power of Truth, the scourge and
        the cross awaited the great Teacher. Yet he swerved not,
20:21   well knowing that to obey the divine order and trust God,
        saves retracing and traversing anew the path from sin to
        holiness.

                           Behest of the cross

20:24   Material belief is slow to acknowledge what the
        spiritual fact implies. The truth is the centre of all
        religion. It commands sure entrance into
20:27   the realm of Love. St. Paul wrote, "Let us
        lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so
        easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
20:30   is set before us;" that is, let us put aside material self
        and sense, and seek the divine Principle and Science of
        all healing.

                              Moral victory

21:1    If Truth is overcoming error in your daily walk and
        conversation, you can finally say, "I have fought a
21:3    good fight . . . I have kept the faith," be-
        cause you are a better man. This is having
        our part in the at-one-ment with Truth and Love.
21:6    Christians do not continue to labor and pray, expecting
        because of another's goodness, suffering, and triumph,
        that they shall reach his harmony and reward.

21:9    If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he is striv-
        ing to enter in. He constantly turns away from ma-
        terial sense, and looks towards the imperishable things
21:12   of Spirit. If honest, he will be in earnest from the
        start, and gain a little each day in the right direction,
        till at last he finishes his course with joy.

                         Inharmonious travellers

21:15   If my friends are going to Europe, while I am /en
        route/ for California, we are not journeying together.
        We have separate time-tables to consult,
21:18   different routes to pursue. Our paths have
        diverged at the very outset, and we have little oppor-
        tunity to help each other. On the contrary, if my
21:21   friends pursue my course, we have the same railroad
        guides, and our mutual interests are identical; or, if I
        take up their line of travel, they help me on, and our
21:24   companionship may continue.

                              Zigzag course

        Being in sympathy with matter, the worldly man is at
        the beck and call of error, and will be attracted thither-
21:27   ward. He is like a traveller going westward
        for a pleasure-trip. The company is alluring
        and the pleasures exciting. After following the sun for
21:30   six days, he turns east on the seventh, satisfied if he can
        only imagine himself drifting in the right direction. By-
        and-by, ashamed of his zigzag course, he would borrow
22:1    the passport of some wiser pilgrim, thinking with the aid
        of this to find and follow the right road.

                           Moral retrogression

22:3    Vibrating like a pendulum between sin and the hope
        of forgiveness,- selfishness and sensuality causing con-
        stant retrogression,- our moral progress will
22:6    be slow. Waking to Christ's demand, mortals
        experience suffering. This causes them, even as drown-
        ing men, to make vigorous efforts to save themselves; and
22:9    through Christ's precious love these efforts are crowned
        with success.

                             Wait for reward

        "Work out your own salvation," is the demand of
22:12   Life and Love, for to this end God worketh with you.
        "Occupy till I come!" Wait for your re-
        ward, and "be not weary in well doing." If
22:15   your endeavors are beset by fearful odds, and you receive
        no present reward, go not back to error, nor become a
        sluggard in the race.

22:18   When the smoke of battle clears away, you will dis-
        cern the good you have done, and receive according to
        your deserving. Love is not hasty to deliver us from
22:21   temptation, for Love means that we shall be tried and
        purified.

                        Deliverance not vicarious

        Final deliverance from error, whereby we rejoice in
22:24   immortality, boundless freedom, and sinless sense, is not
        reached through paths of flowers nor by pinning
        one's faith without works to another's vicarious
22:27   effort. Whosoever believeth that wrath is righteous or
        that divinity is appeased by human suffering, does not
        understand God.

                        Justice and substitution

22:30   Justice requires reformation of the sinner. Mercy
        cancels the debt only when justice approves. Revenge
        is inadmissible. Wrath which is only appeased is not
23:1    destroyed, but partially indulged. Wisdom and Love
        may require many sacrifices of self to save us from sin.
23:3    One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to
        pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires
        constant self-immolation on the sinner's part. That
23:6    God's wrath should be vented upon His beloved Son, is
        divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man-made. The
        atonement is a hard problem in theology, but its scien-
23:9    tific explanation is, that suffering is an error of sinful sense
        which Truth destroys, and that eventually both sin and suf-
        fering will fall at the feet of everlasting Love.

                           Doctrines and faith

23:12   Rabbinical lore said: "He that taketh one doctrine,
        firm in faith, has the Holy Ghost dwelling in him."
        This preaching receives a strong rebuke in
23:15   the Scripture, "Faith without works is dead."
        Faith, if it be mere belief, is as a pendulum swinging be-
        tween nothing and something, having no fixity. Faith,
23:18   advanced to spiritual understanding, is the evidence gained
        from Spirit, which rebukes sin of every kind and estab-
        lishes the claims of God.

                      Self-reliance and confidence

23:21   In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, /faith/ and the
        words corresponding thereto have these two defini-
        tions, /trustfulness/ and /trustworthiness/. One
23:24   kind of faith trusts one's welfare to others.
        Another kind of faith understands divine Love and how
        to work out one's "own salvation, with fear and trem-
23:27   bling." "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!"
        expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the
        injunction, "Believe . . . and thou shalt be saved!"
23:30   demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spir-
        itual understanding and confides all to God.

        The Hebrew verb /to believe/ means also /to be firm/ or
24:1    /to be constant/. This certainly applies to Truth and Love
        understood and practised. Firmness in error will never
24:3    save from sin, disease, and death.

                         Life's healing currents

        Acquaintance with the original texts, and willingness
        to give up human beliefs (established by hierarchies, and
24:6    instigated sometimes by the worst passions of
        men), open the way for Christian Science to be
        understood, and make the Bible the chart of life, where
24:9    the buoys and healing currents of Truth are pointed
        out.

                             Radical changes

        He to whom "the arm of the Lord" is revealed will
24:12   believe our report, and rise into newness of life with re-
        generation. This is having part in the atone-
        ment; this is the understanding, in which
24:15   Jesus suffered and triumphed. The time is not distant
        when the ordinary theological views of atonement will
        undergo a great change, - a change as radical as that
24:18   which has come over popular opinions in regard to pre-
        destination and future punishment.

                         Purpose of crucifixion

        Does erudite theology regard the crucifixion of Jesus
24:21   chiefly as providing a ready pardon for all sinners who
        ask for it and are willing to be forgiven?
        Does spiritualism find Jesus' death necessary
24:24   only for the presentation, after death, of the material
        Jesus, as a proof that spirits can return to earth? Then
        we must differ from them both.

24:27   The efficacy of the crucifixion lay in the practical af-
        fection and goodness it demonstrated for mankind. The
        truth had been lived among men; but until they saw that
24:30   it enabled their Master to triumph over the grave, his own
        disciples could not admit such an event to be possible.
        After the resurrection, even the unbelieving Thomas was
25:1    forced to acknowledge how complete was the great proof of
        Truth and Love.

                          True flesh and blood

25:3    The spiritual essence of blood is sacrifice. The effi-
        cacy of Jesus' spiritual offering is infinitely greater than
        can be expressed by our sense of human
25:6    blood. The material blood of Jesus was no
        more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed
        upon "the accursed tree," than when it was flowing in
25:9    his veins as he went daily about his Father's business.
        His true flesh and blood were his Life; and they truly eat
        his flesh and drink his blood, who partake of that divine
25:12   Life.

                            Effective triumph

        Jesus taught the way of Life by demonstration, that
        we may understand how this divine Principle heals
25:15   the sick, casts out error, and triumphs over
        death. Jesus presented the ideal of God better
        than could any man whose origin was less spiritual. By
25:18   his obedience to God, he demonstrated more spiritu-
        ally than all others the Principle of being. Hence the
        force of his admonition, "If ye love me, keep my com-
25:21   mandments."

        Though demonstrating his control over sin and disease,
        the great Teacher by no means relieved others from giving
25:24   the requisite proofs of their own piety. He worked for
        their guidance, that they might demonstrate this power as
        he did and understand its divine Principle. Implicit faith
25:27   in the Teacher and all the emotional love we can bestow
        on him, will never alone make us imitators of him. We
        must go and do likewise, else we are not improving the
25:30   great blessings which our Master worked and suffered to
        bestow upon us. The divinity of the Christ was made
        manifest in the humanity of Jesus.

                          Individual experience

26:1    While we adore Jesus, and the heart overflows with
        gratitude for what he did for mortals, - treading alone
26:3    his loving pathway up to the throne of
        glory, in speechless agony exploring the way
        for us, - yet Jesus spares us not one individual expe-
26:6    rience, if we follow his commands faithfully; and all
        have the cup of sorrowful effort to drink in proportion
        to their demonstration of his love, till all are redeemed
26:9    through divine Love.

                         Christ's demonstration

        The Christ was the Spirit which Jesus implied in his
        own statements: "I am the way, the truth, and the life;"
26:12   "I and my Father are one." This Christ,
        or divinity of the man Jesus, was his divine
        nature, the godliness which animated him. Divine Truth,
26:15   Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness,
        and death. His mission was to reveal the Science of
        celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does
26:18   for man.

                            Proof in practice

        A musician demonstrates the beauty of the music he
        teaches in order to show the learner the way by prac-
26:21   tice as well as precept. Jesus' teaching and
        practice of Truth involved such a sacrifice
        as makes us admit its Principle to be Love. This was
26:24   the precious import of our Master's sinless career and
        of his demonstration of power over death. He proved
        by his deeds that Christian Science destroys sickness, sin,
26:27   and death.

        Our Master taught no mere theory, doctrine, or belief.
        It was the divine Principle of all real being which he
26:30   taught and practised. His proof of Christianity was no
        form or system of religion and worship, but Christian
        Science, working out the harmony of Life and Love.
27:1    Jesus sent a message to John the Baptist, which was in-
        tended to prove beyond a question that the Christ had
27:3    come: "Go your way, and tell John what things ye have
        seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk,
        the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
27:6    to the poor the gospel is preached." In other words:
        Tell John what the demonstration of divine power is,
        and he will at once perceive that God is the power in
27:9    the Messianic work.

                              Living temple

        That Life is God, Jesus proved by his reappearance
        after the crucifixion in strict accordance with his scien-
27:12   tific statement: "Destroy this temple [body],
        and in three days I [Spirit] will raise it up."
        It is as if he had said: The I - the Life, substance,
27:15   and intelligence of the universe - is not in matter to
        be destroyed.

        Jesus' parables explain Life as never mingling with
27:18   sin and death. He laid the axe of Science at the root
        of material knowledge, that it might be ready to cut
        down the false doctrine of pantheism, - that God, or
27:21   Life, is in or of matter.

                           Recreant disciples

        Jesus sent forth seventy students at one time, but only
        eleven left a desirable historic record. Tradition credits
27:24   him with two or three hundred other disciples
        who have left no name. "Many are called,
        but few are chosen." They fell away from grace because
27:27   they never truly understood their Master's instruction.

        Why do those who profess to follow Christ reject the
        essential religion he came to establish? Jesus' persecu-
27:30   tors made their strongest attack upon this very point.
        They endeavored to hold him at the mercy of matter and
        to kill him according to certain assumed material laws.

                           Help and hindrance

28:1    The Pharisees claimed to know and to teach the di-
        vine will, but they only hindered the success of Jesus'
28:3    mission. Even many of his students stood
        in his way. If the Master had not taken a
        student and taught the unseen verities of God, he would
28:6    not have been crucified. The determination to hold Spirit
        in the grasp of matter is the persecutor of Truth and
        Love.

28:9    While respecting all that is good in the Church or out
        of it, one's consecration to Christ is more on the ground
        of demonstration than of profession. In conscience, we
28:12   cannot hold to beliefs outgrown; and by understanding
        more of the divine Principle of the deathless Christ, we
        are enabled to heal the sick and to triumph over sin.

                         Misleading conceptions

28:15   Neither the origin, the character, nor the work of
        Jesus was generally understood. Not a single compo-
        nent part of his nature did the material
28:18   world measure aright. Even his righteous-
        less and purity did not hinder men from saying: He
        is a glutton and a friend of the impure, and Beelzebub is
28:21   his patron.

                          Persecution prolonged

        Remember, thou Christian martyr, it is enough if
        thou art found worthy to unloose the sandals of thy
28:24   Master's feet! To suppose that persecution
        for righteousness' sake belongs to the past,
        and that Christianity to-day is at peace with the world
28:27   because it is honored by sects and societies, is to mis-
        take the very nature of religion. Error repeats itself.
        The trials encountered by prophet, disciple, and apostle,
28:30   "of whom the world was not worthy," await, in some
        form, every pioneer of truth.

                            Christian warfare

        There is too much animal courage in society and not
29:1    sufficient moral courage. Christians must take up arms
        against error at home and abroad. They must grapple
29:3    with sin in themselves and in others, and
        continue this warfare until they have finished
        their course. If they keep the faith, they will have the
29:6    crown of rejoicing.

        Christian experience teaches faith in the right and dis-
        belief in the wrong. It bids us work the more earnestly
29:9    in times of persecution, because then our labor is more
        needed. Great is the reward of self-sacrifice, though we
        may never receive it in this world.

                          The Fatherhood of God

29:12   There is a tradition that Publius Lentulus wrote to
        the authorities at Rome: "The disciples of Jesus be-
        lieve him the Son of God." Those instructed
29:15   in Christian Science have reached the glori-
        ous perception that God is the only author of man.
        The Virgin-mother conceived this idea of God, and
29:18   gave to her ideal the name of Jesus - that is, Joshua,
        or Saviour.

                          Spiritual conception

        The illumination of Mary's spiritual sense put to
29:21   silence material law and its order of generation, and
        brought forth her child by the revelation of
        Truth, demonstrating God as the Father of
29:24   men. The Holy Ghost, or divine Spirit, overshadowed
        the pure sense of the Virgin-mother with the full recog-
        nition that being is Spirit. The Christ dwelt forever
29:27   an idea in the bosom of God, the divine Principle of the
        man Jesus, and woman perceived this spiritual idea,
        though at first faintly developed.

29:30   Man as the offspring of God, as the idea of Spirit,
        is the immortal evidence that Spirit is harmonious and
        man eternal. Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self-
30:1    conscious communion with God. Hence he could give
        a more spiritual idea of life than other men, and could
30:3    demonstrate the Science of Love - his Father or divine
        Principle.

                          Jesus the way-shower

        Born of a woman, Jesus' advent in the flesh partook
30:6    partly of Mary's earthly condition, although he was en-
        dowed with the Christ, the divine Spirit, with-
        out measure. This accounts for his struggles
30:9    in Gethsemane and on Calvary, and this enabled him to
        be the mediator, or /way-shower/, between God and men.
        Had his origin and birth been wholly apart from mortal
30:12   usage, Jesus would not have been appreciable to mortal
        mind as "the way."

        Rabbi and priest taught the Mosaic law, which said:
30:15   "An eye for an eye," and "Whoso sheddeth man's blood,
        by man shall his blood be shed." Not so did Jesus, the
        new executor for God, present the divine law of Love,
30:18   which blesses even those that curse it.

                             Rebukes helpful

        As the individual ideal of Truth, Christ Jesus came to
        rebuke rabbinical error and all sin, sickness, and death,-
30:21   to point out the way of Truth and Life. This
        ideal was demonstrated throughout the whole
        earthly career of Jesus, showing the difference between
30:24   the offspring of Soul and of material sense, of Truth and
        of error.

        If we have triumphed sufficiently over the errors of
30:27   material sense to allow Soul to hold the control, we
        shall loathe sin and rebuke it under every mask. Only
        in this way can we bless our enemies, though they
30:30   may not so construe our words. We cannot choose for
        ourselves, but must work out our salvation in the way
        Jesus taught. In meekness and might, he was found
31:1    preaching the gospel to the poor. Pride and fear are unfit
        to bear the standard of Truth, and God will never place
31:3    it in such hands.

                          Fleshly ties temporal

        Jesus acknowledged no ties of the flesh. He said: "Call
        no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father,
31:6    which is in heaven." Again he asked: "Who
        is my mother, and who are my brethren," im-
        plying that it is they who do the will of his Father. We
31:9    have no record of his calling any man by the name of
        /father/. He recognized Spirit, God, as the only creator, and
        therefore as the Father of all.

                             Healing primary

31:12   First in the list of Christian duties, he taught his fol-
        lowers the healing power of Truth and Love. He attached
        no importance to dead ceremonies. It is the
31:15   living Christ, the practical Truth, which makes
        Jesus "the resurrection and the life" to all who follow him
        in deed. Obeying his precious precepts, - following his
31:18   demonstration so far as we apprehend it, - we drink of
        his cup, partake of his bread, are baptized with his pu-
        rity; and at last we shall rest, sit down with him, in a full
31:21   understanding of the divine Principle which triumphs
        over death. For what says Paul? "As often as ye eat
        this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's
31:24   death till he come."

                            Painful prospect

        Referring to the materiality of the age, Jesus said:
        "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true wor-
31:27   shippers shall worship the Father in spirit
        and in truth." Again, foreseeing the perse-
        cution which would attend the Science of Spirit, Jesus
31:30   said: "They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea,
        the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think
        that he doeth God service; and these things will they
32:1    do unto you, because they have not known the Father
        nor me."

                            Sacred sacrament

32:3    In ancient Rome a soldier was required to swear
        allegiance to his general. The Latin word for this oath
        was /sacramentum/, and our English word
32:6    /sacrament/ is derived from it. Among the
        Jews it was an ancient custom for the master of a
        feast to pass each guest a cup of wine. But the
32:9    Eucharist does not commemorate a Roman soldier's
        oath, nor was the wine, used on convivial occasions and
        in Jewish rites, the cup of our Lord. The cup shows
32:12   forth his bitter experience, - the cup which he prayed
        might pass from him, though he bowed in holy submis-
        sion to the divine decree.

32:15   "As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed
        it and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said,
        Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and
32:18   gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, Drink ye all
        of it."

                          Spiritual refreshment

        The true sense is spiritually lost, if the sacrament is
32:21   confined to the use of bread and wine. The disciples
        had eaten, yet Jesus prayed and gave them
        bread. This would have been foolish in a
32:24   literal sense; but in its spiritual signification, it was nat-
        ural and beautiful. Jesus prayed; he withdrew from the
        material senses to refresh his heart with brighter, with
32:27   spiritual views.

                            Jesus' sad repast

        The Passover, which Jesus ate with his disciples in
        the month Nisan on the night before his crucifixion,
32:30   was a mournful occasion, a sad supper taken
        at the close of day, in the twilight of a
        glorious career with shadows fast falling around; and
33:1    this supper closed forever Jesus' ritualism or concessions
        to matter.

                            Heavenly supplies

33:3    His followers, sorrowful and silent, anticipating the hour
        of their Master's betrayal, partook of the heavenly manna,
        which of old had fed in the wilderness the
33:6    persecuted followers of Truth. Their bread
        indeed came down from heaven. It was the great truth
        of spiritual being, healing the sick and casting out error.
33:9    Their Master had explained it all before, and now this
        bread was feeding and sustaining them. They had borne
        this bread from house to house, /breaking/ (explaining) it to
33:12   others, and now it comforted themselves.

        For this truth of spiritual being, their Master was about
        to suffer violence and drain to the dregs his cup of sorrow.
33:15   He must leave them. With the great glory of an everlast-
        ing victory overshadowing him, he gave thanks and said,
        "Drink ye all of it."

                            The holy struggle

33:18   When the human element in him struggled with the
        divine, our great Teacher said: "Not my will, but
        Thine, be done!"- that is, Let not the flesh,
33:21   but the Spirit, be represented in me. This
        is the new understanding of spiritual Love. It gives all
        for Christ, or Truth. It blesses its enemies, heals the
33:24   sick, casts out error, raises the dead from trespasses
        and sins, and preaches the gospel to the poor, the meek
        in heart.

                           Incisive questions

33:27   Christians, are you drinking his cup? Have you
        shared the blood of the New Covenant, the persecutions
        which attend a new and higher understand-
33:30   ing of God? If not, can you then say that
        you have commemorated Jesus in his cup? Are all
        who eat bread and drink wine in memory of Jesus willing
34:1    truly to drink his cup, take his cross, and leave all for
        the Christ-principle? Then why ascribe this inspira-
34:3    tion to a dead rite, instead of showing, by casting out
        error and making the body "holy, acceptable unto God,"
        that Truth has come to the understanding? If Christ,
34:6    Truth, has come to us in demonstration, no other com-
        memoration is requisite, for demonstration is Immanuel,
        or /God with us/; and if a friend be with us, why need we
34:9    memorials of that friend?

                            Millennial glory

        If all who ever partook of the sacrament had really
        commemorated the sufferings of Jesus and drunk of
34:12   his cup, they would have revolutionized the
        world. If all who seek his commemoration
        through material symbols will take up the cross, heal
34:15   the sick, cast out evils, and preach Christ, or Truth,
        to the poor, - the receptive thought, - they will bring
        in the millennium.

                         Fellowship with Christ

34:18   Through all the disciples experienced, they became more
        spiritual and understood better what the Master had
        taught. His resurrection was also their resur-
34:21   rection. It helped them to raise themselves and
        others from spiritual dulness and blind belief in God into
        the perception of infinite possibilities. They needed this
34:24   quickening, for soon their dear Master would rise again
        in the spiritual realm of reality, and ascend far above
        their apprehension. As the reward for his faithfulness,
34:27   he would disappear to material sense in that change which
        has since been called the ascension.

                           The last breakfast

        What a contrast between our Lord's last supper and
34:30   his last spiritual breakfast with his disciples
        in the bright morning hours at the joyful
        meeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea! His gloom
35:1    had passed into glory, and His disciples' grief into repent-
        ance, - hearts chastened and pride rebuked. Convinced
35:3    of the fruitlessness of their toil in the dark and wakened
        by their Master's voice, they changed their methods, turned
        away from material things, and cast their net on the right
35:6    side. Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore of
        time, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortal
        sensuousness, or the burial of mind in matter, into new-
35:9    ness of life as Spirit.

        This spiritual meeting with our Lord in the dawn of a
        new light is the morning meal which Christian Scientists
35:12   commemorate. They bow before Christ, Truth, to re-
        ceive more of his reappearing and silently to commune
        with the divine Principle, Love. They celebrate their
35:15   Lord's victory over death, his probation in the flesh
        after death, its exemplification of human probation, and
        his spiritual and final ascension above matter, or the flesh,
35:18   when he rose out of material sight.

                           Spiritual Eucharist

        Our baptism is a purification from all error. Our
        church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can
35:21   unite with this church only as we are new-
        born of Spirit, as we reach the Life which
        is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth
35:24   the fruits of Love, - casting out error and healing the
        sick. Our Eucharist is spiritual communion with the one
        God. Our bread, "which cometh down from heaven,"
35:27   is Truth. Our cup is the cross. Our wine the inspira-
        tion of Love, the draught our Master drank and com-
        mended to his followers.

                              Final purpose

35:30   The design of Love is to reform the sinner. If the
        sinner's punishment here has been insufficient to re-
        form him, the good man's heaven would be a hell to
36:1    the sinner. They, who know not purity and affection by
        experience, can never find bliss in the blessed company of
36:3    Truth and Love simply through translation
        into another sphere. Divine Science reveals
        the necessity of sufficient suffering, either before or after
36:6    death, to quench the love of sin. To remit the penalty
        due for sin, would be for Truth to pardon error. Escape
        from punishment is not in accordance with God's govern-
36:9    ment, since justice is the handmaid of mercy.

        Jesus endured the shame, that he might pour his
        dear-bought bounty into barren lives. What was his
36:12   earthly reward? He was forsaken by all save John,
        the beloved disciple, and a few women who bowed in
        silent woe beneath the shadow of his cross. The earthly
36:15   price of spirituality in a material age and the great moral
        distance between Christianity and sensualism preclude
        Christian Science from finding favor with the worldly-
36:18   minded.

                          Righteous retribution

        A selfish and limited mind may be unjust, but the un-
        limited and divine Mind is the immortal law of justice as
36:21   well as of mercy. It is quite as impossible for
        sinners to receive their full punishment this
        side of the grave as for this world to bestow on the right-
36:24   eous their full reward. It is useless to suppose that the
        wicked can gloat over their offences to the last moment
        and then be suddenly pardoned and pushed into heaven,
36:27   or that the hand of Love is satisfied with giving us only
        toil, sacrifice, cross-bearing, multiplied trials, and mock-
        ery of our motives in return for our efforts at well doing.

                           Vicarious suffering

36:30   Religious history repeats itself in the suf-
        fering of the just for the unjust. Can God
        therefore overlook the law of righteousness which de-
37:1    stroys the belief called sin? Does not Science show that
        sin brings suffering as much to-day as yesterday? They
37:3    who sin must suffer. "With what measure ye mete, it
        shall be measured to you again."

                           Martyrs inevitable

        History is full of records of suffering. "The blood of
37:6    the martyrs is the seed of the Church." Mortals try in
        vain to slay Truth with the steel or the stake,
        but error falls only before the sword of Spirit.
37:9    Martyrs are the human links which connect one stage with
        another in the history of religion. They are earth's lumi-
        naries, which serve to cleanse and rarefy the atmosphere of
37:12   material sense and to permeate humanity with purer ideals.
        Consciousness of right-doing brings its own reward; but
        not amid the smoke of battle is merit seen and appreciated
37:15   by lookers-on.

                           Complete emulation

        When will Jesus' professed followers learn to emulate
        him in /all/ his ways and to imitate his mighty works?
37:18   Those who procured the martyrdom of that
        righteous man would gladly have turned his
        sacred career into a mutilated doctrinal platform. May
37:21   the Christians of to-day take up the more practical im-
        port of that career! It is possible, - yea, it is the duty
        and privilege of every child, man, and woman, - to follow
37:24   in some degree the example of the Master by the demon-
        stration of Truth and Life, of health and holiness. Chris-
        tians claim to be his followers, but do they follow him in
37:27   the way that he commanded? Hear these imperative com-
        mands: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
        which is in heaven is perfect!" "Go ye into all the world,
37:30   and preach the gospel to every creature!" "/Heal the
        sick/!"

                        Jesus' teaching belittled

        Why has this Christian demand so little inspiration
38:1    to stir mankind to Christian effort? Because men are
        assured that this command was intended only for a par-
38:3    ticular period and for a select number of fol-
        lowers. This teaching is even more pernicious
        than the old doctrine of foreordination, - the election of a
38:6    few to be saved, while the rest are damned; and so it will
        be considered, when the lethargy of mortals, produced
        by man-made doctrines, is broken by the demands of
38:9    divine Science.

        Jesus said: "These signs shall follow them that be-
        lieve; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they
38:12   shall recover." Who believes him? He was addressing
        his disciples, yet he did not say, " These signs shall follow
        /you/," but /them/- "them that believe" in all time to come.
38:15   Here the word /hands/ is used metaphorically, as in the text,
        "The right hand of the Lord is exalted." It expresses
        spiritual power; otherwise the healing could not have
38:18   been done spiritually. At another time Jesus prayed, not
        for the twelve only, but for as many as should believe
        "through their word."

                           Material pleasures

38:21   Jesus experienced few of the pleasures of the physical
        senses, but his sufferings were the fruits of other peo-
        ple's sins, not of his own. The eternal Christ,
38:24   his spiritual selfhood, never suffered. Jesus
        mapped out the path for others. He unveiled the Christ,
        the spiritual idea of divine Love. To those buried in the
38:27   belief of sin and self, living only for pleasure or the grati-
        fication of the senses, he said in substance: Having eyes
        ye see not, and having ears ye hear not; lest ye should un-
38:30   derstand and be converted, and I might heal you. He
        taught that the material senses shut out Truth and its
        healing power.

                            Mockery of truth

39:1    Meekly our Master met the mockery of his unrecog-
        nized grandeur. Such indignities as he received, his fol-
39:3    lowers will endure until Christianity's last
        triumph. He won eternal honors. He over-
        came the world, the flesh, and all error, thus proving
39:6    their nothingness. He wrought a full salvation from sin,
        sickness, and death. We need "Christ, and him cruci-
        fied." We must have trials and self-denials, as well as
39:9    joys and victories, until all error is destroyed.

                            A belief suicidal

        The educated belief that Soul is in the body causes
        mortals to regard death as a friend, as a stepping-stone
39:12   out of mortality into immortality and bliss.
        The Bible calls death an enemy, and Jesus
        overcame death and the grave instead of yielding to them.
39:15   He was "the way." To him, therefore, death was not
        the threshold over which he must pass into living
        glory.

                            Present salvation

39:18   "/Now/," cried the apostle, "is the accepted time; be-
        hold, /now/ is the day of salvation," - meaning, not that
        now men must prepare for a future-world salva-
39:21   tion, or safety, but that now is the time in which
        to experience that salvation in spirit and in life. Now is
        the time for so-called material pains and material pleas-
39:24   ures to pass away, for both are unreal, because impossible
        in Science. To break this earthly spell, mortals must get
        the true idea and divine Principle of all that really exists
39:27   and governs the universe harmoniously. This thought is
        apprehended slowly, and the interval before its attain-
        ment is attended with doubts and defeats as well as
39:30   triumphs.

                             Sin and penalty

        Who will stop the practice of sin so long as he believes
        in the pleasures of sin? When mortals once admit that
40:1    evil confers no pleasure, they turn from it. Remove error
        from thought, and it will not appear in effect. The ad-
40:3    vanced thinker and devout Christian, perceiv-
        ing the scope and tendency of Christian healing
        and its Science, will support them. Another will say:
40:6    "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient
        season I will call for thee."

        Divine Science adjusts the balance as Jesus adjusted
40:9    it. Science removes the penalty only by first removing
        the sin which incurs the penalty. This is my sense of
        divine pardon, which I understand to mean God's method
40:12   of destroying sin. If the saying is true, "While there's
        life there's hope," its opposite is also true, While there's
        sin there's doom. Another's suffering cannot lessen our
40:15   own liability. Did the martyrdom of Savonarola make
        the crimes of his implacable enemies less criminal?

                          Suffering inevitable

        Was it just for Jesus to suffer? No; but it was
40:18   inevitable, for not otherwise could he show us the way
        and the power of Truth. If a career so great
        and good as that of Jesus could not avert a
40:21   felon's fate, lesser apostles of Truth may endure human
        brutality without murmuring, rejoicing to enter into
        fellowship with him through the triumphal arch of
40:24   Truth and Love.

                           Service and worship

        Our heavenly Father, divine Love, demands that all
        men should follow the example of our Master and his
40:27   apostles and not merely worship his personal-
        ity. It is sad that the phrase /divine service/
        has come so generally to mean public worship instead of
40:30   daily deeds.

                             Within the veil

        The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed,
        but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of
41:1    hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the
        Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and
41:3    this advance beyond matter must come
        through the joys and triumphs of the right-
        eous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions.
41:6    Like our Master, we must depart from material sense
        into the spiritual sense of being.

                         The thorns and flowers

        The God-inspired walk calmly on though it be with
41:9    bleeding footprints, and in the hereafter they will reap
        what they now sow. The pampered hypo-
        crite may have a flowery pathway here, but
41:12   he cannot forever break the Golden Rule and escape the
        penalty due.

                           Healing early lost

        The proofs of Truth, Life, and Love, which Jesus gave
41:15   by casting out error and healing the sick, completed his
        earthly mission; but in the Christian Church
        this demonstration of healing was early lost,
41:18   about three centuries after the crucifixion. No ancient
        school of philosophy, /materia medica/, or scholastic theol-
        ogy ever taught or demonstrated the divine healing of
41:21   absolute Science.

                            Immortal achieval

        Jesus foresaw the reception Christian Science would have
        before it was understood, but this foreknowledge hindered
41:24   him not. He fulfilled his God-mission, and
        then sat down at the right hand of the Father.
        Persecuted from city to city, his apostles still went about
41:27   doing good deeds, for which they were maligned and
        stoned. The truth taught by Jesus, the elders scoffed at.
        Why? Because it demanded more than they were willing
41:30   to practise. It was enough for them to believe in a national
        Deity; but that belief, from their time to ours, has never
        made a disciple who could cast out evils and heal the sick.
42:1    Jesus' life proved, divinely and scientifically, that God
        is Love, whereas priest and rabbi affirmed God to be a
42:3    mighty potentate, who loves and hates. The Jewish the-
        ology gave no hint of the unchanging love of God.

                            A belief in death

        The universal belief in death is of no advantage. It
42:6    cannot make Life or Truth apparent. Death
        will be found at length to be a mortal dream,
        which comes in darkness and disappears with the light.

                             Cruel desertion

42:9    The "man of sorrows" was in no peril from salary or
        popularity. Though entitled to the homage of the world
        and endorsed pre-eminently by the approval
42:12   of God, his brief triumphal entry into Jerusa-
        lem was followed by the desertion of all save a few friends,
        who sadly followed him to the foot of the cross.

                              Death outdone

42:15   The resurrection of the great demonstrator of God's
        power was the proof of his final triumph over body
        and matter, and gave full evidence of divine
42:18   Science, - evidence so important to mortals.
        The belief that man has existence or mind separate from
        God is a dying error. This error Jesus met with divine
42:21   Science and proved its nothingness. Because of the won-
        drous glory which God bestowed on His anointed, temp-
        tation, sin, sickness, and death had no terror for Jesus.
42:24   Let men think they had killed the body! Afterwards he
        would show it to them unchanged. This demonstrates
        that in Christian Science the true man is governed by
42:27   God - by good, not evil - and is therefore not a mortal
        but an immortal. Jesus had taught his disciples the
        Science of this proof. He was here to enable them to
42:30   test his still uncomprehended saying, "He that believ-
        eth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." They
        must understand more fully his Life-principle by casting
43:1    out error, healing the sick, and raising the dead, even as
        they did understand it after his bodily departure.

                           Pentecost repeated

43:3    The magnitude of Jesus' work, his material disappear-
        ance before their eyes and his reappearance, all enabled
        the disciples to understand what Jesus had
43:6    said. Heretofore they had only believed;
        now they understood. The advent of this understanding
        is what is meant by the descent of the Holy Ghost, - that
43:9    influx of divine Science which so illuminated the Pentecos-
        tal Day and is now repeating its ancient history.

                           Convincing evidence

        Jesus' last proof was the highest, the most convincing,
43:12   the most profitable to his students. The malignity of
        brutal persecutors, the treason and suicide of
        his betrayer, were overruled by divine Love to
43:15   the glorification of the man and of the true idea of God,
        which Jesus' persecutors had mocked and tried to slay.
        The final demonstration of the truth which Jesus taught,
43:18   and for which he was crucified, opened a new era for the
        world. Those who slew him to stay his influence perpetu-
        ated and extended it.

                             Divine victory

43:21   Jesus rose higher in demonstration because of the cup
        of bitterness he drank. Human law had condemned
        him, but he was demonstrating divine Science.
43:24   Out of reach of the barbarity of his enemies,
        he was acting under spiritual law in defiance of mat-
        ter and mortality, and that spiritual law sustained him.
43:27   The divine must overcome the human at every point.
        The Science Jesus taught and lived must triumph over
        all material beliefs about life, substance, and intelli-
43:30   gence, and the multitudinous errors growing from such
        beliefs.

        Love must triumph over hate. Truth and Life must
44:1    seal the victory over error and death, before the thorns
        can be laid aside for a crown, the benediction follow,
44:3    "Well done, good and faithful servant," and the suprem-
        acy of Spirit be demonstrated.

                            Jesus in the tomb

        The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge
44:6    from his foes, a place in which to solve the great
        problem of being. His three days' work in
        the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time.
44:9    He proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the mas-
        ter of hate. He met and mastered on the basis of Chris-
        tian Science, the power of Mind over matter, all the claims
44:12   of medicine, surgery, and hygiene.

        He took no drugs to allay inflammation. He did not
        depend upon food or pure air to resuscitate wasted
44:15   energies. He did not require the skill of a surgeon to
        heal the torn palms and bind up the wounded side and
        lacerated feet, that he might use those hands to remove
44:18   the napkin and winding-sheet, and that he might employ
        his feet as before.

                          The deific naturalism

        Could it be called supernatural for the God of nature
44:21   to sustain Jesus in his proof of man's truly derived power?
        It was a method of surgery beyond material
        art, but it was not a supernatural act. On
44:24   the contrary, it was a divinely natural act, whereby divinity
        brought to humanity the understanding of the Christ-
        healing and revealed a method infinitely above that of
44:27   human invention.

                           Obstacles overcome

        His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was
        hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive, demon-
44:30   strating within the narrow tomb the power
        of Spirit to overrule mortal, material sense.
        There were rock-ribbed walls in the way, and a great
45:1    stone must be rolled from the cave's mouth; but Jesus
        vanquished every material obstacle, overcame every law
45:3    of matter, and stepped forth from his gloomy resting-place,
        crowned with the glory of a sublime success, an everlasting
        victory.

                         Victory over the grave

45:6    Our Master fully and finally demonstrated divine Sci-
        ence in his victory over death and the grave. Jesus'
        deed was for the enlightenment of men and
45:9    for the salvation of the whole world from sin,
        sickness, and death. Paul writes: "For if, when we were
        enemies, we were reconciled to God by the [seeming] death
45:12   of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
        by his life." Three days after his bodily burial he talked
        with his disciples. The persecutors had failed to hide im-
45:15   mortal Truth and Love in a sepulchre.

                          The stone rolled away

        Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts!
        Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of hu-
45:18   man hope and faith, and through the reve-
        lation and demonstration of life in God, hath
        elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual
45:21   idea of man and his divine Principle, Love.

                         After the resurrection

        They who earliest saw Jesus after the resurrection
        and beheld the final proof of all that he had taught,
45:24   misconstrued that event. Even his disciples
        at first called him a spirit, ghost, or spectre,
        for they believed his body to be dead. His reply was:
45:27   "Spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."
        The reappearing of Jesus was not the return of a spirit.
        He presented the same body that he had before his cru-
45:30   cifixion, and so glorified the supremacy of Mind over
        matter.

        Jesus' students, not sufficiently advanced fully to un-
46:1    derstand their Master's triumph, did not perform many
        wonderful works, until they saw him after his crucifixion
46:3    and learned that he had not died. This convinced them
        of the truthfulness of all that he had taught.

                        Spiritual interpretation

        In the walk to Emmaus, Jesus was known to his friends
46:6    by the words, which made their hearts burn within them,
        and by the breaking of bread. The divine
        Spirit, which identified Jesus thus centuries
46:9    ago, has spoken through the inspired Word and will speak
        through it in every age and clime. It is revealed to the
        receptive heart, and is again seen casting out evil and
46:12   healing the sick.

                         Corporeality and Spirit

        The Master said plainly that physique was not Spirit,
        and after his resurrection he proved to the physical senses
46:15   that his body was not changed until he himself
        ascended, - or, in other words, rose even
        higher in the understanding of Spirit, God. To convince
46:18   Thomas of this, Jesus caused him to examine the nail-
        prints and the spear-wound.

                           Spiritual ascension

        Jesus' unchanged physical condition after what seemed
46:21   to be death was followed by his exaltation above all ma-
        terial conditions; and this exaltation explained
        his ascension, and revealed unmistakably a
46:24   probationary and progressive state beyond the grave.
        Jesus was "the way;" that is, he marked the way for
        all men. In his final demonstration, called the ascen-
46:27   sion, which closed the earthly record of Jesus, he rose
        above the physical knowledge of his disciples, and the
        material senses saw him no more.

                            Pentecostal power

46:30   His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is
        meant, that by all they had witnessed and suffered, they
        were roused to an enlarged understanding of divine Sci-
47:1    ence, even to the spiritual interpretation and discernment
        of Jesus' teachings and demonstrations, which gave them
47:3    a faint conception of the Life which is God.
        They no longer measured man by material
        sense. After gaining the true idea of their glorified Master,
47:6    they became better healers, leaning no longer on matter,
        but on the divine Principle of their work. The influx of
        light was sudden. It was sometimes an overwhelming
47:9    power as on the Day of Pentecost.

                        The traitor's conspiracy

        Judas conspired against Jesus. The world's ingratitude
        and hatred towards that just man effected his betrayal.
47:12   The traitor's price was thirty pieces of silver
        and the smiles of the Pharisees. He chose his
        time, when the people were in doubt concerning Jesus'
47:15   teachings.

        A period was approaching which would reveal the in-
        finite distance between Judas and his Master. Judas
47:18   Iscariot knew this. He knew that the great goodness of
        that Master placed a gulf between Jesus and his betrayer,
        and this spiritual distance inflamed Judas' envy. The
47:21   greed for gold strengthened his ingratitude, and for a time
        quieted his remorse. He knew that the world generally
        loves a lie better than Truth; and so he plotted the be-
47:24   trayal of Jesus in order to raise himself in popular esti-
        mation. His dark plot fell to the ground, and the
        traitor fell with it.
47:27   The disciples' desertion of their Master in his last
        earthly struggle was punished; each one came to a vio-
        lent death except St. John, of whose death we have no
47:30   record.

                          Gethsemane glorified

        During his night of gloom and glory in the garden,
        Jesus realized the utter error of a belief in any possi-
48:1    ble material intelligence. The pangs of neglect and the
        staves of bigoted ignorance smote him sorely. His stu-
48:3    dents slept. He said unto them: "Could Ye
        not watch with me one hour?" Could they
        not watch with him who, waiting and struggling in voice-
48:6    less agony, held uncomplaining guard over a world?
        There was no response to that human yearning, and so
        Jesus turned forever away from earth to heaven, from
48:9    sense to Soul.

        Remembering the sweat of agony which fell in holy
        benediction on the grass of Gethsemane, shall the hum-
48:12   blest or mightiest disciple murmur when he drinks from the
        same cup, and think, or even wish, to escape the exalt-
        ing ordeal of sin's revenge on its destroyer? Truth and
48:15   Love bestow few palms until the consummation of a
        life-work.

                            Defensive weapons

        Judas had the world's weapons. Jesus had not one
48:18   of them, and chose not the world's means of defence.
        "He opened not his mouth." The great dem-
        onstrator of Truth and Love was silent before
48:21   envy and hate. Peter would have smitten the enemies of
        his Master, but Jesus forbade him, thus rebuking re-
        sentment or animal courage. He said: "Put up thy
48:24   sword."

                            Pilate's question

        Pale in the presence of his own momentous question,
        "What is Truth," Pilate was drawn into acquiescence
48:27   with the demands of Jesus' enemies. Pilate
        was ignorant of the consequences of his awful
        decision against human rights and divine Love, knowing
48:30   not that he was hastening the final demonstration of what
        life is and of what the true knowledge of God can do for
        man.

49:1    The women at the cross could have answered Pilate's
        question. They knew what had inspired their devotion,
49:3    winged their faith, opened the eyes of their understand-
        ing, healed the sick, cast out evil, and caused the disciples
        to say to their Master: "Even the devils are subject
49:6    unto us through thy name."

                          Students' ingratitude

        Where were the seventy whom Jesus sent forth? Were
        all conspirators save eleven? Had they forgotten the
49:9    great exponent of God? Had they so soon lost
        sight of his mighty works, his toils, privations,
        sacrifices, his divine patience, sublime courage, and unre-
49:12   quited affection? O, why did they not gratify his last
        human yearning with one sign of fidelity?

                            Heaven's sentinel

        The meek demonstrator of good, the highest instruc-
49:15   tor and friend of man, met his earthly fate alone with
        God. No human eye was there to pity, no
        arm to save. Forsaken by all whom he had
49:18   blessed, this faithful sentinel of God at the highest
        post of power, charged with the grandest trust of
        heaven, was ready to be transformed by the renewing
49:21   of the infinite Spirit. He was to prove that the Christ
        is not subject to material conditions, but is above the
        reach of human wrath, and is able, through Truth,
49:24   Life, and Love, to triumph over sin, sickness, death, and
        the grave.

                             Cruel contumely

        The priests and rabbis, before whom he had meekly
49:27   walked, and those to whom he had given the highest
        proofs of divine power, mocked him on the
        cross, saying derisively, "He saved others;
49:30   himself he cannot save." These scoffers, who turned
        "aside the right of a man before the face of the Most
        High," esteemed Jesus as "stricken, smitten of God."
50:1    "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
        before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth."
50:3    "Who shall declare his generation?" Who shall decide
        what truth and love are?

                            A cry of despair

        The last supreme moment of mockery, desertion, tor-
50:6    ture, added to an overwhelming sense of the magnitude
        of his work, wrung from Jesus' lips the awful
        cry, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
50:9    This despairing appeal, if made to a human parent, would
        impugn the justice and love of a father who could with-
        hold a clear token of his presence to sustain and bless so
50:12   faithful a son. The appeal of Jesus was made both to
        his divine Principle, the God who is Love, and to himself,
        Love's pure idea. Had Life, Truth, and Love forsaken
50:15   him in his highest demonstration? This was a startling
        question. No! They must abide in him and he in them,
        or that hour would be shorn of its mighty blessing for the
50:18   human race.

                      Divine Science misunderstood

        If his full recognition of eternal Life had for a mo-
        ment given way before the evidence of the bodily senses,
50:21   what would his accusers have said? Even
        what they did say, - that Jesus' teachings
        were false, and that all evidence of their cor-
50:24   rectness was destroyed by his death. But this saying
        could not make it so.

                            The real pillory

        The burden of that hour was terrible beyond human
50:27   conception. The distrust of mortal minds, disbelieving
        the purpose of his mission, was a million
        times sharper than the thorns which pierced
50:30   his flesh. The real cross, which Jesus bore up the hill
        of grief, was the world's hatred of Truth and Love. Not
        the spear nor the material cross wrung from his faithful
51:1    lips the plaintive cry, "/Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?/" It
        was the possible loss of something more important than
51:3    human life which moved him, - the possible misappre-
        hension of the sublimest influence of his career. This
        dread added the drop of gall to his cup.

                        Life-power indestructible

51:6    Jesus could have withdrawn himself from his enemies.
        He had power to lay down a human sense of life for his
        spiritual identity in the likeness of the divine;
51:9    but he allowed men to attempt the destruc-
        tion of the mortal body in order that he might furnish
        the proof of immortal life. Nothing could kill this Life
51:12   of man. Jesus could give his temporal life into his
        enemies' hands; but when his earth-mission was accom-
        plished, his spiritual life, indestructible and eternal,
51:15   was found forever the same. He knew that matter had
        no life and that real Life is God; therefore he could no
        more be separated from his spiritual Life than God could
51:18   be extinguished.

                        Example for our salvation

        His consummate example was for the salvation of us
        all, but only through doing the works which he did and
51:21   taught others to do. His purpose in healing
        was not alone to restore health, but to demon-
        strate his divine Principle. He was inspired by God, by
51:24   Truth and Love, in all that he said and did. The motives
        of his persecutors were pride, envy, cruelty, and vengeance,
        inflicted on the physical Jesus, but aimed at the divine Prin-
51:27   ciple, Love, which rebuked their sensuality.

        Jesus was unselfish. His spirituality separated him
        from sensuousness, and caused the selfish materialist
51:30   to hate him; but it was this spirituality which enabled
        Jesus to heal the sick, cast out evil, and raise the
        dead.

                            Master's business

52:1    From early boyhood he was about his "Father's busi-
        ness." His pursuits lay far apart from theirs. His mas-
52:3    ter was Spirit; their master was matter. He
        served God; they served mammon. His affec-
        tions were pure; theirs were carnal. His senses drank in
52:6    the spiritual evidence of health, holiness, and life; their
        senses testified oppositely, and absorbed the material evi-
        dence of sin, sickness, and death.

                             Purity's rebuke

52:9    Their imperfections and impurity felt the ever-present
        rebuke of his perfection and purity. Hence the world's
        hatred of the just and perfect Jesus, and the
52:12   prophet's foresight of the reception error would
        give him. "Despised and rejected of men," was Isaiah's
        graphic word concerning the coming Prince of Peace.
52:15   Herod and Pilate laid aside old feuds in order to unite
        in putting to shame and death the best man that ever
        trod the globe. To-day, as of old, error and evil again
52:18   make common cause against the exponents of truth.

                          Saviour's prediction

        The "man of sorrows" best understood the nothing-
        ness of material life and intelligence and the mighty ac-
52:21   tuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were
        the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or
        Christian Science, which armed him with Love. The high-
52:24   est earthly representative of God, speaking of human
        ability to reflect divine power, prophetically said to his
        disciples, speaking not for their day only but for all time:
52:27   "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do
        also;" and "These signs shall follow them that believe."

                         Defamatory accusations

        The accusations of the Pharisees were as self-contra-
52:30   dictory as their religion. The bigot, the deb-
        auchee, the hypocrite, called Jesus a glutton
        and a wine-bibber. They said: "He casteth out devils
53:1    through Beelzebub," and is the "friend of publicans and
        sinners." The latter accusation was true, but not in their
53:3    meaning. Jesus was no ascetic. He did not fast as did
        the Baptist's disciples; yet there never lived a man so far
        removed from appetites and passions as the Nazarene.
53:6    He rebuked sinners pointedly and unflinchingly, because
        he was their friend; hence the cup he drank.

                        Reputation and character

        The reputation of Jesus was the very opposite of his
53:9    character. Why? Because the divine Principle and
        practice of Jesus were misunderstood. He
        was at work in divine Science. His words
53:12   and works were unknown to the world because above
        and contrary to the world's religious sense. Mortals be-
        lieved in God as humanly mighty, rather than as divine,
53:15   infinite Love.

                          Inspiring discontent

        The world could not interpret aright the discomfort
        which Jesus inspired and the spiritual blessings which
53:18   might flow from such discomfort. Science
        shows the cause of the shock so often pro-
        duced by the truth, - namely, that this shock arises from
53:21   the great distance between the individual and Truth.
        Like Peter, we should weep over the warning, instead of
        denying the truth or mocking the lifelong sacrifice which
53:24   goodness makes for the destruction of evil.

                            Bearing our sins

        Jesus bore our sins in his body. He knew the
        mortal errors which constitute the material body, and
53:27   could destroy those errors; but at the time
        when Jesus felt our infirmities, he had not
        conquered all the beliefs of the flesh or his sense of ma-
53:30   terial life, nor had he risen to his final demonstration of
        spiritual power.

        Had he shared the sinful beliefs of others, he would
54:1    have been less sensitive to those beliefs. Through the
        magnitude of his human life, he demonstrated the divine
54:3    Life. Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he de-
        fined Love. With the affluence of Truth, he vanquished
        error. The world acknowledged not his righteousness,
54:6    seeing it not; but earth received the harmony his glorified
        example introduced.

                        Inspiration of sacrifice

        Who is ready to follow his teaching and example? All
54:9    must sooner or later plant themselves in Christ, the true
        idea of God. That he might liberally pour
        his dear-bought treasures into empty or sin-
54:12   filled human storehouses, was the inspiration of Jesus'
        intense human sacrifice. In witness of his divine com-
        mission, he presented the proof that Life, Truth, and
54:15   Love heal the sick and the sinning, and triumph over
        death through Mind, not matter. This was the highest
        proof he could have offered of divine Love. His hearers
54:18   understood neither his words nor his works. They
        would not accept his meek interpretation of life nor
        follow his example.

                          Spiritual friendship

54:21   His earthly cup of bitterness was drained to the
        dregs. There adhered to him only a few unpretentious
        friends, whose religion was something more
54:24   than a name. It was so vital, that it en-
        abled them to understand the Nazarene and to share
        the glory of eternal life. He said that those who fol-
54:27   lowed him should drink of his cup, and history has con-
        firmed the prediction.

                        Injustice to the Saviour

        If that Godlike and glorified man were physically on
54:30   earth to-day, would not some, who now pro-
        fess to love him, reject him? Would they
        not deny him even the rights of humanity, if he enter-
55:1    tained any other sense of being and religion than theirs?
        The advancing century, from a deadened sense of the
55:3    invisible God, to-day subjects to unchristian comment and
        usage the idea of Christian healing enjoined by Jesus; but
        this does not affect the invincible facts.
55:6    Perhaps the early Christian era did Jesus no more
        injustice than the later centuries have bestowed upon
        the healing Christ and spiritual idea of being. Now
55:9    that the gospel of healing is again preached by the
        wayside, does not the pulpit sometimes scorn it? But
        that curative mission, which presents the Saviour in a
55:12   clearer light than mere words can possibly do, cannot be
        left out of Christianity, although it is again ruled out of
        the synagogue.

55:15   Truth's immortal idea is sweeping down the centuries,
        gathering beneath its wings the sick and sinning. My
        weary hope tries to realize that happy day, when man shall
55:18   recognize the Science of Christ and love his neighbor as
        himself, - when he shall realize God's omnipotence and
        the healing power of the divine Love in what it has done
55:21   and is doing for mankind. The promises will be ful-
        filled. The time for the reappearing of the divine healing
        is throughout all time; and whosoever layeth his earthly
55:24   all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ's
        cup now, and is endued with the spirit and power of
        Christian healing.

55:27   In the words of St. John: "He shall give you another
        Comforter, that he may abide with you /forever/." This
        Comforter I understand to be Divine Science.




        CHAPTER III - MARRIAGE

        What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put
        asunder. In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given
        in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. - JESUS.

56:1    WHEN our great Teacher came to him for baptism,
        John was astounded. Reading his thoughts, Jesus
56:3    added: "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us
        to fulfil all righteousness." Jesus' concessions (in certain
        cases) to material methods were for the advancement of
56:6    spiritual good.

                            Marriage temporal

        Marriage is the legal and moral provision for genera-
        tion among human kind. Until the spiritual creation
56:9    is discerned intact, is apprehended and under-
        stood, and His kingdom is come as in the vision
        of the Apocalypse, - where the corporeal sense of crea-
56:12   tion was cast out, and its spiritual sense was revealed from
        heaven, - marriage will continue, subject to such moral
        regulations as will secure increasing virtue.

                            Fidelity required

56:15   Infidelity to the marriage covenant is the social scourge
        of all races, "the pestilence that walketh in darkness,
        . . . the destruction that wasteth at noonday."
56:18   The commandment, "Thou shalt not com-
        mit adultery," is no less imperative than the one, "Thou
        shalt not kill."

57:1    Chastity is the cement of civilization and progress.
        Without it there is no stability in society, and without it
57:3    one cannot attain the Science of Life.

                             Mental elements

        Union of the masculine and feminine qualities consti-
        tutes completeness. The masculine mind reaches a
57:6    higher tone through certain elements of the
        feminine, while the feminine mind gains cour-
        age and strength through masculine qualities. These
57:9    different elements conjoin naturally with each other, and
        their true harmony is in spiritual oneness. Both sexes
        should be loving, pure, tender, and strong. The attrac-
57:12   tion between native qualities will be perpetual only as it
        is pure and true, bringing sweet seasons of renewal like
        the returning spring.

                           Affection's demands

57:15   Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to meet the
        demands of the affections, and should never weigh
        against the better claims of intellect, good-
57:18   ness, and virtue. Happiness is spiritual,
        born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore
        it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to
57:21   share it.

                           Help and discipline

        Human affection is not poured forth vainly, even
        though it meet no return. Love enriches the nature, en-
57:24   larging, purifying, and elevating it. The wintry
        blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affec-
        tion, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance
57:27   of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to
        God, for Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases
        to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its wings for
57:30   heaven.

        Marriage is unblest or blest, according to the disap-
        pointments it involves or the hopes it fulfils. To happify
58:1    existence by constant intercourse with those adapted to
        elevate it, should be the motive of society. Unity of
58:3    spirit gives new pinions to joy, or else joy's drooping
        wings trail in dust.

                            Chord and discord

        Ill-arranged notes produce discord. Tones of the
58:6    human mind may be different, but they should be con-
        cordant in order to blend properly. Unselfish
        ambition, noble life-motives, and purity, -
58:9    these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute in-
        dividually and collectively true happiness, strength, and
        permanence.

                             Mutual freedom

58:12   There is moral freedom in Soul. Never contract the
        horizon of a worthy outlook by the selfish exaction of
        all another's time and thoughts. With ad-
58:15   ditional joys, benevolence should grow more
        diffusive. The narrowness and jealousy, which would
        confine a wife or a husband forever within four walls, will
58:18   not promote the sweet interchange of confidence and love;
        but on the other hand, a wandering desire for incessant
        amusement outside the home circle is a poor augury for
58:21   the happiness of wedlock. Home is the dearest spot on
        earth, and it should be the centre, though not the bound-
        ary, of the affections.

                           A useful suggestion

58:24   Said the peasant bride to her lover: "Two eat no more
        together than they eat separately." This is a hint that
        a wife ought not to court vulgar extravagance
58:27   or stupid ease, because another supplies her
        wants. Wealth may obviate the necessity for toil or the
        chance for ill-nature in the marriage relation, but noth-
58:30   ing can abolish the cares of marriage.

                            Differing duties

        "She that is married careth . . . how she may please
        her husband," says the Bible; and this is the pleasantest
59:1    thing to do. Matrimony should never be entered into
        without a full recognition of its enduring obligations on
59:3    both sides. There should be the most tender
        solicitude for each other's happiness, and mu-
        tual attention and approbation should wait on all the years
59:6    of married life.

        Mutual compromises will often maintain a compact
        which might otherwise become unbearable. Man should
59:9    not be required to participate in all the annoyances and
        cares of domestic economy, nor should woman be ex-
        pected to understand political economy. Fulfilling the
59:12   different demands of their united spheres, their sympa-
        thies should blend in sweet confidence and cheer, each
        partner sustaining the other, - thus hallowing the union
59:15   of interests and affections, in which the heart finds peace
        and home.

                            Trysting renewed

        Tender words and unselfish care in what promotes the
59:18   welfare and happiness of your wife will prove more salutary
        in prolonging her health and smiles than stolid
        indifference or jealousy. Husbands, hear this
59:21   and remember how slight a word or deed may renew the
        old trysting-times.

        After marriage, it is too late to grumble over incompati-
59:24   bility of disposition. A mutual understanding should
        exist before this union and continue ever after, for decep-
        tion is fatal to happiness.

                          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   lationship 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    ship. 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,
        - passion, frivolous amusements, 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 circumscribe 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 God may be prepared in Science. The offspring
61:12   of heavenly-minded parents inherit more intellect, better
        balanced minds, and sounder constitutions.

                         Propensities inherited

        If some fortuitous circumstance 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 noble
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 sanctity 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    amusement, 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 God'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 constitute his ancestry. His origin is
        not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor
        does he pass through material conditions prior
63:9    to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ulti-
        mate source of being; God 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 sexes. 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 sexes. 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 nobler
        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
        God 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 noble 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 passion 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 God 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 sexes
        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 assuredly throw off
        this evil, and marriage will become purer when the scum
        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 sunshine of joy
66:9    and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through
        great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are
        proofs of God'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.

        Amidst gratitude for conjugal felicity, it is well to re-
66:18   member how fleeting are human joys. Amidst conjugal
        infelicity, it is well to hope, pray, and wait patiently on
        divine wisdom to point out the path.

                           Patience is wisdom

66:21   Husbands and wives should never separate if there
        is no Christian demand for it. It is better to await the
        logic of events than for a wife precipitately
66:24   to leave her husband or for a husband to
        leave his wife. If one is better than the other, as must
        always be the case, the other pre-eminently needs good
66:27   company. Socrates considered patience salutary under
        such circumstances, making his Xantippe a discipline for
        his philosophy.

                           The gold and dross

66:30   Sorrow has its reward. It never leaves us
        where it found us. The furnace separates
        the gold from the dross that the precious metal may
67:1    be graven with the image of God. The cup our Father
        hath given, shall we not drink it and learn the lessons
67:3    He teaches?

                          Weathering the storm

        When the ocean is stirred by a storm, then the clouds
        lower, the wind shrieks through the tightened shrouds,
67:6    and the waves lift themselves into mountains.
        We ask the helmsman: "Do you know your
        course? Can you steer safely amid the storm?" He
67:9    answers bravely, but even the dauntless seaman is not
        sure of his safety; nautical science is not equal to the
        Science of Mind. Yet, acting up to his highest under-
67:12   standing, firm at the post of duty, the mariner works on
        and awaits the issue. Thus should we deport ourselves
        on the seething ocean of sorrow. Hoping and work-
67:15   ing, one should stick to the wreck, until an irresistible
        propulsion precipitates his doom or sunshine gladdens
        the troubled sea.

                             Spiritual power

67:18   The notion that animal natures can possibly give force
        to character is too absurd for consideration, when we
        remember that through spiritual ascendency
67:21   our Lord and Master healed the sick, raised
        the dead, and commanded even the winds and waves to
        obey him. Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other
67:24   means and methods.

        The lack of spiritual power in the limited demonstration
        of popular Christianity does not put to silence the labor
67:27   of centuries. Spiritual, not corporeal, consciousness is
        needed. Man delivered from sin, disease, and death
        presents the true likeness or spiritual ideal.

                         Basis of true religion

67:30   Systems of religion and medicine treat of physical pains
        and pleasures, but Jesus rebuked the suffering from any
        such cause or effect. The epoch approaches when the
68:1    understanding of the truth of being will be the basis of
        true religion. At present mortals progress slowly for
68:3    fear of being thought ridiculous. They are
        slaves to fashion, pride, and sense. Some-
        time we shall learn how Spirit, the great architect, has
68:6    created men and women in Science. We ought to weary
        of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which
        hinders our highest selfhood.

68:9    Jealousy is the grave of affection. The presence of
        mistrust, where confidence is due, withers the flowers
        of Eden and scatters love's petals to decay. Be not
68:12   in haste to take the vow "until death do us part."
        Consider its obligations, its responsibilities, its rela-
        tions to your growth and to your influence on other
68:15   lives.

                        Insanity and agamogenesis

        I never knew more than one individual who believed
        in agamogenesis; she was unmarried, a lovely charac-
68:18   ter, was suffering from incipient insanity, and
        a Christian Scientist cured her. I have named
        her case to individuals, when casting my bread upon
68:21   the waters, and it may have caused the good to ponder
        and the evil to hatch their silly innuendoes and lies, since
        salutary causes sometimes incur these effects. The per-
68:24   petuation of the floral species by bud or cell-division is
        evident, but I discredit the belief that agamogenesis
        applies to the human species.

                          God's creation intact

68:27   Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion;
        it manifests no material growth from molecule to mind,
        but an impartation of the divine Mind to man
68:30   and the universe. Proportionately as human
        generation ceases, the unbroken links of eternal, har-
        monious being will be spiritually discerned; and man,
69:1    not of the earth earthly but coexistent with God, will
        appear. The scientific fact that man and the universe
69:3    are evolved from Spirit, and so are spiritual, is as fixed in
        divine Science as is the proof that mortals gain the sense
        of health only as they lose the sense of sin and disease.
69:6    Mortals can never understand God's creation while believ-
        ing that man is a creator. God's children already created
        will be cognized only as man finds the truth of being.
69:9    Thus it is that the real, ideal man appears in proportion
        as the false and material disappears. No longer to marry
        or to be "given in marriage" neither closes man's con-
69:12   tinuity nor his sense of increasing number in God's in-
        finite plan. Spiritually to understand that there is but
        one creator, God, unfolds all creation, confirms the Scrip-
69:15   tures, brings the sweet assurance of no parting, no pain,
        and of man deathless and perfect and eternal.

        If Christian Scientists educate their own offspring
69:18   spiritually, they can educate others spiritually and not
        conflict with the scientific sense of God's creation. Some
        day the child will ask his parent: "Do you keep the First
69:21   Commandment? Do you have one God and creator, or
        is man a creator?" If the father replies, "God creates
        man through man," the child may ask, "Do you teach
69:24   that Spirit creates materially, or do you declare that
        Spirit is infinite, therefore matter is out of the ques-
        tion?" Jesus said, "The children of this world marry,
69:27   and are given in marriage: But they which shall be ac-
        counted worthy to obtain that world, and the resur-
        rection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in
69:30   marriage."




        CHAPTER IV - CHRISTIAN SCIENCE VERSUS SPIRITUALISM

        And when they shall say unto you,
        Seek unto them that have familiar spirits,
        And unto wizards that peep and that mutter;
        Should not a people seek unto their God? - ISAIAH.

        Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he
        shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we
        know that thou hast a devil. - JOHN.

                         The infinite one Spirit

70:1    MORTAL existence is an enigma. Every day is a
        mystery. The testimony of the corporeal senses
70:3    cannot inform us what is real and what is delusive, but
        the revelations of Christian Science unlock the treasures
        of Truth. Whatever is false or sinful can
70:6    never enter the atmosphere of Spirit. There
        is but one Spirit. Man is never God, but spiritual man,
        made in God's likeness, reflects God. In this scientific
70:9    reflection the Ego and the Father are inseparable. The
        supposition that corporeal beings are spirits, or that there
        are good and evil spirits, is a mistake.

                        Real and unreal identity

70:12   The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade
        of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal. The
        questions are: What are God's identities?
70:15   What is Soul? Does life or soul exist in the thing
        formed?

71:1    Nothing is real and eternal, - nothing is Spirit, - but
        God and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither
71:3    person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion
        of material sense.

        The identity, or idea, of all reality continues forever;
71:6    but Spirit, or the divine Principle of all, is not /in/ Spirit's
        formations. Soul is synonymous with Spirit, God, the
        creative, governing, infinite Principle outside of finite form,
71:9    which forms only reflect.

                              Dream-lessons

        Close your eyes, and you may dream that you see a
        flower, - that you touch and smell it. Thus you learn
71:12   that the flower is a product of the so-called
        mind, a formation of thought rather than of
        matter. Close your eyes again, and you may see land-
71:15   scapes, men, and women. Thus you learn that these
        also are images, which mortal mind holds and evolves
        and which simulate mind, life, and intelligence. From
71:18   dreams also you learn that neither mortal mind nor
        matter is the image or likeness of God, and that im-
        mortal Mind is not in matter.

                              Found wanting

71:21   When the Science of Mind is understood, spiritualism
        will be found mainly erroneous, having no scientific basis
        nor origin, no proof nor power outside of
71:24   human testimony. It is the offspring of the
        physical senses. There is no sensuality in Spirit. I never
        could believe in spiritualism.

71:27   The basis and structure of spiritualism are alike ma-
        terial and physical. Its spirits are so many corporealities,
        limited and finite in character and quality. Spiritualism
71:30   therefore presupposes Spirit, which is ever infinite, to be
        a corporeal being, a finite form, - a theory contrary to
        Christian Science.

72:1    There is but one spiritual existence, - the Life of
        which corporeal sense can take no cognizance. The
72:3    divine Principle of man speaks through immortal sense.
        If a material body - in other words, mortal, material
        sense - were permeated by Spirit, that body would
72:6    disappear to mortal sense, would be deathless. A con-
        dition precedent to communion with Spirit is the gain of
        spiritual life.
                            Spirits obsolete

72:9    So-called /spirits/ are but corporeal communicators. As
        light destroys darkness and in the place of darkness all
        is light, so (in absolute Science) Soul, or God,
72:12   is the only truth-giver to man. Truth de-
        stroys mortality, and brings to light immortality. Mortal
        belief (the material sense of life) and immortal Truth
72:15   (the spiritual sense) are the tares and the wheat, which
        are not united by progress, but separated.

        Perfection is not expressed through imperfection.
72:18   Spirit is not made manifest through matter, the anti-
        pode of Spirit. Error is not a convenient sieve through
        which truth can be strained.

                          Scientific phenomena

72:21   God, good, being ever present, it follows in divine
        logic that evil, the suppositional opposite of good, is never
        present. In Science, individual good derived
72:24   from God, the infinite All-in-all, may flow
        from the departed to mortals; but evil is neither com-
        municable nor scientific. A sinning, earthly mortal is
72:27   not the reality of Life nor the medium through which
        truth passes to earth. The joy of intercourse becomes
        the jest of sin, when evil and suffering are communicable.
72:30   Not personal intercommunion but divine law is the com-
        municator of truth, health, and harmony to earth and
        humanity. As readily can you mingle fire and frost as
73:1    Spirit and matter. In either case, one does not support
        the other.

73:3    Spiritualism calls one person, living in this world, /ma-
        terial/, but another, who has died to-day a sinner and sup-
        posedly will return to earth to-morrow, it terms a /spirit/.
73:6    The fact is that neither the one nor the other is infinite
        Spirit, for Spirit is God, and man is His likeness.

                             One government

        The belief that one man, as spirit, can control an-
73:9    other man, as matter, upsets both the individuality and
        the Science of man, for man is image. God
        controls man, and God is the only Spirit. Any
73:12   other control or attraction of so-called spirit is a mortal
        belief, which ought to be known by its fruit, - the repe-
        tition of evil.

73:15   If Spirit, or God, communed with mortals or controlled
        them through electricity or any other form of matter, the
        divine order and the Science of omnipotent, omnipresent
73:18   Spirit would be destroyed.

                           Incorrect theories

        The belief that material bodies return to dust, hereafter
        to rise up as spiritual bodies with material sensations and
73:21   desires, is incorrect. Equally incorrect is the
        belief that spirit is confined in a finite, ma-
        terial body, from which it is freed by death, and that, when
73:24   it is freed from the material body, spirit retains the sensa-
        tions belonging to that body.

                             No me-diumship

        It is a grave mistake to suppose that matter is any part
73:27   of the reality of intelligent existence, or that Spirit and
        matter, intelligence and non-intelligence, can
        commune together. This error Science will
73:30   destroy. The sensual cannot be made the mouthpiece of
        the spiritual, nor can the finite become the channel of
        the infinite. There is no communication between so-
74:1    called material existence and spiritual life which is not
        subject to death.

                           Opposing conditions

74:3    To be on communicable terms with Spirit, persons must
        be free from organic bodies; and their return to a mate-
        rial condition, after having once left it, would
74:6    be as impossible as would be the restoration
        to its original condition of the acorn, already absorbed
        into a sprout which has risen above the soil. The seed
74:9    which has germinated has a new form and state of exist-
        ence. When here or hereafter the belief of life in matter
        is extinct, the error which has held the belief dissolves
74:12   with the belief, and never returns to the old condition.
        No correspondence nor communion can exist between
        persons in such opposite dreams as the belief of having
74:15   died and left a material body and the belief of still living
        in an organic, material body.

                           Bridgeless division

        The caterpillar, transformed into a beautiful insect,
74:18   is no longer a worm, nor does the insect return to
        fraternize with or control the worm. Such
        a backward transformation is impossible in
74:21   Science. Darkness and light, infancy and manhood,
        sickness and health, are opposites, - different beliefs,
        which never blend. Who will say that infancy can utter
74:24   the ideas of manhood, that darkness can represent light,
        that we are in Europe when we are in the opposite hemi-
        sphere? There is no bridge across the gulf which divides
74:27   two such opposite conditions as the spiritual, or incor-
        poreal, and the physical, or corporeal.

        In Christian Science there is never a retrograde step,
74:30   never a return to positions outgrown. The so-called dead
        and living cannot commune together, for they are in
        separate states of existence, or consciousness.

                        Unscientific investiture

75:1    This simple truth lays bare the mistaken assumption
        that man dies as matter but comes to life as spirit. The
75:3    so-called dead, in order to reappear to those
        still in the existence cognized by the physical
        senses, would need to be tangible and material, - to have
75:6    a material investiture, - or the material senses could take
        no cognizance of the so-called dead.

        Spiritualism would transfer men from the spiritual sense
75:9    of existence back into its material sense. This gross mate-
        rialism is scientifically impossible, since to infinite Spirit
        there can be no matter.

                            Raising the dead

75:12   Jesus said of Lazarus: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth;
        but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." Jesus
        restored Lazarus by the understanding that
75:15   Lazarus had never died, not by an admis-
        sion that his body had died and then lived again. Had
        Jesus believed that Lazarus had lived or died in his
75:18   body, the Master would have stood on the same plane of
        belief as those who buried the body, and he could not have
        resuscitated it.

75:21   When you can waken yourself or others out of the belief
        that all must die, you can then exercise Jesus' spiritual
        power to reproduce the presence of those who have thought
75:24   they died, - but not otherwise.

                           Vision of the dying

        There is one possible moment, when those living on the
        earth and those called dead, can commune together, and
75:27   that is the moment previous to the transition,
        - the moment when the link between their op-
        posite beliefs is being sundered. In the vestibule through
75:30   which we pass from one dream to another dream, or
        when we awake from earth's sleep to the grand verities
        of Life, the departing may hear the glad welcome of those
76:1    who have gone before. The ones departing may whisper
        this vision, name the face that smiles on them and the
76:3    hand which beckons them, as one at Niagara, with eyes
        open only to that wonder, forgets all else and breathes
        aloud his rapture.

                            Real Life is God

76:6    When being is understood, Life will be recognized as
        neither material nor finite, but as infinite, - as God,
        universal good; and the belief that life, or
76:9    mind, was ever in a finite form, or good in
        evil, will be destroyed. Then it will be understood that
        Spirit never entered matter and was therefore never
76:12   raised from matter. When advanced to spiritual being
        and the understanding of God, man can no longer com-
        mune with matter; neither can he return to it, any more
76:15   than a tree can return to its seed. Neither will man seem
        to be corporeal, but he will be an individual conscious-
        ness, characterized by the divine Spirit as idea, not matter.

76:18   Suffering, sinning, dying beliefs are unreal. When
        divine Science is universally understood, they will have
        no power over man, for man is immortal and lives by
76:21   divine authority.

                           Immaterial pleasure

        The sinless joy, - the perfect harmony and immortality
        of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness
76:24   without a single bodily pleasure or pain, -
        constitutes the only veritable, indestructible
        man, whose being is spiritual. This state of existence
76:27   is scientific and intact, - a perfection discernible only
        by those who have the final understanding of Christ in
        divine Science. Death can never hasten this state of
76:30   existence, for death must be overcome, not submitted to,
        before immortality appears.

        The recognition of Spirit and of infinity comes not
77:1    suddenly here or hereafter. The pious Polycarp said:
        "I cannot turn at once from good to evil." Neither do
77:3    other mortals accomplish the change from error to truth
        at a single bound.

                              Second death

        Existence continues to be a belief of corporeal sense
77:6    until the Science of being is reached. Error brings its
        own self-destruction both here and hereafter,
        for mortal mind creates its own physical con-
77:9    ditions. Death will occur on the next plane of existence
        as on this, until the spiritual understanding of Life is
        reached. Then, and not until then, will it be demon-
77:12   strated that "the second death hath no power."

                            A dream vanishing

        The period required for this dream of material life,
        embracing its so-called pleasures and pains, to vanish
77:15   from consciousness, "knoweth no man . . .
        neither the Son, but the Father." This period
        will be of longer or shorter duration according to the
77:18   tenacity of error. Of what advantage, then, would it be
        to us, or to the departed, to prolong the material state and
        so prolong the illusion either of a soul inert or of a sinning,
77:21   suffering sense, - a so-called mind fettered to matter.

                         Progress and purgatory

        Even if communications from spirits to mortal con-
        sciousness were possible, such communications would
77:24   grow beautifully less with every advanced stage
        of existence. The departed would gradually
        rise above ignorance and materiality, and Spiritualists
77:27   would outgrow their beliefs in material spiritualism.
        Spiritism consigns the so-called dead to a state resembling
        that of blighted buds, - to a wretched purgatory, where
77:30   the chances of the departed for improvement narrow
        into nothing and they return to their old standpoints of
        matter.

                          Unnatural deflections

78:1    The decaying flower, the blighted bud, the gnarled oak,
        the ferocious beast, - like the discords of disease, sin,
78:3    and death, - are unnatural. They are the fal-
        sities of sense, the changing deflections of mor-
        tal mind; they are not the eternal realities of Mind.

                             Absurd oracles

78:6    How unreasonable is the belief that we are wearing
        out life and hastening to death, and that at the same
        time we are communing with immortality!
78:9    If the departed are in rapport with mor-
        tality, or matter, they are not spiritual, but must still
        be mortal, sinning, suffering, and dying. Then why
78:12   look to them - even were communication possible - for
        proofs of immortality, and accept them as oracles? Com-
        munications gathered from ignorance are pernicious in
78:15   tendency.

        Spiritualism with its material accompaniments would
        destroy the supremacy of Spirit. If Spirit pervades all
78:18   space, it needs no material method for the transmission
        of messages. Spirit needs no wires nor electricity in order
        to be omnipresent.

                            Spirit intangible

78:21   Spirit is not materially tangible. How then can it
        communicate with man through electric, material effects?
        How can the majesty and omnipotence of
78:24   Spirit be lost? God is not in the medley
        where matter cares for matter, where spiritism makes
        many gods, and hypnotism and electricity are claimed
78:27   to be the agents of God's government.

        Spirit blesses man, but man cannot "tell whence
        it cometh." By it the sick are healed, the sorrowing are
78:30   comforted, and the sinning are reformed. These are the
        effects of one universal God, the invisible good dwelling
        in eternal Science.

                         Thought regarding death

79:1    The act of describing disease - its symptoms, locality,
        and fatality - is not scientific. Warning people against
79:3    death is an error that tends to frighten into
        death those who are ignorant of Life as God.
        Thousands of instances could be cited of health restored
79:6    by changing the patient's thoughts regarding death.

                          Fallacious hypotheses

        A scientific mental method is more sanitary than the
        use of drugs, and such a mental method produces perma-
79:9    nent health. Science must go over the whole
        ground, and dig up every seed of error's sow-
        ing. Spiritualism relies upon human beliefs and hy-
79:12   potheses. Christian Science removes these beliefs and
        hypotheses through the higher understanding of God, for
        Christian Science, resting on divine Principle, not on ma-
79:15   terial personalities, in its revelation of immortality, intro-
        duces the harmony of being.

        Jesus cast out evil spirits, or false beliefs. The Apostle
79:18   Paul bade men have the Mind that was in the Christ.
        Jesus did his own work by the one Spirit. He said: "My
        Father worketh hitherto, and I work." He never de-
79:21   scribed disease, so far as can be learned from the Gospels,
        but he healed disease.

                            Mistaken methods

        The unscientific practitioner says: "You are ill. Your
79:24   brain is overtaxed, and you must rest. Your body is
        weak, and it must be strengthened. You have
        nervous prostration, and must be treated for it."
79:27   Science objects to all this, contending for the rights of in-
        telligence and asserting that Mind controls body and brain.

                             Divine strength

        Mind-science teaches that mortals need "not be weary
79:30   in well doing." It dissipates fatigue in doing
        good. Giving does not impoverish us in the
        service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us.
80:1    We have strength in proportion to our apprehension of
        the truth, and our strength is not lessened by giving
80:3    utterance to truth. A cup of coffee or tea is not the equal
        of truth, whether for the inspiration of a sermon or for
        the support of bodily endurance.

                         A denial of immortality

80:6    A communication purporting to come from the late
        Theodore Parker reads as follows: "There never was,
        and there never will be, an immortal spirit."
80:9    Yet the very periodical containing this sen-
        tence repeats weekly the assertion that spirit-communica-
        tions are our only proofs of immortality.

                         Mysticism unscientific

80:12   I entertain no doubt of the humanity and philanthropy
        of many Spiritualists, but I cannot coincide with their
        views. It is mysticism which gives spiritual-
80:15   ism its force. Science dispels mystery and
        explains extraordinary phenomena; but Science never
        removes phenomena from the domain of reason into the
80:18   realm of mysticism.

                           Physical falsities

        It should not seem mysterious that mind, without the
        aid of hands, can move a table, when we already know
80:21   that it is mind-power which moves both table
        and hand. Even planchette - the French toy
        which years ago pleased so many people - attested the con-
80:24   trol of mortal mind over its substratum, called matter.

        It is mortal mind which convulses its substratum, matter.
        These movements arise from the volition of human belief,
80:27   but they are neither scientific nor rational. Mortal mind
        produces table-tipping as certainly as table-setting, and
        believes that this wonder emanates from spirits and elec-
80:30   tricity. This belief rests on the common conviction that
        mind and matter cooperate both visibly and invisibly,
        hence that matter is intelligent.

                        Poor post-mortem evidence

81:1    There is not so much evidence to prove intercommuni-
        cation between the so-called dead and the living, as there
81:3    is to show the sick that matter suffers and has
        sensation; yet this latter evidence is destroyed by
        the Mind-science. If Spiritualists understood the
81:6    Science of being, their belief in mediumship would vanish.

                         No proof of immortality

        At the very best and on its own theories, spiritualism
        can only prove that certain individuals have a continued
81:9    existence after death and maintain their affili-
        ation with mortal flesh; but this fact affords
        no certainty of everlasting life. A man's assertion that
81:12   he is immortal no more proves him to be so, than the op-
        posite assertion, that he is mortal, would prove immor-
        tality a lie. Nor is the case improved when alleged spirits
81:15   teach immortality. Life, Love, Truth, is the only proof
        of immortality.

                     Mind's manifestations immortal

        Man in the likeness of God as revealed in Science can-
81:18   not help being immortal. Though the grass seemeth to
        wither and the flower to fade, they reappear.
        Erase the figures which express number, silence
81:21   the tones of music, give to the worms the body
        called man, and yet the producing, governing, divine
        Principle lives on, - in the case of man as truly as in
81:24   the case of numbers and of music, - despite the so-called
        laws of matter, which define man as mortal. Though
        the inharmony resulting from material sense hides the
81:27   harmony of Science, inharmony cannot destroy the divine
        Principle of Science. In Science, man's immortality de-
        pends upon that of God, good, and follows as a necessary
81:30   consequence of the immortality of good.

                            Reading thoughts

        That somebody, somewhere, must have known the
        deceased person, supposed to be the communicator, is
82:1    evident, and it is as easy to read distant thoughts as near.
        We think of an absent friend as easily as we do of one
82:3    present. It is no more difficult to read the
        absent mind than it is to read the present.
        Chaucer wrote centuries ago, yet we still read his thought
82:6    in his verse. What is classic study, but discernment of
        the minds of Homer and Virgil, of whose personal exist-
        ence we may be in doubt?

                        Impossible intercommunion

82:9    If spiritual life has been won by the departed, they
        cannot return to material existence, because different
        states of consciousness are involved, and one
82:12   person cannot exist in two different states of
        consciousness at the same time. In sleep we
        do not communicate with the dreamer by our side despite
82:15   his physical proximity, because both of us are either un-
        conscious or are wandering in our dreams through differ-
        ent mazes of consciousness.

82:18   In like manner it would follow, even if our departed
        friends were near us and were in as conscious a state of
        existence as before the change we call death, that their
82:21   state of consciousness must be different from ours. We
        are not in their state, nor are they in the mental realm
        in which we dwell. Communion between them and
82:24   ourselves would be prevented by this difference. The
        mental states are so unlike, that intercommunion is as
        impossible as it would be between a mole and a human
82:27   being. Different dreams and different awakenings be-
        token a differing consciousness. When wandering in
        Australia, do we look for help to the Esquimaux in their
82:30   snow huts?

        In a world of sin and sensuality hastening to a
        greater development of power, it is wise earnestly to
83:1    consider whether it is the human mind or the divine
        Mind which is influencing one. What the prophets of
83:3    Jehovah did, the worshippers of Baal failed to do; yet
        artifice and delusion claimed that they could equal the
        work of wisdom.

83:6    Science only can explain the incredible good and evil
        elements now coming to the surface. Mortals must find
        refuge in Truth in order to escape the error of these latter
83:9    days. Nothing is more antagonistic to Christian Science
        than a blind belief without understanding, for such a
        belief hides Truth and builds on error.

                             Natural wonders

83:12   Miracles are impossible in Science, and here Science
        takes issue with popular religions. The scientific mani-
        festation of power is from the divine nature
83:15   and is not supernatural, since Science is an
        explication of nature. The belief that the universe, in-
        cluding man, is governed in general by material laws, but
83:18   that occasionally Spirit sets aside these laws, - this be-
        lief belittles omnipotent wisdom, and gives to matter the
        precedence over Spirit.

                         Conflicting standpoints

83:21   It is contrary to Christian Science to suppose that life
        is either material or organically spiritual. Between
        Christian Science and all forms of superstition
83:24   a great gulf is fixed, as impassable as that be-
        tween Dives and Lazarus. There is mortal mind-reading
        and immortal Mind-reading. The latter is a revelation
83:27   of divine purpose through spiritual understanding, by
        which man gains the divine Principle and explanation of
        all things. Mortal mind-reading and immortal Mind-
83:30   reading are distinctly opposite standpoints, from which
        cause and effect are interpreted. The act of reading
        mortal mind investigates and touches only human beliefs.
84:1    Science is immortal and coordinate neither with the
        premises nor with the conclusions of mortal beliefs.

                          Scientific foreseeing

84:3    The ancient prophets gained their foresight from a
        spiritual, incorporeal standpoint, not by foreshadowing
        evil and mistaking fact for fiction, - predict-
84:6    ing the future from a groundwork of corpo-
        reality and human belief. When sufficiently advanced
        in Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men
84:9    become seers and prophets involuntarily, controlled not
        by demons, spirits, or demigods, but by the one Spirit.
        It is the prerogative of the ever-present, divine Mind, and
84:12   of thought which is in rapport with this Mind, to know
        the past, the present, and the future.

        Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to
84:15   commune more largely with the divine Mind, to foresee
        and foretell events which concern the universal welfare,
        to be divinely inspired, - yea, to reach the range of fetter-
84:18   less Mind.

                           The Mind unbounded

        To understand that Mind is infinite, not bounded by
        corporeality, not dependent upon the ear and eye for
84:21   sound or sight nor upon muscles and bones
        for locomotion, is a step towards the Mind-
        science by which we discern man's nature and existence.
84:24   This true conception of being destroys the belief of spirit-
        ualism at its very inception, for without the concession of
        material personalities called spirits, spiritualism has no
84:27   basis upon which to build.

                         Scientific foreknowing

        All we correctly know of Spirit comes from God, divine
        Principle, and is learned through Christ and Christian
84:30   Science. If this Science has been thoroughly
        learned and properly digested, we can know
        the truth more accurately than the astronomer can read
85:1    the stars or calculate an eclipse. This Mind-reading
        is the opposite of clairvoyance. It is the illumination of
85:3    the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the ca-
        pacity of Soul, not of material sense. This Soul-sense
        comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the
85:6    divine Mind.

                           Value of intuition

        Such intuitions reveal whatever constitutes and per-
        petuates harmony, enabling one to do good, but not
85:9    evil. You will reach the perfect Science of
        healing when you are able to read the human
        mind after this manner and discern the error you would
85:12   destroy. The Samaritan woman said: "Come, see a
        man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this
        the Christ?"

85:15   It is recorded that Jesus, as he once journeyed with his
        students, "knew their thoughts," - read them scientifi-
        cally. In like manner he discerned disease and healed
85:18   the sick. After the same method, events of great mo-
        ment were foretold by the Hebrew prophets. Our
        Master rebuked the lack of this power when he said:
85:21   "O ye hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky;
        but can ye not discern the signs of the times?"

                          Hypocrisy condemned

        Both Jew and Gentile may have had acute corporeal
85:24   senses, but mortals need spiritual sense. Jesus knew the
        generation to be wicked and adulterous, seek-
        ing the material more than the spiritual. His
85:27   thrusts at materialism were sharp, but needed. He never
        spared hypocrisy the sternest condemnation.. He said:
        "These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other
85:30   undone." The great Teacher knew both cause and
        effect, knew that truth communicates itself but never
        imparts error.

                             Mental contact

86:1    Jesus once asked, "Who touched me?" Supposing
        this inquiry to be occasioned by physical contact alone,
86:3    his disciples answered, "The multitude throng
        thee." Jesus knew, as others did not, that
        it was not matter, but mortal mind, whose touch called
86:6    for aid. Repeating his inquiry, he was answered by the
        faith of a sick woman. His quick apprehension of this
        mental call illustrated his spirituality. The disciples'
86:9    misconception of it uncovered their materiality. Jesus
        possessed more spiritual susceptibility than the disciples.
        Opposites come from contrary directions, and produce
86:12   unlike results.

                            Images of thought

        Mortals evolve images of thought. These may appear
        to the ignorant to be apparitions; but they are myste-
86:15   rious only because it is unusual to see
        thoughts, though we can always feel their
        influence. Haunted houses, ghostly voices, unusual
86:18   noises, and apparitions brought out in dark seances
        either involve feats by tricksters, or they are images and
        sounds evolved involuntarily by mortal mind. Seeing
86:21   is no less a quality of physical sense than feeling. Then
        why is it more difficult to see a thought than to feel one?
        Education alone determines the difference. In reality
86:24   there is none.

                           Phenomena explained

        Portraits, landscape-paintings, fac-similes of penman-
        ship, peculiarities of expression, recollected sentences,
86:27   can all be taken from pictorial thought and
        memory as readily as from objects cognizable
        by the senses. Mortal mind sees what it believes as
86:30   certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and
        sees its own thoughts. Pictures are mentally formed
        before the artist can convey them to canvas. So is it
87:1    with all material conceptions. Mind-readers perceive
        these pictures of thought. They copy or reproduce
87:3    them, even when they are lost to the memory of the mind
        in which they are discoverable.

                           Mental environment

        It is needless for the thought or for the person hold-
87:6    ing the transferred picture to be individually and con-
        sciously present. Though individuals have
        passed away, their mental environment re-
87:9    mains to be discerned, described, and transmitted. Though
        bodies are leagues apart and their associations forgotten,
        their associations float in the general atmosphere of human
87:12   mind.

                              Second sight

        The Scotch call such vision "second sight", when
        really it is first sight instead of second, for it presents
87:15   primal facts to mortal mind. Science enables
        one to read the human mind, but not as a
        clairvoyant. It enables one to heal through Mind, but
87:18   not as a mesmerist.

                             Buried secrets

        The mine knows naught of the emeralds within its
        rocks; the sea is ignorant of the gems within its caverns,
87:21   of the corals, of its sharp reefs, of the tall ships
        that float on its bosom, or of the bodies which
        lie buried in its sands: yet these are all there. Do not
87:24   suppose that any mental concept is gone because you do
        not think of it. The true concept is never lost. The
        strong impressions produced on mortal mind by friend-
87:27   ship or by any intense feeling are lasting, and mind-
        readers can perceive and reproduce these impressions.

                           Recollected friends

        Memory may reproduce voices long ago silent. We
87:30   have but to close the eyes, and forms rise
        before us, which are thousands of miles away
        or altogether gone from physical sight and sense, and
88:1    this not in dreamy sleep. In our day-dreams we can
        recall that for which the poet Tennyson expressed the
88:3    heart's desire, -
             the touch of a vanished hand,
           And the sound of a voice that is still.

88:6    The mind may even be cognizant of a present flavor and
        odor, when no viand touches the palate and no scent
        salutes the nostrils.

                           Illusions not ideas

88:9    How are veritable ideas to be distinguished from il-
        lusions? By learning the origin of each. Ideas are
        emanations from the divine Mind. Thoughts,
88:12   proceeding from the brain or from matter, are
        offshoots of mortal mind; they are mortal material be-
        liefs. Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. Beliefs
88:15   proceed from the so-called material senses, which at one
        time are supposed to be substance-matter and at another
        are called spirits.

88:18   To love one's neighbor as one's self, is a divine idea;
        but this idea can never be seen, felt, nor understood
        through the physical senses. Excite the organ of ven-
88:21   eration or religious faith, and the individual manifests
        profound adoration. Excite the opposite development,
        and he blasphemes. These effects, however, do not pro-
88:24   ceed from Christianity, nor are they spiritual phenomena,
        for both arise from mortal belief.

                        Trance speaking illusion

        Eloquence re-echoes the strains of Truth and Love.
88:27   It is due to inspiration rather than to erudition. It shows
        the possibilities derived from divine Mind,
        though it is said to be a gift whose endowment
88:30   is obtained from books or received from the
        impulsion of departed spirits. When eloquence proceeds
        from the belief that a departed spirit is speaking, who
89:1    can tell what the unaided medium is incapable of know-
        ing or uttering? This phenomenon only shows that the
89:3    beliefs of mortal mind are loosed. Forgetting her igno-
        rance in the belief that another mind is speaking through
        her, the devotee may become unwontedly eloquent. Hav-
89:6    ing more faith in others than in herself, and believing
        that somebody else possesses her tongue and mind, she
        talks freely.

89:9    Destroy her belief in outside aid, and her eloquence
        disappears. The former limits of her belief return. She
        says, " I am incapable of words that glow, for I am un-
89:12   educated." This familiar instance reaffirms the Scrip-
        tural word concerning a man, "As he thinketh in his heart,
        so is he." If one believes that he cannot be an orator with-
89:15   out study or a superinduced condition, the body responds
        to this belief, and the tongue grows mute which before
        was eloquent.

                        Scientific improvisation

89:18   Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational
        processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry,
        and the power of expressing them. Spirit,
89:21   God, is heard when the senses are silent. We
        are all capable of more than we do. The influence or
        action of Soul confers a freedom, which explains the phe-
89:24   nomena of improvisation and the fervor of untutored lips.

                           Divine origination

        Matter is neither intelligent nor creative. The tree is
        not the author of itself. Sound is not the originator of
89:27   music, and man is not the father of man. Cain
        very naturally concluded that if life was in the
        body, and man gave it, man had the right to take it away.
89:30   This incident shows that the belief of life in matter was
        "a murderer from the beginning."

        If seed is necessary to produce wheat, and wheat to
90:1    produce flour, or if one animal can originate another,
        how then can we account for their primal origin? How
90:3    were the loaves and fishes multiplied on the shores of
        Galilee, - and that, too, without meal or monad from
        which loaf or fish could come?

                            Mind is substance

90:6    The earth's orbit and the imaginary line called the
        equator are not substance. The earth's motion and
        position are sustained by Mind alone. Divest
90:9    yourself of the thought that there can be sub-
        stance in matter, and the movements and transitions now
        possible for mortal mind will be found to be equally
90:12   possible for the body. Then being will be recognized
        as spiritual, and death will be obsolete, though now
        some insist that death is the necessary prelude to
90:15   immortality.

                            Mortal delusions

        In dreams we fly to Europe and meet a far-off friend.
        The looker-on sees the body in bed, but the supposed
90:18   inhabitant of that body carries it through
        the air and over the ocean. This shows the
        possibilities of thought. Opium and hashish eaters men-
90:21   tally travel far and work wonders, yet their bodies stay
        in one place. This shows what mortal mentality and
        knowledge are.

                          Scientific finalities

90:24   The admission to one's self that man is God's own like-
        ness sets man free to master the infinite idea. This con-
        viction shuts the door on death, and opens it
90:27   wide towards immortality. The understanding
        and recognition of Spirit must finally come, and we may
        as well improve our time in solving the mysteries of being
90:30   through an apprehension of divine Principle. At present
        we know not what man is, but we certainly shall know
        this when man reflects God.

91:1    The Revelator tells us of "a new heaven and a
        new earth." Have you ever pictured this heaven and
91:3    earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme
        wisdom?

        Let us rid ourselves of the belief that man is separated
91:6    from God, and obey only the divine principle, Life and
        Love. Here is the great point of departure for all true
        spiritual growth.

                           Man's genuine being

91:9    It is difficult for the sinner to accept divine Science,
        because Science exposes his nothingness; but the sooner
        error is reduced to its native nothingness, the
91:12   sooner man's great reality will appear and his
        genuine being will be understood. The destruction of
        error is by no means the destruction of Truth or Life, but
91:15   is the acknowledgment of them.

        Absorbed in material selfhood we discern and reflect
        but faintly the substance of Life or Mind. The denial of
91:18   material selfhood aids the discernment of man's spirit-
        ual and eternal individuality, and destroys the erroneous
        knowledge gained from matter or through what are termed
91:21   the material senses.

                          Erroneous postulates

        Certain erroneous postulates should be here considered
        in order that the spiritual facts may be better
91:24   apprehended.

        The first erroneous postulate of belief is, that substance,
        life, and intelligence are something apart from God.
91:27   The second erroneous postulate is, that man is both
        mental and material.

        The third erroneous postulate is, that mind is both evil
91:30   and good; whereas the real Mind cannot be evil nor the
        medium of evil, for Mind is God.

        The fourth erroneous postulate is, that matter is in-
92:1    telligent, and that man has a material body which is part
        of himself.

92:3    The fifth erroneous postulate is, that matter holds in
        itself the issues of life and death, - that matter is not
        only capable of experiencing pleasure and pain, but also
92:6    capable of imparting these sensations. From the illusion
        implied in this last postulate arises the decomposition of
        mortal bodies in what is termed death.
92:9    Mind is not an entity within the cranium with the power
        of sinning now and forever.

                       Knowledge of good and evil

        In old Scriptural pictures we see a serpent coiled around
92:12   the tree of knowledge and speaking to Adam and Eve.
        This represents the serpent in the act of
        commending to our first parents the knowl-
92:15   edge of good and evil, a knowledge gained from matter,
        or evil, instead of from Spirit. The portrayal is still
        graphically accurate, for the common conception of mor-
92:18   tal man - a burlesque of God's man - is an outgrowth
        of human knowledge or sensuality, a mere offshoot of
        material sense.

                             Opposing power

92:21   Uncover error, and it turns the lie upon you. Until
        the fact concerning error - namely, its nothingness -
        appears, the moral demand will not be met,
92:24   and the ability to make nothing of error will
        be wanting. We should blush to call that real which is
        only a mistake. The foundation of evil is laid on a belief
92:27   in something besides God. This belief tends to support
        two opposite powers, instead of urging the claims of Truth
        alone. The mistake of thinking that error can be real,
92:30   when it is merely the absence of truth, leads to belief in
        the superiority of error.

                           The age's privilege

        Do you say the time has not yet come in which to
93:1    recognize Soul as substantial and able to control the
        body? Remember Jesus, who nearly nineteen centuries
93:3    ago demonstrated the power of Spirit and said,
        "He that believeth on me, the works that I
        do shall he do also," and who also said, "But the hour
93:6    cometh, and /now is/, when the true worshippers shall
        worship the Father in spirit and in truth." "Behold,
        /now/ is the accepted time; behold, /now/ is the day of sal-
93:9    vation," said Paul.

                          Logic and revelation

        Divine logic and revelation coincide. If we believe
        otherwise, we may be sure that either our
93:12   logic is at fault or that we have misinterpreted
        revelation. Good never causes evil, nor creates aught
        that can cause evil.

93:15   Good does not create a mind susceptible of causing
        evil, for evil is the opposing error and not the truth of
        creation. Destructive electricity is not the offspring of in-
93:18   finite good. Whatever contradicts the real nature of the
        divine /Esse/, though human faith may clothe it with angelic
        vestments, is without foundation.

                          Derivatives of spirit

93:21   The belief that Spirit is finite as well as infinite has
        darkened all history. In Christian Science, Spirit, as a
        proper noun, is the name of the Supreme Being.
93:24   It means quantity and quality, and applies ex-
        clusively to God. The modifying derivatives of the word
        /spirit/ refer only to quality, not to God. Man is spiritual.
93:27   He is not God, Spirit. If man were Spirit, then men
        would be spirits, gods. Finite spirit would be mortal,
        and this is the error embodied in the belief that the infi-
93:30   nite can be contained in the finite. This belief tends to
        becloud our apprehension of the kingdom of heaven and
        of the reign of harmony in the Science of being.

                             Scientific man

94:1    Jesus taught but one God, one Spirit, who makes man
        in the image and likeness of Himself, - of Spirit, not of
94:3    matter. Man reflects infinite Truth, Life, and
        Love. The nature of man, thus understood,
        includes all that is implied by the terms "image" and
94:6    "likeness" as used in Scripture. The truly Christian
        and scientific statement of personality and of the relation
        of man to God, with the demonstration which accompa-
94:9    nied it, incensed the rabbis, and they said: "Crucify him,
        crucify him . . . by our law he ought to die, because he
        made himself the Son of God."

94:12   The eastern empires and nations owe their false gov-
        ernment to the misconceptions of Deity there prevalent.
        Tyranny, intolerance, and bloodshed, wherever found,
94:15   arise from the belief that the infinite is formed after the
        pattern of mortal personality, passion, and impulse.

                         Ingratitude and denial

        The progress of truth confirms its claims, and our
94:18   Master confirmed his words by his works. His healing-
        power evoked denial, ingratitude, and be-
        trayal, arising from sensuality. Of the ten
94:21   lepers whom Jesus healed, but one returned to give God
        thanks, - that is, to acknowledge the divine Principle
        which had healed him.

                            Spiritual insight

94:24   Our Master easily read the thoughts of mankind, and
        this insight better enabled him to direct those thoughts
        aright; but what would be said at this period of an in-
94:27   fidel blasphemer who should hint that Jesus used his in-
        cisive power injuriously? Our Master read mortal mind
        on a scientific basis, that of the omnipresence of Mind.
94:30   An approximation of this discernment indicates spiritual
        growth and union with the infinite capacities of the one
        Mind. Jesus could injure no one by his Mind-reading.
95:1    The effect of his Mind was always to heal and to save,
        and this is the only genuine Science of reading mortal
95:3    mind. His holy motives and aims were tra-
        duced by the sinners of that period, as they
        would be to-day if Jesus were personally present. Paul
95:6    said, "To be spiritually minded is life." We approach
        God, or Life, in proportion to our spirituality, our fidel-
        ity to Truth and Love; and in that ratio we know all
95:9    human need and are able to discern the thought of the
        sick and the sinning for the purpose of healing them.
        Error of any kind cannot hide from the law of God.

95:12   Whoever reaches this point of moral culture and good-
        ness cannot injure others, and must do them good. The
        greater or lesser ability of a Christian Scientist to discern
95:15   thought scientifically, depends upon his genuine spirit-
        uality. This kind of mind-reading is not clairvoyance,
        but it is important to success in healing, and is one of the
95:18   special characteristics thereof.

                          Christ's reappearance

        We welcome the increase of knowledge and the end
        of error, because even human invention must have its
95:21   day, and we want that day to be succeeded
        by Christian Science, by divine reality. Mid-
        night foretells the dawn. Led by a solitary star amid
95:24   the darkness, the Magi of old foretold the Messiahship
        of Truth. Is the wise man of to-day believed, when he
        beholds the light which heralds Christ's eternal dawn
95:27   and describes its effulgence?

                           Spiritual awakening

        Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep
        in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours.
95:30   Material sense does not unfold the facts of
        existence; but spiritual sense lifts human
        consciousness into eternal Truth. Humanity advances
96:1    slowly out of sinning sense into spiritual understanding;
        unwillingness to learn all things rightly, binds Christen-
96:3    dom with chains.

                        The darkest hours of all

        Love will finally mark the hour of harmony, and spir-
        itualization will follow, for Love is Spirit. Before error
96:6    is wholly destroyed, there will be interrup-
        tions of the general material routine. Earth
        will become dreary and desolate, but summer and winter,
96:9    seedtime and harvest (though in changed forms), will
        continue unto the end, - until the final spiritualization of
        all things. "The darkest hour precedes the dawn."

                            Arena of contest

96:12   This material world is even now becoming the arena
        for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord
        and dismay; on the other side there will be
96:15   Science and peace. The breaking up of mate-
        rial beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want
        and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new
96:18   phases until their nothingness appears. These disturb-
        ances will continue until the end of error, when all
        discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.
96:21   Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization.
        This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue
        until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is
96:24   changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.

                            Millennial glory

        As this consummation draws nearer, he who has
        shaped his course in accordance with divine Science
96:27   will endure to the end. As material knowl-
        edge diminishes and spiritual understanding
        increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally
96:30   instead of materially.

        During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor
        to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but
97:1    those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in
        check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They
97:3    will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the
        certainty of ultimate perfection.

                         Dangerous resemblances

        In reality, the more closely error simulates truth and
97:6    so-called matter resembles its essence, mortal mind, the
        more impotent error becomes as a belief. Ac-
        cording to human belief, the lightning is fierce
97:9    and the electric current swift, yet in Christian Science
        the flight of one and the blow of the other will become
        harmless. The more destructive matter becomes, the
97:12   more its nothingness will appear, until matter reaches
        its mortal zenith in illusion and forever disappears. The
        nearer a false belief approaches truth without passing
97:15   the boundary where, having been destroyed by divine
        Love, it ceases to be even an illusion, the riper it becomes
        for destruction. The more material the belief, the more
97:18   obvious its error, until divine Spirit, supreme in its do-
        main, dominates all matter, and man is found in the like-
        ness of Spirit, his original being.

97:21   The broadest facts array the most falsities against
        themselves, for they bring error from under cover. It
        requires courage to utter truth; for the higher Truth
97:24   lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its in-
        articulate sound is forever silenced in oblivion.

        "He uttered His voice, the earth melted." This Scrip-
97:27   ture indicates that all matter will disappear before the
        supremacy of Spirit.

                       Christianity still rejected

        Christianity is again demonstrating the Life that is
97:30   Truth, and the Truth that is Life, by the apos-
        tolic work of casting out error and healing the
        sick. Earth has no repayment for the persecutions which
98:1    attend a new step in Christianity; but the spiritual recom-
        pense of the persecuted is assured in the elevation of ex-
98:3    istence above mortal discord and in the gift of divine Love.

                        Spiritual foreshadowings

        The prophet of to-day beholds in the mental horizon
        the signs of these times, the reappearance of the Chris-
98:6    tianity which heals the sick and destroys error,
        and no other sign shall be given. Body can-
        not be saved except through Mind. The Science of Chris-
98:9    tianity is misinterpreted by a material age, for it is the
        healing influence of Spirit (not /spirits/) which the material
        senses cannot comprehend, which can only be spiritu-
98:12   ally discerned. Creeds, doctrines, and human hypotheses
        do not express Christian Science; much less can they
        demonstrate it.

                          Revelation of Science

98:15   Beyond the frail premises of human beliefs, above the
        loosening grasp of creeds, the demonstration of Christian
        Mind-healing stands a revealed and practical
98:18   Science. It is imperious throughout all ages
        as Christ's revelation of Truth, of Life, and of Love, which
        remains inviolate for every man to understand and to
98:21   practise.

                   Science as foreign to all religion

        For centuries - yea, always - natural science has not
        been considered a part of any religion, Christianity not
98:24   excepted. Even now multitudes consider that
        which they call /science/ has no proper con-
        nection with faith and piety. Mystery does
98:27   not enshroud Christ's teachings, and they are not theo-
        retical and fragmentary, but practical and complete; and
        being practical and complete, they are not deprived of
98:30   their essential vitality.

                           Key to the kingdom

        The way through which immortality and life are learned
        is not ecclesiastical but Christian, not human but divine,
99:1    not physical but metaphysical, not material but scien-
        tifically spiritual. Human philosophy, ethics, and super-
99:3    stition afford no demonstrable divine Principle
        by which mortals can escape from sin; yet
        to escape from sin, is what the Bible demands. "Work
99:6    out your own salvation with fear and trembling," says
        the apostle, and he straightway adds: "for it is God
        which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good
99:9    pleasure" (Philippians ii. 12, 13). Truth has furnished
        the key to the kingdom, and with this key Christian Sci-
        ence has opened the door of the human understanding.
99:12   None may pick the lock nor enter by some other door.
        The ordinary teachings are material and not spiritual.
        Christian Science teaches only that which is spiritual and
99:15   divine, and not human. Christian Science is unerring
        and Divine; the human sense of things errs because it
        is human.

99:18   Those individuals, who adopt theosophy, spiritualism,
        or hypnotism, may possess natures above some others
        who eschew their false beliefs. Therefore my contest is
99:21   not with the individual, but with the false system. I
        love mankind, and shall continue to labor and to endure.

        The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the
99:24   manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-
        immolation, must deepen human experience, until the
        beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposi-
99:27   tion, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place
        to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to
        God's spiritual, perfect man.




        CHAPTER V - ANIMAL MAGNETISM UNMASKED

        For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,
        adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
        blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man.
         - JESUS.

                         Earliest investigations

100:1   MESMERISM or animal magnetism was first brought
        into notice by Mesmer in Germany in 1775. Ac-
100:3   cording to the American Cyclopaedia, he regarded this
        so-called force, which he said could be ex-
        erted by one living organism over another, as
100:6   a means of alleviating disease. His propositions were
        as follows:

        "There exists a mutual influence between the celestial
100:9   bodies, the earth, and animated things. Animal bodies
        are susceptible to the influence of this agent, disseminat-
        ing itself through the substance of the nerves."
100:12  In 1784, the French government ordered the medical
        faculty of Paris to investigate Mesmer's theory and to
        report upon it. Under this order a commission was
100:15  appointed, and Benjamin Franklin was one of the com-
        missioners. This commission reported to the govern-
        ment as follows:

100:18  "In regard to the existence and utility of animal mag-
        netism, we have come to the unanimous conclusions that
        there is no proof of the existence of the animal magnetic
101:1   fluid; that the violent effects, which are observed in
        the public practice of magnetism, are due to manipula-
101:3   tions, or to the excitement of the imagination and the
        impressions made upon the senses; and that there is one
        more fact to be recorded in the history of the errors of
101:6   the human mind, and an important experiment upon
        the power of the imagination."

                         Clairvoyance, magnetism

        In 1837, a committee of nine persons was appointed,
101:9   among whom were Roux, Bouillaud, and Clo-
        quet, which tested during several sessions the
        phenomena exhibited by a reputed clairvoyant. Their
101:12  report stated the results as follows:

        "The facts which had been promised by Monsieur
        Berna [the magnetizer] as conclusive, and as adapted to
101:15  throw light on physiological and therapeutical questions,
        are certainly not conclusive in favor of the doctrine of
        animal magnetism, and have nothing in common with
101:18  either physiology or therapeutics."

        This report was adopted by the Royal Academy of
        Medicine in Paris.

                          Personal conclusions

101:21  The author's own observations of the workings of
        animal magnetism convince her that it is not
        a remedial agent, and that its effects upon
101:24  those who practise it, and upon their subjects who do
        not resist it, lead to moral and to physical death.

        If animal magnetism seems to alleviate or to cure dis-
101:27  ease, this appearance is deceptive, since error cannot
        remove the effects of error. Discomfort under error is
        preferable to comfort. In no instance is the effect of
101:30  animal magnetism, recently called hypnotism, other
        than the effect of illusion. Any seeming benefit derived
        from it is proportional to one's faith in esoteric magic.

                              Mere negation

102:1   Animal magnetism has no scientific foundation, for
        God governs all that is real, harmonious, and eternal, and
102:3   His power is neither animal nor human. Its
        basis being a belief and this belief animal, in
        Science animal magnetism, mesmerism, or hypnotism is
102:6   a mere negation, possessing neither intelligence, power,
        nor reality, and in sense it is an unreal concept of the so-
        called mortal mind.

102:9   There is but one real attraction, that of Spirit. The
        pointing of the needle to the pole symbolizes this all-
        embracing power or the attraction of God, divine Mind.

102:12  The planets have no more power over man than over
        his Maker, since God governs the universe; but man,
        reflecting God's power, has dominion over all the earth
102:15  and its hosts.

                              Hidden agents

        The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappear-
        ing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front.
102:18  The looms of crime, hidden in the dark re-
        cesses of mortal thought, are every hour weav-
        ing webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are the
102:21  present methods of animal magnetism that they ensnare
        the age into indolence, and produce the very apathy on
        the subject which the criminal desires. The following
102:24  is an extract from the Boston Herald:

        "Mesmerism is a problem not lending itself to an easy
        explanation and development. It implies the exercise
102:27  of despotic control, and is much more likely to be abused
        by its possessor, than otherwise employed, for the in-
        dividual or society."

                            Mental despotism

102:30  Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so-
        called despotism is but a phase of nothingness. Christian
        Science despoils the kingdom of evil, and pre-eminently
103:1   promotes affection and virtue in families and therefore
        in the community. The Apostle Paul refers to the
103:3   personification of evil as "the god of this
        world," and further defines it as dishonesty
        and craftiness. Sin was the Assyrian moon-god.

                       Liberation of mental powers

103:6   The destruction of the claims of mortal mind through
        Science, by which man can escape from sin
        and mortality, blesses the whole human fam-
103:9   ily. As in the beginning, however, this libera-
        tion does not scientifically show itself in a knowledge of
        both good and evil, for the latter is unreal.
103:12  On the other hand, Mind-science is wholly separate
        from any half-way impertinent knowledge, because Mind-
        science is of God and demonstrates the divine Principle,
103:15  working out the purposes of good only. The maximum
        of good is the infinite God and His idea, the All-in-all.
        Evil is a suppositional lie.

                           The genus of error

103:18  As named in Christian Science, animal magnetism or
        hypnotism is the specific term for error, or mortal mind.
        It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and
103:21  is both evil and good; that evil is as real as
        good and more powerful. This belief has not one qual-
        ity of Truth. It is either ignorant or malicious. The
103:24  malicious form of hypnotism ultimates in moral idiocy.
        The truths of immortal Mind sustain man, and they anni-
        hilate the fables of mortal mind, whose flimsy and gaudy
103:27  pretensions, like silly moths, singe their own wings and
        fall into dust.

                          Thought-transference

        In reality there is no /mortal/ mind, and conse-
103:30  quently no transference of mortal thought
        and will-power. Life and being are of
        God. In Christian Science, man can do no harm, for
104:1   scientific thoughts are true thoughts, passing from God
        to man.


104:3   When Christian Science and animal magnetism are
        both comprehended, as they will be at no distant date,
        it will be seen why the author of this book has been
104:6   so unjustly persecuted and belied by wolves in sheep's
        clothing.

        Agassiz, the celebrated naturalist and author, has
104:9   wisely said: "Every great scientific truth goes through
        three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible.
        Next, they say it has been discovered before. Lastly,
104:12  they say they have always believed it."

                     Perfection of divine government

        Christian Science goes to the bottom of mental action,
        and reveals the theodicy which indicates the rightness of
104:15  all divine action, as the emanation of divine
        Mind, and the consequent wrongness of the
        opposite so-called action, - evil, occultism,
104:18  necromancy, mesmerism, animal magnetism, hypnotism.

                          Adulteration of Truth

        The medicine of Science is divine Mind; and dishonesty,
        sensuality, falsehood, revenge, malice, are animal pro-
104:21  pensities and by no means the mental quali-
        ties which heal the sick. The hypnotizer
        employs one error to destroy another. If he heals sick-
104:24  ness through a belief, and a belief originally caused the
        sickness, it is a case of the greater error overcoming the
        lesser. This greater error thereafter occupies the ground,
104:27  leaving the case worse than before it was grasped by the
        stronger error.

                           Motives considered

        Our courts recognize evidence to prove the motive as
104:30  well as the commission of a crime. Is it not
        clear that the human mind must move the
        body to a wicked act? Is not mortal mind the mur-
105:1   derer? The hands, without mortal mind to direct them,
        could not commit a murder.

                              Mental crimes

105:3   Courts and juries judge and sentence mortals in order
        to restrain crime, to prevent deeds of violence or to punish
        them. To say that these tribunals have no
105:6   jurisdiction over the carnal or mortal mind,
        would be to contradict precedent and to admit that the
        power of human law is restricted to matter, while mortal
105:9   mind, evil, which is the real outlaw, defies justice and is
        recommended to mercy. Can matter commit a crime?
        Can matter be punished? Can you separate the men-
105:12  tality from the body over which courts hold jurisdiction?
        Mortal mind, not matter, is the criminal in every case;
        and human law rightly estimates crime, and courts rea-
105:15  sonably pass sentence, according to the motive.

                           Important decision

        When our laws eventually take cognizance of mental
        crime and no longer apply legal rulings wholly to physical
105:18  offences, these words of Judge Parmenter of
        Boston will become historic: "I see no reason
        why metaphysics is not as important to medicine as to
105:21  mechanics or mathematics."

                             Evil let loose

        Whoever uses his developed mental powers like an es-
        caped felon to commit fresh atrocities as opportunity oc-
105:24  curs is never safe. God will arrest him. Di-
        vine justice will manacle him. His sins will
        be millstones about his neck, weighing him down to the
105:27  depths of ignominy and death. The aggravation of er-
        ror foretells its doom, and confirms the ancient axiom:
        "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."

                       The misuse of mental power

105:30  The distance from ordinary medical prac-
        tice to Christian Science is full many a league
        in the line of light; but to go in healing from the use of
106:1   inanimate drugs to the criminal misuse of human will-
        power, is to drop from the platform of common manhood
106:3   into the very mire of iniquity, to work against the free
        course of honesty and justice, and to push vainly against
        the current running heavenward.

                         Proper self-government

106:6   Like our nation, Christian Science has its Declaration
        of Independence. God has endowed man with inalien-
        able rights, among which are self-government,
106:9   reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-
        governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by
        his Maker, divine Truth and Love.

106:12  Man's rights are invaded when the divine order is in-
        terfered with, and the mental trespasser incurs the divine
        penalty due this crime.

                              Right methods

106:15  Let this age, which sits in judgment on Christian
        Science, sanction only such methods as are demonstrable
        in Truth and known by their fruit, and classify
106:18  all others as did St. Paul in his great epistle
        to the Galatians, when he wrote as follows:

        "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are
106:21  these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
        idolatry, /witchcraft/, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
        strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
106:24  revellings and such like: of the which I tell you before,
        as I have also told you in time past, that they which do
        such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But
106:27  the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
        gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against
        such there is no law."




        CHAPTER VI - SCIENCE, THEOLOGY, MEDICINE

        But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
        of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither
        was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. - PAUL.

        The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman
        took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole
        was leavened. - JESUS.

                      Christian Science discovered

107:1   In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or
        divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and
107:3   named my discovery Christian Science. God
        had been graciously preparing me during many
        years for the reception of this final revelation of the ab-
107:6   solute divine Principle of scientific mental healing.

                      Mission of Christian Science

        This apodictical Principle points to the revelation of
        Immanuel, "God with us," - the sovereign ever-pres-
107:9   ence, delivering the children of men from
        every ill "that flesh is heir to." Through
        Christian Science, religion and medicine are
107:12  inspired with a diviner nature and essence; fresh pinions
        are given to faith and understanding, and thoughts ac-
        quaint themselves intelligently with God.

                          Discontent with life

107:15  Feeling so perpetually the false consciousness that life
        inheres in the body, yet remembering that in
        reality God is our Life, we may well tremble
107:18  in the prospect of those days in which we must say, "I
        have no pleasure in them."

108:1   Whence came to me this heavenly conviction, - a con-
        viction antagonistic to the testimony of the physical senses?
108:3   According to St. Paul, it was "the gift of the grace of
        God given unto me by the effectual working of His power."
        It was the divine law of Life and Love, unfolding to me
108:6   the demonstrable fact that matter possesses neither sen-
        sation nor life; that human experiences show the falsity
        of all material things; and that immortal cravings, "the
108:9   price of learning love," establish the truism that the
        only sufferer is mortal mind, for the divine Mind cannot
        suffer.

                          Demonstrable evidence

108:12  My conclusions were reached by allowing the evidence
        of this revelation to multiply with mathematical certainty
        and the lesser demonstration to prove the
108:15  greater, as the product of three multiplied by
        three, equalling nine, proves conclusively that three times
        three duodecillions must be nine duodecillions, - not
108:18  a fraction more, not a unit less.

                        Light shining in darkness

        When apparently near the confines of mortal existence,
        standing already within the shadow of the death-valley,
108:21  I learned these truths in divine Science: that
        all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and
        that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-
108:24  present; that the opposite of Truth, - called error, sin,
        sickness, disease, death, - is the false testimony of false
        material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense
108:27  evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which
        this same so-called mind names /matter/ thereby shutting
        out the true sense of Spirit.

                          New lines of thought

108:30  My discovery, that erring, mortal, misnamed
        /mind/ produces all the organism and action of
        the mortal body, set my thoughts to work in new channels,
109:1   and led up to my demonstration of the proposition that
        Mind is All and matter is naught as the leading factor in
109:3   Mind-science.

                           Scientific evidence

        Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that Mind
        is All-in-all, that the only realities are the divine Mind
109:6   and idea. This great fact is not, however, seen
        to be supported by sensible evidence, until its
        divine Principle is demonstrated by healing the sick and
109:9   thus proved absolute and divine. This proof once seen,
        no other conclusion can be reached.

                            Solitary research

        For three years after my discovery, I sought the solu-
109:12  tion of this problem of Mind-healing, searched the Scrip-
        tures and read little else, kept aloof from so-
        ciety, and devoted time and energies to dis-
109:15  covering a positive rule. The search was sweet, calm, and
        buoyant with hope, not selfish nor depressing. I knew
        the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God,
109:18  and that cures were produced in primitive Christian
        healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the
        Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute
109:21  conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and dem-
        onstration. The revelation of Truth in the understand-
        ing came to me gradually and apparently through divine
109:24  power. When a new spiritual idea is borne to earth, the
        prophetic Scripture of Isaiah is renewedly fulfilled:
        "Unto us a child is born, . . . and his name shall be
109:27  called Wonderful."

        Jesus once said of his lessons: "My doctrine is not
        mine, but His that sent me. If any man will do His will,
109:30  he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or
        whether I speak of myself." (John vii. 16,17.)

                          God's allness learned

        The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omni-
110:1   presence, omniscience, - Spirit possessing all power,
        filling all space, constituting all Science, - contradict
110:3   forever the belief that matter can be actual.
        These eternal verities reveal primeval exist-
        ence as the radiant reality of God's creation,
110:6   in which all that He has made is pronounced by His wis-
        dom good.

        Thus it was that I beheld, as never before, the awful
110:9   unreality called evil. The equipollence of God brought
        to light another glorious proposition, - man's perfecti-
        bility and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on
110:12  earth.

                         Scriptural foundations

        In following these leadings of scientific revelation,
        the Bible was my only textbook. The Scriptures were
110:15  illumined; reason and revelation were recon-
        ciled, and afterwards the truth of Christian
        Science was demonstrated. No human pen nor tongue
110:18  taught me the Science contained in this book, SCIENCE
        AND HEALTH; and neither tongue nor pen can over-
        throw it. This book may be distorted by shallow criti-
110:21  cism or by careless or malicious students, and its ideas
        may be temporarily abused and misrepresented; but the
        Science and truth therein will forever remain to be dis-
110:24  cerned and demonstrated.

                    The demonstration lost and found

        Jesus demonstrated the power of Christian Science to
        heal mortal minds and bodies. But this power was lost
110:27  sight of, and must again be spiritually dis-
        cerned, taught, and demonstrated according
        to Christ's command, with "signs following."
110:30  Its Science must be apprehended by as many as believe
        on Christ and spiritually understand Truth.

                          Mystical antagonists

        No analogy exists between the vague hypotheses of
111:1   agnosticism, pantheism, theosophy, spiritualism, or
        millenarianism and the demonstrable truths of Chris-
111:3   tian Science; and I find the will, or sensuous
        reason of the human mind, to be opposed to
        the divine Mind as expressed through divine Science.

                     Optical illustration of Science

111:6   Christian Science is natural, but not physical. The
        Science of God and man is no more supernatural than
        is the science of numbers, though departing
111:9   from the realm of the physical, as the Science
        of God, Spirit, must, some may deny its right to
        the name of Science. The Principle of divine metaphysics
111:12  is God; the practice of divine metaphysics is the utiliza-
        tion of the power of Truth over error; its rules demon-
        strate its Science. Divine metaphysics reverses perverted
111:15  and physical hypotheses as to Deity, even as the ex-
        planation of optics rejects the incidental or inverted
        image and shows what this inverted image is meant to
111:18  represent.

                           Pertinent proposal

        A prize of one hundred pounds, offered in Oxford Uni-
        versity, England, for the best essay on Natural Science,
111:21  - an essay calculated to offset the tendency of
        the age to attribute physical effects to physical
        causes rather than to a final spiritual cause, - is one of
111:24  many incidents which show that Christian Science meets
        a yearning of the human race for spirituality.

                           Confirmatory tests

        After a lengthy examination of my discovery and its
111:27  demonstration in healing the sick, this fact became evi-
        dent to me, - that Mind governs the body,
        not partially but wholly. I submitted my
111:30  metaphysical system of treating disease to the broad-
        est practical tests. Since then this system has gradually
        gained ground, and has proved itself, whenever scien-
112:1   tifically employed, to be the most effective curative agent
        in medical practice.

                           One school of Truth

112:3   Is there more than one school of Christian Science?
        Christian Science is demonstrable. There can, there-
        fore, be but one method in its teaching. Those who de-
112:6   part from this method forfeit their claims to
        belong to its school, and they become adher-
        ents of the Socratic, the Platonic, the Spencerian, or some
112:9   other school. By this is meant that they adopt and ad-
        here to some particular system of human opinions. Al-
        though these opinions may have occasional gleams of
112:12  divinity, borrowed from that truly divine Science which
        eschews man-made systems, they nevertheless remain
        wholly human in their origin and tendency and are not
112:15  scientifically Christian.

                          Unchanging Principle

        From the infinite One in Christian Science comes one
        Principle and its infinite idea, and with this infinitude
112:18  come spiritual rules, laws, and their demon-
        stration, which, like the great Giver, are "the
        same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;" for thus are
112:21  the divine Principle of healing and the Christ-idea charac-
        terized in the epistle to the Hebrews.

                          On sandy foundations

        Any theory of Christian Science, which departs from
112:24  what has already been stated and proved to be true, af-
        fords no foundation upon which to establish
        a genuine school of this Science. Also, if any
112:27  so-called new school claims to be Christian Science, and
        yet uses another author's discoveries without giving that
        author proper credit, such a school is erroneous, for it
112:30  inculcates a breach of that divine commandment in the
        Hebrew Decalogue, "Thou shalt not steal."

                         Principle and practice

        God is the Principle of divine metaphysics. As there
113:1   is but one God, there can be but one divine Principle of
        all Science; and there must be fixed rules for the demon-
113:3   stration of this divine Principle. The letter
        of Science plentifully reaches humanity to-day,
        but its spirit comes only in small degrees. The vital part,
113:6   the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love. With-
        out this, the letter is but the dead body of Science, -
        pulseless, cold, inanimate.

                         Reversible propositions

113:9   The fundamental propositions of divine metaphysics
        are summarized in the four following, to me, /self-evident/
        propositions. Even if reversed, these proposi-
113:12  tions will be found to agree in statement and
        proof, showing mathematically their exact relation to
        Truth. De Quincey says mathematics has not a foot to
113:15  stand upon which is not purely metaphysical.

        1. God is All-in-all.
        2. God is good. Good is Mind.
113:18  3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter.
        4. Life, God, omnipotent good, deny death, evil, sin,
        disease. - Disease, sin, evil, death, deny good, omnipo-
113:21  tent God, Life.

        Which of the denials in proposition four is true? Both
        are not, cannot be, true. According to the Scripture,
113:24  I find that God is true, "but every [mortal] man a
        liar."

                         Metaphysical inversions

        The divine metaphysics of Christian Science, like the
113:27  method in mathematics, proves the rule by inversion.
        For example: There is no pain in Truth, and
        no truth in pain; no nerve in Mind, and no
113:30  mind in nerve; no matter in Mind, and no mind in mat-
        ter; no matter in Life, and no life in matter; no matter
        in good, and no good in matter.

                        Definition of mortal mind

114:1   Usage classes both evil and good together as /mind/;
        therefore, to be understood, the author calls sick and sin-
114:3   ful humanity /mortal mind/, - meaning by this
        term the flesh opposed to Spirit, the human
        mind and evil in contradistinction to the divine Mind, or
114:6   Truth and good. The spiritually unscientific definition
        of mind is based on the evidence of the physical senses,
        which makes minds many and calls /mind/ both human and
114:9   divine.

        In Science, Mind is /one/, including noumenon and phe-
        nomena, God and His thoughts.

                          Imperfect terminology

114:12  Mortal mind is a solecism in language, and involves an
        improper use of the word /mind/. As Mind is immortal,
        the phrase /mortal mind/ implies something un-
114:15  true and therefore unreal; and as the phrase
        is used in teaching Christian Science, it is meant to
        designate that which has no real existence. Indeed, if
114:18  a better word or phrase could be suggested, it would
        be used; but in expressing the new tongue we must
        sometimes recur to the old and imperfect, and the new
114:21  wine of the Spirit has to be poured into the old bottles of
        the letter.

                            Causation mental

        Christian Science explains all cause and effect as men-
114:24  tal, not physical. It lifts the veil of mystery from Soul and
        body. It shows the scientific relation of man
        to God, disentangles the interlaced ambiguities
114:27  of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought. In divine
        Science, the universe, including man, is spiritual, harmoni-
        ous, and eternal. Science shows that what is termed /mat-
114:30  ter/ is but the subjective state of what is termed by the
        author /mortal mind/.

                         Philological inadequacy

        Apart from the usual opposition to everything new,
115:1   the one great obstacle to the reception of that spiritual-
        ity, through which the understanding of Mind-science
115:3   comes, is the inadequacy of material terms for
        metaphysical statements, and the consequent
        difficulty of so expressing metaphysical ideas as to make
115:6   them comprehensible to any reader, who has not person-
        ally demonstrated Christian Science as brought forth in
        my discovery. Job says: "The ear trieth words, as the
115:9   mouth tasteth meat." The great difficulty is to give the
        right impression, when translating material terms back
        into the original spiritual tongue.

115:12       SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF IMMORTAL MIND

                             Divine synonyms

        GOD: Divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love,
        Soul, Spirit, Mind.

                              Divine image

115:15  MAN: God's spiritual idea, individual, per-
        fect, eternal.

                            Divine reflection

        IDEA: An image in Mind; the immediate
115:18  object of understanding. - /Webster/.

             SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF MORTAL MIND

                  /First Degree:/ Depravity.

                                Unreality

115:21  PHYSICAL. Evil beliefs, passions and appetites, fear,
        depraved will, self-justification, pride, envy, de-
        ceit, hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, disease,
115:24  death.

             /Second Degree:/ Evil beliefs disappearing.

                         Transitional qualities

        MORAL. Humanity, honesty, affection, com-
        passion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance.
116:1   /Third Degree:/ Understanding.

                                 Reality

        SPIRITUAL. Wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding,
116:3   spiritual power, love, health, holiness.

                           Spiritual universe

        In the third degree mortal mind disappears, and man as
        God's image appears. Science so reverses the evidence
116:6   before the corporeal human senses, as to make
        this Scriptural testimony true in our hearts,
        "The last shall be first, and the first last," so that God
116:9   and His idea may be to us what divinity really is and
        must of necessity be, - all-inclusive.

                             Aim of Science

        A correct view of Christian Science and of its adapta-
116:12  tion to healing includes vastly more than is at first seen.
        Works on metaphysics leave the grand point
        untouched. They never crown the power of
116:15  Mind as the Messiah, nor do they carry the day against
        physical enemies, - even to the extinction of all belief in
        matter, evil, disease, and death, - nor insist upon the fact
116:18  that God is all, therefore that matter is nothing beyond an
        image in mortal mind.

                           Divine personality

        Christian Science strongly emphasizes the thought that
116:21  God is not /corporeal/, but /incorporeal/, - that is,
        bodiless. Mortals are corporeal, but God is
        incorporeal.

116:24  As the words /person/ and /personal/ are commonly and
        ignorantly employed, they often lead, when applied to
        Deity, to confused and erroneous conceptions of divinity
116:27  and its distinction from humanity. If the term personality,
        as applied to God, means infinite personality, then God is
        infinite /Person/, - in the sense of infinite personality, but
116:30  not in the lower sense. An infinite Mind in a finite form
        is an absolute impossibility.

117:1   The term /individuality/ is also open to objections, be-
        cause an individual may be one of a series, one of many,
117:3   as an individual man, an individual horse; whereas God
        is /One/, - not one of a series, but one alone and without
        an equal.

                           Spiritual language

117:6   God is Spirit; therefore the language of Spirit must
        be, and is, spiritual. Christian Science attaches no physi-
        cal nature and significance to the Supreme
117:9   Being or His manifestation; mortals alone do
        this. God's essential language is spoken of in the last
        chapter of Mark's Gospel as the new tongue, the spir-
117:12  itual meaning of which is attained through "signs
        following."

                          The miracles of Jesus

        Ear hath not heard, nor hath lip spoken, the pure lan-
117:15  guage of Spirit. Our Master taught spirituality by simili-
        tudes and parables. As a divine student he
        unfolded God to man, illustrating and demon-
117:18  strating Life and Truth in himself and by his power over
        the sick and sinning. Human theories are inadequate to
        interpret the divine Principle involved in the miracles
117:21  (marvels) wrought by Jesus and especially in his mighty,
        crowning, unparalleled, and triumphant exit from the
        flesh.

                          Opacity of the senses

117:24  Evidence drawn from the five physical senses relates
        solely to human reason; and because of opaci-
        ty to the true light, human reason dimly re-
117:27  flects and feebly transmits Jesus' works and words. Truth
        is a revelation.

                             Leaven of Truth

        Jesus bade his disciples beware of the leaven of the
117:30  Pharisees and of the Sadducees, which he de-
        fined as human doctrines. His parable of the
        "leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures
118:1   of meal, till the whole was leavened," impels the infer-
        ence that the spiritual leaven signifies the Science of Christ
118:3   and its spiritual interpretation, - an inference far above
        the merely ecclesiastical and formal applications of the
        illustration.
118:6   Did not this parable point a moral with a prophecy,
        foretelling the second appearing in the flesh of the
        Christ, Truth, hidden in sacred secrecy from the visi-
118:9   ble world?

        Ages pass, but this leaven of Truth is ever at work. It
        must destroy the entire mass of error, and so be eternally
118:12  glorified in man's spiritual freedom.

                     The divine and human contrasted

        In their spiritual significance, Science, Theology, and
        Medicine are means of divine thought, which include spirit-
118:15  ual laws emanating from the invisible and in-
        finite power and grace. The parable may
        import that these spiritual laws, perverted by
118:18  a perverse material sense of law, are metaphysically pre-
        sented as three measures of meal, - that is, three modes
        of mortal thought. In all mortal forms of thought, dust
118:21  is dignified as the natural status of men and things, and
        modes of material motion are honored with the name of
        /laws/. This continues until the leaven of Spirit changes
118:24  the whole of mortal thought, as yeast changes the chemical
        properties of meal.

                         Certain contradictions

        The definitions of material law, as given by natural
118:27  science, represent a kingdom necessarily divided against
        itself, because these definitions portray law as
        physical, not spiritual. Therefore they con-
118:30  tradict the divine decrees and violate the law of Love, in
        which nature and God are one and the natural order of
        heaven comes down to earth.

                           Unescapable dilemma

119:1   When we endow matter with vague spiritual power,
        that is, when we do so in our theories, for of course we
119:3   cannot really endow matter with what it does
        not and cannot possess, - we disown the Al-
        mighty, for such theories lead to one of two things. They
119:6   either presuppose the self-evolution and self-government
        of matter, or else they assume that matter is the product
        of Spirit. To seize the first horn of this dilemma and con-
119:9   sider matter as a power in and of itself, is to leave the cre-
        ator out of His own universe; while to grasp the other
        horn of the dilemma and regard God as the creator of
119:12  matter, is not only to make Him responsible for all disas-
        ters, physical and moral, but to announce Him as their
        source, thereby making Him guilty of maintaining perpet-
119:15  ual misrule in the form and under the name of natural
        law.

                             God and nature

        In one sense God is identical with nature, but this na-
119:18  ture is spiritual and is not expressed in matter. The law-
        giver, whose lightning palsies or prostrates in
        death the child at prayer, is not the divine ideal
119:21  of omnipresent Love. God is natural good, and is repre-
        sented only by the idea of goodness; while evil should be
        regarded as unnatural, because it is opposed to the nature
119:24  of Spirit, God.

                            The sun and Soul

        In viewing the sunrise, one finds that it contradicts
        the evidence before the senses to believe that the earth
119:27  is in motion and the sun at rest. As astron-
        omy reverses the human perception of the
        movement of the solar system, so Christian Science re-
119:30  verses the seeming relation of Soul and body and makes
        body tributary to Mind. Thus it is with man, who
        is but the humble servant of the restful Mind, though it
120:1   seems otherwise to finite sense. But we shall never under-
        stand this while we admit that soul is in body or mind in
120:3   matter, and that man is included in non-intelligence.
        Soul, or Spirit, is God, unchangeable and eternal; and
        man coexists with and reflects Soul, God, for man is God's
120:6   image.

                          Reversal of testimony

        Science reverses the false testimony of the physical
        senses, and by this reversal mortals arrive at the funda-
120:9   mental facts of being. Then the question in-
        evitably arises: Is a man sick if the material
        senses indicate that he is in good health? No! for matter
120:12  can make no conditions for man. And is he well if the
        senses say he is sick? Yes, he is well in Science in which
        health is normal and disease is abnormal.

                          Health and the senses

120:15  Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor
        can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the sub-
        ject of health. The Science of Mind-healing
120:18  shows it to be impossible for aught but Mind
        to testify truly or to exhibit the real status of man. There-
        fore the divine Principle of Science, reversing the testi-
120:21  mony of the physical senses, reveals man as harmoniously
        existent in Truth, which is the only basis of health; and
        thus Science denies all disease, heals the sick, overthrows
120:24  false evidence, and refutes materialistic logic.

        Any conclusion /pro/ or /con/, deduced from supposed sen-
        sation in matter or from matter's supposed consciousness
120:27  of health or disease, instead of reversing the testimony of
        the physical senses, confirms that testimony as legitimate
        and so leads to disease.

                         Historic illustrations

120:30  When Columbus gave freer breath to the
        globe, ignorance and superstition chained the
        limbs of the brave old navigator, and disgrace and star-
121:1   vation stared him in the face; but sterner still would have
        been his fate, if his discovery had undermined the favor-
121:3   ite inclinations of a sensuous philosophy.

        Copernicus mapped out the stellar system, and before
        he spake, astrography was chaotic, and the heavenly fields
121:6   were incorrectly explored.

                            Perennial beauty

        The Chaldean Wisemen read in the stars the fate of
        empires and the fortunes of men. Though no higher
121:9   revelation than the horoscope was to them dis-
        played upon the empyrean, earth and heaven
        were bright, and bird and blossom were glad in God's
121:12  perennial and happy sunshine, golden with Truth. So
        we have goodness and beauty to gladden the heart; but
        man, left to the hypotheses of material sense unexplained
121:15  by Science, is as the wandering comet or the desolate
        star - "a weary searcher for a viewless home."

                          Astronomic unfoldings

        The earth's diurnal rotation is invisible to the physical
121:18  eye, and the sun seems to move from east to west, instead
        of the earth from west to east. Until rebuked
        by clearer views of the everlasting facts, this
121:21  false testimony of the eye deluded the judgment and in-
        duced false conclusions. Science shows appearances often
        to be erroneous, and corrects these errors by the simple
121:24  rule that the greater controls the lesser. The sun is the
        central stillness, so far as our solar system is concerned,
        and the earth revolves about the sun once a year, besides
121:27  turning daily on its own axis.

        As thus indicated, astronomical order imitates the
        action of divine Principle; and the universe, the reflec-
121:30  tion of God, is thus brought nearer the spiritual fact, and
        is allied to divine Science as displayed in the everlasting
        government of the universe.

                           Opposing testimony

122:1   The evidence of the physical senses often reverses the
        real Science of being, and so creates a reign of discord, -
122:3   assigning seeming power to sin, sickness, and
        death; but the great facts of Life, rightly un-
        derstood, defeat this triad of errors, contradict their false
122:6   witnesses, and reveal the kingdom of heaven, - the actual
        reign of harmony on earth. The material senses' re-
        versal of the Science of Soul was practically exposed nine-
122:9   teen hundred years ago by the demonstrations of Jesus;
        yet these so-called senses still make mortal mind tributary
        to mortal body, and ordain certain sections of matter, such
122:12  as brain and nerves, as the seats of pain and pleasure,
        from which matter reports to this so-called mind its status
        of happiness or misery.

                         Testimony of the senses

122:15  The optical focus is another proof of the illusion of
        material sense. On the eye's retina, sky and tree-tops
        apparently join hands, clouds and ocean meet
122:18  and mingle. The barometer, - that little
        prophet of storm and sunshine, denying the testimony of
        the senses, - points to fair weather in the midst of murky
122:21  clouds and drenching rain. Experience is full of instances
        of similar illusions, which every thinker can recall for
        himself.

                         Spiritual sense of life

122:24  To material sense, the severance of the jugular vein
        takes away life; but to spiritual sense and
        in Science, Life goes on unchanged and
122:27  being is eternal. Temporal life is a false sense of
        existence.

                      Ptolemaic and psychical error

        Our theories make the same mistake regarding Soul
122:30  and body that Ptolemy made regarding the solar system.
        They insist that soul is in body and mind therefore tribu-
        tary to matter. Astronomical science has destroyed the
123:1   false theory as to the relations of the celestial bodies, and
        Christian Science will surely destroy the greater error as
123:3   to our terrestrial bodies. The true idea and
        Principle of man will then appear. The Ptole-
        maic blunder could not affect the harmony of
123:6   being as does the error relating to soul and body, which
        reverses the order of Science and assigns to matter the
        power and prerogative of Spirit, so that man becomes
123:9   the most absolutely weak and inharmonious creature in
        the universe.

                            Seeming and being

        The verity of Mind shows conclusively how it is that
123:12  matter seems to be, but is not. Divine Science,
        rising above physical theories, excludes matter,
        resolves /things/ into /thoughts/, and replaces the objects of
123:15  material sense with spiritual ideas.

        The term CHRISTIAN SCIENCE was introduced by
        the author to designate the scientific system of divine
123:18  healing.

        The revelation consists of two parts:

        1. The discovery of this divine Science of Mind-
123:21  healing, through a spiritual sense of the Scriptures and
        through the teachings of the Comforter, as promised by
        the Master.
123:24  2. The proof, by present demonstration, that the so-
        called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a
        dispensation now ended, but that they illustrated an
123:27  ever-operative divine Principle. The operation of this
        Principle indicates the eternality of the scientific order
        and continuity of being.

                            Scientific basis

123:30  Christian Science differs from material sci-
        ence, but not on that account is it less scien-
        tific. On the contrary, Christian Science is pre-emi-
124:1   mently scientific, being based on Truth, the Principle of
        all science.

                     Physical science a blind belief

124:3   Physical science (so-called) is human knowledge, - a
        law of mortal mind, a blind belief, a Samson shorn of his
        strength. When this human belief lacks organ-
124:6   izations to support it, its foundations are gone.
        Having neither moral might, spiritual basis,
        nor holy Principle of its own, this belief mistakes effect
124:9   for cause and seeks to find life and intelligence in matter,
        thus limiting Life and holding fast to discord and death.
        In a word, human belief is a blind conclusion from material
124:12  reasoning. This is a mortal, finite sense of things, which
        immortal Spirit silences forever.

                          Right interpretation

        The universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science
124:15  from its divine Principle, God, and then it can be under-
        stood; but when explained on the basis of
        physical sense and represented as subject to
124:18  growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is,
        and must continue to be, an enigma.

                            All force mental

        Adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of
124:21  Mind. They belong to divine Principle, and support
        the equipoise of that thought-force, which
        launched the earth in its orbit and said to the
124:24  proud wave, "Thus far and no farther."

        Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all
        things. We tread on forces. Withdraw them, and
124:27  creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them
        forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they
        belong wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this
124:30  Mind, and so restores them to their rightful home and
        classification.

                            Corporeal changes

        The elements and functions of the physical body and
125:1   of the physical world will change as mortal mind changes
        its beliefs. What is now considered the best condition
125:3   for organic and functional health in the human
        body may no longer be found indispensable
        to health. Moral conditions will be found always har-
125:6   monious and health-giving. Neither organic inaction
        nor overaction is beyond God's control; and man will
        be found normal and natural to changed mortal thought,
125:9   and therefore more harmonious in his manifestations than
        he was in the prior states which human belief created and
        sanctioned.

125:12  As human thought changes from one stage to an-
        other of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and
        joy, - from fear to hope and from faith to understand-
125:15  ing, - the visible manifestation will at last be man gov-
        erned by Soul, not by material sense. Reflecting God's
        government, man is self-governed. When subordinate
125:18  to the divine Spirit, man cannot be controlled by sin or
        death, thus proving our material theories about laws of
        health to be valueless.

                            The time and tide

125:21  The seasons will come and go with changes of time and
        tide, cold and heat, latitude and longitude. The agri-
        culturist will find that these changes cannot
125:24  affect his crops. "As a vesture shalt Thou
        change them and they shall be changed." The mariner
        will have dominion over the atmosphere and the great
125:27  deep, over the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air.
        The astronomer will no longer look up to the stars, -
        he will look out from them upon the universe; and the
125:30  florist will find his flower before its seed.

                           Mortal nothingness

        Thus matter will finally be proved nothing more
        than a mortal belief, wholly inadequate to affect a man
126:1   through its supposed organic action or supposed exist-
        ence. Error will be no longer used in stating truth. The
126:3   problem of nothingness, or "dust to dust," will
        be solved, and mortal mind will be without
        form and void, for mortality will cease when man beholds
126:6   himself God's reflection, even as man sees his reflection
        in a glass.

                          A lack of originality

        All Science is divine. Human thought never pro-
126:9   jected the least portion of true being. Human belief
        has sought and interpreted in its own way
        the echo of Spirit, and so seems to have
126:12  reversed it and repeated it materially; but the human
        mind never produced a real tone nor sent forth a positive
        sound.

                         Antagonistic questions

126:15  The point at issue between Christian Science on the
        one hand and popular theology on the other is this: Shall
        Science explain cause and effect as being
126:18  both natural and spiritual? Or shall all that
        is beyond the cognizance of the material senses be called
        supernatural, and be left to the mercy of speculative
126:21  hypotheses?

                             Biblical basis

        I have set forth Christian Science and its application
        to the treatment of disease just as I have discovered them.
126:24  I have demonstrated through Mind the effects
        of Truth on the health, longevity, and morals
        of men; and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern
126:27  systems on which to found my own, except the teachings
        and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of
        prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only au-
126:30  thority. I have had no other guide in "the straight and
        narrow way" of Truth.

                        Science and Christianity

        If Christendom resists the author's application of the
127:1   word Science to Christianity, or questions her use of the
        word Science, she will not therefore lose faith in Chris-
127:3   tianity, nor will Christianity lose its hold upon
        her. If God, the All-in-all, be the creator of
        the spiritual universe, including man, then everything
127:6   entitled to a classification as truth, or Science, must be
        comprised in a knowledge or understanding of God, for
        there can be nothing beyond illimitable divinity.

                            Scientific terms

127:9   The terms Divine Science, Spiritual Science, Christ
        Science or Christian Science, or Science alone, she em-
        ploys interchangeably, according to the re-
127:12  quirements of the context. These synony-
        mous terms stand for everything relating to God, the in-
        finite, supreme, eternal Mind. It may be said, however,
127:15  that the term Christian Science relates especially to
        Science as applied to humanity. Christian Science re-
        veals God, not as the author of sin, sickness, and death,
127:18  but as divine Principle, Supreme Being, Mind, exempt
        from all evil. It teaches that matter is the falsity, not
        the fact, of existence; that nerves, brain, stomach, lungs,
127:21  and so forth, have - as matter - no intelligence, life, nor
        sensation.

                           No physical science

        There is no physical science, inasmuch as all truth
127:24  proceeds from the divine Mind. Therefore truth is not
        human, and is not a law of matter, for matter
        is not a lawgiver. Science is an emanation of
127:27  divine Mind, and is alone able to interpret God aright.
        It has a spiritual, and not a material origin. It is a divine
        utterance, - the Comforter which leadeth into all truth.
127:30  Christian Science eschews what is called natural science,
        in so far as this is built on the false hypotheses that matter
        is its own lawgiver, that law is founded on material con-
128:1   ditions, and that these are final and overrule the might of
        divine Mind. Good is natural and primitive. It is not
128:3   miraculous to itself.

                            Practical Science

        The term Science, properly understood, refers only to
        the laws of God and to His government of the universe,
128:6   inclusive of man. From this it follows that
        business men and cultured scholars have found
        that Christian Science enhances their endurance and
128:9   mental powers, enlarges their perception of character,
        gives them acuteness and comprehensiveness and an
        ability to exceed their ordinary capacity. The human
128:12  mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding, becomes
        more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes
        somewhat from itself, and requires less repose. A knowl-
128:15  edge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities
        and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of
        thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher
128:18  realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight
        and perspicacity.

        An odor becomes beneficent and agreeable only in pro-
128:21  portion to its escape into the surrounding atmosphere.
        So it is with our knowledge of Truth. If one would
        not quarrel with his fellow-man for waking him from
128:24  a cataleptic nightmare, he should not resist Truth, which
        banishes - yea, forever destroys with the higher testi-
        mony of Spirit - the so-called evidence of matter.

                    Mathematics and scientific logic

128:27  Science relates to Mind, not matter. It rests on fixed
        Principle and not upon the judgment of false sensation.
        The addition of two sums in mathematics must
128:30  always bring the same result. So is it with
        logic. If both the major and the minor propo-
        sitions of a syllogism are correct, the conclusion, if properly
129:1   drawn, cannot be false. So in Christian Science there
        are no discords nor contradictions, because its logic is as
129:3   harmonious as the reasoning of an accurately stated syl-
        logism or of a properly computed sum in arithmetic.
        Truth is ever truthful, and can tolerate no error in
129:6   premise or conclusion.

                           Truth by inversion

        If you wish to know the spiritual fact, you can dis-
        cover it by reversing the material fable, be the
129:9   fable /pro/ or /con/, - be it in accord with your
        preconceptions or utterly contrary to them.

                          Antagonistic theories

        Pantheism may be defined as a belief in the intelli-
129:12  gence of matter, - a belief which Science overthrows.
        In those days there will be "great tribulation
        such as was not since the beginning of the
129:15  world;" and earth will echo the cry, "Art thou [Truth]
        come hither to torment us before the time?" Animal
        magnetism, hypnotism, spiritualism, theosophy, agnos-
129:18  ticism, pantheism, and infidelity are antagonistic to true
        being and fatal to its demonstration; and so are some
        other systems.

                             Ontology needed

129:21  We must abandon pharmaceutics, and take up ontol-
        ogy, - "the science of real being." We must look deep
        into realism instead of accepting only the out-
129:24  ward sense of things. Can we gather peaches
        from a pine-tree, or learn from discord the concord of
        being? Yet quite as rational are some of the leading
129:27  illusions along the path which Science must tread in its
        reformatory mission among mortals. The very name,
        illusion, points to nothingness.

                            Reluctant guests

129:30  The generous liver may object to the author's small
        estimate of the pleasures of the table. The sinner sees,
        in the system taught in this book, that the demands of
130:1   God must be met. The petty intellect is alarmed by con-
        stant appeals to Mind. The licentious disposition is dis-
130:3   couraged over its slight spiritual prospects.
        When all men are bidden to the feast, the ex-
        cuses come. One has a farm, another has merchandise,
130:6   and therefore they cannot accept.

                          Excuses for ignorance

        It is vain to speak dishonestly of divine Science, which
        destroys all discord, when you can demonstrate
130:9   the actuality of Science. It is unwise to doubt
        if reality is in perfect harmony with God, divine Principle,
        - if Science, when understood and demonstrated, will
130:12  destroy all discord, - since you admit that God is om-
        nipotent; for from this premise it follows that good and
        its sweet concords have all-power.

                           Children and adults

130:15  Christian Science, properly understood, would dis-
        abuse the human mind of material beliefs which war
        against spiritual facts; and these material
130:18  beliefs must be denied and cast out to make
        place for truth. You cannot add to the contents of a
        vessel already full. Laboring long to shake the adult's
130:21  faith in matter and to inculcate a grain of faith in God, -
        an inkling of the ability of Spirit to make the body har-
        monious, - the author has often remembered our Master's
130:24  love for little children, and understood how truly such as
        they belong to the heavenly kingdom.

                           All evil unnatural

        If thought is startled at the strong claim of Science
130:27  for the supremacy of God, or Truth, and doubts the su-
        premacy of good, ought we not, contrari-
        wise, to be astounded at the vigorous claims
130:30  of evil and doubt them, and no longer think it natural to
        love sin and unnatural to forsake it, - no longer imagine
        evil to be ever-present and good absent? Truth should
131:1   not seem so surprising and unnatural as error, and error
        should not seem so real as truth. Sickness should not seem
131:3   so real as health. There is no error in Science, and our
        lives must be governed by reality in order to be in har-
        mony with God, the divine Principle of all being.

                         The error of carnality

131:6   When once destroyed by divine Science, the false evi-
        dence before the corporeal senses disappears. Hence the
        opposition of sensuous man to the Science of
131:9   Soul and the significance of the Scripture, "The
        carnal mind is enmity against God." The central fact of
        the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power.

131:12                          THEOLOGY

                            Churchly neglect

        Must Christian Science come through the Christian
        churches as some persons insist? This Science has come
131:15  already, after the manner of God's appoint-
        ing, but the churches seem not ready to re-
        ceive it, according to the Scriptural saying, "He came
131:18  unto his own, and his own received him not." Jesus once
        said: "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
        earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise
131:21  and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even
        so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." As afore-
        time, the spirit of the Christ, which taketh away the cere-
131:24  monies and doctrines of men, is not accepted until the
        hearts of men are made ready for it.

                    John the Baptist, and the Messiah

        The mission of Jesus confirmed prophecy, and ex-
131:27  plained the so-called miracles of olden time as natural
        demonstrations of the divine power, demonstra-
        tions which were not understood. Jesus' works
131:30  established his claim to the Messiahship. In
        reply to John's inquiry, "Art thou he that should come,"
132:1   Jesus returned an affirmative reply, recounting his works
        instead of referring to his doctrine, confident that this
132:3   exhibition of the divine power to heal would fully an-
        swer the question. Hence his reply: "Go and show
        John again those things which ye do hear and see: the
132:6   blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers
        are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up,
        and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And
132:9   blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." In
        other words, he gave his benediction to any one who
        should not deny that such effects, coming from divine
132:12  Mind, prove the unity of God, - the divine principle
        which brings out all harmony.

                             Christ rejected

        The Pharisees of old thrust the spiritual idea and the
132:15  man who lived it out of their synagogues, and retained
        their materialistic beliefs about God. Jesus'
        system of healing received no aid nor approval
132:18  from other sanitary or religious systems, from doctrines
        of physics or of divinity; and it has not yet been gener-
        ally accepted. To-day, as of yore, unconscious of the
132:21  reappearing of the spiritual idea, blind belief shuts the
        door upon it, and condemns the cure of the sick and sin-
        ning if it is wrought on any but a material and a doctrinal
132:24  theory. Anticipating this rejection of idealism, of the
        true idea of God, - this salvation from all error, physi-
        cal and mental, - Jesus asked, "When the Son of man
132:27  cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"

                            John's misgivings

        Did the doctrines of John the Baptist confer healing
        power upon him, or endow him with the truest concep-
132:30  tion of the Christ? This righteous preacher
        once pointed his disciples to Jesus as "the
        Lamb of God;" yet afterwards he seriously questioned
133:1   the signs of the Messianic appearing, and sent the inquiry
        to Jesus, "Art thou he that should come?"

                        Faith according to works

133:3   Was John's faith greater than that of the Samaritan
        woman, who said, "Is not this the Christ?"
        There was also a certain centurion of whose
133:6   faith Jesus himself declared, "I have not found so great
        faith, no, not in Israel."

        In Egypt, it was Mind which saved the Israelites from
133:9   belief in the plagues. In the wilderness, streams flowed
        from the rock, and manna fell from the sky. The Israelites
        looked upon the brazen serpent, and straightway believed
133:12  that they were healed of the poisonous stings of vipers.
        In national prosperity, miracles attended the successes of
        the Hebrews; but when they departed from the true
133:15  idea, their demoralization began. Even in captivity
        among foreign nations, the divine Principle wrought
        wonders for the people of God in the fiery furnace and
133:18  in kings' palaces.

                          Judaism antipathetic

        Judaism was the antithesis of Christianity, because
        Judaism engendered the limited form of a national or
133:21  tribal religion. It was a finite and material
        system, carried out in special theories concern-
        ing God, man, sanitary methods, and a religious cultus.
133:24  That he made "himself equal with God," was one of the
        Jewish accusations against him who planted Christianity
        on the foundation of Spirit, who taught as he was in-
133:27  spired by the Father and would recognize no life, intelli-
        gence, nor substance outside of God.

                            Priestly learning

        The Jewish conception of God, as Yawah, Jehovah,
133:30  or only a mighty hero and king, has not quite
        given place to the true knowledge of God.
        Creeds and rituals have not cleansed their hands of
134:1   rabbinical lore. To-day the cry of bygone ages is re-
        peated, "Crucify him!" At every advancing step, truth
134:3   is still opposed with sword and spear.

                          Testimony of martyrs

        The word /martyr/, from the Greek, means /witness/; but
        those who testified for Truth were so often persecuted
134:6   unto death, that at length the word /martyr/
        was narrowed in its significance and so has
        come always to mean one who suffers for his convictions.
134:9   The new faith in the Christ, Truth, so roused the hatred
        of the opponents of Christianity, that the followers of
        Christ were burned, crucified, and otherwise persecuted;
134:12  and so it came about that human rights were hallowed
        by the gallows and the cross.

                         Absence of Christ-power

        Man-made doctrines are waning. They have not waxed
134:15  strong in times of trouble. Devoid of the Christ-power,
        how can they illustrate the doctrines of Christ
        or the miracles of grace? Denial of the possi-
134:18  bility of Christian healing robs Christianity of the very
        element, which gave it divine force and its astonishing and
        unequalled success in the first century.

                            Basis of miracles

134:21  The true Logos is demonstrably Christian Science, the
        natural law of harmony which overcomes discord, - not
        because this Science is supernatural or pre-
134:24  ternatural, nor because it is an infraction of
        divine law, but because it is the immutable law of God,
        good. Jesus said: "I knew that Thou hearest me al-
134:27  ways;" and he raised Lazarus from the dead, stilled the
        tempest, healed the sick, walked on the water. There
        is divine authority for believing in the superiority of
134:30  spiritual power over material resistance.

                             Lawful wonders

        A miracle fulfils God's law, but does not violate that
        law. This fact at present seems more mysterious than
135:1   the miracle itself. The Psalmist sang: "What ailed
        thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan,
135:3   that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains,
        that ye skipped like rams, and ye little hills,
        like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the
135:6   Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob." The miracle
        introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order,
        establishing the Science of God's unchangeable law.
135:9   Spiritual evolution alone is worthy of the exercise of
        divine power.

                       Fear and sickness identical

        The same power which heals sin heals also sickness.
135:12  This is "the beauty of holiness," that when Truth heals
        the sick it casts out evils, and when Truth
        casts out the evil called disease, it heals the
135:15  sick. When Christ cast out the devil of
        dumbness, "it came to pass, when the devil was gone out,
        the dumb spake." There is to-day danger of repeating
135:18  the offence of the Jews by limiting the Holy One of Israel
        and asking: "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?"
        What cannot God do?

        The unity of Science and Christianity
135:21  It has been said, and truly, that Christianity must be
        Science, and Science must be Christianity, else one or the
        other is false and useless; but neither is unim-
135:24  portant or untrue, and they are alike in demon-
        stration. This proves the one to be identical
        with the other. Christianity as Jesus taught it was not
135:27  a creed, nor a system of ceremonies, nor a special gift
        from a ritualistic Jehovah; but it was the demonstration
        of divine Love casting out error and healing the sick,
135:30  not merely in the /name/ of Christ, or Truth, but in demon-
        stration of Truth, as must be the case in the cycles of
        divine light.

                           The Christ-mission

136:1   Jesus established his church and maintained his mission
        on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing. He taught
136:3   his followers that his religion had a divine
        Principle, which would cast out error and heal
        both the sick and the sinning. He claimed no intelli-
136:6   gence, action, nor life separate from God. Despite the
        persecution this brought upon him, he used his divine
        power to save men both bodily and spiritually.

                          Ancient spiritualism

136:9   The question then as now was, How did Jesus heal the
        sick? His answer to this question the world rejected.
        He appealed to his students: "Whom do
136:12  men say that I, the Son of man, am?" That
        is: Who or what is it that is thus identified with casting
        out evils and healing the sick? They replied, "Some
136:15  say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and
        others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets." These prophets
        were considered dead, and this reply may indicate that
136:18  some of the people believed that Jesus was a medium,
        controlled by the spirit of John or of Elias.

        This ghostly fancy was repeated by Herod himself.
136:21  That a wicked king and debauched husband should have
        no high appreciation of divine Science and the great work
        of the Master, was not surprising; for how could such
136:24  a sinner comprehend what the disciples did not fully
        understand? But even Herod doubted if Jesus was con-
        trolled by the sainted preacher. Hence Herod's asser-
136:27  tion: "John have I beheaded: but who is this?" No
        wonder Herod desired to see the new Teacher.

                           Doubting disciples

        The disciples apprehended their Master better than
136:30  did others; but they did not comprehend all
        that he said and did, or they would not have
        questioned him so often. Jesus patiently persisted in
137:1   teaching and demonstrating the truth of being. His stu-
        dents saw this power of Truth heal the sick, cast out evil,
137:3   raise the dead; but the ultimate of this wonderful work
        was not spiritually discerned, even by them, until after the
        crucifixion, when their immaculate Teacher stood before
137:6   them, the victor over sickness, sin, disease, death, and
        the grave.

        Yearning to be understood, the Master repeated,
137:9   "But whom say /ye/ that I am?" This renewed inquiry
        meant: Who or what is it that is able to do the work, so
        mysterious to the popular mind? In his rejection of the
137:12  answer already given and his renewal of the question,
        it is plain that Jesus completely eschewed the narrow
        opinion implied in their citation of the common report
137:15  about him.

                            A divine response

        With his usual impetuosity, Simon replied for his
        brethren, and his reply set forth a great fact: "Thou
137:18  art the Christ, the Son of the living God!"
        That is: The Messiah is what thou hast de-
        clared, - Christ, the spirit of God, of Truth, Life, and
137:21  Love, which heals mentally. This assertion elicited from
        Jesus the benediction, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-
        jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,
137:24  but my Father which is in heaven;" that is, Love hath
        shown thee the way of Life!

                        The true and living rock

        Before this the impetuous disciple had been called
137:27  only by his common names, Simon Bar-jona, or son of
        Jona; but now the Master gave him a spir-
        itual name in these words: "And I say also
137:30  unto thee, That thou art Peter; and upon this rock [the
        meaning of the Greek word /petros/, or /stone/] I will build
        my church; and the gates of hell [/hades/, the /under/-
138:1   /world/, or the /grave/] shall not prevail against it." In
        other words, Jesus purposed founding his society, not
138:3   on the personal Peter as a mortal, but on the God-
        power which lay behind Peter's confession of the true
        Messiah.

                             Sublime summary

138:6   It was now evident to Peter that divine Life, Truth, and
        Love, and not a human personality, was the healer of the
        sick and a rock, a firm foundation in the realm
138:9   of harmony. On this spiritually scientific basis
        Jesus explained his cures, which appeared miraculous to
        outsiders. He showed that diseases were cast out neither
138:12  by corporeality, by /materia medica/, nor by hygiene, but by
        the divine Spirit, casting out the errors of mortal mind.
        The supremacy of Spirit was the foundation on which
138:15  Jesus built. His sublime summary points to the religion
        of Love.

                            New era in Jesus

        Jesus established in the Christian era the precedent for
138:18  all Christianity, theology, and healing. Christians are
        under as direct orders now, as they were then,
        to be Christlike, to possess the Christ-spirit, to
138:21  follow the Christ-example, and to heal the sick as well as
        the sinning. It is easier for Christianity to cast out sick-
        ness than sin, for the sick are more willing to part with
138:24  pain than are sinners to give up the sinful, so-called pleas-
        ure of the senses. The Christian can prove this to-day as
        readily is it was proved centuries ago.

                           Healthful theology

138:27  Our Master said to every follower: "Go ye into all the
        world, and preach the gospel to every creature! . . .
        Heal the sick! . . . Love thy neighbor as
138:30  thyself!" It was this theology of Jesus which
        healed the sick and the sinning. It is his theology in this
        book and the spiritual meaning of this theology, which
139:1   heals the sick and causes the wicked to "forsake his way,
        and the unrighteous man his thoughts." It was our Mas-
139:3   ter's theology which the impious sought to destroy.

                        Marvels and reformations

        From beginning to end, the Scriptures are full of
        accounts of the triumph of Spirit, Mind, over matter.
139:6   Moses proved the power of Mind by what men
        called miracles; so did Joshua, Elijah, and
        Elisha. The Christian era was ushered in with signs and
139:9   wonders. Reforms have commonly been attended with
        bloodshed and persecution, even when the end has been
        brightness and peace; but the present new, yet old, re-
139:12  form in religious faith will teach men patiently and wisely
        to stem the tide of sectarian bitterness, whenever it flows
        inward.

                            Science obscured

139:15  The decisions by vote of Church Councils as to what
        should and should not be considered Holy Writ; the man-
        ifest mistakes in the ancient versions; the
139:18  thirty thousand different readings in the Old
        Testament, and the three hundred thousand in the New,
        - these facts show how a mortal and material sense stole
139:21  into the divine record, with its own hue darkening to some
        extent the inspired pages. But mistakes could neither
        wholly obscure the divine Science of the Scriptures seen
139:24  from Genesis to Revelation, mar the demonstration of
        Jesus, nor annul the healing by the prophets, who foresaw
        that "the stone which the builders rejected" would be-
139:27  come "the head of the corner."

                           Opponents benefited

        Atheism, pantheism, theosophy, and agnosticism are
        opposed to Christian Science, as they are to ordinary re-
139:30  ligion; but it does not follow that the profane
        or atheistic invalid cannot be healed by Chris-
        tian Science. The moral condition of such a man de-
140:1   mands the remedy of Truth more than it is needed in most
        cases; and Science is more than usually effectual in the
140:3   treatment of moral ailments.

                       God invisible to the senses

        That God is a corporeal being, nobody can truly affirm.
        The Bible represents Him as saying: "Thou canst not
140:6   see My face; for there shall no man see Me
        and live." Not materially but spiritually we
        know Him as divine Mind, as Life, Truth, and Love. We
140:9   shall obey and adore in proportion as we apprehend the
        divine nature and love Him understandingly, warring no
        more over the corporeality, but rejoicing in the affluence
140:12  of our God. Religion will then be of the heart and not of
        the head. Mankind will no longer be tyrannical and pro-
        scriptive from lack of love, - straining out gnats and
140:15  swallowing camels.

                            The true worship

        We worship spiritually, only as we cease to worship
        materially. Spiritual devoutness is the soul of Chris-
140:18  tianity. Worshipping through the medium of
        matter is paganism. Judaic and other rituals
        are but types and shadows of true worship. "The true
140:21  worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in
        truth."

                            Anthropomorphism

        The Jewish tribal Jehovah was a man-projected God,
140:24  liable to wrath, repentance, and human changeableness.
        The Christian Science God is universal, eter-
        nal, divine love, which changeth not and caus-
140:27  eth no evil, disease, nor death. It is indeed mournfully
        true that the older Scripture is reversed. In the begin-
        ing God created man in His, God's, image; but mor-
140:30  tals would procreate man, and make God in their own
        human image. What is the god of a mortal, but a mortal
        magnified?

                      More than profession required

141:1   This indicates the distance between the theological and
        ritualistic religion of the ages and the truth preached by
141:3   Jesus. More than profession is requisite for
        Christian demonstration. Few understand or
        adhere to Jesus' divine precepts for living and
141:6   healing. Why? Because his precepts require the disci-
        ple to cut off the right hand and pluck out the right eye,
        - that is, to set aside even the most cherished beliefs
141:9   and practices, to leave all for Christ.

                       No ecclesiastical monopoly

        All revelation (such is the popular thought!) must come
        from the schools and along the line of scholarly and eccle-
141:12  siastical descent, as kings are crowned from a
        royal dynasty. In healing the sick and sinning,
        Jesus elaborated the fact that the healing effect
141:15  followed the understanding of the divine Principle and
        of the Christ-spirit which governed the corporeal Jesus.
        For this Principle there is no dynasty, no ecclesiastical
141:18  monopoly. Its only crowned head is immortal sover-
        eignty. Its only priest is the spiritualized man. The
        Bible declares that all believers are made "kings and
141:21  priests unto God." The outsiders did not then, and
        do not now, understand this ruling of the Christ; there-
        fore they cannot demonstrate God's healing power.
141:24  Neither can this manifestation of Christ be com-
        prehended, until its divine Principle is scientifically
        understood.

                            A change demanded

141:27  The adoption of scientific religion and of divine heal-
        ing will ameliorate sin, sickness, and death. Let our
        pulpits do justice to Christian Science. Let
141:30  it have fair representation by the press. Give
        to it the place in our institutions of learning now occu-
        pied by scholastic theology and physiology, and it will
142:1   eradicate sickness and sin in less time than the old systems,
        devised for subduing them, have required for self-estab-
142:3   lishment and propagation.

                           Two claims omitted

        Anciently the followers of Christ, or Truth, measured
        Christianity by its power over sickness, sin, and death;
142:6   but modern religions generally omit all but one
        of these powers, - the power over sin. We
        must seek the undivided garment, the whole Christ, as our
142:9   first proof of Christianity, for Christ, Truth, alone can
        furnish us with absolute evidence.

                          Selfishness and loss

        If the soft palm, upturned to a lordly salary, and archi-
142:12  tectural skill, making dome and spire tremulous with
        beauty, turn the poor and the stranger from the
        gate, they at the same time shut the door on
142:15  progress. In vain do the manger and the cross tell their
        story to pride and fustian. Sensuality palsies the right
        hand, and causes the left to let go its grasp on the divine.

                             Temple cleansed

142:18  As in Jesus' time, so to-day, tyranny and pride need to
        be whipped out of the temple, and humility and divine Sci-
        ence to be welcomed in. The strong cords of
142:21  scientific demonstration, as twisted and wielded
        by Jesus, are still needed to purge the temples of their
        vain traffic in worldly worship and to make them meet
142:24  dwelling-places for the Most High.

                                MEDICINE

                         Question of precedence

        Which was first, Mind or medicine? If Mind was
142:27  first and self-existent, then Mind, not matter, must have
        been the first medicine. God being All-in-
        all, He made medicine; but that medicine was
142:30  Mind. It could not have been matter, which departs
        from the nature and character of Mind, God. Truth
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,
143:3   as yesterday, Christ casts out evils and heals the
        sick.

                            Methods rejected

        It is plain that God does not employ drugs or hygiene,
143:6   nor provide them for human use; else Jesus would have
        recommended and employed them in his heal-
        ing. The sick are more deplorably lost than
143:9   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-
143:12  lief before it could be considered as medicine.

                           Error not curative

        Sometimes the human mind uses one error to medi-
        cine another. Driven to choose between two difficulties,
143:15  the human mind takes the lesser to relieve the
        greater. On this basis it saves from starva-
        tion by theft, and quiets pain with anodynes. You
143:18  admit that mind influences the body somewhat, but
        you conclude that the stomach, blood, nerves, bones,
        etc., hold the preponderance of power. Controlled by
143:21  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.
143:24  The body is not controlled scientifically by a negative
        mind.

                         Impossible coalescence

        Mind is the grand creator, and there can be no power
143:27  except that which is derived from Mind. If Mind was
        first chronologically, is first potentially, and
        must be first eternally, then give to Mind the
143:30  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
144:1   not mingle scientifically. Why should we wish to make
        them do so, since no good can come of it?
144:3   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.

144:6        Naught is the squire, when the king is nigh;
             Withdraws the star, when dawns the sun's brave light.

                             Soul and sense

        The various mortal beliefs formulated in human philoso-
144:9   phy, physiology, hygiene, are mainly predicated of matter,
        and afford faint gleams of God, or Truth.
        The more material a belief, the more obstinately
144:12  tenacious its error; the stronger are the manifestations of
        the corporeal senses, the weaker the indications of Soul.

                         Will-power detrimental

        Human will-power is not Science. Human will belongs
144:15  to the so-called material senses, and its use is to be con-
        demned. Willing the sick to recover is not the
        metaphysical practice of Christian Science, but
144:18  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
144:21  not corporeal will, is the divine power which says to
        disease, "Peace, be still."

                         Conservative antagonism

        Because divine Science wars with so-called physical
144:24  science, even as Truth wars with error, the old schools
        still oppose it. Ignorance, pride, or prejudice
        closes the door to whatever is not stereotyped.
144:27  When the Science of being is universally understood,
        every man will be his own physician, and Truth will be
        the universal panacea.

                             Ancient healers

144:30  It is a question to-day, whether the ancient inspired
        healers understood the Science of Christian healing, or
145:1   whether they caught its sweet tones, as the natural
        musician catches the tones of harmony, without being
145:3   able to explain them. So divinely imbued
        were they with the spirit of Science, that the
        lack of the letter could not hinder their work; and that
145:6   letter, without the spirit, would have made void their
        practice.

                        The struggle and victory

        The struggle for the recovery of invalids goes on, not
145:9   between material methods, but between mortal minds
        and immortal Mind. The victory will be on
        the patient's side only as immortal Mind
145:12  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
145:15  on some other minor curative.

                          Mystery of godliness

        Scientific healing has this advantage over other meth-
        ods, - that in it Truth controls error. From this fact
145:18  arise its ethical as well as its physical ef-
        fects. Indeed, its ethical and physical effects
        are indissolubly connected. If there is any mystery
145:21  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-
145:24  ing Mind.

                         Matter /versus/ matter

        Other methods undertake to oppose error with error,
        and thus they increase the antagonism of one form of
145:27  matter towards other forms of matter or error,
        and the warfare between Spirit and the flesh
        goes on. By this antagonism mortal mind must con-
145:30  tinually weaken its own assumed power.

                          How healing was lost

        The theology of Christian Science includes healing
        the sick. Our Master's first article of faith propounded
146:1   to his students was healing, and he proved his faith by
        his works. The ancient Christians were healers. Why
146:3   has this element of Christianity been lost?
        Because our systems of religion are governed
        more or less by our systems of medicine. The first idol-
146:6   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
146:9   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
146:12  Christlike.

                           Drugs and divinity

        Material medicine substitutes drugs for the power of
        God - even the might of Mind - to heal the body.
146:15  Scholasticism clings for salvation to the per-
        son, instead of to the divine Principle, of the
        man Jesus; and his Science, the curative agent of God,
146:18  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,"
146:21  remembered not, even when its elevating effects prac-
        tically prove its divine origin and efficacy.

                     Christian Science as old as God

        Divine Science derives its sanction from the Bible,
146:24  and the divine origin of Science is demonstrated through
        the holy influence of Truth in healing sick-
        ness and sin. This healing power of Truth
146:27  must have been far anterior to the period in
        which Jesus lived. It is as ancient as "the Ancient of
        days." It lives through all Life, and extends throughout
146:30  all space.

                           Reduction to system

        Divine metaphysics is now reduced to a system, to a
        form comprehensible by and adapted to the thought of
147:1   the age in which we live. This system enables the
        learner to demonstrate the divine Principle,
147:3   upon which Jesus' healing was based, and
        the sacred rules for its present application to the cure of
        disease.

147:6   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-
147:9   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-
147:12  turies had passed away since Jesus practised these rules
        on the hills of Judaea and in the valleys of Galilee.

                          Perusal and practice

        Although this volume contains the complete Science of
147:15  Mind-healing, never believe that you can absorb the whole
        meaning of the Science by a simple /perusal/
        of this book. The book needs to be /studied/,
147:18  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
147:21  perishing fossils of theories already antiquated, and en-
        ables you to grasp the spiritual facts of being hitherto
        unattained and seemingly dim.

                       A definite rule discovered

147:24  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
147:27  demonstrating this Principle of healing and
        preventing disease. This rule remained to be discovered
        in Christian Science. A pure affection takes form in good-
147:30  ness, but Science alone reveals the divine Principle of
        goodness and demonstrates its rules.

                           Jesus' own practice

        Jesus never spoke of disease as dangerous or as difficult
148:1   to heal. When his students brought to him a case they
        had failed to heal, he said to them, "O faithless gen-
148:3   eration," implying that the requisite power
        to heal was in Mind. He prescribed no drugs,
        urged no obedience to material laws, but acted in direct
148:6   disobedience to them.

                   The man of anatomy and of theology

        Neither anatomy nor theology has ever described man
        as created by Spirit, - as God's man. The former ex-
148:9   plains the men of /men/, or the "children of
        men," as created corporeally instead of spir-
        itually and as emerging from the lowest, in-
148:12  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
148:15  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-
148:18  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-
148:21  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-
148:24  cord and unity of Spirit and His likeness.

                          Physiology deficient

        Physiology exalts matter, dethrones Mind, and claims
        to rule man by material law, instead of spiritual. When
148:27  physiology fails to give health or life by this
        process, it ignores the divine Spirit as unable
        or unwilling to render help in time of physical need.
148:30  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
149:1   Master demonstrated that Truth could save from sickness
        as well as from sin.

                         Blunders and blunderers

149:3   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
149:6   science or a bundle of speculative human
        theories? The prescription which succeeds in one in-
        stance fails in another, and this is owing to the different
149:9   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-
149:12  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
149:15  not obeyed the rule and proved the Principle of divine
        Science.

                          Old-school physician

        A physician of the old school remarked with great
149:18  gravity: "We know that mind affects the body some-
        what, and advise our patients to be hopeful
        and cheerful and to take as little medicine as
149:21  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
149:24  has cured purely functional disease, and with no power
        but the divine Mind.

                            Tests in our day

        Since God, divine Mind, governs all, not partially but
149:27  supremely, predicting disease does not dignify therapeutics.
        Whatever guides thought spiritually benefits
        mind and body. We need to understand the
149:30  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
150:1   be found living witnesses and monuments to the virtue
        and power of Truth, as applied through this Christian
150:3   system of healing disease.

                            The main purpose

        To-day the healing power of Truth is widely demon-
        strated as an immanent, eternal Science, instead of a
150:6   phenomenal exhibition. Its appearing is the
        coming anew of the gospel of "on earth peace,
        good-will toward men." This coming, as was promised
150:9   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,
150:12  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-
150:15  strate its divine origin, - to attest the reality of the higher
        mission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of the
        world.

                            Exploded doctrine

150:18  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-
150:21  test and contrary to the law of divine Mind.
        This human view infringes man's free moral agency; and
        it is as evidently erroneous to the author, and will be to
150:24  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-
150:27  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
150:30  over Mind, - is fading out.

                             Disease mental

        The hosts of AEsculapius are flooding the world with
        diseases, because they are ignorant that the human mind
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
151:3   this one factor they represent to be body, not
        mind. Infinite Mind could not possibly create
        a remedy outside of itself, but erring, finite, human mind
151:6   has an absolute need of something beyond itself for its
        redemption and healing.

                          Intentions respected

        Great respect is due the motives and philanthropy of
151:9   the higher class of physicians. We know that if they un-
        derstood the Science of Mind-healing, and were
        in possession of the enlarged power it confers
151:12  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-
151:15  sive bondage now enforced by false theories, from which
        multitudes would gladly escape.

                          Man governed by Mind

        Mortal belief says that death has been occasioned by
151:18  fright. Fear never stopped being and its action. The
        blood, heart, lungs, brain, etc., have nothing
        to do with Life, God. Every function of the
151:21  real man is governed by the divine Mind. The human
        mind has no power to kill or to cure, and it has no com-
        trol over God's man. The divine Mind that made man
151:24  maintain 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
151:27  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
151:30  follow the leadings of truth.

                          Mortal mind dethroned

        That mortal mind claims to govern every organ of the
        mortal body, we have overwhelming proof. But this so-
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
152:3   it is powerless. The immortal divine Mind
        takes away all its supposed sovereignty, and
        saves mortal mind from itself. The author has endeavored
152:6   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
152:9   has a healing effect, even when not fully understood.

                        All activity from thought

        Anatomy describes muscular action as produced by
        mind in one instance and not in another. Such errors
152:12  beset every material theory, in which one
        statement contradicts another over and over
        again. It is related that Sir Humphry Davy once ap-
152:15  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;
152:18  but the sick man supposed this ceremony was intended
        to heal him, and he recovered accordingly. Such a fact
        illustrates our theories.

                  The author's experiments in medicine

152:21  The author's medical researches and experiments had
        prepared her thought for the metaphysics of Christian
        Science. Every material dependence had
152:24  failed her in her search for truth; and she can
        now understand why, and can see the means
        by which mortals are divinely driven to a spiritual source
152:27  for health and happiness.

                        Homoeopathic attenuations

        Her experiments in homoeopathy had made her skep-
        tical as to material curative methods. Jahr, from
152:30  /Aconitum/ to /Zincum oxydatum/, enumerates
        the general symptoms, the characteristic
        signs, which demand different remedies; but the drug
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
153:3   which expels the disease or changes one of the symptoms
        of disease.

                           Only salt and water

        The author has attenuated /Natrum muriaticum/ (com-
153:6   mon table-salt) until there was not a single saline property
        left. The salt had "lost his savour;" and yet,
        with one drop of that attenuation in a goblet of
153:9   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
153:12  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
153:15  the healer and that there is no efficacy in a drug.

                             Origin of pain

        You say a boil is painful; but that is impossible, for
        matter without mind is not painful. The boil simply
153:18  manifests, through inflammation and swell-
        ing, a belief in pain, and this belief is called a
        boil. Now administer mentally to your patient a high
153:21  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
153:24  own pain - that is, its own /belief/ in pain.

                           Source of contagion

        We weep because others weep, we yawn because they
        yawn, and we have smallpox because others have it; but
153:27  mortal mind, not matter, contains and carries
        the infection. When this mental contagion is
        understood, we shall be more careful of our mental con-
153:30  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
154:1   error in any form, and certainly we should not be error's
        advocate.
154:3   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-
154:6   tains credit through association, - calling up the fear that
        creates the image of disease and its consequent manifes-
        tation in the body.

                            Imaginary cholera

154:9   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-
154:12  diately the symptoms of this disease appeared,
        and the man died. The fact was, that he had not caught
        the cholera by material contact, because no cholera patient
154:15  had been in that bed.

                           Children's ailments

        If a child is exposed to contagion or infection, the
        mother is frightened and says, "My child will be sick."
154:18  The law of mortal mind and her own fears gov-
        ern her child more than the child's mind gov-
        erns itself, and they produce the very results which might
154:21  have been prevented through the opposite understanding.
        Then it is believed that exposure to the contagion wrought
        the mischief.

154:24  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
154:27  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
154:30  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
155:1   hurt, so don't think you are." Presently the child forgets
        all about the accident, and is at play.

                            Drug-power mental

155:3   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
155:6   be. Even when you take away the individual
        confidence in the drug, you have not yet divorced the drug
        from the general faith. The chemist, the botanist, the
155:9   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
155:12  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.

                            Belief in physics

155:15  The universal belief in physics weighs against the high
        and mighty truths of Christian metaphysics. This errone-
        ous general belief, which sustains medicine and
155:18  produces all medical results, works against
        Christian Science; and the percentage of power on the
        side of this Science must mightily outweigh the power of
155:21  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
155:24  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
155:27  drug disappears.

                             Nature of drugs

        Vegetarianism, homoeopathy, and hydropathy have
        diminished drugging; but if drugs are an antidote to
155:30  disease, why lessen the antidote? If drugs
        are good things, is it safe to say that the
        less in quantity you have of them the better? If drugs
156:1   possess intrinsic virtues or intelligent curative qualities,
        these qualities must be mental. Who named drugs, and
156:3   what made them good or bad for mortals, beneficial or
        injurious?

                       Dropsy cured without drugs

        A case of dropsy, given up by the faculty, fell into
156:6   my hands. It was a terrible case. Tapping had been
        employed, and yet, as she lay in her bed, the
        patient looked like a barrel. I prescribed
156:9   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
156:12  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
156:15  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-
156:18  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
156:21  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
156:24  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
156:27  cured.

                            A stately advance

        Metaphysics, as taught in Christian Science, is the
        next stately step beyond homoeopathy. In metaphysics,
156:30  matter disappears from the remedy entirely,
        and Mind takes its rightful and supreme
        place. Homoeopathy takes mental symptoms largely
157:1   into consideration in its diagnosis of disease. Christian
        Science deals wholly with the mental cause in judging and
157:3   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-
157:6   ployed through the Science of Mind, which never shares
        its rights with inanimate matter.

                        The modus of homoeopathy

        Christian Science exterminates the drug, and rests on
157:9   Mind alone as the curative Principle, acknowledging that
        the divine Mind has all power. Homoeopathy
        mentalizes a drug with such repetition of
157:12  thought-attenuations, that the drug becomes
        more like the human mind than the substratum of this so-
        called mind, which we call matter; and the drug's power
157:15  of action is proportionately increased.

                          Drugging unchristian

        If drugs are part of God's creation, which (according
        to the narrative in Genesis) He pronounced/ good/, then
157:18  drugs cannot be poisonous. If He could cre-
        ate drugs intrinsically bad, then they should
        never be used. If He creates drugs at all and designs
157:21  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
157:24  mortal mind confers the power which the drug seems to
        possess.

        Narcotics quiet mortal mind, and so relieve the body;
157:27  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
157:30  proof that Life is continuous and harmonious. Science
        both neutralizes error and destroys it. Mankind is the
        better for this spiritual and profound pathology.

                      Mythology and materia medica

158:1   It is recorded that the profession of medicine originated
        in idolatry with pagan priests, who besought the gods to
158:3   heal the sick and designated Apollo as "the god
        of medicine." He was supposed to have dic-
        tated the first prescription, according to the
158:6   "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
158:9   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
158:12  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
158:15  upon earth.

                        Footsteps to intemperance

        Drugs, cataplasms, and whiskey are stupid substitutes
        for the dignity and potency of divine Mind and its effi-
158:18  cacy to heal. It is pitiful to lead men into
        temptation through the byways of this wil-
        derness world, - to victimize the race with intoxicating
158:21  prescriptions for the sick, until mortal mind acquires an
        educated appetite for strong drink, and men and women
        become loathsome sots.

                            Advancing degrees

158:24  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-
158:27  tum, mortal mind. Homoeopathy, a step in
        advance of allopathy, is doing this. Matter is going out
        of medicine; and mortal mind, of a higher attenuation
158:30  than the drug, is governing the pellet.

                             Effects of fear

        A woman in the city of Lynn, Massachusetts, was
        etherized and died in consequence, although her physi-
159:1   cians insisted that it would be unsafe to perform a needed
        surgical operation without the ether. After the autopsy,
159:3   her sister testified that the deceased protested
        against inhaling the ether and said it would kill
        her, but that she was compelled by her physicians to take
159:6   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
159:9   death was occasioned, not by the ether, but by fear of
        inhaling it.

                     Mental conditions to be heeded

        Is it skilful or scientific surgery to take no heed of men-
159:12  tal conditions and to treat the patient as if she were so
        much mindless matter, and as if matter were
        the only factor to be consulted? Had these
159:15  unscientific surgeons understood metaphysics,
        they would have considered the woman's state of mind,
        and not have risked such treatment. They would either
159:18  have allayed her fear or would have performed the opera-
        tion without ether.

        The sequel proved that this Lynn woman died from
159:21  effects produced by mortal mind, and not from the disease
        or the operation.

                        False source of knowledge

        The medical schools would learn the state of man
159:24  from matter instead of from Mind. They examine the
        lungs, tongue, and pulse to ascertain how
        much harmony, or health, matter is permit-
159:27  ting to matter, - how much pain or pleasure, action or
        stagnation, one form of matter is allowing another form
        of matter.

159:30  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
160:1   should address himself to the work of destroying it through
        the power of the divine Mind.

160:3   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,
160:6   for they have no innate power. Unsupported by the
        faith reposed in it, the inanimate drug becomes
        powerless.

                            Obedient muscles

160:9   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
160:12  mind quits the body, the heart becomes as tor-
        pid as the hand.

                            Anatomy and mind

        Anatomy finds a necessity for nerves to convey the man-
160:15  date of mind to muscle and so cause action; but what does
        anatomy say when the cords contract and be-
        come immovable? Has mortal mind ceased
160:18  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
160:21  despite the mental protest?

        Unless muscles are self-acting at all times, they are
        never so, - never capable of acting contrary to mental
160:24  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-
160:27  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?

                            Mind over matter

160:30  Is man a material fungus without Mind
        to help him? Is a stiff joint or a contracted
        muscle as much a result of law as the supple and
161:1   elastic condition of the healthy limb, and is God the
        lawgiver?

161:3   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
161:6   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;
161:9   while an opposite mental state might produce spontaneous
        combustion.

                         Restrictive regulations

        In 1880, Massachusetts put her foot on a proposed
161:12  tyrannical law, restricting the practice of medicine. If
        her sister States follow this example in har-
        mony with our Constitution and Bill of Rights,
161:15  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
161:18  pursuit of happiness."

        The oppressive state statutes touching medicine re-
        mind one of the words of the famous Madame Roland,
161:21  as she knelt before a statue of Liberty, erected near the
        guillotine: "Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy
        name!"

                     Metaphysics challenges physics

161:24  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-
161:27  rally induce the very disease he is trying to cure,
        even if it were not already determined by mor-
        tal mind. Such unconscious mistakes would not occur, if
161:30  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
162:1   than does the metaphysician; for the matter-physician
        agrees with the disease, while the metaphysician agrees
162:3   only with health and challenges disease.

                           Truth an alterative

        Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of
        Truth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science
162:6   acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with
        Truth. It changes the secretions, expels hu-
        mors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores
162:9   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.

                            Practical success

162:12  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
162:15  the conditions of matter and also without the
        false beliefs of a so-called material existence. Working
        out the rules of Science in practice, the author has re-
162:18  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
162:21  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
162:24  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
162:27  only a fuller understanding of the divine Principle of
        Christian Science to demonstrate the higher rule.

                      Testimony of medical teachers

        With due respect for the faculty, I kindly
162:30  quote from Dr. Benjamin Rush, the famous
        Philadelphia teacher of medical practice. He
        declared that "it is impossible to calculate the mischief
163:1   which Hippocrates has done, by first marking Nature
        with his name, and afterward letting her loose upon sick
163:3   people."

        Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, Professor in Harvard Uni-
        versity, declared himself "sick of learned quackery."

163:6   Dr. James Johnson, Surgeon to William IV, King Of
        England, said:

        "I declare my conscientious opinion, founded on long
163:9   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
163:12  less sickness and less mortality."

        Dr. Mason Good, a learned Professor in London,
        said:

163:15  "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
163:18  famine, all combined."

        Dr. Chapman, Professor of the Institutes and Practice
        of Physic in the University of Pennsylvania, in a published
163:21  essay said:

        "Consulting the records of our science, we cannot
        help being disgusted with the multitude of hypotheses
163:24  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
163:27  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-
163:30  ical doctrines is indeed a task as impractible as to
        arrange the fleeting vapors around us, or to reconcile the
        fixed and repulsive antipathies of nature. Dark and
164:1   perplexed, our devious career resembles the groping of
        Homer's Cyclops around his cave."

164:3   Sir John Forbes, M.D., F.R.S., Fellow of the Royal
        College of Physicians, London, said:

        "No systematic or theoretical classification of diseases
164:6   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."

164:9   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-
164:12  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
164:15  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
164:18  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;
164:21  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
164:24  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
164:27  immortality [divine Science], then shall be brought to pass
        the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in
        victory" (St. Paul).




        CHAPTER VII - PHYSIOLOGY

        Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what
        ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body,
        what ye shall put on.
        Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? - JESUS.

        He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their
        destructions. - PSALMS.

165:1   PHYSIOLOGY is one of the apples from "the tree
        of knowledge." Evil declared that eating this fruit
165:3   would open man's eyes and make him as a god. Instead
        of so doing, it closed the eyes of mortals to man's God-
        given dominion over the earth.

                           Man not structural

165:6   To measure intellectual capacity by the size of the
        brain and strength by the exercise of muscle, is to
        subjugate intelligence, to make mind mor-
165:9   tal, and to place this so-called mind at the
        mercy of material organization and non-intelligent
        matter.

165:12  Obedience to the so-called physical laws of health has
        not checked sickness. Diseases have multiplied, since
        man-made material theories took the place of spiritual
165:15  truth.

                           Causes of sickness

        You say that indigestion, fatigue, sleeplessness, cause
        distressed stomachs and aching heads. Then
165:18  you consult your brain in order to remember
        what has hurt you, when your remedy lies in forgetting
166:1   the whole thing; for matter has no sensation of its own,
        and the human mind is all that can produce pain.

166:3   As a man thinketh, so is he. Mind is all that feels,
        acts, or impedes action. Ignorant of this, or shrinking
        from its implied responsibility, the healing effort is made
166:6   on the wrong side, and thus the conscious control over the
        body is lost.

                       Delusions pagan and medical

        The Mohammedan believes in a pilgrimage to Mecca
166:9   for the salvation of his soul. The popular doctor believes
        in his prescription, and the pharmacist believes
        in the power of his drugs to save a man's
166:12  life. The Mohammedan's belief is a religious
        delusion; the doctor's and pharmacist's is a medical
        mistake.

                  Health from reliance on spirituality

166:15  The erring human mind is inharmonious in itself.
        From it arises the inharmonious body. To ignore
        God as of little use in sickness is a mistake.
166:18  Instead of thrusting Him aside in times of
        bodily trouble, and waiting for the hour of
        strength in which to acknowledge Him, we should learn
166:21  that He can do all things for us in sickness as in
        health.

        Failing to recover health through adherence to physi-
166:24  ology and hygiene, the despairing invalid often drops
        them, and in his extremity and only as a last resort, turns
        to God. The invalid's faith in the divine Mind is less
166:27  than in drugs, air, and exercise, or he would have resorted
        to Mind first. The balance of power is conceded to be
        with matter by most of the medical systems; but when
166:30  Mind at last asserts its mastery over sin, disease, and
        death, then is man found to be harmonious and
        immortal.

167:1   Should we implore a corporeal God to heal the sick
        out of His personal volition, or should we understand the
167:3   infinite divine Principle which heals? If we rise no higher
        than blind faith, the Science of healing is not attained, and
        Soul-existence, in the place of sense-existence, is not com-
167:6   prehended. We apprehend Life in divine Science only
        as we live above corporeal sense and correct it. Our pro-
        portionate admission of the claims of good or of evil de-
167:9   termines the harmony of our existence, - our health, our
        longevity, and our Christianity.

                             The two masters

        We cannot serve two masters nor perceive divine Sci-
167:12  ence with the material senses. Drugs and hygiene cannot
        successfully usurp the place and power of the
        divine source of all health and perfection. If
167:15  God made man both good and evil, man must remain
        thus. What can improve God's work? Again, an error
        in the premise must appear in the conclusion. To have
167:18  one God and avail yourself of the power of Spirit, you
        must love God supremely.

                            Half-way success

        The "flesh lusteth against the Spirit." The flesh and
167:21  Spirit can no more unite in action, than good can coin-
        cide with evil. It is not wise to take a halt-
        ing and half-way position or to expect to work
167:24  equally with Spirit and matter, Truth and error. There,
        is but one way - namely, God and His idea - which
        leads to spiritual being. The scientific government of the
167:27  body must be attained through the divine Mind. It is im-
        possible to gain control over the body in any other way.
        On this fundamental point, timid conservatism is abso-
167:30  lutely inadmissible. Only through radical reliance on
        Truth can scientific healing power be realized.

        Substituting good words for a good life, fair seeming
168:1   for straightforward character, is a poor shift for the weak
        and worldly, who think the standard of Christian Science
168:3   too high for them.

                        Belief on the wrong side

        If the scales are evenly adjusted, the removal of a single
        weight from either scale gives preponderance to the oppo-
168:6   site. Whatever influence you cast on the side
        of matter, you take away from Mind, which
        would otherwise outweigh all else. Your belief militates
168:9   against your health, when it ought to be enlisted on the
        side of health. When sick (according to belief) you rush
        after drugs, search out the material so-called laws of
168:12  health, and depend upon them to heal you, though you
        have already brought yourself into the slough of disease
        through just this false belief.

                          The divine authority

168:15  Because man-made systems insist that man becomes
        sick and useless, suffers and dies, all in consonance with
        the laws of God, are we to believe it? Are
168:18  we to believe an authority which denies God's
        spiritual command relating to perfection, - an authority
        which Jesus proved to be false? He did the will of the
168:21  Father. He healed sickness in defiance of what is called
        material law, but in accordance with God's law, the law
        of Mind.

                            Disease foreseen

168:24  I have discerned disease in the human mind, and rec-
        ognized the patient's fear of it, months before the so-called
        disease made its appearance in the body. Dis-
168:27  ease being a belief, a latent illusion of mortal
        mind, the sensation would not appear if the error of belief
        was met and destroyed by truth.

                            Changed mentality

168:30  Here let a word be noticed which will be
        better understood hereafter, - /chemicalization/.
        By chemicalization I mean the process which mortal
169:1   mind and body undergo in the change of belief from a
        material to a spiritual basis.

                          Scientific foresight

169:3   Whenever an aggravation of symptoms has occurred
        through mental chemicalization, I have seen the mental
        signs, assuring me that danger was over, before
169:6   the patient felt the change; and I have said
        to the patient, "You are healed," - sometimes to his dis-
        comfiture, when he was incredulous. But it always came
169:9   about as I had foretold.

        I name these facts to show that disease has a mental,
        mortal origin, - that faith in rules of health or in drugs
169:12  begets and fosters disease by attracting the mind to the
        subject of sickness, by exciting fear of disease, and by dos-
        ing the body in order to avoid it. The faith reposed in
169:15  these things should find stronger supports and a higher
        home. If we understood the control of Mind over body,
        we should put no faith in material means.

                          Mind the only healer

169:18  Science not only reveals the origin of all disease as
        mental, but it also declares that all disease is cured by
        divine Mind. There can be no healing ex-
169:21  cept by this Mind, however much we trust
        a drug or any other means towards which human faith
        or endeavor is directed. It is mortal mind, not mat-
169:24  ter, which brings to the sick whatever good they may
        seem to receive from materiality. But the sick are never
        really healed except by means of the divine power.
169:27  Only the action of Truth, Life, and Love can give
        harmony.

                             Modes of matter

        Whatever teaches man to have other laws and to
169:30  acknowledge other powers than the divine
        Mind, is anti-Christian. The good that a
        poisonous drug seems to do is evil, for it robs man of
170:1   reliance on God, omnipotent Mind, and according to be-
        lief, poisons the human system. Truth is not the basis of
170:3   theogony. Modes of matter form neither a moral nor a
        spiritual system. The discord which calls for material
        methods is the result of the exercise of faith in material
170:6   modes, - faith in matter instead of in Spirit.

                         Physiology unscientific

        Did Jesus understand the economy of man less than
        Graham or Cutter? Christian ideas certainly present
170:9   what human theories exclude - the Principle
        of man's harmony. The text, "Whosoever
        liveth and believeth in me shall never die," not only con-
170:12  tradicts human systems, but points to the self-sustaining
        and eternal Truth.

        The demands of Truth are spiritual, and reach the
170:15  body through Mind. The best interpreter of man's needs
        said: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat,
        or what ye shall drink."

170:18  If there are material laws which prevent disease, what
        then causes it? Not divine law, for Jesus healed the
        sick and cast out error, always in opposition, never in
170:21  obedience, to physics.

                          Causation considered

        Spiritual causation is the one question to be considered,
        for more than all others spiritual causation relates to
170:24  human progress. The age seems ready to
        approach this subject, to ponder somewhat
        the supremacy of Spirit, and at least to touch the hem
170:27  of Truth's garment.

        The description of man as purely physical, or as both
        material and spiritual, - but in either case dependent
170:30  upon his physical organization, - is the Pandora box,
        from which all ills have gone forth, especially despair.
        Matter, which takes divine power into its own hands and
171:1   claims to be a creator, is a fiction, in which paganism and
        lust are so sanctioned by society that mankind has caught
171:3   their moral contagion.

                            Paradise regained

        Through discernment of the spiritual opposite of ma-
        teriality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will
171:6   reopen with the key of divine Science the gates
        of Paradise which human beliefs have closed,
        and will find himself unfallen, upright, pure, and free,
171:9   not needing to consult almanacs for the probabilities either
        of his life or of the weather, not needing to study brain-
        ology to learn how much of a man he is.

                            A closed question

171:12  Mind's control over the universe, including man, is
        no longer an open question, but is demonstrable Science.
        Jesus illustrated the divine Principle and the
171:15  power of immortal Mind by healing sickness
        and sin and destroying the foundations of death.

                         Matter /versus/ Spirit

        Mistaking his origin and nature, man believes himself to
171:18  be combined matter and Spirit. He believes that Spirit
        is sifted through matter, carried on a nerve, ex-
        posed to ejection by the operation of matter.
171:21  The intellectual, the moral, the spiritual, - yea, the image
        of infinite Mind, - subject to non-intelligence!

        No more sympathy exists between the flesh and Spirit
171:24  than between Belial and Christ.

        The so-called laws of matter are nothing but false be-
        liefs that intelligence and life are present where Mind
171:27  is not. These false beliefs are the procuring cause of all
        sin and disease. The opposite truth, that intelligence and
        life are spiritual, never material, destroys sin, sickness,
171:30  and death.

        The fundamental error lies in the supposition that man
        is a material outgrowth and that the cognizance of good
172:1   or evil, which he has through the bodily senses, con-
        stitutes his happiness or misery.

                            Godless Evolution

172:3   Theorizing about man's development from mushrooms
        to monkeys and from monkeys into men
        amounts to nothing in the right direction and
172:6   very much in the wrong.

        Materialism grades the human species as rising from
        matter upward. How then is the material species main-
172:9   tained, if man passes through what we call death and
        death is the Rubicon of spirituality? Spirit can form
        no real link in this supposed chain of material being.
172:12  But divine Science reveals the eternal chain of existence
        as uninterrupted and wholly spiritual; yet this can be
        realized only as the false sense of being disappears.

                         Degrees of development

172:15  If man was first a material being, he must have passed
        through all the forms of matter in order to become man.
        If the material body is man, he is a portion of
172:18  matter, or dust. On the contrary, man is the
        image and likeness of Spirit; and the belief that there is
        Soul in sense or Life in matter obtains in mortals, /alias/
172:21  mortal mind, to which the apostle refers when he says
        that we must "put off the old man."

                            Identity not lost

        What is man? Brain, heart, blood, bones, etc., the
172:24  material structure? If the real man is in the material
        body, you take away a portion of the man when
        you amputate a limb; the surgeon destroys
172:27  manhood, and worms annihilate it. But the loss of a limb
        or injury to a tissue is sometimes the quickener of manli-
        ness; and the unfortunate cripple may present more no-
172:30  bility than the statuesque athlete, - teaching us by his
        very deprivations, that "a man's a man, for a' that."

                             When man is man

        When we admit that matter (heart, blood, brain, acting
173:1   through the five physical senses) constitutes man, we fail
        to see how anatomy can distinguish between
173:3   humanity and the brute, or determine when
        man is really /man/ and has progressed farther than his
        animal progenitors.

                            Individualization

173:6   When the supposition, that Spirit is within what it
        creates and the potter is subject to the clay,
        is individualized, Truth is reduced to the level
173:9   of error, and the sensible is required to be made manifest
        through the insensible.

        What is termed matter manifests nothing but a material
173:12  mentality. Neither the substance nor the manifestation
        of Spirit is obtainable through matter. Spirit is positive.
        Matter is Spirit's contrary, the absence of Spirit. For
173:15  positive Spirit to pass through a negative condition
        would be Spirit's destruction.

                           Man not structural

        Anatomy declares man to be structural. Physiology
173:18  continues this explanation, measuring human
        strength by bones and sinews, and human life
        by material law. Man is spiritual, individual, and eter-
173:21  nal; material structure is mortal.
        Phrenology makes man knavish or honest according to
        the development of the cranium; but anatomy, physiology,
173:24  phrenology, do not define the image of God, the real im-
        mortal man.

        Human reason and religion come slowly to the recogni-
173:27  tion of spiritual facts, and so continue to call upon
        matter to remove the error which the human mind alone
        has created.

173:30  The idols of civilization are far more fatal to health
        and longevity than are the idols of barbarism. The idols
        of civilization call into action less faith than Buddhism
174:1   in a supreme governing intelligence. The Esquimaux
        restore health by incantations as consciously as do civi-
174:3   lized practitioners by their more studied methods.

        Is civilization only a higher form of idolatry, that
        man should bow down to a flesh-brush, to flannels, to
174:6   baths, diet, exercise, and air? Nothing save divine
        power is capable of doing so much for man as he can
        do for himself.

                             Rise of thought

174:9   The footsteps of thought, rising above material stand-
        points, are slow, and portend a long night to the traveller;
        but the angels of His presence - the spiritual
174:12  intuitions that tell us when "the night is far
        spent, the day is at hand" - are our guardians in the
        gloom. Whoever opens the way in Christian Science is
174:15  a pilgrim and stranger, marking out the path for gen-
        erations yet unborn.

        The thunder of Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount
174:18  are pursuing and will overtake the ages, rebuking in
        their course all error and proclaiming the kingdom of
        heaven on earth. Truth is revealed. It needs only to
174:21  be practised.

                             Medical errors

        Mortal belief is all that enables a drug to cure mortal
        ailments. Anatomy admits that mind is somewhere in
174:24  man, though out of sight. Then, if an indi-
        vidual is sick, why treat the body alone and
        administer a dose of despair to the mind? Why declare
174:27  that the body is diseased, and picture this disease to the
        mind, rolling it under the tongue as a sweet morsel and
        holding it before the thought of both physician and pa-
174:30  tient? We should understand that the cause of disease
        obtains in the mortal human mind, and its cure comes
        from the immortal divine Mind. We should prevent the
175:1   images of disease from taking form in thought, and we
        should efface the outlines of disease already formulated in
175:3   the minds of mortals.

                             Novel Diseases

        When there are fewer prescriptions, and less thought is
        given to sanitary subjects, there will be better
175:6   constitutions and less disease. In old times
        who ever heard of dyspepsia, cerebro-spinal meningitis,
        hay-fever, and rose-cold?

175:9   What an abuse of natural beauty to say that a rose,
        the smile of God, can produce suffering! The joy of its
        presence, its beauty and fragrance, should uplift the
175:12  thought, and dissuade any sense of fear or fever. It is
        profane to fancy that the perfume of clover and the breath
        of new-mown hay can cause glandular inflammation,
175:15  sneezing, and nasal pangs.

                         No ancestral dyspepsia

        If a random thought, calling itself dyspepsia, had
        tried to tyrannize over our forefathers, it would have
175:18  been routed by their independence and in-
        dustry. Then people had less time for self-
        ishness, coddling, and sickly after-dinner talk. The ex-
175:21  act amount of food the stomach could digest was not
        discussed according to Cutter nor referred to sanitary
        laws. A man's belief in those days was not so severe
175:24  upon the gastric juices. Beaumont's "Medical Experi-
        ments" did not govern the digestion.

                          Pulmonary misbeliefs

        Damp atmosphere and freezing snow empurpled the
175:27  plump cheeks of our ancestors, but they never indulged
        in the refinement of inflamed bronchial tubes.
        They were as innocent as Adam, before he ate
175:30  the fruit of false knowledge, of the existence of tubercles
        and troches, lungs and lozenges.

                             Our modern Eves

        "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise," says
176:1   the English poet, and there is truth in his sentiment. The
        action of mortal mind on the body was not so injurious
176:3   before inquisitive modern Eves took up the
        study of medical works and unmanly Adams
        attributed their own downfall and the fate of their off-
176:6   spring to the weakness of their wives.

        The primitive custom of taking no thought about
        food left the stomach and bowels free to act in obedi-
176:9   ence to nature, and gave the gospel a chance to be seen
        in its glorious effects upon the body. A ghastly array of
        diseases was not paraded before the imagination. There
176:12  were fewer books on digestion and more "sermons in
        stones, and good in everything." When the mechanism
        of the human mind gives place to the divine Mind, self-
176:15  ishness and sin, disease and death, will lose their
        foothold.

        Human fear of miasma would load with disease the
176:18  air of Eden, and weigh down mankind with superimposed
        and conjectural evils. Mortal mind is the worst foe of
        the body, while divine Mind is its best friend.

                      Diseases not to be classified

176:21  Should all cases of organic disease be treated by a
        regular practitioner, and the Christian Scientist try
        truth only in cases of hysteria, hypochon-
176:24  dria, and hallucination? One disease is no
        more real than another. All disease is the
        result of education, and disease can carry its ill-effects
176:27  no farther than mortal mind maps out the way. The
        human mind, not matter, is supposed to feel, suffer, en-
        joy. Hence decided types of acute disease are quite as
176:30  ready to yield to Truth as the less distinct type and chronic
        form of disease. Truth handles the most malignant con-
        tagion with perfect assurance.

                       One basis for all sickness

177:1   Human mind produces what is termed organic dis-
        ease as certainly as it produces hysteria, and it must re-
177:3   linquish all its errors, sicknesses, and sins.
        I have demonstrated this beyond all cavil.
        The evidence of divine Mind's healing power and abso-
177:6   lute control is to me as certain as the evidence of my own
        existence.

                       Mental and physical oneness

        Mortal mind and body are one. Neither exists without
177:9   the other, and both must be destroyed by immortal Mind.
        Matter, or body, is but a false concept of mor-
        tal mind. This so-called mind builds its own
177:12  superstructure, of which the material body is
        the grosser portion; but from first to last, the body is a
        sensuous, human concept.

                           The effect of names

177:15  In the Scriptural allegory of the material creation,
        Adam or error, which represents the erroneous theory
        of life and intelligence in matter, had the
177:18  naming of all that was material. These names
        indicated matter's properties, qualities, and forms. But
        a lie, the opposite of Truth, cannot name the qualities and
177:21  effects of what is termed matter, and create the so-called
        laws of the flesh, nor can a lie hold the preponderance
        of power in any direction against God, Spirit and
177:24  Truth.

                         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.




        CHAPTER VIII - FOOTSTEPS OF TRUTH

        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.

        John Young of Edinburgh writes: "God is the father
208:18  of mind, and of nothing else." Such an utterance is
        "the voice of one crying in the wilderness" of human
        beliefs and preparing the way of Science. Let us learn
208:21  of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of
        Spirit, the kingdom of heaven, - the reign and rule of
        universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain
208:24  forever unseen.

                        Sickness as only thought

        Mind, not matter, is causation. A material body
        only expresses a material and mortal mind. A mortal
208:27  man possesses this body, and he makes it
        harmonious or discordant according to the
        images of thought impressed upon it. You embrace
208:30  your body in your thought, and you should delineate
        upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness. You should
        banish all thoughts of disease and sin and of other beliefs
209:1   included in matter. Man, being immortal, has a perfect
        indestructible life. It is the mortal belief which makes
209:3   the body discordant and diseased in proportion as igno-
        rance, /fear/, or human will governs mortals.

                            Allness of Truth

        Mind, supreme over all its formations and governing
209:6   them all, is the central sun of its own systems of ideas,
        the life and light of all its own vast creation;
        and man is tributary to divine Mind. The
209:9   material and mortal body or mind is not the man.

        The world would collapse without Mind, without the in-
        telligence which holds the winds in its grasp. Neither
209:12  philosophy nor skepticism can hinder the march of the
        Science which reveals the supremacy of Mind. The im-
        manent sense of Mind-power enhances the glory of Mind.
209:15  Nearness, not distance, lends enchantment to this view.

                          Spiritual translation

        The compounded minerals or aggregated substances
        composing the earth, the relations which constituent
209:18  masses hold to each other, the magnitudes,
        distances, and revolutions of the celestial
        bodies, are of no real importance, when we remember
209:21  that they all must give place to the spiritual fact by the
        translation of man and the universe back into Spirit. In
        proportion as this is done, man and the universe will be
209:24  found harmonious and eternal.

        Material substances or mundane formations, astro-
        nomical calculations, and all the paraphernalia of specu-
209:27  lative theories, based on the hypothesis of material law
        or life and intelligence resident in matter, will ulti-
        mately vanish, swallowed up in the infinite calculus of
209:30  Spirit.

        Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to un-
        derstand God. It shows the superiority of faith by works
210:1   over faith in words. Its ideas are expressed only in "new
        tongues;" and these are interpreted by the translation of
210:3   the spiritual original into the language which human
        thought can comprehend.

                       Jesus' disregard of matter

        The Principle and proof of Christianity are discerned
210:6   by spiritual sense. They are set forth in Jesus' demon-
        strations, which show - by his healing the
        sick, casting out evils, and destroying death,
210:9   "the last enemy that shall be destroyed," -
        his disregard of matter and its so-called laws.

        Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forever
        manifested through man, the Master healed the sick,
        gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the
        lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the
210:15  divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving
        a better understanding of Soul and salvation. Jesus
        healed sickness and sin by one and the same metaphysical
210:18  process.

                             Mind not mortal

        The expression /mortal mind/ is really a solecism, for
        Mind is immortal, and Truth pierces the error of mortality
210:21  as a sunbeam penetrates the cloud. Because,
        in obedience to the immutable law of Spirit,
        this so-called mind is self-destructive, I name it mortal.
210:24  Error soweth the wind and reapeth the whirlwind.

                             Matter mindless

        What is termed matter, being unintelligent, cannot say,
        "I suffer, I die, I am sick, or I am well." It is the so-
210:27  called mortal mind which voices this and ap-
        pears to itself to make good its claim. To
        mortal sense, sin and suffering are real, but immortal
210:30  sense includes no evil nor pestilence. Because immortal
        sense has no error of sense, it has no sense of error; there
        fore it is without a destructive element.

211:1   If brain, nerves, stomach, are intelligent, - if they talk
        to us, tell us their condition, and report how they feel, -
211:3   then Spirit and matter, Truth and error, commingle
        and produce sickness and health, good and evil, life and
        death; and who shall say whether Truth or error is the
211:6   greater?

                          Matter sensationless

        The sensations of the body must either be the sensa-
        tions of a so-called mortal mind or of matter. Nerves
211:9   are not mind. Is it not provable that Mind is
        not /mortal/ and that matter has no sensation?
        Is it not equally true that matter does not appear in the
211:12  spiritual understanding of being?

        The sensation of sickness and the impulse to sin seem
        to obtain in mortal mind. When a tear starts, does not
211:15  this so-called mind produce the effect seen in the lachry-
        mal gland? Without mortal mind, the tear could not
        appear; and this action shows the nature of all so-called
211:18  material cause and effect.

        It should no longer be said in Israel that "the fathers
        have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set
211:21  on edge." Sympathy with error should disappear. The
        transfer of the thoughts of one erring mind to another,
        Science renders impossible.

                             Nerves painless

211:24  If it is true that nerves have sensation, that matter has
        intelligence, that the material organism causes the eyes to
        see and the ears to hear, then, when the body
211:27  is dematerialized, these faculties must be lost,
        for their immortality is not in Spirit; whereas the fact
        is that only through dematerialization and spiritualiza-
211:30  tion of thought can these faculties be conceived of as
        immortal.

        Nerves are not the source of pain or pleasure. We
212:1   suffer or enjoy in our dreams, but this pain or pleasure
        is not communicated through a nerve. A tooth which has
212:3   been extracted sometimes aches again in belief, and the
        pain seems to be in its old place. A limb which has been
        amputated has continued in belief to pain the owner. If
212:6   the sensation of pain in the limb can return, can be pro-
        longed, why cannot the limb reappear?

        Why need pain, rather than pleasure, come to this mor-
212:9   tal sense? Because the memory of pain is more vivid
        than the memory of pleasure. I have seen an unwitting
        attempt to scratch the end of a finger which had been cut
212:12  off for months. When the nerve is gone, which we say
        was the occasion of pain, and the pain still remains, it
        proves sensation to be in the mortal mind, not in matter.
212:15  Reverse the process; take away this so-called mind instead
        of a piece of the flesh, and the nerves have no sensation.

                             Human falsities

        Mortals have a modus of their own, undirected and un-
212:18  sustained by God. They produce a rose through seed and
        soil, and bring the rose into contact with the
        olfactory nerves that they may smell it. In
212:21  legerdemain and credulous frenzy, mortals believe that
        unseen spirits produce the flowers. God alone makes
        and clothes the lilies of the field, and this He does by
212:24  means of Mind, not matter.

                       No miracles in Mind-methods

        Because all the methods of Mind are not understood,
        we say the lips or hands must move in order to convey
212:27  thought, that the undulations of the air convey
        sound, and possibly that other methods involve
        so-called miracles. The realities of being, its
212:30  normal action, and the origin of all things are unseen to
        mortal sense; whereas the unreal and imitative move-
        ments of mortal belief, which would reverse the immortal
213:1   modus and action, are styled the real. Whoever con-
        tradicts this mortal mind supposition of reality is called
213:3   a deceiver, or is said to be deceived. Of a man it has
        been said, "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he;" hence
        as a man spiritually /understandeth/, so is he in truth.

                            Good indefinable

213:6   Mortal mind conceives of something as either liquid
        or solid, and then classifies it materially. Immortal and
        spiritual facts exist apart from this mortal and
213:9   material conception. God, good, is self-exist-
        ent and self-expressed, though indefinable as a whole.
        Every step towards goodness is a departure from materi-
213:12  ality, and is a tendency towards God, Spirit. Material
        theories partially paralyze this attraction towards infinite
        and eternal good by an opposite attraction towards the
213:15  finite, temporary, and discordant.

        Sound is a mental impression made on mortal belief.
        The ear does not really hear. Divine Science reveals
213:18  sound as communicated through the senses of Soul -
        through spiritual understanding.

                     Music, rhythm of head and heart

        Mozart experienced more than he expressed. The
213:21  rapture of his grandest symphonies was never heard. He
        was a musician beyond what the world knew.
        This was even more strikingly true of Beet-
213:24  hoven, who was so long hopelessly deaf. Men-
        tal melodies and strains of sweetest music supersede con-
        scious sound. Music is the rhythm of head and heart.
213:27  Mortal mind is the harp of many strings, discoursing
        either discord or harmony according as the hand, which
        sweeps over it, is human or divine.
213:30  Before human knowledge dipped to its depths into a
        false sense of things, - into belief in material origins
        which discard the one Mind and true source of being, -
214:1   it is possible that the impressions from Truth were as
        distinct as sound, and that they came as sound to the
214:3   primitive prophets. If the medium of hearing is wholly
        spiritual, it is normal and indestructible.

        If Enoch's perception had been confined to the evidence
214:6   before his material senses, he could never have "walked
        with God," nor been guided into the demonstration of
        life eternal.

                           Adam and the senses

214:9   Adam, represented in the Scriptures as formed from
        dust, is an object-lesson for the human mind. The mate-
        rial senses, like Adam, originate in matter and
214:12  return to dust, - are proved non-intelligent.
        They go out as they came in, for they are still the error,
        not the truth of being. When it is learned that the spirit-
214:15  ual sense, and not the material, conveys the impressions
        of Mind to man, then being will be understood and found
        to be harmonious.

                          Idolatrous illusions

214:18  We bow down to matter, and entertain finite thoughts
        of God like the pagan idolater. Mortals are inclined to
        fear and to obey what they consider a material
214:21  body more than they do a spiritual God. All
        material knowledge, like the original "tree of knowledge,"
        multiplies their pains, for mortal illusions would rob God,
214:24  slay man, and meanwhile would spread their table with
        cannibal tidbits and give thanks.

                           The senses of Soul

        How transient a sense is mortal sight, when a wound on
214:27  the retina may end the power of light and lens! But the
        real sight or sense is not lost. Neither age nor
        accident can interfere with the senses of Soul,
214:30  and there are no other real senses. It is evident that the
        body as matter has no sensation of its own, and there is no
        oblivion for Soul and its faculties. Spirit's senses are with-
215:1   out pain, and they are forever at peace. Nothing can hide
        from them the harmony of all things and the might and
215:3   permanence of Truth.

                          Real being never lost

        If Spirit, Soul, could sin or be lost, then being and im-
        mortality would be lost, together with all the faculties of
215:6   Mind; but being cannot be lost while God ex-
        ists. Soul and matter are at variance from the
        very necessity of their opposite natures. Mortals are
215:9   unacquainted with the reality of existence, because matter
        and mortality do not reflect the facts of Spirit.

        Spiritual vision is not subordinate to geometric alti-
215:12  tudes. Whatever is governed by God, is never for an
        instant deprived of the light and might of intelligence
        and Life.

                           Light and darkness

215:15  We are sometimes led to believe that darkness is as real
        as light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal
        sense of the absence of light, at the coming of
215:18  which darkness loses the appearance of reality.
        So sin and sorrow, disease and death, are the suppositional
        absence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of error before
215:21  truth and love.

        With its divine proof, Science reverses the evidence of
        material sense. Every quality and condition of mortality
215:24  is lost, swallowed up in immortality. Mortal man is the
        antipode of immortal man in origin, in existence, and in his
        relation to God.

                            Faith of Socrates

215:27  Because he understood the superiority and immor-
        tality of good, Socrates feared not the hemlock poison.
        Even the faith of his philosophy spurned phys-
215:30  ical timidity. Having sought man's spiritual
        state, he recognized the immortality of man. The igno-
        rance and malice of the age would have killed the vener-
216:1   able philosopher because of his faith in Soul and his in-
        difference to the body.

                          The serpent of error

216:3   Who shall say that man is alive to-day, but may be dead
        to-morrow? What has touched Life, God, to such
        strange issues? Here theories cease, and Sci-
216:6   ence unveils the mystery and solves the prob-
        lem of man. Error bites the heel of truth, but cannot kill
        truth. Truth bruises the head of error - destroys error.
216:9   Spirituality lays open siege to materialism. On which
        side are we fighting?

                          Servants and masters

        The understanding that the Ego is Mind, and that
216:12  there is but one Mind or intelligence, begins at once to
        destroy the errors of mortal sense and to supply
        the truth of immortal sense. This understand-
216:15  ing makes the body harmonious; it makes the nerves,
        bones, brain, etc., servants, instead of masters. If man
        is governed by the law of divine Mind, his body is in sub-
216:18  mission to everlasting Life and Truth and Love. The
        great mistake of mortals is to suppose that man, God's
        image and likeness, is both matter and Spirit, both good
216:21  and evil.

        If the decision were left to the corporeal senses, evil
        would appear to be the master of good, and sickness to
216:24  be the rule of existence, while health would seem the
        exception, death the inevitable, and life a paradox. Paul
        asked: "What concord hath Christ with Belial?" (2 Cor-
216:27  inthians vi. 15.)

                            Personal identity

        When you say, "Man's body is material," I say with
        Paul: Be "willing rather to be absent from the body,
216:30  and to be present with the Lord." Give up
        your material belief of mind in matter, and
        have but one Mind, even God; for this Mind forms its
217:1   own likeness. The loss of man's identity through the
        understanding which Science confers is impossible; and
217:3   the notion of such a possibility is more absurd than to
        conclude that individual musical tones are lost in the
        origin of harmony.

                            Paul's experience

217:6   Medical schools may inform us that the healing work
        of Christian Science and Paul's peculiar Christian con-
        version and experience, - which prove Mind
217:9   to be scientifically distinct from matter, - are
        indications of unnatural mental and bodily conditions,
        even of catalepsy and hysteria; yet if we turn to the Scrip-
217:12  tures, what do we read? Why, this: "If a man keep my
        saying, he shall never see death!" and "Henceforth know
        we no man after the flesh!"

                            Fatigue is mental

217:15  That scientific methods are superior to others, is
        seen by their effects. When you have once conquered
        a diseased condition of the body through
217:18  Mind, that condition never recurs, and you
        have won a point in Science. When mentality gives
        rest to the body, the next toil will fatigue you less, for
217:21  you are working out the problem of being in divine meta-
        physics; and in proportion as you understand the con-
        trol which Mind has over so-called matter, you will be
217:24  able to demonstrate this control. The scientific and
        permanent remedy for fatigue is to learn the power of
        Mind over the body or any illusion of physical weariness,
217:27  and so destroy this illusion, for matter cannot be weary
        and heavy-laden.

        You say, "Toil fatigues me." But what is this /me/!
217:30  Is it muscle or mind? Which is tired and so speaks?
        Without mind, could the muscles be tired? Do the
        muscles talk, or do you talk for them? Matter is non-
218:1   intelligent. Mortal mind does the false talking, and that
        which affirms weariness, made that weariness.

                            Mind never weary

218:3   You do not say a wheel is fatigued; and yet the body
        is as material as the wheel. If it were not for what the
        human mind says of the body, the body, like
218:6   the inanimate wheel, would never be weary.
        The consciousness of Truth rests us more than hours of
        repose in unconsciousness.

                      Coalition of sin and sickness

218:9   The body is supposed to say, "I am ill." The reports
        of sickness may form a coalition with the reports of sin,
        and say, "I am malice, lust, appetite, envy,
218:12  hate." What renders both sin and sickness
        difficult of cure is, that the human mind is the
        sinner, disinclined to self-correction, and believing that
218:15  the body can be sick independently of mortal mind and
        that the divine Mind has no jurisdiction over the body.

                          Sickness akin to sin

        Why pray for the recovery of the sick, if you are with-
218:18  out faith in God's willingness and ability to heal them?
        If you do believe in God, why do you sub-
        stitute drugs for the Almighty's power, and
218:21  employ means which lead only into material ways of
        obtaining help, instead of turning in time of need to
        God, divine Love, who is an ever-present help?

218:24  Treat a belief in sickness as you would sin, with sudden
        dismissal. Resist the temptation to believe in matter as
        intelligent, as having sensation or power.

218:27  The Scriptures say, "They that wait upon the Lord
        . . . shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk,
        and not faint." The meaning of that passage is not
218:30  perverted by applying it literally to moments of fatigue,
        for the moral and physical are as one in their results.
        When we wake to the truth of being, all disease,
219:1   pain, weakness, weariness, sorrow, sin, death, will be
        unknown, and the mortal dream will forever cease. My
219:3   method of treating fatigue applies to all bodily ailments,
        since Mind should be, and is, supreme, absolute, and
        final.

                         Affirmation and result

219:6   In mathematics, we do not multiply when we should
        subtract, and then say the product is correct. No more
        can we say in Science that muscles give strength,
219:9   that nerves give pain or pleasure, or that matter
        governs, and then expect that the result will be harmony.
        Not muscles, nerves, nor bones, but mortal mind makes
219:12  the whole body "sick, and the whole heart faint;" whereas
        divine Mind heals.

        When this is understood, we shall never affirm concern-
219:15  ing the body what we do not wish to have manifested. We
        shall not call the body weak, if we would have it strong;
        for the belief in feebleness must obtain in the human
219:18  mind before it can be made manifest on the body, and
        the destruction of the belief will be the removal of its
        effects. Science includes no rule of discord, but governs
219:21  harmoniously. "The wish," says the poet, "is ever father
        to the thought."

                          Scientific beginning

        We may hear a sweet melody, and yet misunderstand
219:24  the science that governs it. Those who are healed
        through metaphysical Science, not compre-
        hending the Principle of the cure, may misun-
219:27  derstand it, and impute their recovery to change of air or
        diet, not rendering to God the honor due to Him alone.
        Entire immunity from the belief in sin, suffering, and
219:30  death may not be reached at this period, but we may look
        for an abatement of these evils; and this scientific begin-
        ning is in the right direction.

                           Hygiene ineffectual

220:1   We hear it said: " I exercise daily in the open air. I
        take cold baths, in order to overcome a predisposition to
220:3   take cold; and yet I have continual colds,
        catarrh, and cough." Such admissions ought
        to open people's eyes to the inefficacy of material hygiene,
220:6   and induce sufferers to look in other directions for cause
        and cure.

        Instinct is better than misguided reason, as even na-
220:9   ture declares. The violet lifts her blue eye to greet the
        early spring. The leaves clap their hands as nature's
        untired worshippers. The snowbird sings and soars
220:12  amid the blasts; he has no catarrh from wet feet, and
        procures a summer residence with more ease than a na-
        bob. The atmosphere of the earth, kinder than the at-
220:15  mosphere of mortal mind, leaves catarrh to the latter.
        Colds, coughs, and contagion are engendered solely by
        human theories.

                          The reflex phenomena

220:18  Mortal mind produces its own phenomena, and then
        charges them to something else, - like a kitten
        glancing into the mirror at itself and thinking
220:21  it sees another kitten.

        A clergyman once adopted a diet of bread and water
        to increase his spirituality. Finding his health failing,
220:24  he gave up his abstinence, and advised others never to
        try dietetics for growth in grace.

                          Volition far-reaching

        The belief that either fasting or feasting makes men
220:27  better morally or physically is one of the fruits of "the
        tree of the knowledge of good and evil," con-
        cerning which God said, "Thou shalt not eat
220:30  of it." Mortal mind forms all conditions of the mortal
        body, and controls the stomach, bones, lungs, heart, blood,
        etc., as directly as the volition or will moves the mind.

                        Starvation and dyspepsia

221:1   I knew a person who when quite a child adopted the
        Graham system to cure dyspepsia. For many years, he
221:3   ate only bread and vegetables, and drank noth-
        ing but water. His dyspepsia increasing, he
        decided that his diet should be more rigid, and
221:6   thereafter he partook of but one meal in twenty-four
        hours, this meal consisting of only a thin slice of bread
        without water. His physician also recommended that
221:9   he should not wet his parched throat until three hours
        after eating. He passed many weary years in hunger
        and weakness, almost in starvation, and finally made up
221:12  his mind to die, having exhausted the skill of the doctors,
        who kindly informed him that death was indeed his only
        alternative. At this point Christian Science saved him,
221:15  and he is now in perfect health without a vestige of the
        old complaint.

        He learned that suffering and disease were the self-
221:18  imposed beliefs of mortals, and not the facts of being;
        that God never decreed disease, - never ordained a law
        that fasting should be a means of health. Hence semi-
221:21  starvation is not acceptable to wisdom, and it is equally
        far from Science, in which being is sustained by God, Mind.
        These truths, opening his eyes, relieved his stomach, and
221:24  he ate without suffering, "giving God thanks;" but he
        never enjoyed his food as he had imagined he would
        when, still the slave of matter, he thought of the flesh-
221:27  pots of Egypt, feeling childhood's hunger and undisci-
        plined by self-denial and divine Science.

                            Mind and stomach

        This new-born understanding, that neither food nor
221:30  the stomach, without the consent of mortal
        mind, can make one suffer, brings with it an-
        other lesson, - that gluttony is a sensual illusion, and
222:1   that this phantasm of mortal mind disappears as we better
        apprehend our spiritual existence and ascend the ladder
222:3   of life.

        This person learned that food affects the body only
        as mortal mind has its material methods of working, one
222:6   of which is to believe that proper food supplies nutriment
        and strength to the human system. He learned also that
        mortal mind makes a mortal body, whereas Truth re-
222:9   generates this fleshly mind and feeds thought with the
        bread of Life.

        Food had less power to help or to hurt him after he
222:12  had availed himself of the fact that Mind governs man,
        and he also had less faith in the so-called pleasures and
        pains of matter. Taking less thought about what he
222:15  should eat or drink, consulting the stomach less about
        the economy of living and God more, he recovered
        strength and flesh rapidly. For many years he had
222:18  been kept alive, as was believed, only by the strictest ad-
        herence to hygiene and drugs, and yet he continued ill
        all the while. Now he dropped drugs and material
222:21  hygiene, and was well.

        He learned that a dyspeptic was very far from being
        the image and likeness of God, - far from having "do-
222:24  minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
        air, and over the cattle," if eating a bit of animal flesh
        could overpower him. He finally concluded that God
222:27  never made a dyspeptic, while fear, hygiene, physiology,
        and physics had made him one, contrary to His commands.

                           Life only in Spirit

        In seeking a cure for dyspepsia consult matter not at
222:30  all, and eat what is set before you, "asking
        no question for conscience sake." We must
        destroy the false belief that life and intelligence are in
223:1   matter, and plant ourselves upon what is pure and per-
        fect. Paul said, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
223:3   fulfil the lust of the flesh." Sooner or later we shall learn
        that the fetters of man's finite capacity are forged by the
        illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter
223:6   instead of in Spirit.

                         Soul greater than body

        Matter does not express Spirit. God is infinite omni-
        present Spirit. If Spirit is /all/ and is everywhere, what
223:9   and where is matter? Remember that truth
        is greater than error, and we cannot put the
        greater into the less. Soul is Spirit, and Spirit is greater
223:12  than body. If Spirit were once within the body, Spirit
        would be finite, and therefore could not be Spirit.

                        The question of the ages

        The question, "What is Truth," convulses the world.
223:15  Many are ready to meet this inquiry with the assurance
        which comes of understanding; but more are
        blinded by their old illusions, and try to "give
223:18  it pause." "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into
        the ditch."

        The efforts of error to answer this question by some
223:21  /ology/ are vain. Spiritual rationality and free thought ac-
        company approaching Science, and cannot be put down.
        They will emancipate humanity, and supplant unscientific
223:24  means and so-called laws.

                           Heralds of Science

        Peals that should startle the slumbering thought from
        its erroneous dream are partially unheeded; but the last
223:27  trump has not sounded, or this would not be
        so. Marvels, calamities, and sin will much
        more abound as truth urges upon mortals its resisted
223:30  claims; but the awful daring of sin destroys sin, and
        foreshadows the triumph of truth. God will over-
        turn, until "He come whose right it is." Longevity
224:1   is increasing and the power of sin diminishing, for the,
        world feels the alterative effect of truth through every
224:3   pore.

        As the crude footprints of the past disappear from the
        dissolving paths of the present, we shall better understand
224:6   the Science which governs these changes, and shall plant
        our feet on firmer ground. Every sensuous pleasure or
        pain is self-destroyed through suffering. There should
224:9   be painless progress, attended by life and peace instead
        of discord and death.

                       Sectarianism and opposition

        In the record of nineteen centuries, there are sects
224:12  many but not enough Christianity. Centuries ago re-
        ligionists were ready to hail an anthropomor-
        phic God, and array His vicegerent with pomp
224:15  and splendor; but this was not the manner
        of truth's appearing. Of old the cross was truth's cen-
        tral sign, and it is to-day. The modern lash is less
224:18  material than the Roman scourge, but it is equally as
        cutting. Cold disdain, stubborn resistance, opposition
        from church, state laws, and the press, are still the har-
224:21  bingers of truth's full-orbed appearing.

        A higher and more practical Christianity, demonstrat-
        ing justice and meeting the needs of mortals in sickness
224:24  and in health, stands at the door of this age, knocking
        for admission. Will you open or close the door upon this
        angel visitant, who cometh in the quiet of meekness, as he
224:27  came of old to the patriarch at noonday?

                           Mental emancipation

        Truth brings the elements of liberty. On its banner
        is the Soul-inspired motto, "Slavery is abolished." The
224:30  power of God brings deliverance to the cap-
        tive. No power can withstand divine Love.
        What is this supposed power, which opposes itself to God?
225:1   Whence cometh it? What is it that binds man with iron
        shackles to sin, sickness, and death? Whatever enslaves
225:3   man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes
        man free.

                             Truth's ordeal

        You may know when first Truth leads by the few-
225:6   ness and faithfulness of its followers. Thus it is that
        the march of time bears onward freedom's
        banner. The powers of this world will fight,
225:9   and will command their sentinels not to let truth pass
        the guard until it subscribes to their systems; but Science,
        heeding not the pointed bayonet, marches on. There is
225:12  always some tumult, but there is a rallying to truth's
        standard.

                           Immortal sentences

        The history of our country, like all history, illustrates
225:15  the might of Mind, and shows human power to be propor-
        tionate to its embodiment of right thinking. A
        few immortal sentences, breathing the omnipo-
225:18  tence of divine justice, have been potent to break despotic
        fetters and abolish the whipping-post and slave market;
        but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the
225:21  breath of freedom come from the cannon's mouth. Love
        is the liberator.

                            Slavery abolished

        Legally to abolish unpaid servitude in the United
225:24  States was hard; but the abolition of mental slavery is
        a more difficult task. The despotic tenden-
        cies, inherent in mortal mind and always ger-
225:27  minating in new forms of tyranny, must be rooted out
        through the action of the divine Mind.

        Men and women of all climes and races are still in
225:30  bondage to material sense, ignorant how to obtain their
        freedom. The rights of man were vindicated in a single
        section and on the lowest plane of human life, when Afri-
226:1   can slavery was abolished in our land. That was only
        prophetic of further steps towards the banishment of a
226:3   world-wide slavery, found on higher planes of existence
        and under more subtle and depraving forms.

                            Liberty's crusade

        The voice of God in behalf of the African slave was
226:6   still echoing in our land, when the voice of the herald of
        this new crusade sounded the keynote of uni-
        versal freedom, asking a fuller acknowledg-
226:9   ment of the rights of man as a Son of God, demanding
        that the fetters of sin, sickness, and death be stricken
        from the human mind and that its freedom be won, not
226:12  through human warfare, not with bayonet and blood, but
        through Christ's divine Science.

                            Cramping systems

        God has built a higher platform of human rights, and
226:15  He has built it on diviner claims. These claims are not
        made through code or creed, but in demonstra-
        tion of "on earth peace, good-will toward men."
226:18  Human codes, scholastic theology, material medicine and
        hygiene, fetter faith and spiritual understanding. Divine
        Science rends asunder these fetters, and man's birthright
226:21  of sole allegiance to his Maker asserts itself.

        I saw before me the sick, wearing out years of servi-
        tude to an unreal master in the belief that the body gov-
226:24  erned them, rather than Mind.

                            House of bondage

        The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the sick, the
        sensual, the sinner, I wished to save from the slavery of
226:27  their own beliefs and from the educational
        systems of the Pharaohs, who to-day, as of
        yore, hold the children of Israel in bondage. I saw be-
226:30  fore me the awful conflict, the Red Sea and the wilder-
        ness; but I pressed on through faith in God, trusting
        Truth, the strong deliverer, to guide me into the land
227:1   of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of
        man are fully known and acknowledged.

                         Higher law ends bondage

227:3   I saw that the law of mortal belief included all error,
        and that, even as oppressive laws are disputed and mor-
        tals are taught their right to freedom, so the
227:6   claims of the enslaving senses must be de-
        nied and superseded. The law of the divine Mind must
        end human bondage, or mortals will continue unaware
227:9   of man's inalienable rights and in subjection to hope-
        less slavery, because some public teachers permit
        an ignorance of divine power, - an ignorance that
227:12  is the foundation of continued bondage and of human
        suffering.

                             Native freedom

        Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail to fore-
227:15  see the doom of all oppression. Slavery is not the legiti-
        mate state of man. God made man free.
        Paul said, "I was free born." All men should
227:18  be free. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is lib-
        erty." Love and Truth make free, but evil and error
        lead into captivity.

                           Standard of liberty

227:21  Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and
        cries: "Follow me! Escape from the bondage of sick-
        ness, sin, and death!" Jesus marked out the
227:24  way. Citizens of the world, accept the "glori-
        ous liberty of the children of God," and be free! This
        is your divine right. The illusion of material sense, not
227:27  divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs,
        crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and de-
        faced the tablet of your being.

227:30  If God had instituted material laws to govern man,
        disobedience to which would have made man ill, Jesus
        would not have disregarded those laws by healing in
228:1   direct opposition to them and in defiance of all material
        conditions.

                           No fleshly heredity

228:3   The transmission of disease or of certain idiosyncra-
        sies of mortal mind would be impossible if this great fact
        of being were learned, - namely, that nothing
228:6   inharmonious can enter being, for Life /is/ God.
        Heredity is a prolific subject for mortal belief to pin the-
        ories upon; but if we learn that nothing is real but the
228:9   right, we shall have no dangerous inheritances, and fleshly
        ills will disappear.

                           God-given dominion

        The enslavement of man is not legitimate. It will
228:12  cease when man enters into his heritage of freedom, his
        God-given dominion over the material senses.
        Mortals will some day assert their freedom in
228:15  the name of Almighty God. Then they will control their
        own bodies through the understanding of divine Science.
        Dropping their present beliefs, they will recognize har-
228:18  mony as the spiritual reality and discord as the material
        unreality.

        If we follow the command of our Master, "Take no
228:21  thought for your life," we shall never depend on bodily
        conditions, structure, or economy, but we shall be masters
        of the body, dictate its terms, and form and control it with
228:24  Truth.

                         Priestly pride humbled

        There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence has
        all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dis-
228:27  honor God. The humble Nazarene overthrew
        the supposition that sin, sickness, and death
        have power. He proved them powerless. It should have
228:30  humbled the pride of the priests, when they saw the dem-
        onstration of Christianity excel the influence of their dead
        faith and ceremonies.

229:1   If Mind is not the master of sin, sickness, and death,
        they are immortal, for it is already proved that mat-
229:3   ter has not destroyed them, but is their basis and
        support.

                          No union of opposites

        We should hesitate to say that Jehovah sins or suffers;
229:6   but if sin and suffering are realities of being, whence did
        they emanate? God made all that was made,
        and Mind signifies God, - infinity, not finity.
229:9   Not far removed from infidelity is the belief which
        unites such opposites as sickness and health, holiness
        and unholiness, calls both the offspring of spirit, and
229:12  at the same time admits that Spirit is God, - vir-
        tually declaring Him good in one instance and evil in
        another.

                          Self-constituted law

229:15  By universal consent, mortal belief has constituted
        itself a law to bind mortals to sickness, sin, and death.
        This customary belief is misnamed material
229:18  law, and the individual who upholds it is mis-
        taken in theory and in practice. The so-called law of
        mortal mind, conjectural and speculative, is made void
229:21  by the law of immortal Mind, and false law should be
        trampled under foot.

                        Sickness from mortal mind

        If God causes man to be sick, sickness must be good,
229:24  and its opposite, health, must be evil, for all that He
        makes is good and will stand forever. If the
        transgression of God's law produces sickness, it
229:27  is right to be sick; and we cannot if we would, and should
        not if we could, annul the decrees of wisdom. It is the
        transgression of a belief of mortal mind, not of a law of
229:30  matter nor of divine Mind, which causes the belief of sick-
        ness. The remedy is Truth, not matter, - the truth that
        disease is /unreal/.

230:1   If sickness is real, it belongs to immortality; if true,
        it is a part of Truth. Would you attempt with drugs,
230:3   or without, to destroy a quality or condition of Truth?
        But if sickness and sin are illusions, the awakening from
        this mortal dream, or illusion, will bring us into health,
230:6   holiness, and immortality. This awakening is the for-
        ever coming of Christ, the advanced appearing of Truth,
        which casts out error and heals the sick. This is the sal-
230:9   vation which comes through God, the divine Principle,
        Love, as demonstrated by Jesus.

                         God never inconsistent

        It would be contrary to our highest ideas of God to
230:12  suppose Him capable of first arranging law and causation
        so as to bring about certain evil results, and
        then punishing the helpless victims of His vo-
230:15  lition for doing what they could not avoid doing. Good
        is not, cannot be, the author of experimental sins. God,
        good, can no more produce sickness than goodness can
230:18  cause evil and health occasion disease.

                            Mental narcotics

        Does wisdom make blunders which must afterwards
        be rectified by man? Does a law of God produce sick-
230:21  ness, and can man put that law under his feet
        by healing sickness? According to Holy Writ,
        the sick are never really healed by drugs, hygiene, or any
230:24  material method. These merely evade the question.
        They are soothing syrups to put children to sleep, satisfy
        mortal belief, and quiet fear.

                            The true healing

230:27  We think that we are healed when a disease disap-
        pears, though it is liable to reappear; but we are never
        thoroughly healed until the liability to be
230:30  ill is removed. So-called mortal mind or the
        mind of mortals being the remote, predisposing, and
        the exciting cause of all suffering, the cause of disease
231:1   must be obliterated through Christ in divine Science, or
        the so-called physical senses will get the victory.

                         Destruction of all evil

231:3   Unless an ill is rightly met and fairly overcome by
        Truth, the ill is never conquered. If God destroys not
        sin, sickness, and death, they are not de-
231:6   stroyed in the mind of mortals, but seem to
        this so-called mind to be immortal. What God cannot
        do, man need not attempt. If God heals not the sick,
231:9   they are not healed, for no lesser power equals the infinite
        All-power; but God, Truth, Life, Love, does heal the
        sick through the prayer of the righteous.

231:12  If God makes sin, if good produces evil, if truth results
        in error, then Science and Christianity are helpless; but
        there are no antagonistic powers nor laws, spiritual or
231:15  material, creating and governing man through perpetual
        warfare. God is not the author of mortal discords.
        Therefore we accept the conclusion that discords have
231:18  only a fabulous existence, are mortal beliefs which divine
        Truth and Love destroy.

                     Superiority to sickness and sin

        To hold yourself superior to sin, because God made
231:21  you superior to it and governs man, is true wisdom. To
        fear sin is to misunderstand the power of Love
        and the divine Science of being in man's rela-
231:24  tion to God, - to doubt His government and
        distrust His omnipotent care. To hold yourself superior
        to sickness and death is equally wise, and is in accordance
231:27  with divine Science. To fear them is impossible, when
        you fully apprehend God and know that they are no part
        of His creation.

231:30  Man, governed by his Maker, having no other Mind, -
        planted on the Evangelist's statement that "all things
        were made by Him [the Word of God]; and without
232:1   Him was not anything made that was made," - can
        triumph over sin, sickness, and death.

                         Denials of divine power

232:3   Many theories relative to God and man neither make
        man harmonious nor God lovable. The beliefs we com-
        monly entertain about happiness and life
232:6   afford no scatheless and permanent evidence
        of either. Security for the claims of harmonious and
        eternal being is found only in divine Science.

232:9   Scripture informs us that "with God all things are
        possible," - all good is possible to Spirit; but our prev-
        alent theories practically deny this, and make healing
232:12  possible only through matter. These theories must be
        untrue, for the Scripture is true. Christianity is not
        false, but religions which contradict its Principle are
232:15  false.

        In our age Christianity is again demonstrating the
        power of divine Principle, as it did over nineteen hun-
232:18  dred years ago, by healing the sick and triumphing over
        death. Jesus never taught that drugs, food, air, and ex-
        ercise could make a man healthy, or that they could de-
232:21  stroy human life; nor did he illustrate these errors by his
        practice. He referred man's harmony to Mind, not to
        matter, and never tried to make of none effect the sen-
232:24  tence of God, which sealed God's condemnation of sin,
        sickness, and death.

                             Signs following

        In the sacred sanctuary of Truth are voices of sol-
232:27  emn import, but we heed them not. It is only when the
        so-called pleasures and pains of sense pass
        away in our lives, that we find unquestion-
232:30  able signs of the burial of error and the resurrection to
        spiritual life.

                          Profession and proof

        There is neither place nor opportunity in Science for error
233:1   of any sort. Every day makes its demands upon us for
        higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power.
233:3   These proofs consist solely in the destruction
        of sin, sickness, and death by the power of
        Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of
233:6   progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law de-
        mands of us only what we can certainly fulfil.

                        Perfection gained slowly

        In the midst of imperfection, perfection is seen and
233:9   acknowledged only by degrees. The ages must slowly
        work up to perfection. How long it must be
        before we arrive at the demonstration of scien-
233:12  tific being, no man knoweth, - not even "the
        Son but the Father;" but the false claim of error con-
        tinues its delusions until the goal of goodness is assidu-
233:15  ously earned and won.

                            Christ's mission

        Already the shadow of His right hand rests upon the
        hour. Ye who can discern the face of the sky, - the
233:18  sign material, - how much more should ye
        discern the sign mental, and compass the de-
        struction of sin and sickness by overcoming the thoughts
233:21  which produce them, and by understanding the spiritual
        idea which corrects and destroys them. To reveal this
        truth was our Master's mission to all mankind, including
233:24  the hearts which rejected him.

                            Efficacy of truth

        When numbers have been divided according to a fixed
        rule, the quotient is not more unquestionable than the
233:27  scientific tests I have made of the effects of
        truth upon the sick. The counter fact rela-
        tive to any disease is required to cure it. The utterance
233:30  of truth is designed to rebuke and destroy error. Why
        should truth not be efficient in sickness, which is solely
        the result of inharmony?

234:1   Spiritual draughts heal, while material lotions interfere
        with truth, even as ritualism and creed hamper spirit-
234:3   uality. If we trust matter, we distrust Spirit.

                            Crumbs of comfort

        Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love - be
        it song, sermon, or Science - blesses the human family
234:6   with crumbs of comfort from Christ's table
        feeding the hungry and giving living waters to
        the thirsty.

                     Hospitality to health and good

234:9   We should become more familiar with good than with
        evil, and guard against false beliefs as watchfully as we
        bar our doors against the approach of thieves
234:12  and murderers. We should love our enemies
        and help them on the basis of the Golden
        Rule; but avoid casting pearls before those who trample
234:15  them under foot, thereby robbing both themselves and
        others.

                           Cleansing the mind

        If mortals would keep proper ward over mortal mind,
234:18  the brood of evils which infest it would be cleared out.
        We must begin with this so-called mind and
        empty it of sin and sickness, or sin and sick-
234:21  ness will never cease. The present codes of human
        systems disappoint the weary searcher after a divine
        theology, adequate to the right education of human
234:24  thought.

        Sin and disease must be thought before they can be
        manifested. You must control evil thoughts in the first
234:27  instance, or they will control you in the second. Jesus
        declared that to look with desire on forbidden objects was
        to break a moral precept. He laid great stress on the
234:30  action of the human mind, unseen to the senses.

        Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more
        harm than one's belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and
235:1   malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen,
        from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected
235:3   lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence.
        Better suffer a doctor infected with smallpox to attend
        you than to be treated mentally by one who does not obey
235:6   the requirements of divine Science.

                           Teachers' functions

        The teachers of schools and the readers in churches
        should be selected with as direct reference to their
235:9   morals as to their learning or their correct
        reading. Nurseries of character should be
        strongly garrisoned with virtue. School-examinations are
235:12  one-sided; it is not so much academic education, as a
        moral and spiritual culture, which lifts one higher. The
        pure and uplifting thoughts of the teacher, constantly
235:15  imparted to pupils, will reach higher than the heavens of
        astronomy; while the debased and unscrupulous mind,
        though adorned with gems of scholarly attainment, will
235:18  degrade the characters it should inform and elevate.

                          Physicians' privilege

        Physicians, whom the sick employ in their helplessness,
        should be models of virtue. They should be wise spir-
235:21  itual guides to health and hope. To the trem-
        blers on the brink of death, who understand
        not the divine Truth which is Life and perpetuates being,
235:24  physicians should be able to teach it. Then when the soul
        is willing and the flesh weak, the patient's feet may be
        planted on the rock Christ Jesus, the true idea of spiritual
235:27  power.

                            Clergymen's duty

        Clergymen, occupying the watchtowers of the world,
        should uplift the standard of Truth. They should so raise
235:30  their hearers spiritually, that their listeners
        will love to grapple with a new, right idea
        and broaden their concepts. Love of Christianity, rather
236:1   than love of popularity, should stimulate clerical labor
        and progress. Truth should emanate from the pulpit,
236:3   but never be strangled there. A special privilege is vested
        in the ministry. How shall it be used? Sacredly, in the
        interests of humanity, not of sect.

236:6   Is it not professional reputation and emolument rather
        than the dignity of God's laws, which many leaders seek?
        Do not inferior motives induce the infuriated attacks on
236:9   individuals, who reiterate Christ's teachings in support
        of his proof by example that the divine Mind heals sick-
        ness as well as sin?

                        A mother's responsibility

236:12  A mother is the strongest educator, either for or
        against crime. Her thoughts form the embryo of an-
        other mortal mind, and unconsciously mould
236:15  it, either after a model odious to herself or
        through divine influence, "according to the pattern
        showed to thee in the mount." Hence the importance
236:18  of Christian Science, from which we learn of the one
        Mind and of the availability of good as the remedy for
        every woe.

                         Children's tractability

236:21  Children should obey their parents; insubordination
        is an evil, blighting the buddings of self-government.
        Parents should teach their children at the
236:24  earliest possible period the truths of health
        and holiness. Children are more tractable than adults,
        and learn more readily to love the simple verities that will
236:27  make them happy and good.

        Jesus loved little children because of their freedom
        from wrong and their receptiveness of right. While
236:30  age is halting between two opinions or battling with
        false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards
        Truth.

237:1   A little girl, who had occasionally listened to my ex-
        planations, badly wounded her finger. She seemed not
237:3   to notice it. On being questioned about it she answered
        ingenuously, "There is no sensation in matter." Bound-
        ing off with laughing eyes, she presently added, "Mamma,
237:6   my finger is not a bit sore."

                              Soil and seed

        It might have been months or years before her parents
        would have laid aside their drugs, or reached the mental
237:9   height their little daughter so naturally at-
        tained. The more stubborn beliefs and theo-
        ries of parents often choke the good seed in the minds of
237:12  themselves and their offspring. Superstition, like "the
        fowls of the air," snatches away the good seed before it
        has sprouted.

                            Teaching children

237:15  Children should be taught the Truth-cure, Christian
        Science, among their first lessons, and kept from discuss-
        ing or entertaining theories or thoughts about
237:18  sickness. To prevent the experience of error
        and its sufferings, keep out of the minds of your children
        either sinful or diseased thoughts. The latter should
237:21  be excluded on the same principle as the former. This
        makes Christian Science early available.

                            Deluded invalids

        Some invalids are unwilling to know the facts or to
237:24  hear about the fallacy of matter and its supposed laws.
        They devote themselves a little longer to their
        material gods, cling to a belief in the life and
237:27  intelligence of matter, and expect this error to do more
        for them than they are willing to admit the only living and
        true God can do. Impatient at your explanation, unwill-
237:30  ing to investigate the Science of Mind which would rid
        them of their complaints, they hug false beliefs and suffer
        the delusive consequences.

                             Patient waiting

238:1   Motives and acts are not rightly valued before they are
        understood. It is well to wait till those whom you would
238:3   benefit are ready for the blessing, for Science
        is working changes in personal character as
        well as in the material universe.
238:6   To obey the Scriptural command, "Come out from
        among them, and be ye separate," is to incur society's
        frown; but this frown, more than flatteries, enables one
238:9   to be Christian. Losing her crucifix, the Roman Catholic
        girl said, "I have nothing left but Christ." "If God be
        for us, who can be against us?"

                        Unimproved opportunities

238:12  To fall away from Truth in times of persecution, shows
        that we never understood Truth. From out the bridal
        chamber of wisdom there will come the warn-
238:15  ing, "I know you not." Unimproved op-
        portunities will rebuke us when we attempt to claim the
        benefits of an experience we have not made our own, try
238:18  to reap the harvest we have not sown, and wish to enter
        unlawfully into the labors of others. Truth often remains
        unsought, until we seek this remedy for human woe be-
238:21  cause we suffer severely from error.

        Attempts to conciliate society and so gain dominion over
        mankind, arise from worldly weakness. He who leaves
238:24  all for Christ forsakes popularity and gains Christianity.

                         Society and intolerance

        Society is a foolish juror, listening only to one side of
        the case. Justice often comes too late to secure a verdict.
238:27  People with mental work before them have
        no time for gossip about false law or testimony.
        To reconstruct timid justice and place the fact above the
238:30  falsehood, is the work of time.

        The cross is the central emblem of history. It is the
        lodestar in the demonstration of Christian healing, - the
239:1   demonstration by which sin and sickness are destroyed.
        The sects, which endured the lash of their predecessors,
239:3   in their turn lay it upon those who are in advance of
        creeds.

                         Right views of humanity

        Take away wealth, fame, and social organizations,
239:6   which weigh not one jot in the balance of God, and we
        get clearer views of Principle. Break up
        cliques, level wealth with honesty, let worth
239:9   be judged according to wisdom, and we get better views
        of humanity.

        The wicked man is not the ruler of his upright
239:12  neighbor. Let it be understood that success in error is
        defeat in Truth. The watchword of Christian Science
        is Scriptural: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
239:15  unrighteous man his thoughts."

                           Standpoint revealed

        To ascertain our progress, we must learn where our
        affections are placed and whom we acknowledge and
239:18  obey as God. If divine Love is becoming
        nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is
        then submitting to Spirit. The objects we pursue and
239:21  the spirit we manifest reveal our standpoint, and show
        what we are winning.

                          Antagonistic sources

        Mortal mind is the acknowledged seat of human mo-
239:24  tives. It forms material concepts and produces every
        discordant action of the body. If action pro-
        ceeds from the divine Mind, action is harmo-
239:27  nious. If it comes from erring mortal mind, it is discord-
        ant and ends in sin, sickness, death. Those two opposite
        sources never mingle in fount or stream. The perfect
239:30  Mind sends forth perfection, for God is Mind. Imper-
        fect mortal mind sends forth its own resemblances, of
        which the wise man said, "All is vanity."

                        Some lessons from nature

240:1   Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love,
        but human belief misinterprets nature. Arctic regions,
240:3   sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds,
        mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers,
        and glorious heavens, - all point to Mind, the spiritual
240:6   intelligence they reflect. The floral apostles are hiero-
        glyphs of Deity. Suns and planets teach grand lessons.
        The stars make night beautiful, and the leaflet turns nat-
240:9   urally towards the light.

                            Perpetual motions

        In the order of Science, in which the Principle is above
        what it reflects, all is one grand concord. Change this
240:12  statement, suppose Mind to be governed by
        matter or Soul in body, and you lose the key-
        note of being, and there is continual discord. Mind is
240:15  perpetual motion. Its symbol is the sphere. The rota-
        tions and revolutions of the universe of Mind go on
        eternally.

                            Progress demanded

240:18  Mortals move onward towards good or evil as time
        glides on. If mortals are not progressive, past failures
        will be repeated until all wrong work is ef-
240:21  faced or rectified. If at present satisfied with
        wrong-doing, we must learn to loathe it. If at present
        content with idleness, we must become dissatisfied with
240:24  it. Remember that mankind must sooner or later, either
        by suffering or by Science, be convinced of the error that
        is to be overcome.

240:27  In trying to undo the errors of sense one must pay fully
        and fairly the utmost farthing, until all error is finally
        brought into subjection to Truth. The divine method
240:30  of paying sin's wages involves unwinding one's snarls
        and learning from experience how to divide between sense
        and Soul.

241:1   "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." He, who
        knows God's will or the demands of divine Science and
241:3   obeys them, incurs the hostility of envy; and he who
        refuses obedience to God, is chastened by Love.

                             The doom of sin

        Sensual treasures are laid up "where moth and rust
241:6   doth corrupt." Mortality is their doom. Sin breaks in
        upon them, and carries off their fleeting joys.
        The sensualist's affections are as imaginary,
241:9   whimsical, and unreal as his pleasures. Falsehood, envy,
        hypocrisy, malice, hate, revenge, and so forth, steal away
        the treasures of Truth. Stripped of its coverings, what
241:12  a mocking spectacle is sin!

                            Spirit transforms

        The Bible teaches transformation of the body by the
        renewal of Spirit. Take away the spiritual signification
241:15  of Scripture, and that compilation can do no
        more for mortals than can moonbeams to melt
        a river of ice. The error of the ages is preaching without
241:18  practice.

        The substance of all devotion is the reflection and
        demonstration of divine Love, healing sickness and
241:21  destroying sin. Our Master said, "If ye love me, keep
        my commandments."

        One's aim, a point beyond faith, should be to find the
241:24  footsteps of Truth, the way to health and holiness. We
        should strive to reach the Horeb height where God is re-
        vealed; and the corner-stone of all spiritual building is
241:27  purity. The baptism of Spirit, washing the body of all
        the impurities of flesh, signifies that the pure in heart
        see God and are approaching spiritual Life and its
241:30  demonstration.

                            Spiritual baptism

        It is "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
        needle," than for sinful beliefs to enter the kingdom of
242:1   heaven, eternal harmony. Through repentance, spiritual
        baptism, and regeneration, mortals put off their material
242:3   beliefs and false individuality. It is only a
        question of time when "they shall all know
        Me [God], from the least of them unto the greatest."
242:6   Denial of the claims of matter is a great step towards
        the joys of Spirit, towards human freedom and the final
        triumph over the body.

                            The one only way

242:9   There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ
        in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no
        other reality - to have no other conscious-
242:12  ness of life - than good, God and His reflec-
        tion, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure
        of the senses.

242:15  Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In pa-
        tient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dis-
        solve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant
242:18  of error, - self-will, self-justification, and self-love, -
        which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin
        and death.

                            Divided vestments

242:21  The vesture of Life is Truth. According to the Bible,
        the facts of being are commonly misconstrued, for it is
        written: "They parted my raiment among
242:24  them, and for my vesture they did cast lots."
        The divine Science of man is woven into one web of
        consistency without seam or rent. Mere speculation or
242:27  superstition appropriates no part of the divine vesture,
        while inspiration restores every part of the Christly gar-
        ment of righteousness.

242:30  The finger-posts of divine Science show the way our
        Master trod, and require of Christians the proof which
        he gave, instead of mere profession. We may hide
243:1   spiritual ignorance from the world, but we can never
        succeed in the Science and demonstration of spiritual
243:3   good through ignorance or hypocrisy.

                       Ancient and modern miracles

        The divine Love, which made harmless the poisonous
        viper, which delivered men from the boiling oil, from
243:6   the fiery furnace, from the jaws of the lion,
        can heal the sick in every age and triumph
        over sin and death. It crowned the demon-
243:9   strations of Jesus with unsurpassed power and love. But
        the same "Mind . . . which was also in Christ Jesus"
        must always accompany the letter of Science in order to
243:12  confirm and repeat the ancient demonstrations of prophets
        and apostles. That those wonders are not more com-
        monly repeated to-day, arises not so much from lack of
243:15  desire as from lack of spiritual growth.

                            Mental telegraphy

        The clay cannot reply to the potter. The head, heart,
        lungs, and limbs do not inform us that they are dizzy,
243:18  diseased, consumptive, or lame. If this in-
        formation is conveyed, mortal mind conveys
        it. Neither immortal and unerring Mind nor matter,
243:21  the inanimate substratum of mortal mind, can carry
        on such telegraphy; for God is "of purer eyes than
        to behold evil," and matter has neither intelligence nor
243:24  sensation.

                          Annihilation of error

        Truth has no consciousness of error. Love has no
        sense of hatred. Life has no partnership
243:27  with death. Truth, Life, and Love are a law
        of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because
        they declare nothing except God.

                        Deformity and perfection

243:30  Sickness, sin, and death are not the fruits of Life.
        They are inharmonies which Truth destroys. Perfection
        does not animate imperfection. Inasmuch as God is
244:1   good and the fount of all being, He does not produce
        moral or physical deformity; therefore such deformity is
244:3   not real, but is illusion, the mirage of error.
        Divine Science reveals these grand facts. On
        their basis Jesus demonstrated Life, never
244:6   fearing nor obeying error in any form.

        If we were to derive all our conceptions of man from
        what is seen between the cradle and the grave, happi-
244:9   ness and goodness would have no abiding-place in man,
        and the worms would rob him of the flesh; but Paul
        writes: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
244:12  made me free from the law of sin and death."

                         Man never less than man

        Man undergoing birth, maturity, and decay is like the
        beasts and vegetables, - subject to laws of decay. If
244:15  man were dust in his earliest stage of exist-
        ence, we might admit the hypothesis that he
        returns eventually to his primitive condition;
244:18  but man was never more nor less than man.

        If man flickers out in death or springs from matter into
        being, there must be an instant when God is without His
244:21  entire manifestation, - when there is no full reflection
        of the infinite Mind.

                             Man not evolved

        Man in Science is neither young nor old. He has
244:24  neither birth nor death. He is not a beast, a vegetable,
        nor a migratory mind. He does not pass from
        matter to Mind, from the mortal to the im-
244:27  mortal, from evil to good, or from good to evil. Such
        admissions cast us headlong into darkness and dogma.
        Even Shakespeare's poetry pictures age as infancy, as
244:30  helplessness and decadence, instead of assigning to man
        the everlasting grandeur and immortality of development,
        power, and prestige.

245:1   The error of thinking that we are growing old, and the
        benefits of destroying that illusion, are illustrated in a
245:3   sketch from the history of an English woman, published
        in the London medical magazine called The Lancet.

                             Perpetual youth

        Disappointed in love in her early years, she became
245:6   insane and lost all account of time. Believing that she
        was still living in the same hour which parted
        her from her lover, taking no note of years,
245:9   she stood daily before the window watching for her
        lover's coming. In this mental state she remained young.
        Having no consciousness of time, she literally grew no
245:12  older. Some American travellers saw her when she was
        seventy-four, and supposed her to be a young woman.
        She had no care-lined face, no wrinkles nor gray hair, but
245:15  youth sat gently on cheek and brow. Asked to guess her
        age, those unacquainted with her history conjectured that
        she must be under twenty.

245:18  This instance of youth preserved furnishes a useful
        hint, upon which a Franklin might work with more cer-
        tainty than when he coaxed the enamoured lightning
245:21  from the clouds. Years had not made her old, because
        she had taken no cognizance of passing time nor thought
        of herself as growing old. The bodily results of her belief
245:24  that she was young manifested the influence of such a be-
        lief. She could not age while believing herself young, for
        the mental state governed the physical.

245:27  Impossibilities never occur. One instance like the
        foregoing proves it possible to be young at seventy-four;
        and the primary of that illustration makes it plain that
245:30  decrepitude is not according to law, nor is it a necessity of
        nature, but an illusion.

                            Man reflects God

        The infinite never began nor will it ever end. Mind
246:1   and its formations can never be annihilated. Man is not
        a pendulum, swinging between evil and good, joy and
246:3   sorrow, sickness and health, life and death.
        Life and its faculties are not measured by
        calendars. The perfect and immortal are the eternal
246:6   likeness of their Maker. Man is by no means a material
        germ rising from the imperfect and endeavoring to reach
        Spirit above his origin. The stream rises no higher than
246:9   its source.

        The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and
        gives ugliness to age. The radiant sun of virtue and truth
246:12  coexists with being. Manhood is its eternal noon, un-
        dimmed by a declining sun. As the physical and mate-
        rial, the transient sense of beauty fades, the radiance of
246:15  Spirit should dawn upon the enraptured sense with bright
        and imperishable glories.

                           Undesirable records

        Never record ages. Chronological data are no part
246:18  of the vast forever. Time-tables of birth and death are
        so many conspiracies against manhood and
        womanhood. Except for the error of meas-
246:21  uring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man
        would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and
        still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man,
246:24  governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and
        grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty,
        and holiness.

                            True life eternal

246:27  Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the
        demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal.
        Let us then shape our views of existence into
246:30  loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather
        than into age and blight.

        Acute and chronic beliefs reproduce their own types.
247:1   The acute belief of physical life comes on at a remote
        period, and is not so disastrous as the chronic belief.

                         Eyes and teeth renewed

247:3   I have seen age regain two of the elements it had lost,
        sight and teeth. A woman of eighty-five, whom I knew,
        had a return of sight. Another woman at
247:6   ninety had new teeth, incisors, cuspids, bi-
        cuspids, and one molar. One man at sixty
        had retained his full set of upper and lower teeth without
247:9   a decaying cavity.

                             Eternal beauty

        Beauty, as well as truth, is eternal; but the beauty
        of material things passes away, fading and fleeting as
247:12  mortal belief. Custom, education, and fashion
        form the transient standards of mortals. Im-
        mortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its
247:15  own, - the radiance of Soul. Immortal men and women
        are models of spiritual sense, drawn by perfect Mind
        and reflecting those higher conceptions of loveliness
247:18  which transcend all material sense.

                          The divine loveliness

        Comeliness and grace are independent of matter. Be-
        ing possesses its qualities before they are perceived hu-
247:21  manly. Beauty is a thing of life, which
        dwells forever in the eternal Mind and re-
        flects the charms of His goodness in expression, form,
247:24  outline, and color. It is Love which paints the petal
        with myriad hues, glances in the warm sunbeam, arches
        the cloud with the bow of beauty, blazons the night with
247:27  starry gems, and covers earth with loveliness.

        The embellishments of the person are poor substitutes
        for the charms of being, shining resplendent and eternal
247:30  over age and decay.

        The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and
        more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure
248:1   in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious free-
        dom of spiritual harmony.

                            Love's endowment

248:3   Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon
        its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less
        than beautiful. Men and women of riper
248:6   years and larger lessons ought to ripen into
        health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness
        or gloom. Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal
248:9   freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images
        of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each
        day brings to a nearer tomb.

                            Mental sculpture

248:12  The sculptor turns from the marble to his model in
        order to perfect his conception. We are all sculptors,
        working at various forms, moulding and chisel-
248:15  ing thought. What is the model before mortal
        mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering?
        Have you accepted the mortal model? Are you repro-
248:18  ducing it? Then you are haunted in your work by vicious
        sculptors and hideous forms. Do you not hear from all
        mankind of the imperfect model? The world is holding
248:21  it before your gaze continually. The result is that you
        are liable to follow those lower patterns, limit your life-
        work, and adopt into your experience the angular outline
248:24  and deformity of matter models.

                             Perfect models

        To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right
        direction, and then walk that way. We must form perfect
248:27  models in thought and look at them continually,
        or we shall never carve them out in grand and
        noble lives. Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice,
248:30  health, holiness, love - the kingdom of heaven - reign
        within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until
        they finally disappear.

249:1   Let us accept Science, relinquish all theories based on
        sense-testimony, give up imperfect models and illusive
249:3   ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that
        one perfect, producing His own models of excellence.

                            Renewed selfhood

        Let the "male and female" of God's creating appear.
249:6   Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into
        newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor
        material power as able to destroy. Let us re-
249:9   joice that we are subject to the divine "powers that be."
        Such is the true Science of being. Any other theory of
        Life, or God, is delusive and mythological.

249:12  Mind is not the author of matter, and the creator of
        ideas is not the creator of illusions. Either there is no
        omnipotence, or omnipotence is the only power. God is
249:15  the infinite, and infinity never began, will never end, and
        includes nothing unlike God. Whence then is soulless
        matter?

                             Illusive dreams

249:18  Life is, like Christ, "the same yesterday, and to-day,
        and forever." Organization and time have nothing to do
        with Life. You say, "I dreamed last night."
249:21  What a mistake is that! The I is Spirit. God
        never slumbers, and His likeness never dreams. Mortals
        are the Adam dreamers.

249:24  Sleep and apath are phases of the dream that life, sub-
        stance, and intelligence are material. The mortal night-
        dream is sometimes nearer the fact of being than are the
249:27  thoughts of mortals when awake. The night-dream has
        less matter as its accompaniment. It throws off some
        material fetters. It falls short of the skies, but makes its
249:30  mundane flights quite ethereal.

                         Philosophical blunders

        Man is the reflection of Soul. He is the direct oppo-
        site of material sensation, and there is but one Ego. We
250:1   run into error when we divide Soul into souls, multiply
        Mind into minds and suppose error to be mind, then mind
250:3   to be in matter and matter to be a lawgiver,
        unintelligence to act like intelligence, and mor-
        tality to be the matrix of immortality.

                           Spirit the one Ego

250:6   Mortal existence is a dream; mortal existence has no
        real entity, but saith "It is I." Spirit is the Ego which
        never dreams, but understands all things;
250:9   which never errs, and is ever conscious; which
        never believes, but knows; which is never born and
        never dies. Spiritual man is the likeness of this Ego.
250:12  Man is not God, but like a ray of light which comes from
        the sun, man, the outcome of God, reflects God.

                        Mortal existence a dream

        Mortal body and mind are one, and that one is called
250:15  man; but a mortal is not man, for man is immortal. A
        mortal may be weary or pained, enjoy or suffer,
        according to the dream he entertains in sleep.
250:18  When that dream vanishes, the mortal finds himself
        experiencing none of these dream-sensations. To the
        observer, the body lies listless, undisturbed, and sensa-
250:21  tionless, and the mind seems to be absent.

        Now I ask, Is there any more reality in the waking
        dream of mortal existence than in the sleeping dream?
250:24  There cannot be, since whatever appears to be a mortal
        man is a mortal dream. Take away the mortal mind,
        and matter has no more sense as a man than it has as
250:27  a tree. But the spiritual, real man is immortal.

        Upon this stage of existence goes on the dance of mortal
        mind. Mortal thoughts chase one another like snowflakes,
250:30  and drift to the ground. Science reveals Life as not being
        at the mercy of death, nor will Science admit that happi-
        ness is ever the sport of circumstance.

                          Error self-destroyed

251:1   Error is not real, hence it is not more imperative
        as it hastens towards self-destruction. The so-called
251:3   belief of mortal mind apparent as an abscess
        should not grow more painful before it suppu-
        rates neither should a fever become more severe before
251:6   it ends.

                            Illusion of death

        Fright is so great at certain stages of mortal belief
        as to drive belief into new paths. In the illusion of
251:9   death, mortals wake to the knowledge of two
        facts: (1) that they are not dead; (2) that
        they have but passed the portals of a new belief. Truth
251:12  works out the nothingness of error in just these ways.
        Sickness, as well as sin, is an error that Christ, Truth,
        alone can destroy.

                       Mortal mind's disappearance

251:15  We must learn how mankind govern the body, -
        whether through faith in hygiene, in drugs, or in will-
        power. We should learn whether they govern
251:18  the body through a belief in the necessity of
        sickness and death, sin and pardon, or govern
        it from the higher understanding that the divine Mind
251:21  makes perfect, acts upon the so-called human mind
        through truth, leads the human mind to relinquish all
        error, to find the divine Mind to be the only Mind,
251:24  and the healer of sin, disease, death. This process of
        higher spiritual understanding improves mankind until
        error disappears, and nothing is left which deserves to
251:27  perish or to be punished.

                           Spiritual ignorance

        Ignorance, like intentional wrong, is not Science.
        Ignorance must be seen and corrected before we can at-
251:30  tain harmony. Inharmonious beliefs, which
        rob Mind, calling it matter, and deify their
        own notions, imprison themselves in what they create.
252:1   They are at war with Science, and as our Master said,
        "If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom
252:3   cannot stand."

        Human ignorance of Mind and of the recuperative
        energies of Truth occasions the only skepticism regard-
252:6   ing the pathology and theology of Christian Science.

                         Eternal man recognized

        When false human beliefs learn even a little of their
        own falsity, they begin to disappear. A knowledge of
252:9   error and of its operations must precede that
        understanding of Truth which destroys error,
        until the entire mortal, material error finally disappears,
252:12  and the eternal verity, man created by and of Spirit,
        is understood and recognized as the true likeness of his
        Maker.

252:15  The false evidence of material sense contrasts strikingly
        with the testimony of Spirit. Material sense lifts its voice
        with the arrogance of reality and says:

                           Testimony of sense

252:18  I am wholly dishonest, and no man knoweth it. I can
        cheat, lie, commit adultery, rob, murder, and I elude
        detection by smooth-tongued villainy. Ani-
252:21  mal in propensity, deceitful in sentiment,
        fraudulent in purpose, I mean to make my short span
        of life one gala day. What a nice thing is sin! How
252:24  sin succeeds, where the good purpose waits! The world
        is my kingdom. I am enthroned in the gorgeousness
        of matter. But a touch, an accident, the law of God,
252:27  may at any moment annihilate my peace, for all my
        fancied joys are fatal. Like bursting lava, I expand but
        to my own despair, and shine with the resplendency of
252:30  consuming fire.

                           Testimony of Soul

        Spirit, bearing opposite testimony, saith:

        I am Spirit. Man, whose senses are spiritual, is my
253:1   likeness. He reflects the infinite understanding, for I am
        Infinity. The beauty of holiness, the perfection of being,
253:3   imperishable glory, - all are Mine, for I am
        God. I give immortality to man, for I am
        Truth. I include and impart all bliss, for I am Love.
253:6   I give life, without beginning and without end, for I am
        Life. I am supreme and give all, for I am Mind. I am
        the substance of all, because I AM THAT I AM.

                       Heaven-bestowed prerogative

253:9   I hope, dear reader, I am leading you into the under-
        standing of your divine rights, your heaven-bestowed har-
        mony, - that, as you read, you see there is no
253:12  cause (outside of erring, mortal, material sense
        which is not power) able to make you sick or
        sinful; and I hope that you are conquering this false sense.
253:15  Knowing the falsity of so-called material sense, you can
        assert your prerogative to overcome the belief in sin, dis-
        ease, or death.

                         Right endeavor possible

253:18  If you believe in and practise wrong knowingly, you
        can at once change your course and do right. Matter can
        make no opposition to right endeavors against
253:21  sin or sickness, for matter is inert, mindless.
        Also, if you believe yourself diseased, you can
        alter this wrong belief and action without hindrance from
253:24  the body.

        Do not believe in any supposed necessity for sin, dis-
        ease, or death, knowing (as you ought to know) that God
253:27  never requires obedience to a so-called material law, for
        no such law exists. The belief in sin and death is de-
        stroyed by the law of God, which is the law of Life in-
253:30  stead of death, of harmony instead of discord, of Spirit
        instead of the flesh.

                      Patience and final perfection

        The divine demand, "Be ye therefore perfect," is sci-
254:1   entific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are
        indispensable. Individuals are consistent who, watching
254:3   and praying, can "run, and not be weary; . . .
        walk, and not faint," who gain good rapidly
        and hold their position, or attain slowly and
254:6   yield not to discouragement. God requires perfection,
        but not until the battle between Spirit and flesh is fought
        and the victory won. To stop eating, drinking, or being
254:9   clothed materially before the spiritual facts of existence
        are gained step by step, is not legitimate. When we wait
        patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs
254:12  our path. Imperfect mortals grasp the ultimate of spir-
        itual perfection slowly; but to /begin/ aright and to con-
        tinue the strife of demonstrating the great problem of
254:15  being, is doing much.

        During the sensual ages, absolute Christian Science
        may not be achieved prior to the change called death,
254:18  for we have not the power to demonstrate what we do
        not understand. But the human self must be evangel-
        ized. This task God demands us to accept lovingly
254:21  to-day, and to abandon so fast as practical the material,
        and to work out the spiritual which determines the out-
        ward and actual.

254:24  If you venture upon the quiet surface of error and are
        in sympathy with error, what is there to disturb the waters?
        What is there to strip off error's disguise?

                           The cross and crown

254:27  If you launch your bark upon the ever-agitated but
        healthful waters of truth, you will encounter storms.
        Your good will be evil spoken of. This is the
254:30  cross. Take it up and bear it, for through it
        you win and wear the crown. Pilgrim on earth, thy home
        is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God.




        CHAPTER IX - CREATION

        Thy throne is established of old
        Thou art from everlasting. - PSALMS.

        For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth
        in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves
        also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we
        ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption,
        to wit, the redemption of our body. - PAUL.

                     Inadequate theories of creation

255:1   ETERNAL Truth is changing the universe. As mor-
        tals drop off their mental swaddling-clothes, thought
255:3   expands into expression. "Let there be light,"
        is the perpetual demand of Truth and Love,
        changing chaos into order and discord into the
255:6   music of the spheres. The mythical human theories of
        creation, anciently classified as the higher criticism, sprang
        from cultured scholars in Rome and in Greece, but they
255:9   afforded no foundation for accurate views of creation by
        the divine Mind.

                          Finite views of Deity

        Mortal man has made a covenant with his eyes to be-
255:12  little Deity with human conceptions. In league
        with material sense, mortals take limited views
        of all things. That God is corporeal or material, no man
255:15  should affirm.

        The human form, or physical finiteness, cannot be
        made the basis of any true idea of the infinite Godhead.
255:18  Eye hath not seen Spirit, nor hath ear heard His voice.

                          No material creation

256:1   Progress takes off human shackles. The finite must
        yield to the infinite. Advancing to a higher plane of ac-
256:3   tion, thought rises from the material sense to
        the spiritual, from the scholastic to the in-
        spirational, and from the mortal to the immortal. All
256:6   things are created spiritually. Mind, not matter, is the
        creator. Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and
        Mother of the universe, including man.

                          Tritheism impossible

256:9   The theory of three persons in one God (that is, a per-
        sonal Trinity or Tri-unity) suggests polythe-
        ism, rather than the one ever-present I AM.
256:12  "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord."

                         No divine corporeality

        The everlasting I AM is not bounded nor compressed
        within the narrow limits of physical humanity, nor can
256:15  He be understood aright through mortal con-
        cepts. The precise form of God must be of
        small importance in comparison with the sublime ques-
256:18  tion, What is infinite Mind or divine Love?

        Who is it that demands our obedience? He who, in
        the language of Scripture, "doeth according to His will
256:21  in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the
        earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him,
        What doest Thou?"

256:24  No form nor physical combination is adequate to rep-
        resent infinite Love. A finite and material sense of God
        leads to formalism and narrowness; it chills the spirit of
256:27  Christianity.

                             Limitless Mind

        A limitless Mind cannot proceed from physical limita-
        tions. Finiteness cannot present the idea or the vast-
256:30  ness of infinity. A mind originating from a
        finite or material source must be limited and
        finite. Infinite Mind is the creator, and creation is the
257:1   infinite image or idea emanating from this Mind. If
        Mind is within and without all things, then all is Mind;
257:3   and this definition is scientific.

                         Matter is not substance

        If matter, so-called, is substance, then Spirit, matter's
        unlikeness, must be shadow; and shadow cannot produce
257:6   substance. The theory that Spirit is not the
        only substance and creator is pantheistic het-
        erodoxy, which ultimates in sickness, sin, and death; it is
257:9   the belief in a bodily soul and a material mind, a soul
        governed by the body and a mind in matter. This be-
        lief is shallow pantheism.

257:12  Mind creates His own likeness in ideas, and the sub-
        stance of an idea is very far from being the supposed sub-
        stance of non-intelligent matter. Hence the Father Mind
257:15  is not the father of matter. The material senses and
        human conceptions would translate spiritual ideas into
        material beliefs, and would say that an anthropomorphic
257:18  God, instead of infinite Principle, - in other words, divine
        Love, - is the father of the rain, "who hath begotten the
        drops of dew," who bringeth "forth Mazzaroth in his sea-
257:21  son," and guideth "Arcturus with his sons."

                        Inexhaustible divine Love

        Finite mind manifests all sorts of errors, and thus
        proves the material theory of mind in matter to be the
257:24  antipode of Mind. Who hath found finite life
        or love sufficient to meet the demands of human
        want and woe, - to still the desires, to satisfy the aspira-
257:27  tions? Infinite Mind cannot be limited to a finite form,
        or Mind would lose its infinite character as inexhaustible
        Love, eternal Life, omnipotent Truth.

                      Infinite physique impossible

257:30  It would require an infinite form to contain infinite
        Mind. Indeed, the phrase /infinite form/ involves a con-
        tradiction of terms. Finite man cannot be the image and
258:1   likeness of the infinite God. A mortal, corporeal, or
        finite conception of God cannot embrace the glories of
258:3   limitless, incorporeal Life and Love. Hence
        the unsatisfied human craving for something
        better, higher, holier, than is afforded by a
258:6   material belief in a physical God and man. The insuffi-
        ciency of this belief to supply the true idea proves the
        falsity of material belief.

                          Infinity's reflection

258:9   Man is more than a material form with a mind inside,
        which must escape from its environments in
        order to be immortal. Man reflects infinity,
258:12  and this reflection is the true idea of God.

        God expresses in man the infinite idea forever develop-
        ing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from
258:15  a boundless basis. Mind manifests all that exists in
        the infinitude of Truth. We know no more of man as
        the true divine image and likeness, than we know of
258:18  God.

        The infinite Principle is reflected by the infinite idea
        and spiritual individuality, but the material so-called senses
258:21  have no cognizance of either Principle or its idea. The
        human capacities are enlarged and perfected in propor-
        tion as humanity gains the true conception of man and
258:24  God.

                          Individual permanency

        Mortals have a very imperfect sense of the spiritual
        man and of the infinite range of his thought. To him
258:27  belongs eternal Life. Never born and
        never dying, it were impossible for man, under
        the government of God in eternal Science, to fall from his
258:30  high estate.

                           God's man discerned

        Through spiritual sense you can discern the heart of
        divinity, and thus begin to comprehend in Science the
259:1   generic term /man. /Man is not absorbed in Deity, and
        man cannot lose his individuality, for he re-
259:3   flects eternal Life; nor is he an isolated, soli-
        tary idea, for he represents infinite Mind, the sum of all
        substance.

259:6   In divine Science, man is the true image of God. The
        divine nature was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who
        threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted
259:9   their lives higher than their poor thought-models would
        allow, - thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick,
        sinning, and dying. The Christlike understanding of
259:12  scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Prin-
        ciple and idea, - perfect God and perfect man, - as the
        basis of thought and demonstration.

                        The divine image not lost

259:15  If man was once perfect but has now lost his perfection,
        then mortals have never beheld in man the reflex image
        of God. The /lost/ image is no image. The
259:18  true likeness cannot be lost in divine reflection.
        Understanding this, Jesus said: "Be ye there-
        fore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
259:21  perfect."

                             Immortal models

        Mortal thought transmits its own images, and forms
        its offspring after human illusions. God, Spirit, works
259:24  spiritually, not materially. Brain or matter
        never formed a human concept. Vibration is
        not intelligence; hence it is not a creator. Immortal
259:27  ideas, pure, perfect, and enduring, are transmitted by
        the divine Mind through divine Science, which corrects
        error with truth and demands spiritual thoughts, divine
259:30  concepts, to the end that they may produce harmonious
        results.

        Deducing one's conclusions as to man from imperfec-
260:1   tion instead of perfection, one can no more arrive at the
        true conception or understanding of man, and make him-
260:3   self like it, than the sculptor can perfect his outlines from
        an imperfect model, or the painter can depict the form
        and face of Jesus, while holding in thought the character
260:6   of Judas.

                           Spiritual discovery

        The conceptions of mortal, erring thought must give
        way to the ideal of all that is perfect and eternal. Through
260:9   many generations human beliefs will be attain-
        ing diviner conceptions, and the immortal and
        perfect model of God's creation will finally be seen as
260:12  the only true conception of being.

        Science reveals the possibility of achieving all good,
        and sets mortals at work to discover what God has already
260:15  done; but distrust of one's ability to gain the goodness
        desired and to bring out better and higher results, often
        hampers the trial of one's wings and ensures failure at the
260:18  outset.

                     Requisite change of our ideals

        Mortals must change their ideals in order to improve
        their models. A sick body is evolved from
260:21  sick thoughts. Sickness, disease, and death
        proceed from fear. Sensualism evolves bad
        physical and moral conditions.

260:24  Selfishness and sensualism are educated in mortal
        mind by the thoughts ever recurring to one's self, by
        conversation about the body, and by the expectation of
260:27  perpetual pleasure or pain from it; and this education
        is at the expense of spiritual growth. If we array
        thought in mortal vestures, it must lose its immortal
260:30  nature.

                           Thoughts are things

        If we look to the body for pleasure, we find pain; for
        Life, we find death; for Truth, we find error; for Spirit,
261:1   we find its opposite, matter. Now reverse this action.
        Look away from the body into Truth and Love,
261:3   the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and
        immortality. Hold thought steadfastly to the endur-
        ing, the good, and the true, and you will bring these
261:6   into your experience proportionably to their occupancy
        of your thoughts.

                            Unreality of pain

        The effect of mortal mind on health and happiness is
261:9   seen in this: If one turns away from the body with such
        absorbed interest as to forget it, the body
        experiences no pain. Under the strong im-
261:12  pulse of a desire to perform his part, a noted actor was
        accustomed night after night to go upon the stage and
        sustain his appointed task, walking about as actively
261:15  as the youngest member of the company. This old man
        was so lame that he hobbled every day to the theatre, and
        sat aching in his chair till his cue was spoken, - a signal
261:18  which made him as oblivious of physical infirmity as if
        he had inhaled chloroform, though he was in the full pos-
        session of his so-called senses.

                        Immutable identity of man

261:21  Detach sense from the body, or matter, which is only
        a form of human belief, and you may learn the meaning
        of God, or good, and the nature of the immu-
261:24  table and immortal. Breaking away from the
        mutations of time and sense, you will neither
        lose the solid objects and ends of life nor your own iden-
261:27  tity. Fixing your gaze on the realities supernal, you will
        rise to the spiritual consciousness of being, even as the bird
        which has burst from the egg and preens its wings for a
261:30  skyward flight.

                          Forgetfulness of self

        We should forget our bodies in remembering good and
        the human race. Good demands of man every hour, in
262:1   which to work out the problem of being. Consecration
        to good does not lessen man's dependence on God, but
262:3   heightens it. Neither does consecration di-
        minish man's obligations to God, but shows
        the paramount necessity of meeting them. Christian
262:6   Science takes naught from the perfection of God, but it
        ascribes to Him the entire glory. By putting "off the old
        man with his deeds," mortals "put on immortality."

262:9   We cannot fathom the nature and quality of God's
        creation by diving into the shallows of mortal belief. We
        must reverse our feeble flutterings - our efforts to find
262:12  life and truth in matter - and rise above the testimony
        of the material senses, above the mortal to the immortal
        idea of God. These clearer, higher views inspire the God-
262:15  like man to reach the absolute centre and circumference
        of his being.

                             The true sense

        Job said: "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the
262:18  ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee." Mortals will echo
        Job's thought, when the supposed pain and
        pleasure of matter cease to predominate. They
262:21  will then drop the false estimate of life and happiness, of
        joy and sorrow, and attain the bliss of loving unselfishly,
        working patiently, and conquering all that is unlike God.
262:24  Starting from a higher standpoint, one rises spontane-
        ously, even as light emits light without effort; for "where
        your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

                           Mind only the cause

262:27  The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of
        man's origin. To begin rightly is to end rightly. Every
        concept which seems to begin with the brain
262:30  begins falsely. Divine Mind is the only cause
        or Principle of existence. Cause does not exist in matter,
        in mortal mind, or in physical forms.

                              Human egotism

263:1   Mortals are egotists. They believe themselves to be
        independent workers, personal authors, and even privi-
263:3   leged originators of something which Deity
        would not or could not create. The creations
        of mortal mind are material. Immortal spiritual man
263:6   alone represents the truth of creation.

                        Mortal man a mis-creator

        When mortal man blends his thoughts of existence
        with the spiritual and works only as God works,
263:9   he will no longer grope in the dark and cling
        to earth because he has not tasted heaven.
        Carnal beliefs defraud us. They make man an involun-
263:12  tary hypocrite, - producing evil when he would create
        good, forming deformity when he would outline grace
        and beauty, injuring those whom he would bless. He
263:15  becomes a general mis-creator, who believes he is a
        semi-god. His "touch turns hope to dust, the dust we
        all have trod." He might say in Bible language: "The
263:18  good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would
        not, /that I do./"

                             No new creation

        There can be but one creator, who has created all.
263:21  Whatever seems to be a new creation, is but the discovery
        of some distant idea of Truth; else it is a
        new multiplication or self-division of mor-
263:24  tal thought, as when some finite sense peers from its
        cloister with amazement and attempts to pattern the
        infinite.

263:27  The multiplication of a human and mortal sense of per-
        sons and things is not creation. A sensual thought, like
        an atom of dust thrown into the face of spiritual im-
263:30  mensity, is dense blindness instead of a scientific eternal
        consciousness of creation.

                           Mind's true camera

        The fading forms of matter, the mortal body and ma-
264:1   terial earth, are the fleeting concepts of the human mind.
        They have their day before the permanent facts and their
264:3   perfection in Spirit appear. The crude crea-
        tions of mortal thought must finally give place
        to the glorious forms which we sometimes behold in the
264:6   camera of divine Mind, when the mental picture is spir-
        itual and eternal. Mortals must look beyond fading,
        finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things.
264:9   Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm
        of Mind? We must look where we would walk, and we
        must act as possessing all power from Him in whom we
264:12  have our being.

                            Self-completeness

        As mortals gain more correct views of God and man,
        multitudinous objects of creation, which before were
264:15  invisible, will become visible. When we
        realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of
        matter, this understanding will expand into self-com-
264:18  pleteness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other
        consciousness.

                      Spiritual proofs of existence

        Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being.
264:21  Matter disappears under the microscope of Spirit. Sin
        is unsustained by Truth, and sickness and
        death were overcome by Jesus, who proved
264:24  them to be forms of error. Spiritual living
        and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can
        recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace
264:27  which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love.

        When we learn the way in Christian Science and rec-
        ognize man's spiritual being, we shall behold and under-
264:30  stand God's creation, - all the glories of earth and heaven
        and man.

                           Godward gravitation

        The universe of Spirit is peopled with spiritual beings,
265:1   and its government is divine Science. Man is the off-
        spring, not of the lowest, but of the highest qualities of
265:3   Mind. Man understands spiritual existence
        in proportion as his treasures of Truth and
        Love are enlarged. Mortals must gravitate Godward,
265:6   their affections and aims grow spiritual, - they must near
        the broader interpretations of being, and gain some proper
        sense of the infinite, - in order that sin and mortality
265:9   may be put off.

        This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for
        Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity
265:12  and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man en-
        larged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action,
        a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent
265:15  peace.

                         Mortal birth and death

        The senses represent birth as untimely and death as
        irresistible, as if man were a weed growing apace or a
265:18  flower withered by the sun and nipped by
        untimely frosts; but this is true only of a
        mortal, not of a man in God's image and likeness. The
265:21  truth of being is perennial, and the error is unreal and
        obsolete.

                           Blessings from pain

        Who that has felt the loss of human peace has not gained
265:24  stronger desires for spiritual joy? The aspiration after
        heavenly good comes even before we discover
        what belongs to wisdom and Love. The loss
265:27  of earthly hopes and pleasures brightens the ascending
        path of many a heart. The pains of sense quickly inform
        us that the pleasures of sense are mortal and that joy is
265:30  spiritual.

                          Decapitation of error

        The pains of sense are salutary, if they wrench away
        false pleasurable beliefs and transplant the affections
266:1   from sense to Soul, where the creations of God are good,
        "rejoicing the heart." Such is the sword of
266:3   Science, with which Truth decapitates error,
        materiality giving place to man's higher individuality and
        destiny.

                            Uses of adversity

266:6   Would existence without personal friends be to you
        a blank? Then the time will come when you will be
        solitary, left without sympathy; but this
266:9   seeming vacuum is already filled with divine
        Love. When this hour of development comes, even if
        you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will
266:12  force you to accept what best promotes your growth.
        Friends will betray and enemies will slander, until the
        lesson is sufficient to exalt you; for "man's extremity
266:15  is God's opportunity." The author has experienced the
        foregoing prophecy and its blessings. Thus He teaches
        mortals to lay down their fleshliness and gain spirituality.
266:18  This is done through self-abnegation. Universal Love
        is the divine way in Christian Science.

        The sinner makes his own hell by doing evil, and the
266:21  saint his own heaven by doing right. The opposite per-
        secutions of material sense, aiding evil with evil, would
        deceive the very elect.

                            Beatific presence

266:24  Mortals must follow Jesus' sayings and his demonstra-
        tions, which dominate the flesh. Perfect and infinite
        Mind enthroned is heaven. The evil beliefs
266:27  which originate in mortals are hell. Man is the
        idea of Spirit; he reflects the beatific presence, illuming
        the universe with light. Man is deathless, spiritual. He
266:30  is above sin or frailty. He does not cross the barriers
        of time into the vast forever of Life, but he coexists with
        God and the universe.

                          The infinitude of God

267:1   Every object in material thought will be destroyed, but
        the spiritual idea, whose substance is in Mind, is eternal.
267:3   The offspring of God start not from matter
        or ephemeral dust. They are in and of Spirit,
        divine Mind, and so forever continue. God is one. The
267:6   allness of Deity is His oneness. Generically man is one,
        and specifically man means all men.

        It is generally conceded that God is Father, eternal, self-
267:9   created, infinite. If this is so, the forever Father must
        have had children prior to Adam. The great I AM made
        all "that was made." Hence man and the spiritual uni-
267:12  verse coexist with God.

        Christian Scientists understand that, in a religious
        sense, they have the same authority for the appellative
267:15  mother, as for that of brother and sister. Jesus said:
        "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which
        is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and
267:18  mother."

                        Waymarks to eternal Truth

        When examined in the light of divine Science, mortals
        present more than is detected upon the surface, since
267:21  inverted thoughts and erroneous beliefs must
        be counterfeits of Truth. Thought is bor-
        rowed from a higher source than matter, and
267:24  by reversal, errors serve as waymarks to the one Mind,
        in which all error disappears in celestial Truth. The
        robes of Spirit are "white and glistering," like the raiment
267:27  of Christ. Even in this world, therefore, "let thy gar-
        ments be always white." "Blessed is the man that en-
        dureth [overcometh] temptation: for when he is tried,
267:30  [proved faithful], he shall receive the crown of life,
        which the Lord hath promised to them that love him."
        (James i. 12.)




        CHAPTER X - SCIENCE OF BEING

        That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
        which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon,
        and our hands have handled, of the Word of life, . . .
        That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you,
        that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our
        fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
        - JOHN, First Epistle.

        Here I stand. I can do no otherwise; so help me God! Amen!
        - MARTIN LUTHER.

                         Materialistic challenge

268:1   In the material world, thought has brought to light
        with great rapidity many useful wonders. With
268:3   like activity have thought's swift pinions been rising
        towards the realm of the real, to the spiritual
        cause of those lower things which give im-
268:6   pulse to inquiry. Belief in a material basis, from
        which may be deduced all rationality, is slowly yielding
        to the idea of a metaphysical basis, looking away from
268:9   matter to Mind as the cause of every effect. Material-
        istic hypotheses challenge metaphysics to meet in final
        combat. In this revolutionary period, like the shep-
268:12  herd-boy with his sling, woman goes forth to battle with
        Goliath.

                          Confusion confounded

        In this final struggle for supremacy, semi-metaphysi-
268:15  cal systems afford no substantial aid to scientific meta-
        physics, for their arguments are based on
        the false testimony of the material senses as
268:18  well as on the facts of Mind. These semi-metaphysical
269:1   systems are one and all pantheistic, and savor of Pan-
        demonium, a house divided against itself.

269:3   From first to last the supposed coexistence of Mind
        and matter and the mingling of good and evil have re-
        sulted from the philosophy of the serpent. Jesus' demon-
269:6   strations sift the chaff from the wheat, and unfold the
        unity and the reality of good, the unreality, the nothing-
        ness, of evil.

                           Divine metaphysics

269:9   Human philosophy has made God manlike. Christian
        Science makes man Godlike. The first is error; the latter
        is truth. Metaphysics is above physics, and
269:12  matter does not enter into metaphysical prem-
        ises or conclusions. The categories of metaphysics rest
        on one basis, the divine Mind. Metaphysics resolves
269:15  things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense
        for the ideas of Soul.

        These ideas are perfectly real and tangible to spiritual
269:18  consciousness, and they have this, advantage over the ob-
        jects and thoughts of material sense, - they are good and
        eternal.

                          Biblical foundations

269:21  The testimony of the material senses is neither abso-
        lute nor divine. I therefore plant myself unreservedly
        on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of
269:24  the prophets, and on the testimony of the
        Science of Mind. Other foundations there are none.
        All other systems - systems based wholly or partly on
269:27  knowledge gained through the material senses - are reeds
        shaken by the wind, not houses built on the rock.

                            Rejected theories

        The theories I combat are these: (1) that all is matter;
269:30  (2) that matter originates in Mind, and is as
        real as Mind, possessing intelligence and life.
        The first theory, that matter is everything, is quite as
270:1   reasonable as the second, that Mind and matter coexist
        and cooperate. One only of the following statements can
270:3   be true: (1) that everything is matter; (2) that every-
        thing is Mind. Which one is it?

        Matter and Mind are opposites. One is contrary to
270:6   the other in its very nature and essence; hence both can-
        not be real. If one is real, the other must be unreal. Only
        by understanding that there is but one power, - not two
270:9   powers, matter and Mind, - are scientific and logical
        conclusions reached. Few deny the hypothesis that in-
        telligence, apart from man and matter, governs the uni-
270:12  verse; and it is generally admitted that this intelligence
        is the eternal Mind or divine principle, Love.

                           Prophetic ignorance

        The prophets of old looked for something higher than
270:15  the systems of their times; hence their fore-
        sight of the new dispensation of Truth. But
        they knew not what would be the precise nature of the
270:18  teaching and demonstration of God, divine Mind, in His
        more infinite meanings, - the demonstration which was
        to destroy sin, sickness, and death, establish the definition
270:21  of omnipotence, and maintain the Science of Spirit.

        The pride of priesthood is the prince of this world. It
        has nothing in Christ. Meekness and charity have divine
270:24  authority. Mortals think wickedly; consequently they
        are wicked. They think sickly thoughts, and so become
        sick. If sin makes sinners, Truth and Love alone can
270:27  unmake them. If a sense of disease produces suffering
        and a sense of ease antidotes suffering, disease is mental,
        not material. Hence the fact that the human mind alone
270:30  suffers, is sick, and that the divine Mind alone heals.

        The life of Christ Jesus was not miraculous, but it was
        indigenous to his spirituality, - the good soil wherein the
271:1   seed of Truth springs up and bears much fruit. Christ's
        Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing
271:3   in all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with
        the Scriptures and uniting all periods in the design of
        God. Neither emasculation, illusion, nor insubordination
271:6   exists in divine Science.

        Jesus instructed his disciples whereby to heal the sick
        through Mind instead of matter. He knew that the phi-
271:9   losophy, Science, and proof of Christianity were in Truth,
        casting out all inharmony.

                           Studious disciples

        In Latin the word rendered /disciple/ signifies student;
271:12  and the word indicates that the power of healing was not
        a supernatural gift to those learners, but the
        result of their cultivated spiritual understand-
271:15  ing of the divine Science, which their Master demonstrated
        by healing the sick and sinning. Hence the universal ap-
        plication of his saying: "Neither pray I for these alone,
271:18  but for them also which shall believe on me [understand
        me] through their word."

                           New Testament basis

        Our Master said, "But the Comforter . . . shall
271:21  teach you all things." When the Science of Christianity
        appears, it will lead you into all truth. The
        Sermon on the Mount is the essence of this
271:24  Science, and the eternal life, not the death of Jesus, is
        its outcome.

                             Modern evangel

        Those, who are willing to leave their nets or to cast
271:27  them on the right side for Truth, have the opportunity
        now, as aforetime, to learn and to practise
        Christian healing. The Scriptures contain it.
271:30  The spiritual import of the Word imparts this power.
        But, as Paul says, "How shall they hear without a
        preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be
272:1   sent?" If sent, how shall they preach, convert, and heal
        multitudes, except the people hear?

                        Spirituality of Scripture

272:3   The spiritual sense of truth must be gained before
        Truth can be understood. This sense is assimilated only
        as we are honest, unselfish, loving, and meek.
272:6   In the soil of an "honest and good heart" the
        seed must be sown; else it beareth not much fruit, for the
        swinish element in human nature uproots it. Jesus said:
272:9   "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures." The spiritual
        sense of the Scriptures brings out the scientific sense, and
        is the new tongue referred to in the last chapter of Mark's
272:12  Gospel.

        Jesus' parable of "the sower" shows the care our
        Master took not to impart to dull ears and gross hearts
272:15  the spiritual teachings which dulness and grossness could
        not accept. Reading the thoughts of the people, he said:
        "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast
272:18  ye your pearls before swine."

                          Unspiritual contrasts

        It is the spiritualization of thought and Christianization
        of daily life, in contrast with the results of the ghastly farce
272:21  of material existence; it is chastity and purity,
        in contrast with the downward tendencies
        and earthward gravitation of sensualism and impurity,
272:24  which really attest the divine origin and operation of Chris-
        tian Science. The triumphs of Christian Science are re-
        corded in the destruction of error and evil, from which are
272:27  propagated the dismal beliefs of sin, sickness, and death.

                        God the Principle of all

        The divine Principle of the universe must interpret the
        universe. God is the divine Principle of all that repre-
272:30  sents Him and of all that really exists. Chris-
        tian Science, as demonstrated by Jesus, alone
        reveals the natural, divine Principle of Science.

273:1   Matter and its claims of sin, sickness, and death are
        contrary to God, and cannot emanate from Him. There
273:3   is no /material/ truth. The physical senses can take no
        cognizance of God and spiritual Truth. Human belief
        has sought out many inventions, but not one of them
273:6   can solve the problem of being without the divine Prin-
        ciple of divine Science. Deductions from material hy-
        potheses are not scientific. They differ from real Science
273:9   because they are not based on the divine law.

                         Science /versus/ sense

        Divine Science reverses the false testimony of the ma-
        terial senses, and thus tears away the foun-
273:12  dations of error. Hence the enmity between
        Science and the senses, and the impossibility
        of attaining perfect understanding till the errors of sense
273:15  are eliminated.

        The so-called laws of matter and of medical science have
        never made mortals whole, harmonious, and immortal.
273:18  Man is harmonious when governed by Soul. Hence the
        importance of understanding the truth of being, which
        reveals the laws of spiritual existence.

                       Spiritual law the only law

273:21  God never ordained a material law to annul the spiritual
        law. If there were such a material law, it would oppose
        the supremacy of Spirit, God, and impugn the
273:24  wisdom of the creator. Jesus walked on the
        waves, fed the multitude, healed the sick, and raised the
        dead in direct opposition to material laws. His acts were
273:27  the demonstration of Science, overcoming the false claims
        of material sense or law.

                       Material knowledge illusive

        Science shows that material, conflicting mortal opin-
273:30  ions and beliefs emit the effects of error at all times, but
        this atmosphere of mortal mind cannot be destructive to
        morals and health when it is opposed promptly and per-
274:1   sistently by Christian Science. Truth and Love antidote
        this mental miasma, and thus invigorate and sustain ex-
274:3   istence. Unnecessary knowledge gained from
        the five senses is only temporal, - the concep-
        tion of mortal mind, the offspring of sense, not
274:6   of Soul, Spirit, - and symbolizes all that is evil and
        perishable. /Natural science/, as it is commonly called, is
        not really natural nor scientific, because it is deduced from
274:9   the evidence of the material senses. Ideas, on the con-
        trary, are born of Spirit, and are not mere inferences
        drawn from material premises.

                          Five senses deceptive

274:12  The senses of Spirit abide in Love, and they demon-
        strate Truth and Life. Hence Christianity and the Sci-
        ence which expounds it are based on spiritual
274:15  understanding, and they supersede the so-
        called laws of matter. Jesus demonstrated this great
        verity. When what we erroneously term the five physical
274:18  senses are misdirected, they are simply the manifested
        beliefs of mortal mind, which affirm that life, substance,
        and intelligence are material, instead of spiritual. These
274:21  false beliefs and their products constitute the flesh, and
        the flesh wars against Spirit.

                         Impossible partnership

        Divine Science is absolute, and permits no half-way
274:24  position in learning its Principle and rule - establishing
        it by demonstration. The conventional firm,
        called matter and mind, God never formed.
274:27  Science and understanding, governed by the unerring and
        eternal Mind, destroy the imaginary copartnership, matter
        and mind, formed only to be destroyed in a manner and
274:30  at a period as yet unknown. This suppositional partner-
        ship is already obsolete, for matter, examined in the light
        of divine metaphysics, disappears.

                        Spirit the starting-point

275:1   Matter has no life to lose, and Spirit never dies. A
        partnership of mind with matter would ignore omnipres-
275:3   ent and omnipotent Mind. This shows that
        matter did not originate in God, Spirit, and is
        not eternal. Therefore matter is neither substantial, living,
275:6   nor intelligent. The starting-point of divine Science is
        that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other
        might nor Mind, - that God is Love, and therefore He
275:9   is divine Principle.

                             Divine synonyms

        To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science,
        you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle
275:12  of all that really is. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love,
        combine as one, - and are the Scriptural names
        for God. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, im-
275:15  mortality, cause, and effect belong to God. These are
        His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite
        divine Principle, Love. No wisdom is wise but His
275:18  wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life
        but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows.

                         The divine completeness

        Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understand-
275:21  ing, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is
        God, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience,
        - that is, all power, all presence, all Science.
275:24  Hence all is in reality the manifestation of Mind.

        Our material human theories are destitute of Science.
        The true understanding of God is spiritual. It robs the
275:27  grave of victory. It destroys the false evidence that mis-
        leads thought and points to other gods, or other so-called
        powers, such as matter, disease, sin, and death, superior
275:30  or contrary to the one Spirit.

        Truth, spiritually discerned, is scientifically understood.
        It casts out error and heals the sick.

                          Universal brotherhood

276:1   Having one God, one Mind, unfolds the power that
        heals the sick, and fulfils these sayings of Scripture, "I
276:3   am the Lord that healeth thee," and "I have
        found a ransom." When the divine precepts
        are understood, they unfold the foundation of fellowship,
276:6   in which one mind is not at war with another, but all have
        one Spirit, God, one intelligent source, in accordance with
        the Scriptural command: "Let this Mind be in you,
276:9   which was also in Christ Jesus." Man and his Maker
        are correlated in divine Science, and real consciousness
        is cognizant only of the things of God.

276:12  The realization that all inharmony is unreal brings
        objects and thoughts into human view in their true light,
        and presents them as beautiful and immortal. Harmony
276:15  in man is as real and immortal as in music. Discord is
        unreal and mortal.

                          Perfection requisite

        If God is admitted to be the only Mind and Life,
276:18  there ceases to be any opportunity for sin and death.
        When we learn in Science how to be perfect
        even as our Father in heaven is perfect,
276:21  thought is turned into new and healthy channels, -
        towards the contemplation of things immortal and away
        from materiality to the Principle of the universe, includ-
276:24  ing harmonious man.

        Material beliefs and spiritual understanding never
        mingle. The latter destroys the former. Discord is the
276:27  /nothingness/ named error. Harmony is the /somethingness/
        named Truth.

                           Like evolving like

        Nature and revelation inform us that like produces
276:30  like. Divine Science does not gather grapes
        from thorns nor figs from thistles. Intelli-
        gence never produces non-intelligence; but matter is
277:1   ever non-intelligent and therefore cannot spring from
        intelligence. To all that is unlike unerring and eternal
277:3   Mind, this Mind saith, "Thou shalt surely die;" and else-
        where the Scripture says that dust returns to dust. The
        non-intelligent relapses into its own unreality. Matter
277:6   never produces mind. The immortal never produces the
        mortal. Good cannot result in evil. As God Himself is
        good and is Spirit, goodness and spirituality must be im-
277:9   mortal. Their opposites, evil and matter, are mortal
        error, and error has no creator. If goodness and spirit-
        uality are real, evil and materiality are unreal and can-
277:12  not be the outcome of an infinite God, good.

        Natural history presents vegetables and animals as
        preserving their original species, - like reproducing like.
277:15  A mineral is not produced by a vegetable nor the man
        by the brute. In reproduction, the order of genus and
        species is preserved throughout the entire round of nature.
277:18  This points to the spiritual truth and Science of being.
        Error relies upon a reversal of this order, asserts that
        Spirit produces matter and matter produces all the ills
277:21  of flesh, and therefore that good is the origin of evil.
        These suppositions contradict even the order of material
        so-called science.

                             Material error

277:24  The realm of the real is Spirit. The unlikeness of Spirit
        is matter, and the opposite of the real is not divine, - it is
        a human concept. Matter is an error of state-
277:27  ment. This error in the premise leads to errors
        in the conclusion in every statement into which it enters.
        Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is immor-
277:30  tal, for matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phe-
        nomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always
        erroneous.

                     Substance /versus/ supposition

278:1   Is Spirit the source or creator of matter? Science re-
        veals nothing in Spirit out of which to create matter.
278:3   Divine metaphysics explains away matter.
        Spirit is the only substance and consciousness
        recognized by divine Science. The material
278:6   senses oppose this, but there are no material senses, for
        matter has no mind. In Spirit there is no matter, even
        as in Truth there is no error, and in good no evil. It is
278:9   a false supposition, the notion that there is real substance-
        matter, the opposite of Spirit. Spirit, God, is infinite,
        all. Spirit can have no opposite.

                            One cause supreme

278:12  That matter is substantial or has life and sensation, is
        one of the false beliefs of mortals, and exists only in a
        supposititious mortal consciousness. Hence,
278:15  as we approach Spirit and Truth, we lose the
        consciousness of matter. The admission that there can
        be material substance requires another admission, -
278:18  namely, that Spirit is not infinite and that matter is self-
        creative, self-existent, and eternal. From this it would
        follow that there are two eternal causes, warring forever
278:21  with each other; and yet we say that Spirit is supreme
        and all-presence.

        The belief of the eternity of matter contradicts the
278:24  demonstration of life as Spirit, and leads to the conclu-
        sion that if man is material, he originated in matter and
        must return to dust, - logic which would prove his an-
278:27  nihilation.

                           Substance is Spirit

        All that we term sin, sickness, and death is a mortal
        belief. We define matter as error, because it is the oppo-
278:30  site of life, substance, and intelligence. Mat-
        ter, with its mortality, cannot be substantial
        if Spirit is substantial and eternal. Which ought to
279:1   be substance to us, - the erring, changing, and dying,
        the mutable and mortal, or the unerring, immutable,
279:3   and immortal? A New Testament writer plainly de-
        scribes faith, a quality of mind, as "the /substance/ of things
        hoped for."

                           Material mortality

279:6   The doom of matter establishes the conclusion that
        matter, slime, or protoplasm never originated
        in the immortal Mind, and is therefore not
279:9   eternal. Matter is neither created by Mind nor for the
        manifestation and support of Mind.

                          Spiritual tangibility

        Ideas are tangible and real to immortal consciousness,
279:12  and they have the advantage of being eternal.
        Spirit and matter can neither coexist nor co-
        operate, and one can no more create the other than
279:15  Truth can create error, or /vice versa/.

        In proportion as the belief disappears that life and in-
        telligence are in or of matter, the immortal facts of
279:18  being are seen, and their only idea or intelligence is
        in God. Spirit is reached only through the understand-
        ing and demonstration of eternal Life and Truth and
279:21  Love.

                         Pantheistic tendencies

        Every system of human philosophy, doctrine, and
        medicine is more or less infected with the pantheistic
279:24  belief that there is mind in matter; but this
        belief contradicts alike revelation and right
        reasoning. A logical and scientific conclusion is reached
279:27  only through the knowledge that there are not two
        bases of being, matter and mind, but one alone, -
        Mind.

279:30  Pantheism, starting from a material sense of God,
        seeks cause in effect, Principle in its idea, and life and
        intelligence in matter.

                     The things of God are beautiful

280:1   In the infinitude of Mind, matter must be unknown.
        Symbols and elements of discord and decay are not prod-
280:3   ucts of the infinite, perfect, and eternal /All/.
        From Love and from the light and harmony
        which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections
280:6   of good can come. All things beautiful and harmless are
        ideas of Mind. Mind creates and multiplies them, and
        the product must be mental.

280:9   Finite belief can never do justice to Truth in any direc-
        tion. Finite belief limits all things, and would compress
        Mind, which is infinite, beneath a skull bone. Such be-
280:12  lief can neither apprehend nor worship the infinite; and
        to accommodate its finite sense of the divisibility of Soul
        and substance, it seeks to divide the one Spirit into per-
280:15  sons and souls.

                           Belief in many gods

        Through this error, human belief comes to have "gods
        many and lords many." Moses declared as Jehovah's
280:18  first command of the Ten: "Thou shalt have
        no other gods before me!" But behold the
        zeal of belief to establish the opposite error of many
280:21  minds. The argument of the serpent in the allegory, "Ye
        shall be as gods," urges through every avenue the belief
        that Soul is in body, and that infinite Spirit, and Life, is
280:24  in finite forms.

                           Sensationless body

        Rightly understood, instead of possessing a sentient
        material form, man has a sensationless body; and God,
280:27  the Soul of man and of all existence, being
        perpetual in His own individuality, harmony,
        and immortality, imparts and perpetuates these qualities
280:30  in man, - through Mind, not matter. The only excuse
        for entertaining human opinions and rejecting the Science
        of being is our mortal ignorance of Spirit, - ignorance
281:1   which yields only to the understanding of divine Science,
        the understanding by which we enter into the kingdom
281:3   of Truth on earth and learn that Spirit is infinite and
        supreme. Spirit and matter no more commingle than
        light and darkness. When one appears, the other dis-
281:6   appears.

                            God and His image

        Error presupposes man to be both mind and matter.
        Divine Science contradicts the corporeal senses, rebukes
281:9   mortal belief, and asks: What is the Ego,
        whence its origin and what its destiny? The
        Ego-man is the reflection of the Ego-God; the Ego-man
281:12  is the image and likeness of perfect Mind, Spirit, divine
        Principle.

        The one Ego, the one Mind or Spirit called God, is
281:15  infinite individuality, which supplies all form and come-
        liness and which reflects reality and divinity in individual
        spiritual man and things.

281:18  The mind supposed to exist in matter or beneath a
        skull bone is a myth, a misconceived sense and false
        conception as to man and Mind. When we put off the
281:21  false sense for the true, and see that sin and mortality
        have neither Principle nor permanency, we shall learn
        that sin and mortality are without actual origin or right-
281:24  ful existence. They are native nothingness, out of which
        error would simulate creation through a man formed from
        dust.

                            The true new idea

281:27  Divine Science does not put new wine into old bottles,
        Soul into matter, nor the infinite into the finite. Our
        false views of matter perish as we grasp
281:30  the facts of Spirit. The old belief must be
        cast out or the new idea will be spilled, and the in-
        spiration, which is to change our standpoint, will be
282:1   lost. Now, as of old, Truth casts out evils and heals
        the sick.

                            Figures of being

282:3   The real Life, or Mind, and its opposite, the so-called
        material life and mind, are figured by two geometrical
        symbols, a circle or sphere and a straight
282:6   line. The circle represents the infinite with-
        out beginning or end; the straight line represents the
        finite, which has both beginning and end. The sphere
282:9   represents good, the self-existent and eternal individuality
        or Mind; the straight line represents evil, a belief in
        a self-made and temporary material existence. Eternal
282:12  Mind and temporary material existence never unite in
        figure or in fact.

                            Opposite symbols

        A straight line finds no abiding-place in a curve, and a
282:15  curve finds no adjustment to a straight line. Similarly,
        matter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has
        no place in matter. Truth has no home in
282:18  error, and error has no foothold in Truth. Mind cannot
        pass into non-intelligence and matter, nor can non-intel-
        ligence become Soul. At no point can these opposites
282:21  mingle or unite. Even though they seem to touch, one
        is still a curve and the other a straight line.

        There is no inherent power in matter; for all that is
282:24  material is a material, human, mortal thought, always
        governing itself erroneously.

        Truth is the intelligence of immortal Mind. Error is
282:27  the so-called intelligence of mortal mind.

                          Truth is not inverted

        Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of
        God or God's absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither
282:30  Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the
        Father. The rule of inversion infers from
        error its opposite, Truth; but Truth is the light which
283:1   dispels error. As mortals begin to understand Spirit,
        they give up the belief that there is any true existence
283:3   apart from God.

                      Source of all life and action

        Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no
        inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious
283:6   action. Mind is the same Life, Love, and wis-
        dom "yesterday, and to-day, and forever."
        Matter and its effects - sin, sickness, and
283:9   death - are states of mortal mind which act, react, and
        then come to a stop. They are not facts of Mind. They
        are not ideas, but illusions. Principle is absolute. It
283:12  admits of no error, but rests upon understanding.

        But what say prevalent theories? They insist that
        Life, or God, is one and the same with material life so-
283:15  called. They speak of both Truth and error as /mind/,
        and of good and evil as /spirit/. They claim that to be
        life which is but the objective state of material sense, -
283:18  such as the structural life of the tree and of material
        man, - and deem this the manifestation of the one Life,
        God.

                           Spiritual structure

283:21  This false belief as to what really constitutes life so
        detracts from God's character and nature, that the true
        sense of His power is lost to all who cling to
283:24  this falsity. The divine Principle, or Life, can-
        not be practically demonstrated in length of days, as it
        was by the patriarchs, unless its Science be accurately
283:27  stated. We must receive the divine Principle in the under-
        standing, and live it in daily life; and unless we so do, we
        can no more demonstrate Science, than we can teach and
283:30  illustrate geometry by calling a curve a straight line or a
        straight line a sphere.

        Are mentality, immortality, consciousness, resident in
284:1   matter? It is not rational to say that Mind is infinite,
        but dwells in finiteness, - in matter, - or that matter is
284:3   infinite and the medium of Mind.

                           Mind never limited

        If God were limited to man or matter, or if the infinite
        could be circumscribed within the finite, God would be
284:6   corporeal, and unlimited Mind would seem
        to spring from a limited body; but this is an
        impossibility. Infinite Mind can have no starting-point,
284:9   and can return to no limit. It can never be in bonds,
        nor be fully manifested through corporeality.

                     Material recognition impossible

        Is God's image or likeness matter, or a mortal, sin,
284:12  sickness, and death? Can matter recognize Mind?
        Can infinite Mind recognize matter? Can the
        infinite dwell in the finite or know aught un-
284:15  like the infinite? Can Deity be known through
        the material senses? Can the material senses, which re-
        ceive no direct evidence of Spirit, give correct testimony
284:18  as to spiritual life, truth, and love?

        The answer to all these questions must forever be in
        the negative.

                  Our physical insensibility to Spirit

284:21  The physical senses can obtain no proof of God. They
        can neither see Spirit through the eye nor hear it through
        the ear, nor can they feel, taste, or smell Spirit.
284:24  Even the more subtile and misnamed ma-
        terial elements are beyond the cognizance
        of these senses, and are known only by the effects com-
284:27  monly attributed to them.

        According to Christian Science, the only real senses
        of man are spiritual, emanating from divine Mind.
284:30  Thought passes from God to man, but neither sensation
        nor report goes from material body to Mind. The in-
        tercommunication is always from God to His idea, man.
285:1   Matter is not sentient and cannot be cognizant of good
        or of evil, of pleasure or of pain. Man's individu-
285:3   ality is not material. This Science of being obtains not
        alone hereafter in what men call Paradise, but here
        and now; it is the great fact of being for time and
285:6   eternity.

                          The human counterfeit

        What, then, is the material personality which suffers,
        sins, and dies? It is not man, the image and likeness
285:9   of God, but man's counterfeit, the inverted
        likeness, the /unlikeness/ called sin, sickness,
        and death. The unreality of the claim that a mortal is
285:12  the true image of God is illustrated by the opposite na-
        tures of Spirit and matter, Mind and body, for one is
        intelligence while the other is non-intelligence.

                         Material misconceptions

285:15  Is God a physical personality? Spirit is not physical.
        The belief that a material body is man is a false con-
        ception of man. The time has come for a
285:18  finite conception of the infinite and of a ma-
        terial body as the seat of Mind to give place
        to a diviner sense of intelligence and its manifestations,
285:21  to the better understanding that Science gives of the
        Supreme Being, or divine Principle, and idea.

                       Salvation is through reform

        By interpreting God as a corporeal Saviour but not as
285:24  the saving Principle, or divine Love, we shall continue
        to seek salvation through pardon and not
        through reform, and resort to matter instead
285:27  of Spirit for the cure of the sick. As mortals
        reach, through knowledge of Christian Science, a higher
        sense, they will seek to learn, not from matter, but from
285:30  the divine Principle, God, how to demonstrate the Christ,
        Truth, as the healing and saving power.

        It is essential to understand, instead of believe, what
286:1   relates most nearly to the happiness of being. To seek
        Truth through belief in a human doctrine is not to un-
286:3   derstand the infinite. We must not seek the immutable
        and immortal through the finite, mutable, and mortal,
        and so depend upon belief instead of demonstration, for
286:6   this is fatal to a knowledge of Science. The understand-
        ing of Truth gives full faith in Truth, and spiritual un-
        derstanding is better than all burnt offerings.

286:9   The Master said, "No man cometh unto the Father
        [the divine Principle of being] but by me," Christ,
        Life, Truth, Love; for Christ says, "I am the way."
286:12  Physical causation was put aside from first to
        last by this original man, Jesus. He knew that the
        divine. Principle, Love, creates and governs all that
286:15  is real.

                        Goodness a portion of God

        In the Saxon and twenty other tongues /good/ is the term
        for God. The Scriptures declare all that He
286:18  made to be good, like Himself, - good in
        Principle and in idea. Therefore the spiritual
        universe is good, and reflects God as He is.

                           Spiritual thoughts

286:21  God's thoughts are perfect and eternal, are substance
        and Life. Material and temporal thoughts are human,
        involving error, and since God, Spirit, is the
286:24  only cause, they lack a divine cause. The
        temporal and material are not then creations of Spirit.
        They are but counterfeits of the spiritual and eternal.
286:27  Transitory thoughts are the antipodes of everlasting
        Truth, though (by the supposition of opposite qualities)
        error must also say, "I am true." But by this saying
286:30  error, the lie, destroys itself.

        Sin, sickness, and death are comprised in human ma-
        terial belief, and belong not to the divine Mind. They
287:1   are without a real origin or existence. They have neither
        Principle nor permanence, but belong, with all that is
287:3   material and temporal, to the nothingness of error, which
        simulates the creations of Truth. All creations of Spirit
        are eternal; but creations of matter must return to dust.
287:6   Error supposes man to be both mental and material.
        Divine Science contradicts this postulate and maintains
        man's spiritual identity.

                             Divine allness

287:9   We call the absence of Truth, /error/. Truth and error
        are unlike. In Science, Truth is divine, and the /infinite/
        God can have no unlikeness. Did God, Truth,
287:12  create error? No! "Doth a fountain send
        forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?" God
        being everywhere and all-inclusive, how can He be absent
287:15  or suggest the absence of omnipresence and omnipotence?
        How can there be more than /all/?

        Neither understanding nor truth accompanies error,
287:18  nor is error the offshoot of Mind. Evil calls itself some-
        thing, when it is nothing. It saith, "I am man, but I am
        not the image and likeness of God;" whereas the Scrip-
287:21  tures declare that man was made in God's likeness.

                             Error unveiled

        Error is false, mortal belief; it is illusion, without spir-
        itual identity or foundation, and it has no real existence.
287:24  The supposition that life, substance, and in-
        telligence are /in/ matter, or /of/ it, is an error.
        Matter is neither a thing nor a person, but merely the
287:27  objective supposition of Spirit's opposite. The five mate-
        rial senses testify to truth and error as united in a mind
        both good and evil. Their false evidence will finally
287:30  yield to Truth, - to the recognition of Spirit and of the
        spiritual creation.

        Truth cannot be contaminated by error. The state-
288:1   ment that /Truth is real/ necessarily includes the correlated
        statement, that /error, Truth's unlikeness, is unreal/.

                           The great conflict

288:3   The suppositional warfare between truth and error is
        only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spir-
        itual senses and the testimony of the material
288:6   senses, and this warfare between the Spirit and
        flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the un-
        derstanding of divine Love.
288:9   Superstition and understanding can never combine.
        When the final physical and moral effects of Christian
        Science are fully apprehended, the conflict between truth
288:12  and error, understanding and belief, Science and material
        sense, foreshadowed by the prophets and inaugurated
        by Jesus, will cease, and spiritual harmony reign. The
288:15  lightnings and thunderbolts of error may burst and flash
        till the cloud is cleared and the tumult dies away in the
        distance. Then the raindrops of divinity refresh the
288:18  earth. As St. Paul says: "There remaineth therefore
        a rest to the people of God" (of Spirit).

                     The chief stones in the temple

        The chief stones in the temple of Christian Science are
288:21  to be found in the following postulates: that Life is God,
        good, and not evil; that Soul is sinless, not
        to be found in the body; that Spirit is not, and
288:24  cannot be, materialized; that Life is not subject
        to death; that the spiritual real man has no birth, no ma-
        terial life, and no death.

                           The Christ-element

288:27  Science reveals the glorious possibilities of immortal
        man, forever unlimited by the mortal senses.
        The Christ-element in the Messiah made him
288:30  the Way-shower, Truth and Life.

        The eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem to have
        learned from error, and man's real existence as a child
289:1   of God comes to light. Truth demonstrated is eternal
        life. Mortal man can never rise from the temporal /debris/
289:3   of error, belief in sin, sickness, and death, until he learns
        that God is the only Life. The belief that life and sensa-
        tion are in the body should be overcome by the under-
289:6   standing of what constitutes man as the image of God.
        Then Spirit will have overcome the flesh.

                          Wickedness is not man

        A wicked mortal is not the idea of God. He is little
289:9   else than the expression of error. To suppose that sin,
        lust, hatred, envy, hypocrisy, revenge, have life
        abiding in them, is a terrible mistake. Life
289:12  and life's idea, Truth and Truth's idea, never make men
        sick, sinful, or mortal.

                          Death but an illusion

        The fact that the Christ, or Truth, overcame and still
289:15  overcomes death proves the "king of terrors" to be but
        a mortal belief, or error, which Truth destroys
        with the spiritual evidences of Life; and this
289:18  shows that what appears to the senses to be death is but a
        mortal illusion, for to the real man and the real universe
        there is no death-process.

289:21  The belief that matter has life results, by the universal
        law of mortal mind, in a belief in death. So man, tree,
        and flower are supposed to die; but the fact remains,
289:24  that God's universe is spiritual and immortal.

                           Spiritual offspring

        The spiritual fact and the material belief of things are
        contradictions; but the spiritual is true, and therefore the
289:27  material must be untrue. Life is not in matter.
        Therefore it cannot be said to pass out of mat-
        ter. Matter and death are mortal illusions. Spirit and
289:30  all things spiritual are the real and eternal.

        Man is not the offspring of flesh, but of Spirit, - of
        Life, not of matter. Because Life is God, Life must be
290:1   eternal, self-existent. Life is the everlasting I AM, the Be-
        ing who was and is and shall be, whom nothing can erase.

                           Death no advantage

290:3   If the Principle, rule, and demonstration of man's being
        are not in the least understood before what is termed death
        overtakes mortals, they will rise no higher spir-
290:6   itually in the scale of existence on account of
        that single experience, but will remain as material as be-
        fore the transition, still seeking happiness through a ma-
290:9   terial, instead of through a spiritual sense of life, and from
        selfish and inferior motives. That Life or Mind is finite
        and physical or is manifested through brain and nerves,
290:12  is false. Hence Truth comes to destroy this error and
        its effects, - sickness, sin, and death. To the spiritual
        class, relates the Scripture: "On such the second death
290:15  hath no power."

                           Future purification

        If the change called /death/ destroyed the belief in sin,
        sickness, and death, happiness would be won at the mo-
290:18  ment of dissolution, and be forever permanent;
        but this is not so. Perfection is gained only
        by perfection. They who are unrighteous shall be un-
290:21  righteous still, until in divine Science Christ, Truth, re-
        moves all ignorance and sin.

                             Sin is punished

        The sin and error which possess us at the instant of
290:24  death do not cease at that moment, but endure until the
        death of these errors. To be wholly spiritual,
        man must be sinless, and he becomes thus only
290:27  when he reaches perfection. The murderer, though slain
        in the act, does not thereby forsake sin. He is no more
        spiritual for believing that his body died and learning that
290:30  his cruel mind died not. His thoughts are no purer until
        evil is disarmed by good. His body is as material as his
        mind, and /vice versa/.

291:1   The suppositions that sin is pardoned while unfor-
        saken, that happiness can be genuine in the midst of
291:3   sin, that the so-called death of the body frees from sin,
        and that God's pardon is aught but the destruction of
        sin, - these are grave mistakes. We know that all will
291:6   be changed "in the twinkling of an eye," when the last
        trump shall sound; but this last call of wisdom cannot
        come till mortals have already yielded to each lesser call
291:9   in the growth of Christian character. Mortals need not
        fancy that belief in the experience of death will awaken
        them to glorified being.

                         Salvation and probation

291:12  Universal salvation rests on progression and probation,
        and is unattainable without them. Heaven is not a local-
        ity, but a divine state of Mind in which all the
291:15  manifestations of Mind are harmonious and
        immortal, because sin is not there and man is
        found having no righteousness of his own, but in posses-
291:18  sion of "the mind of the Lord," as the Scripture says.

        "In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall
        be." So we read in Ecclesiastes. This text has been
291:21  transformed into the popular proverb, "As the tree
        falls, so it must lie." As man falleth asleep, so shall he
        awake. As death findeth mortal man, so shall he be
291:24  after death, until probation and growth shall effect the
        needed change. Mind never becomes dust. No resur-
        rection from the grave awaits Mind or Life, for the grave
291:27  has no power over either.

                             Day of judgment

        No final judgment awaits mortals, for the judgment-
        day of wisdom comes hourly and continually,
291:30  even the judgment by which mortal man is di-
        vested of all material error. As for spiritual error there
        is none.

292:1   When the last mortal fault is destroyed, then the final
        trump will sound which will end the battle of Truth with
292:3   error and mortality; "but of that day and hour, knoweth
        no man." Here prophecy pauses. Divine Science alone
        can compass the heights and depths of being and reveal
292:6   the infinite.

                             Primitive error

        Truth will be to us "the resurrection and the life" only
        as it destroys all error and the belief that Mind, the only
292:9   immortality of man, can be fettered by the
        body, and Life be controlled by death. A sin-
        ful, sick, and dying mortal is not the likeness of God, the
292:12  perfect and eternal.

        Matter is the primitive belief of mortal mind, because
        this so-called mind has no cognizance of Spirit. To
292:15  mortal mind, matter is substantial, and evil is
        real. The so-called senses of mortals are material.
        Hence the so-called life of mortals is dependent on
292:18  matter.

        Explaining the origin of material man and mortal mind,
        Jesus said: "Why do ye not understand my speech?
292:21  Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your
        father, the devil [evil], and the lusts of your father ye will
        do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode
292:24  not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When
        he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar,
        and the father of it."

                              Immortal man

292:27  This carnal material mentality, misnamed /mind/, is
        mortal. Therefore man would be annihilated, were it
        not for the spiritual real man's indissoluble
292:30  connection with his God, which Jesus brought
        to light. In his resurrection and ascension, Jesus showed
        that a mortal man is not the real essence of manhood, and
293:1   that this unreal material mortality disappears in presence
        of the reality.

                         Elementary electricity

293:3   Electricity is not a vital fluid, but the least material
        form of illusive consciousness, - the material mindless-
        ness, which forms no link between matter and
293:6   Mind, and which destroys itself. Matter and
        mortal mind are but different strata of human belief. The
        grosser substratum is named matter or body; the more
293:9   ethereal is called mind. This so-called mind and body
        is the illusion called a mortal, a mind in matter. In reality
        and in Science, both strata, mortal mind and mortal body,
293:12  are false representatives of man.

        The material so-called gases and forces are counter-
        feits of the spiritual forces of divine Mind, whose potency
293:15  is Truth, whose attraction is Love, whose adhesion and
        cohesion are Life, perpetuating the eternal facts of being.
        Electricity is the sharp surplus of materiality which coun-
293:18  terfeits the true essence of spirituality or truth, - the
        great difference being that electricity is not intelligent,
        while spiritual truth is Mind.

                         The counterfeit forces

293:21  There is no vapid fury of mortal mind - expressed in
        earthquake, wind, wave, lightning, fire, bestial ferocity
        - and this so-called mind is self-destroyed.
293:24  The manifestations of evil, which counterfeit
        divine justice, are called in the Scriptures, "The anger
        of the Lord." In reality, they show the self-destruction
293:27  of error or matter and point to matter's opposite, the
        strength and permanency of Spirit. Christian Science
        brings to light Truth and its supremacy, universal har-
293:30  mony, the entireness of God, good, and the nothingness
        of evil.

                          Instruments of error

        The five physical senses are the avenues and instru-
294:1   ments of human error, and they correspond with error.
        These senses indicate the common human belief, that life,
294:3   substance, and intelligence are a unison of
        matter with Spirit. This is pantheism, and
        carries within itself the seeds of all error.

294:6   If man is both mind and matter, the loss of one finger
        would take away some quality and quantity of the man,
        for matter and man would be one.

                             Mortal verdict

294:9   The belief that matter thinks, sees, or feels is not more
        real than the belief that matter enjoys and suffers. This
        mortal belief, misnamed /man/, is error, saying:
294:12  "Matter has intelligence and sensation. Nerves
        feel. Brain thinks and sins. The stomach can make a
        man cross. Injury can cripple and matter can kill man."
294:15  This verdict of the so-called material senses victimizes
        mortals, taught, as they are by physiology and pathology,
        to revere false testimony, even the errors that are destroyed
294:18  by Truth through spiritual sense and Science.

                            Mythical pleasure

        The lines of demarcation between immortal man, repre-
        senting Spirit, and mortal man, representing the error that
294:21  life and intelligence are in matter, show the
        pleasures and pains of matter to be myths, and
        human belief in them to be the father of mythology, in
294:24  which matter is represented as divided into intelligent gods.
        Man's genuine selfhood is recognizable only in what is
        good and true. Man is neither self-made nor made by
294:27  mortals. God created man.

                             Severed members

        The inebriate believes that there is pleasure in intoxica-
        tion. The thief believes that he gains something by steal-
294:30  ing, and the hypocrite that he is hiding himself. The
        Science of Mind corrects such mistakes, for Truth demon-
        strates the falsity of error.

                             Severed members

295:1   The belief that a severed limb is aching in the old loca-
        tion, the sensation seeming to be in nerves which
295:3   are no longer there, is an added proof of the un-
        reliability of physical testimony.

                        Mortals unlike immortals

        God creates and governs the universe, including man.
295:6   The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He
        evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind
        that makes them. Mortal mind would trans-
295:9   form the spiritual into the material, and then
        recover man's original self in order to escape from the
        mortality of this error. Mortals are not like immortals,
295:12  created in God's own image; but infinite Spirit being all,
        mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact
        and disappear, and the real sense of being, perfect and
295:15  forever intact, will appear.

                          Goodness transparent

        The manifestation of God through mortals is as light
        passing through the window-pane. The light and the
295:18  glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass
        is less opaque than the walls. The mortal
        mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that
295:21  one which has lost much materiality - much error - in
        order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then,
        like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides
295:24  the sun.

                            Brainology a myth

        All that is called mortal thought is made up of error.
        The theoretical mind is matter, named /brain/, or /mate/-
295:27  /rial consciousness/, the exact opposite of real
        Mind, or Spirit. Brainology teaches that
        mortals are created to suffer and die. It further
295:30  teaches that when man is dead, his immortal soul is
        resurrected from death and mortality. Thus error the-
        orizes that spirit is born of matter and returns to mat-
296:1   ter, and that man has a resurrection from dust; whereas
        Science unfolds the eternal verity, that man is the spiritual,
296:3   eternal reflection of God.

                          Scientific purgation

        Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of
        mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for
296:6   the immortal. Either here or hereafter, suf-
        fering or Science must destroy all illusions
        regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense
296:9   and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off.
        Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a
        false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic
296:12  matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real,
        and eternal.

        The so-called pleasures and pains of matter perish,
296:15  and they must go out under the blaze of Truth, spiritual
        sense, and the actuality of being. Mortal belief must lose
        all satisfaction in error and sin in order to part with
296:18  them.

        Whether mortals will learn this sooner or later, and
        how long they will suffer the pangs of destruction, de-
296:21  pends upon the tenacity of error.

                             Mixed testimony

        The knowledge obtained from the corporeal senses
        leads to sin and death. When the evidence of Spirit
296:24  and matter, Truth and error, seems to com-
        mingle, it rests upon foundations which time
        is wearing away. Mortal mind judges by the testimony
296:27  of the material senses, until Science obliterates this false
        testimony. An improved belief is one step out of error,
        and aids in taking the next step and in understanding
296:30  the situation in Christian Science.

                           Belief an autocrat

        Mortal belief is a liar from the beginning, not deserving
        power. It says to mortals, "You are wretched!" and they
297:1   think they are so; and nothing can change this state, until
        the belief changes. Mortal belief says, "You are happy!"
297:3   and mortals are so; and no circumstance can
        alter the situation, until the belief on this sub-
        ject changes. Human belief says to mortals, "You are
297:6   sick!" and this testimony manifests itself on the body as
        sickness. It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for
        an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into
297:9   the understanding of what constitutes health; for a change
        in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the
        physical condition.

                            Self-improvement

297:12  Erroneous belief is destroyed by truth. Change the
        evidence, and that disappears which before seemed real
        to this false belief, and the human conscious-
297:15  ness rises higher. Thus the reality of being
        is attained and man found to be immortal. The only
        fact concerning any material concept is, that it is neither
297:18  scientific nor eternal, but subject to change and dis-
        solution.

                        Faith higher than belief

        Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is
297:21  a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual
        evidence, contradicting the testimony of mate-
        rial sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the
297:24  ever-present, is becoming understood. Human thoughts
        have their degrees of comparison. Some thoughts are
        better than others. A belief in Truth is better than a
297:27  belief in error, but no mortal testimony is founded on the
        divine rock. Mortal testimony can be shaken. Until
        belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual under-
297:30  standing, human thought has little relation to the actual
        or divine.

        A mortal belief fulfils its own conditions. Sickness,
298:1   sin, and death are the vague realities of human conclu-
        sions. Life, Truth, and Love are the realities of divine
298:3   Science. They dawn in faith and glow full-orbed in
        spiritual understanding. As a cloud hides the sun it
        cannot extinguish, so false belief silences for a while the
298:6   voice of immutable harmony, but false belief cannot de-
        stroy Science armed with faith, hope, and fruition.

                             Truth's witness

        What is termed material sense can report only a mor-
298:9   tal temporary sense of things, whereas spiritual sense can
        bear witness only to Truth. To material sense,
        the unreal is the real until this sense is corrected
298:12  by Christian Science.

        Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, in-
        volves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, real-
298:15  ity. Material sense expresses the belief that mind is in
        matter. This human belief, alternating between a sense
        of pleasure and pain, hope and fear, life and death, never
298:18  reaches beyond the boundary of the mortal or the unreal.
        When the real is attained, which is announced by Science,
        joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat. Spirit-
298:21  ual ideas, like numbers and notes, start from Principle,
        and admit no materialistic beliefs. Spiritual ideas lead
        up to their divine origin, God, and to the spiritual sense
298:24  of being.

                             Thought-angels

        Angels are not etherealized human beings, evolving
        animal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial
298:27  visitants, flying on spiritual, not material,
        pinions. Angels are pure thoughts from God,
        winged with Truth and Love, no matter what their indi-
298:30  vidualism may be. Human conjecture confers upon angels
        its own forms of thought, marked with superstitious out-
        lines, making them human creatures with suggestive
299:1   feathers; but this is only fancy. It has behind it no more
        reality than has the sculptor's thought when he carves
299:3   his "Statue of Liberty," which embodies his concep-
        tion of an unseen quality or condition, but which has
        no physical antecedent reality save in the artist's own ob-
299:6   servation and "chambers of imagery."

                         Our Angelic messengers

        My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door
        of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried
299:9   its fondest earthly hopes. With white fin-
        gers they point upward to a new and glo-
        rified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels
299:12  are God's representatives. These upward-soaring beings
        never lead towards self, sin, or materiality, but guide to
        the divine Principle of all good, whither every real indi-
299:15  viduality, image, or likeness of God, gathers. By giving
        earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us,
        and we entertain "angels unawares."

                           Knowledge and Truth

299:18  Knowledge gained from material sense is figuratively
        represented in Scripture as a tree, bearing the fruits of
        sin, sickness, and death. Ought we not then
299:21  to judge the knowledge thus obtained to be
        untrue and dangerous, since "the tree is known by his
        fruit"?

299:24  Truth never destroys God's idea. Truth is spiritual,
        eternal substance, which cannot destroy the right reflec-
        tion. Corporeal sense, or error, may seem to hide Truth,
299:27  health, harmony, and Science, as the mist obscures the
        sun or the mountain; but Science, the sunshine of Truth,
        will melt away the shadow and reveal the celestial
299:30  peaks.

                             Old and new man

        If man were solely a creature of the material senses,
        he would have no eternal Principle and would be mutable
300:1   and mortal. Human logic is awry when it attempts
        to draw correct spiritual conclusions regarding life from
300:3   matter. Finite sense has no true apprecia-
        tion of infinite Principle, God, or of His infi-
        nite image or reflection, man. The mirage, which makes
300:6   trees and cities seem to be where they are not, illustrates
        the illusion of material man, who cannot be the image
        of God.

300:9   So far as the scientific statement as to man is under-
        stood, it can be proved and will bring to light the true
        reflection of God - the real man, or the /new/ man (as
300:12  St. Paul has it).

                           The tares and wheat

        The temporal and unreal never touch the eternal and
        real. The mutable and imperfect never touch the im-
300:15  mutable and perfect. The inharmonious and
        self-destructive never touch the harmonious
        and self-existent. These opposite qualities are the tares
300:18  and wheat, which never really mingle, though (to mortal
        sight) they grow side by side until the harvest; then, Sci-
        ence separates the wheat from the tares, through the real-
300:21  ization of God as ever present and of man as reflecting
        the divine likeness.

                          The divine reflection

        Spirit is God, Soul; therefore Soul is not in matter. If
300:24  Spirit were in matter, God would have no representative,
        and matter would be identical with God.
        The theory that soul, spirit, intelligence, in-
300:27  habits matter is taught by the schools. This theory is
        unscientific. The universe reflects and expresses the di-
        vine substance or Mind; therefore God is seen only in the
300:30  spiritual universe and spiritual man, as the sun is seen in
        the ray of light which goes out from it. God is re-
        vealed only in that which reflects Life, Truth, Love, -
301:1   yea, which manifests God's attributes and power, even
        as the human likeness thrown upon the mirror, repeats
301:3   the color, form, and action of the person in front of the
        mirror.

        Few persons comprehend what Christian Science
301:6   means by the word /reflection. /To himself, mortal and
        material man seems to be substance, but his sense of
        substance involves error and therefore is material,
301:9   temporal.

        On the other hand, the immortal, spiritual man is really
        substantial, and reflects the eternal substance, or Spirit,
301:12  which mortals hope for. He reflects the divine, which
        constitutes the only real and eternal entity. This reflection
        seems to mortal sense transcendental, because the spiritual
301:15  man's substantiality transcends mortal vision and is re-
        vealed only through divine Science.

                        Inverted images and ideas

        As God is substance and man is the divine image and
301:18  likeness, man should wish for, and in reality has, only
        the substance of good, the substance of Spirit,
        not matter. The belief that man has any other
301:21  substance, or mind, is not spiritual and breaks
        the First Commandment, Thou shalt have one God, one
        Mind. Mortal man seems to himself to be material sub-
301:24  stance, while man is "image" (idea). Delusion, sin, dis-
        ease, and death arise from the false testimony of material
        sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the
301:27  focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image
        of Mind and substance with everything turned upside
        down.

301:30  This falsity presupposes soul to be an unsubstantial
        dweller in material forms, and man to be material instead
        of spiritual. Immortality is not bounded by mortality.
302:1   Soul is not compassed by finiteness. Principle is not to
        be found in fragmentary ideas.

                            Identity not lost

302:3   The material body and mind are temporal, but the
        real man is spiritual and eternal. The identity of the
        real man is not lost, but found through this
302:6   explanation; for the conscious infinitude of
        existence and of all identity is thereby discerned and re-
        mains unchanged. It is impossible that man should lose
302:9   aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his. The
        notion that mind is in matter, and that the so-called pleas-
        ures and pains, the birth, sin, sickness, and death of
302:12  matter, are real, is a mortal belief; and this belief is all
        that will ever be lost.

                            Definition of man

        Continuing our definition of/ man/, let us remember that
302:15  harmonious and immortal man has existed forever, and
        is always beyond and above the mortal illu-
        sion of any life, substance and intelligence
302:18  as existent in matter. This statement is based on fact,
        not fable. The Science of being reveals man as perfect,
        even as the Father is perfect, because the Soul, or Mind,
302:21  of the spiritual man is God, the divine Principle of all
        being, and because this real man is governed by Soul
        instead of sense, by the law of Spirit, not by the so-called
302:24  laws of matter.

        God is Love. He is therefore the divine, infinite Prin-
        ciple, called Person or God. Man's true consciousness
302:27  is in the mental, not in any bodily or personal likeness
        to Spirit. Indeed, the body presents no proper likeness
        of divinity, though mortal sense would fain have us so
302:30  believe.

                           Mental propagation

        Even in Christian Science, reproduction by Spirit's
        individual ideas is but the reflection of the creative power
303:1   of the divine Principle of those ideas. The reflection,
        through mental manifestation, of the multitudinous
303:3   forms of Mind which people the realm of
        the real is controlled by Mind, the Principle
        governing the reflection. Multiplication of God's chil-
303:6   dren comes from no power of propagation in matter, it
        is the reflection of Spirit.

        The minutiae of lesser individualities reflect the one di-
303:9   vine individuality and are comprehended in and formed
        by Spirit, not by material sensation. Whatever reflects
        Mind, Life, Truth, and Love, is spiritually conceived and
303:12  brought forth; but the statement that man is conceived
        and evolved both spiritually and materially, or by both
        God and man, contradicts this eternal truth. All the
303:15  vanity of the ages can never make both these contraries
        true. Divine Science lays the axe at the root of the illu-
        sion that life, or mind, is formed by or is in the material
303:18  body, and Science will eventually destroy this illusion
        through the self-destruction of all error and the beatified
        understanding of the Science of Life.

                              Error defined

303:21  The belief that pain and pleasure, life and death, holi-
        ness and unholiness, mingle in man, - that
        mortal, material man is the likeness of God
303:24  and is himself a creator, - is a fatal error.

                         Man's entity spiritual

        God, without the image and likeness of Himself, would
        be a nonentity, or Mind unexpressed. He would be
303:27  without a witness or proof of His own na-
        ture. Spiritual man is the image or idea of
        God, an idea which cannot be lost nor sep-
303:30  arated from its divine Principle. When the evidence
        before the material senses yielded to spiritual sense, the
        apostle declared that nothing could alienate him from
304:1   God, from the sweet sense and presence of Life and
        Truth.

                        Man inseparable from Love

304:3   It is ignorance and false belief, based on a material
        sense of things, which hide spiritual beauty and good-
        ness. Understanding this, Paul said: "Nei-
304:6   ther death, nor life, . . . nor things present,
        nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor
        any other creature, shall be able to separate us from
304:9   the love of God." This is the doctrine of Christian
        Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its
        manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into
304:12  sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can
        never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind
        nor life result in death. The perfect man - governed
304:15  by God, his perfect Principle - is sinless and eternal.

                             Harmony natural

        Harmony is produced by its Principle, is controlled
        by it and abides with it. Divine Principle is the Life
304:18  of man. Man's happiness is not, therefore, at
        the disposal of physical sense. Truth is not
        contaminated by error. Harmony in man is as beautiful
304:21  as in music, and discord is unnatural, unreal.

        The science of music governs tones. If mortals caught
        harmony through material sense, they would lose har-
304:24  mony, if time or accident robbed them of material sense.
        To be master of chords and discords, the science of
        music must be understood. Left to the decisions
304:27  of material sense, music is liable to be misappre-
        hended and lost in confusion. Controlled by belief,
        instead of understanding, music is, must be, imper-
304:30  fectly expressed. So man, not understanding the Sci-
        ence of being, - thrusting aside his divine Principle as
        incomprehensible, - is abandoned to conjectures, left in
305:1   the hands of ignorance, placed at the disposal of illusions,
        subjected to material sense which is discord. A discon-
305:3   tented, discordant mortal is no more a /man/ than discord
        is music.

                            Human reflection

        A picture in the camera or a face reflected in the mirror
305:6   is not the original, though resembling it. Man, in the
        likeness of his Maker, reflects the central light
        of being, the invisible God. As there is no cor-
305:9   poreality in the mirrored form, which is but a reflection,
        so man, like all things real, reflects God, his divine Prin-
        ciple, not in a mortal body.

305:12  Gender also is a quality, not of God, but a character-
        istic of mortal mind. The verity that God's image is not
        a creator, though he reflects the creation of Mind, God,
305:15  constitutes the underlying reality of reflection. "Then
        answered Jesus and said unto them: Verily, verily I say
        unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he
305:18  seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth,
        these also doeth the Son likewise."

                             Inverted images

        The inverted images presented by the senses, the de-
305:21  flections of matter as opposed to the Science of spirit-
        ual reflection, are all unlike Spirit, God. In
        the illusion of life that is here to-day and
305:24  gone to-morrow, man would be wholly mortal, were
        it not that Love, the divine Principle that obtains in
        divine Science, destroys all error and brings immor-
305:27  tality to light. Because man is the reflection of his
        Maker, he is not subject to birth, growth, maturity, de-
        cay. These mortal dreams are of human origin, not
305:30  divine.

                            Jewish traditions

        The Sadducees reasoned falsely about the resurrec-
        tion, but not so blindly as the Pharisees, who believed
306:1   error to be as immortal as Truth. The Pharisees thought
        that they could raise the spiritual from the material. They
306:3   would first make life result in death, and then
        resort to death to reproduce spiritual life.
        Jesus taught them how death was to be overcome by
306:6   spiritual Life, and demonstrated this beyond cavil.

                         Divinity not childless

        Life demonstrates Life. The immortality of Soul makes
        man immortal. If God, who is Life, were parted for a
306:9   moment from His reflection, man, during that
        moment there would be no divinity reflected.
        The Ego would be unexpressed, and the Father would be
306:12  childless, - no Father.

        If Life or Soul and its representative, man, unite for
        a period and then are separated as by a law of divorce to
306:15  be brought together again at some uncertain future time
        and in a manner unknown, - and this is the general
        religious opinion of mankind, - we are left without a
306:18  rational proof of immortality. But man cannot be sep-
        arated for an instant from God, if man reflects God.
        Thus Science proves man's existence to be intact.

                              Thought-forms

306:21  The myriad forms of mortal thought, made manifest
        as matter, are not more distinct nor real to the mate-
        rial senses than are the Soul-created forms
306:24  to spiritual sense, which cognizes Life as per-
        manent. Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the
        material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding
306:27  to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle,
        - is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and
        eternal.

306:30  God's man, spiritually created, is not material and
        mortal.

                          The serpent's whisper

        The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream,
307:1   the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life
        and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter.
307:3   This pantheistic error, or so-called /serpent/, in-
        sists still upon the opposite of Truth, saying,
        "Ye shall be as gods;" that is, I will make error as real
307:6   and eternal as Truth.

        Evil still affirms itself to be mind, and declares that
        there is more than one intelligence or God. It says:
307:9   "There shall be lords and gods many. I declare that God
        makes evil minds and evil spirits, and that I aid Him.
        Truth shall change sides and be unlike Spirit. I will
307:12  put spirit into what I call matter, and matter shall seem
        to have life as much as God, Spirit, who /is/ the only life."

                         Bad results from error

        This error has proved itself to be error. Its life is found
307:15  to be not Life, but only a transient, false sense of an ex-
        istence which ends in death. Error charges
        its lie to Truth and says: "The Lord knows
307:18  it. He has made man immortal and material, out of mat-
        ter instead of Spirit." Thus error partakes of its own
        nature and utters its own falsities. If we regard matter
307:21  as intelligent, and Mind as both good and evil, every sin
        or supposed material pain and pleasure seems normal,
        a part of God's creation, and so weighs against our course
307:24  Spiritward.

                             Higher statutes

        Truth has no beginning. The divine Mind is the Soul
        of man, and gives man dominion over all things. Man
307:27  was not created from a material basis, nor
        bidden to obey material laws which Spirit never
        made; his province is in spiritual statutes, in the higher
307:30  law of Mind.

                           The great question

        Above error's awful din, blackness, and chaos, the voice
        of Truth still calls: "Adam, where art thou? Conscious-
308:1   ness, where art thou? Art thou dwelling in the belief
        that mind is in matter, and that evil is mind, or art thou
308:3   in the living faith that there is and can be but
        one God, and keeping His commandment?"
        Until the lesson is learned that God is the only Mind gov-
308:6   erning man, mortal belief will be afraid as it was in the
        beginning, and will hide from the demand, "Where art
        thou?" This awful demand, "Adam, where art thou?"
308:9   is met by the admission from the head, heart, stomach,
        blood, nerves, etc.: "Lo, here I am, looking for happiness
        and life in the body, but finding only an illusion, a blend-
308:12  ing of false claims, false pleasure, pain, sin, sickness, and
        death."

        The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth,
308:15  and talked with God as consciously as man talks with man.

                           Wrestling of Jacob

        Jacob was /alone/, wrestling with error, - struggling
        with a mortal sense of life, substance, and intelligence
308:18  as existent in matter with its false pleasures
        and pains, - when an angel, a message from
        Truth and Love, appeared to him and smote the sinew,
308:21  or strength, of his error, till he saw its unreality; and
        Truth, being thereby understood, gave him spiritual
        strength in this Peniel of divine Science. Then said
308:24  the spiritual evangel: "Let me go, for the day breaketh;"
        that is, the light of Truth and Love dawns upon thee.
        But the patriarch, perceiving his error and his need
308:27  of help, did not loosen his hold upon this glorious light
        until his nature was transformed. When Jacob was
        asked, "What is thy name?" he straightway answered;
308:30  and then his name was changed to Israel, for "as a prince"
        had he prevailed and had "power with God and with
        men." Then Jacob questioned his deliverer, "Tell me,
309:1   I pray thee, /thy/ name;" but this appellation was withheld,
        for the messenger was not a corporeal being, but a name-
309:3   less, incorporeal impartation of divine Love to man, which,
        to use the word of the Psalmist, /restored /his Soul, - gave
        him the spiritual sense of being and rebuked his material
309:6   sense.

                           Israel the new name

        The result of Jacob's struggle thus appeared. He had
        conquered material error with the understanding of Spirit
309:9   and of spiritual power. This changed the man.
        He was no longer called Jacob, but Israel, -
        a prince of God, or a soldier of God, who had fought
309:12  a good fight. He was to become the father of those, who
        through earnest striving followed his demonstration of the
        power of Spirit over the material senses; and the children
309:15  of earth who followed his example were to be called the
        children of Israel, until the Messiah should rename them.
        If these children should go astray, and forget that Life
309:18  is God, good, and that good is not in elements which are
        not spiritual, - thus losing the divine power which heals
        the sick and sinning, - they were to be brought back
309:21  through great tribulation, to be renamed in Christian
        Science and led to deny material sense, or mind in matter,
        even as the gospel teaches.

                          Life never structural

309:24  The Science of being shows it to be impossible for in-
        finite Spirit or Soul to be in a finite body or for man to
        have an intelligence separate from his Maker.
309:27  It is a self-evident error to suppose that there
        can be such a reality as organic animal or vegetable life,
        when such so-called life always ends in death. Life is
309:30  never for a moment extinct. Therefore it is never struc-
        tural nor organic, and is never absorbed nor limited by its
        own formations.

                        Thought seen as substance

310:1   The artist is not in his painting. The picture is the
        artist's thought objectified. The human belief fancies
310:3   that it delineates thought on matter, but what
        is matter? Did it exist prior to thought?
        Matter is made up of supposititious mortal mind-force;
310:6   but all might is divine Mind. Thought will finally be
        understood and seen in all form, substance, and color, but
        without material accompaniments. The potter is not in
310:9   the clay; else the clay would have power over the potter.
        God is His own infinite Mind, and expresses all.

                        The central intelligence

        Day may decline and shadows fall, but darkness flees
310:12  when the earth has again turned upon its axis. The sun
        is not affected by the revolution of the earth.
        So Science reveals Soul as God, untouched
310:15  by sin and death, - as the central life and intelligence
        around which circle harmoniously all things in the sys-
        tems of Mind.

                            Soul imperishable

310:18  Soul changeth not. We are commonly taught that there
        is a human soul which sins and is spiritually lost, - that
        soul may be lost, and yet be immortal. If
310:21  Soul could sin, Spirit, Soul, would be flesh in-
        stead of Spirit. It is the belief of the flesh and of mate-
        rial sense which sins. If Soul sinned, Soul would die.
310:24  Sin is the element of self-destruction, and spiritual death
        is oblivion. If there was sin in Soul, the annihilation of
        Spirit would be inevitable. The only Life is Spirit, and
310:27  if Spirit should lose Life as God, good, then Spirit, which
        has no other existence, would be annihilated.

        Mind is God, and God is not seen by material sense,
310:30  because Mind is Spirit, which material sense cannot dis-
        cern. There is neither growth, maturity, nor decay in
        Soul. These changes are the mutations of material sense,
311:1   the varying clouds of mortal belief, which hide the truth
        of being.

311:3   What we term mortal mind or carnal mind, dependent
        on matter for manifestation, is not Mind. God is Mind:
        all that Mind, God, is, or hath made, is good, and He
311:6   made all. Hence evil is not made and is not real.

                          Sin only of the flesh

        Soul is immortal because it is Spirit, which has no ele-
        ment of self-destruction. is man lost spiritually? No,
311:9   he can only lose a sense material. All sin is
        of the flesh. It cannot be spiritual. Sin exists
        here or hereafter only so long as the illusion of mind in
311:12  matter remains. It is a sense of sin, and not a sinful soul,
        which is lost. Evil is destroyed by the sense of good.

                             Soul impeccable

        Through false estimates of soul as dwelling in sense
311:15  and of mind as dwelling in matter, belief strays into a
        sense of temporary loss or absence of soul, spir-
        itual truth. This state of error is the mortal
311:18  dream of life and substance as existent in matter, and is
        directly opposite to the immortal reality of being. So long
        as we believe that soul can sin or that immortal Soul is in
311:21  mortal body, we can never understand the Science of be-
        ing. When humanity does understand this Science, it
        will become the law of Life to man, - even the higher law
311:24  of Soul, which prevails over material sense through har-
        mony and immortality.

        The objects cognized by the physical senses have not
311:27  the reality of substance. They are only what mortal
        belief calls them. Matter, sin, and mortality lose all
        supposed consciousness or claim to life or existence, as
311:30  mortals lay off a false sense of life, substance, and intelli-
        gence. but the spiritual, eternal man is not touched by
        these phases of mortality.

                              Sense-dreams

312:1   How true it is that whatever is learned through material
        sense must be lost because such so-called knowledge is
312:3   reversed by the spiritual facts of being in
        Science. That which material sense calls
        intangible, is found to be substance. What to material
312:6   sense seems substance, becomes nothingness, as the sense-
        dream vanishes and reality appears.

        The senses regard a corpse, not as man, but simply as
312:9   matter. People say, "Man is dead;" but this death is
        the departure of a mortal's mind, not of matter. The
        matter is still there. The belief of that mortal that he
312:12  must die occasioned his departure; yet you say that
        matter has caused his death.

                             Vain ecstasies

        People go into ecstasies over the sense of a corporeal
312:15  Jehovah, though with scarcely a spark of love in their
        hearts; yet God /is/ love, and without Love,
        God, immortality cannot appear. Mortals try
312:18  to believe without understanding Truth; yet God /is/
        Truth. Mortals claim that death is inevitable; but man's
        eternal Principle is ever-present life. Mortals believe in
312:21  a finite personal God; while God is infinite Love, which
        must be unlimited.

                            Man-made theories

        Our theories are based on finite premises, which can-
312:24  not penetrate beyond matter. A personal sense of God
        and of man's capabilities necessarily limits
        faith and hinders spiritual understanding. It
312:27  divides faith and understanding between matter and Spirit,
        the finite and the infinite, and so turns away from the
        intelligent and divine healing Principle to the inanimate
312:30  drug.

                            The one anointed

        Jesus' spiritual origin and his demonstration of divine
        Principle richly endowed him and entitled him to sonship
313:1   in Science. He was the son of a virgin. The term
        Christ Jesus, or Jesus the Christ (to give the full and
313:3   proper translation of the Greek), may be ren-
        dered "Jesus the anointed," Jesus the God-
        crowned or the divinely royal man, as it is said of him in
313:6   the first chapter of Hebrews: -
             Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee
             With the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

313:9   With this agrees another passage in the same chapter,
        which refers to the Son as "the brightness of His [God's]
        glory, and the express [expressed] image of His person
313:12  [infinite Mind]." It is noteworthy that the phrase "ex-
        press image" in the Common Version is, in the Greek
        Testament, /character/. Using this word in its higher mean-
313:15  ing, we may assume that the author of this remarkable
        epistle regarded Christ as the Son of God, the royal
        reflection of the infinite; and the cause given for the ex-
313:18  altation of Jesus, Mary's son, was that he "loved right-
        eousness and hated iniquity." The passage is made
        even clearer in the translation of the late George R.
313:21  Noyes, D.D.: "Who, being a brightness from His glory,
        and an image of His being."

                           Jesus the Scientist

        Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that
313:24  ever trod the globe. He plunged beneath the material
        surface of things, and found the spiritual
        cause. To accommodate himself to imma-
313:27  ture ideas of spiritual power, - for spirituality was pos
        sessed only in a limited degree even by his disciples, -
        Jesus called the body, which by spiritual power he
313:30  raised from the grave, "flesh and bones." To show
        that the substance of himself was Spirit and the body
314:1   no more perfect because of death and no less material
        until the ascension (his further spiritual exaltation),
314:3   Jesus waited until the mortal or fleshly sense had re-
        linquished the belief of substance-matter, and spiritual
        sense had quenched all earthly yearnings. Thus he found
314:6   the eternal Ego, and proved that he and the Father were
        inseparable as God and His reflection or spiritual man.
        Our Master gained the solution of being, demonstrating
314:9   the existence of but one Mind without a second or equal.

                         The bodily resurrection

        The Jews, who sought to kill this man of God, showed
        plainly that their material views were the parents of their
314:12  wicked deeds. When Jesus spoke of repro-
        ducing his body, - knowing, as he did, that
        Mind was the builder, - and said, "Destroy this temple,
314:15  and in three days I will raise it up," they thought that he
        meant their material temple instead of his body. To such
        materialists, the real man seemed a spectre, unseen and
314:18  unfamiliar, and the body, which they laid in a sepulchre,
        seemed to be substance. This materialism lost sight of
        the true Jesus; but the faithful Mary saw him, and he
314:21  presented to her, more than ever before, the true idea of
        Life and substance.

                       Opposition of materialists

        Because of mortals' material and sinful belief, the
314:24  spiritual Jesus was imperceptible to them. The higher
        his demonstration of divine Science carried
        the problem of being, and the more dis-
314:27  tinctly he uttered the demands of its divine Principle,
        Truth and Love, the more odious he became to sinners
        and to those who, depending on doctrines and material
314:30  laws to save them from sin and sickness, were submis-
        sive to death as being in supposed accord with the
        inevitable law of life. Jesus proved them wrong by
315:1   his resurrection, and said: "Whosoever liveth and be-
        lieveth in me shall never die."

                             Hebrew theology

315:3   That saying of our Master, "I and my Father are one,"
        separated him from the scholastic theology of the rabbis.
        His better understanding of God was a rebuke
315:6   to them. He knew of but one Mind and laid
        no claim to any other. He knew that the Ego was Mind
        instead of body and that matter, sin, and evil were not
315:9   Mind; and his understanding of this divine Science
        brought upon him the anathemas of the age.

                            The true sonship

        The opposite and false views of the people hid from
315:12  their sense Christ's sonship with God. They could not
        discern his spiritual existence. Their carnal
        minds were at enmity with it. Their thoughts
315:15  were filled with mortal error, instead of with God's spirit-
        ual idea as presented by Christ Jesus. The likeness of
        God we lose sight of through sin, which beclouds the spir-
315:18  itual sense of Truth; and we realize this likeness only
        when we subdue sin and prove man's heritage, the liberty
        of the sons of God.

                          Immaculate conception

315:21  Jesus' spiritual origin and understanding enabled him
        to demonstrate the facts of being, - to prove irrefutably
        how spiritual Truth destroys material error,
315:24  heals sickness, and overcomes death. The
        divine conception of Jesus pointed to this truth and pre-
        sented an illustration of creation. The history of Jesus
315:27  shows him to have been more spiritual than all other
        earthly personalities.

                            Jesus as mediator

        Wearing in part a human form (that is, as it seemed
315:30  to mortal view), being conceived by a human mother,
        Jesus was the mediator between Spirit and the flesh,
        between Truth and error. Explaining and demonstrat-
316:1   ing the way of divine Science, he became the way of
        salvation to all who accepted his word. From him mor-
316:3   tals may learn how to escape from evil. The
        real man being linked by Science to his Maker,
        mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal
316:6   selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to
        God, and to recognize the divine sonship. Christ, Truth,
        was demonstrated through Jesus to prove the power of
316:9   Spirit over the flesh, - to show that Truth is made
        manifest by its effects upon the human mind and body,
        healing sickness and destroying sin.

                          Spiritual government

316:12  Jesus represented Christ, the true idea of God. Hence
        the warfare between this spiritual idea and perfunctory
        religion, between spiritual clear-sightedness
316:15  and the blindness of popular belief, which led
        to the conclusion that the spiritual idea could be killed
        by crucifying the flesh. The Christ-idea, or the Christ-
316:18  man, rose higher to human view because of the crucifixion,
        and thus proved that truth was the master of death.
        Christ presents the indestructible man, whom Spirit cre-
316:21  ates, constitutes, and governs. Christ illustrates that
        blending with God, his divine Principle, which gives man
        dominion over all the earth.

                             Deadness in sin

316:24  The spiritual idea of God, as presented by Jesus, was
        scourged in person, and its Principle was rejected. That
        man was accounted a criminal who could
316:27  prove God's divine power by healing the
        sick, casting out evils, spiritualizing materialistic beliefs,
        and raising the dead, - those dead in trespasses and
316:30  sins, satisfied with the flesh, resting on the basis of mat-
        ter, blind to the possibilities of Spirit and its correla-
        tive truth.
317:1   Jesus uttered things which had been "secret from the
        foundation of the world," - since material knowledge
317:3   usurped the throne of the creative divine Principle, insisted
        on the might of matter, the force of falsity, the insignifi-
        cance of spirit, and proclaimed an anthropomorphic God.

                            The cup of Jesus

317:6   Whosoever lives most the life of Jesus in this age
        and declares best the power of Christian Science, will
        drink of his Master's cup. Resistance to
317:9   Truth will haunt his steps, and he will in-
        cur the hatred of sinners, till "wisdom is justified of
        her children." These blessed benedictions rest upon
317:12  Jesus' followers: "If the world hate you, ye know that
        it hated me before it hated you;" "Lo, I am with you
        alway," - that is, not only in all time, but in /all ways/
317:15  and conditions.

        The individuality of man is no less tangible because
        it is spiritual and because his life is not at the mercy of
317:18  matter. The understanding of his spiritual individuality
        makes man more real, more formidable in truth, and en-
        ables him to conquer sin, disease, and death. Our Lord
317:21  and Master presented himself to his disciples after his
        resurrection from the grave, as the self-same Jesus whom
        they had loved before the tragedy on Calvary.

                           Material skepticism

317:24  To the materialistic Thomas, looking for the ideal
        Saviour in matter instead of in Spirit and to the testi-
        mony of the material senses and the body,
317:27  more than to Soul, for an earnest of immor-
        tality, - to him Jesus furnished the proof that he was
        unchanged by the crucifixion. To this dull and doubt-
317:30  ing disciple Jesus remained a fleshly reality, so long as
        the Master remained an inhabitant of the earth. Noth-
        ing but a display of matter could make existence real
318:1   to Thomas. For him to believe in matter was no task,
        but for him to conceive of the substantiality of Spirit -
318:3   to know that nothing can efface Mind and immortality, in
        which Spirit reigns - was more difficult.

                        What the senses originate

        Corporeal senses define diseases as realities; but the
318:6   Scriptures declare that God made all, even while the cor-
        poreal senses are saying that matter causes
        disease and the divine Mind cannot or will
318:9   not heal it. The material senses originate and
        support all that is material, untrue, selfish, or debased.
        They would put soul into soil, life into limbo, and doom
318:12  all things to decay. We must silence this lie of material
        sense with the truth of spiritual sense. We must cause
        the error to cease that brought the belief of sin and death
318:15  and would efface the pure sense of omnipotence.

                           Sickness as discord

        Is the sick man sinful above all others? No! but
        so far as he is discordant, he is not the image of God.
318:18  Weary of their material beliefs, from which
        comes so much suffering, invalids grow more
        spiritual, as the error - or belief that life is in matter -
318:21  yields to the reality of spiritual Life.

        The Science of Mind denies the error of sensation in
        matter, and heals with Truth. Medical science treats
318:24  disease as though disease were real, therefore right, and
        attempts to heal it with matter. If disease is right it is
        wrong to heal it. Material methods are temporary, and
318:27  are not adapted to elevate mankind.

        The governor is not subjected to the governed. In
        Science man is governed by God, divine Principle, as
318:30  numbers are controlled and proved by His laws. Intelli-
        gence does not originate in numbers, but is manifested
        through them. The body does not include soul, but man-
319:1   ifests mortality, a false sense of soul. The delusion that
        there is life in matter has no kinship with the Life supernal.

                       Unscientific introspection

319:3   Science depicts disease as error, as matter /versus/
        Mind, and error reversed as subserving the facts of
        health. To calculate one's life-prospects
319:6   from a material basis, would infringe upon
        spiritual law and misguide human hope. Having faith
        in the divine Principle of Health and spiritually under-
319:9   standing God, sustains man under all circumstances;
        whereas the lower appeal to the general faith in material
        means (commonly called nature) must yield to the all-
319:12  might of infinite Spirit.

        Throughout the infinite cycles of eternal existence,
        Spirit and matter neither concur in man nor in the universe.

                            God the only Mind

319:15  The varied doctrines and theories which presuppose
        life and intelligence to exist in matter are so many ancient
        and modern mythologies. Mystery, miracle,
319:18  sin, and death will disappear when it becomes
        fairly understood that the divine Mind controls man and
        man has no Mind but God.

                        Scriptures misinterpreted

319:21  The divine Science taught in the original language
        of the Bible came through inspiration, and needs inspi-
        ration to be understood. Hence the misappre-
319:24  hension of the spiritual meaning of the Bible,
        and the misinterpretation of the Word in
        some instances by uninspired writers, who only wrote
319:27  down what an inspired teacher had said. A misplaced
        word changes the sense and misstates the Science of
        the Scriptures, as, for instance, to name Love as merely
319:30  an attribute of God; but we can by special and proper
        capitalization speak of the love of Love, meaning by that
        what the beloved disciple meant in one of his epistles,
320:1   when he said, "God is love." Likewise we can speak of
        the truth of Truth and of the life of Life, for Christ plainly
320:3   declared, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

                            Interior meaning

        Metaphors abound in the Bible, and names are often
        expressive of spiritual ideas. The most distinguished
320:6   theologians in Europe and America agree that
        the Scriptures have both a spiritual and lit-
        eral meaning. In Smith's Bible Dictionary it is said:
320:9   "The spiritual interpretation of Scripture must rest
        upon both the literal and moral;" and in the learned
        article on Noah in the same work, the familiar text,
320:12  Genesis vi. 3, "And the Lord said, My spirit shall not
        always strive with man, for that he also is flesh," is quoted
        as follows, from the original Hebrew: "And Jehovah
320:15  said, My spirit shall not forever rule [or be humbled] in
        men, seeing that they are [or, in their error they are]
        but flesh." Here the original text declares plainly the
320:18  spiritual fact of being, even man's eternal and harmo-
        nious existence as image, idea, instead of matter (how-
        ever transcendental such a thought appears), and avers
320:21  that this fact is not forever to be humbled by the belief
        that man is flesh and matter, for according to that error
        man is mortal.

                        Job, on the resurrection

320:24  The one important interpretation of Scripture is the
        spiritual. For example, the text, "In my flesh shall I
        see God," gives a profound idea of the di-
320:27  vine power to heal the ills of the flesh, and
        encourages mortals to hope in Him who healeth all our
        diseases; whereas this passage is continually quoted
320:30  as if Job intended to declare that even if disease and
        worms destroyed his body, yet in the latter days he should
        stand in celestial perfection before Elohim, still clad
321:1   in material flesh, - an interpretation which is just the op-
        posite of the true, as may be seen by studying the book
321:3   of Job. As Paul says, in his first epistle to the Corin-
        thians, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
        God."

                      Fear of the serpent overcome

321:6   The Hebrew Lawgiver, slow of speech, despaired of
        making the people understand what should be revealed
        to him. When, led by wisdom to cast down his
321:9   rod, he saw it become a serpent, Moses fled be-
        fore it; but wisdom bade him come back and
        handle the serpent, and then Moses' fear departed. In
321:12  this incident was seen the actuality of Science. Matter
        was shown to be a belief only. The serpent, evil, under
        wisdom's bidding, was destroyed through understanding
321:15  divine Science, and this proof was a staff upon which to
        lean. The illusion of Moses lost its power to alarm him,
        when he discovered that what he apparently saw was really
321:18  but a phase of mortal belief.

                             Leprosy healed

        It was scientifically demonstrated that leprosy was a
        creation of mortal mind and not a condition of matter,
321:21  when Moses first put his hand into his bosom
        and drew it forth white as snow with the dread
        disease, and presently restored his hand to its natural con-
321:24  dition by the same simple process. God had lessened
        Moses' fear by this proof in divine Science, and the in-
        ward voice became to him the voice of God, which said:
321:27  "It shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither
        hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe
        the voice of the latter sign." And so it was in the coming
321:30  centuries, when the Science of being was demonstrated
        by Jesus, who showed his students the power of Mind by
        changing water into wine, and taught them how to handle
322:1   serpents unharmed, to heal the sick and cast out evils in
        proof of the supremacy of Mind.

                           Standpoints changed

322:3   When understanding changes the standpoints of life and
        intelligence from a material to a spiritual basis, we shall
        gain the reality of Life, the control of Soul over
322:6   sense, and we shall perceive Christianity, or
        Truth, in its divine Principle. This must be the climax
        before harmonious and immortal man is obtained and his
322:9   capabilities revealed. It is highly important - in view
        of the immense work to be accomplished before this recog-
        nition of divine Science can come - to turn our thoughts
322:12  towards divine Principle, that finite belief may be pre-
        pared to relinquish its error.

                          Saving the inebriate

        Man's wisdom finds no satisfaction in sin, since God
322:15  has sentenced sin to suffer. The necromancy of yester-
        day foreshadowed the mesmerism and hypno-
        tism of to-day. The drunkard thinks he enjoys
322:18  drunkenness, and you cannot make the inebriate leave
        his besottedness, until his physical sense of pleasure yields
        to a higher sense. Then he turns from his cups, as
322:21  the startled dreamer who wakens from an incubus in-
        curred through the pains of distorted sense. A man who
        likes to do wrong - finding pleasure in it and refraining
322:24  from it only through fear of consequences - is neither
        a temperate man nor a reliable religionist.

                            Uses of suffering

        The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life
322:27  of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless
        woes, turn us like tired children to the arms
        of divine Love. Then we begin to learn Life
322:30  in divine Science. Without this process of weaning,
        "Canst thou by searching find out God?" It is easier
        to desire Truth than to rid one's self of error. Mortals
323:1   may seek the understanding of Christian Science, but they
        will not be able to glean from Christian Science the facts
323:3   of being without striving for them. This strife consists
        in the endeavor to forsake error of every kind and to pos-
        sess no other consciousness but good.

                            A bright outlook

323:6   Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, we
        are helped onward in the march towards righteousness,
        peace, and purity, which are the landmarks
323:9   of Science. Beholding the infinite tasks of
        truth, we pause, - wait on God. Then we push onward,
        until boundless thought walks enraptured, and concep-
323:12  tion unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory.

                             Need and supply

        In order to apprehend more, we must put into prac-
        tice what we already know. We must recollect that
323:15  Truth is demonstrable when understood, and
        that good is not understood until demonstrated.
        If "faithful over a few things," we shall be made rulers
323:18  over many; but the one unused talent decays and is lost.
        When the sick or the sinning awake to realize their need
        of what they have not, they will be receptive of divine
323:21  Science, which gravitates towards Soul and away from
        material sense, removes thought from the body, and ele-
        vates even mortal mind to the contemplation of some-
323:24  thing better than disease or sin. The true idea of God
        gives the true understanding of Life and Love, robs the
        grave of victory, takes away all sin and the delusion that
323:27  there are other minds, and destroys mortality.

                          Childlike receptivity

        The effects of Christian Science are not so much seen
        as felt. It is the "still, small voice" of Truth
323:30  uttering itself. We are either turning away
        from this utterance, or we are listening to it and going
        up higher. Willingness to become as a little child and
324:1   to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of
        the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks
324:3   and joy to see them disappear, - this disposition helps
        to precipitate the ultimate harmony. The purification
        of sense and self is a proof of progress. "Blessed are the
324:6   pure in heart: for they shall see God."

                             Narrow pathway

        Unless the harmony and immortality of man are be-
        coming more apparent, we are not gaining the true idea
324:9   of God; and the body will reflect what gov-
        erns it, whether it be Truth or error,
        understanding or belief, Spirit or matter. Therefore
324:12  "acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace."
        Be watchful, sober, and vigilant. The way is straight
        and narrow, which leads to the understanding that God
324:15  is the only Life. It is a warfare with the flesh, in which
        we must conquer sin, sickness, and death, either here
        or hereafter, - certainly before we can reach the goal
324:18  of Spirit, or life in God.

                          Paul's enlightenment

        Paul was not at first a disciple of Jesus but a perse-
        cutor of Jesus' followers. When the truth first appeared
324:21  to him in Science, Paul was made blind,
        and his blindness was felt; but spiritual
        light soon enabled him to follow the example and teach-
324:24  ings of Jesus, healing the sick and preaching Christian-
        ity throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and even in imperial
        Rome.

324:27  Paul writes, "If Christ [Truth] be not risen, then is
        our preaching vain." That is, if the idea of the suprem-
        acy of Spirit, which is the true conception of being,
324:30  come not to your thought, you cannot be benefited by
        what I say.

                             Abiding in Life

        Jesus said substantially, "He that believeth in me
325:1   shall not see death." That is, he who perceives the
        true idea of Life loses his belief in death. He who has
325:3   the true idea of good loses all sense of evil,
        and by reason of this is being ushered into the
        undying realities of Spirit. Such a one abideth in Life, -
325:6   life obtained not of the body incapable of supporting life,
        but of Truth, unfolding its own immortal idea. Jesus
        gave the true idea of being, which results in infinite bless-
325:9   ings to mortals.

                          Indestructible being

        In Colossians (iii. 4) Paul writes: "When Christ, who
        is our life, shall appear [be manifested], then shall ye also
325:12  appear [be manifested] with him in glory."
        When spiritual being is understood in all its
        perfection, continuity, and might, then shall man be found
325:15  in God's image. The absolute meaning of the apostolic
        words is this: Then shall man be found, in His likeness,
        perfect as the Father, indestructible in Life, "hid with
325:18  Christ in God," - with Truth in divine Love, where
        human sense hath not seen man.

                          Consecration required

        Paul had a clear sense of the demands of Truth upon
325:21  mortals physically and spiritually, when he said: "Pre-
        sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, ac-
        ceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
325:24  service." But he, who is begotten of the beliefs of the
        flesh and serves them, can never reach in this world the
        divine heights of our Lord. The time cometh when
325:27  the spiritual origin of man, the divine Science which
        ushered Jesus into human presence, will be understood
        and demonstrated.

325:30  When first spoken in any age, Truth, like the light,
        "shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended
        it not." A false sense of life, substance, and mind
326:1   hides the divine possibilities, and conceals scientific
        demonstration.

                          Loving God supremely

326:3   If we wish to follow Christ, Truth, it must be in the
        way of God's appointing. Jesus said, "He that believeth
        on me, the works that I do shall he do also."
326:6   He, who would reach the source and find the
        divine remedy for every ill, must not try to climb the hill
        of Science by some other road. All nature teaches God's
326:9   love to man, but man cannot love God supremely and set
        his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the
        material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual.

326:12  We must forsake the foundation of material systems,
        however time-honored, if we would gain the Christ as
        our only Saviour. Not partially, but fully, the great
326:15  healer of mortal mind is the healer of the body.

        The purpose and motive to live aright can be gained
        now. This point won, you have started as you should.
326:18  You have begun at the numeration-table of Christian
        Science, and nothing but wrong intention can hinder your
        advancement. Working and praying with true motives,
326:21  your Father will open the way. "Who did hinder you,
        that ye should not obey the truth?"

                           Conversion of Saul

        Saul of Tarsus beheld the way - the Christ, or Truth
326:24  - only when his uncertain sense of right yielded to a
        spiritual sense, which is always right. Then
        the man was changed. Thought assumed a
326:27  nobler outlook, and his life became more spiritual. He
        learned the wrong that he had done in persecuting Chris-
        tians, whose religion he had not understood, and in hu-
326:30  mility he took the new name of Paul. He beheld for the
        first time the true idea of Love, and learned a lesson in
        divine Science.

327:1   Reform comes by understanding that there is no abid-
        ing pleasure in evil, and also by gaining an affection for
327:3   good according to Science, which reveals the immortal
        fact that neither pleasure nor pain, appetite nor passion,
        can exist in or of matter, while divine Mind can and does
327:6   destroy the false beliefs of pleasure, pain, or fear and all
        the sinful appetites of the human mind.

                           Image of the beast

        What a pitiful sight is malice, finding pleasure in re-
327:9   venge! Evil is sometimes a man's highest conception
        of right, until his grasp on good grows stronger.
        Then he loses pleasure in wickedness, and it
327:12  becomes his torment. The way to escape the misery of
        sin is to cease sinning. There is no other way. Sin is
        the image of the beast to be effaced by the sweat of agony.
327:15  It is a moral madness which rushes forth to clamor with
        midnight and tempest.

                           Peremptory demands

        To the physical senses, the strict demands of Christian
327:18  Science seem peremptory; but mortals are has-
        tening to learn that Life is God, good, and that
        evil has in reality neither place nor power in the human or
327:21  the divine economy.

                              Moral courage

        Fear of punishment never made man truly honest.
        Moral courage is requisite to meet the wrong and to
327:24  proclaim the right. But how shall we re-
        form the man who has more animal than
        moral courage, and who has not the true idea of good?
327:27  Through human consciousness, convince the mortal of
        his mistake in seeking material means for gaining hap-
        piness. Reason is the most active human faculty. Let
327:30  that inform the sentiments and awaken the man's dor-
        mant sense of moral obligation, and by degrees he will
        learn the nothingness of the pleasures of human sense
328:1   and the grandeur and bliss of a spiritual sense, which
        silences the material or corporeal. Then he not only will
328:3   be saved, but /is/ saved.

                       Final destruction of error

        Mortals suppose that they can live without goodness,
        when God is good and the only real Life. What is the
328:6   result? Understanding little about the divine
        Principle which saves and heals, mortals get
        rid of sin, sickness, and death only in belief. These errors
328:9   are not thus really destroyed, and must therefore cling
        to mortals until, here or hereafter, they gain the true un-
        derstanding of God in the Science which destroys human
328:12  delusions about Him and reveals the grand realities of
        His allness.

                            Promise perpetual

        This understanding of man's power, when he is
328:15  equipped by God, has sadly disappeared from Christian
        history. For centuries it has been dormant, a
        lost element of Christianity. Our missionaries
328:18  carry the Bible to India, but can it be said that they
        explain it practically, as Jesus did, when hundreds of
        persons die there annually from serpent-bites? Under-
328:21  standing spiritual law and knowing that there is no mate-
        rial law, Jesus said: "These signs shall follow them that
        believe, . . . they shall take up serpents, and if they
328:24  drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They
        shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." It
        were well had Christendom believed and obeyed this
328:27  sacred saying.

        Jesus' promise is perpetual. Had it been given only
        to his immediate disciples, the Scriptural passage would
328:30  read you, not /they/. The purpose of his great life-work
        extends through time and includes universal humanity.
        Its Principle is infinite, reaching beyond the pale of a
329:1   single period or of a limited following. As time moves
        on, the healing elements of pure Christianity will be fairly
329:3   dealt with; they will be sought and taught, and will glow
        in all the grandeur of universal goodness.

                           Imitation of Jesus

        A little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little under-
329:6   standing of Christian Science proves the truth of all that
        I say of it. Because you cannot walk on the
        water and raise the dead, you have no right to
329:9   question the great might of divine Science in these direc-
        tions. Be thankful that Jesus, who was the true demon-
        strator of Science, did these things, and left his example for
329:12  us. In Science we can use only what we understand. We
        must prove our faith by demonstration.

        One should not tarry in the storm if the body is freez-
329:15  ing, nor should he remain in the devouring flames. Un-
        til one is able to prevent bad results, he should avoid their
        occasion. To be discouraged, is to resemble a pupil in
329:18  addition, who attempts to solve a problem of Euclid, and
        denies the rule of the problem because he fails in his first
        effort.

                      Error destroyed, not pardoned

329:21  There is no hypocrisy in Science. Principle is impera-
        tive. You cannot mock it by human will. Science is a
        divine demand, not a human. Always right,
329:24  its divine Principle never repents, but main-
        tains the claim of Truth by quenching error.
        The pardon of divine mercy is the destruction of error. If
329:27  men understood their real spiritual source to be all bless-
        edness, they would struggle for recourse to the spiritual
        and be at peace; but the deeper the error into which mor-
329:30  tal mind is plunged, the more intense the opposition to
        spirituality, till error yields to Truth.

                           The hopeful outlook

        Human resistance to divine Science weakens in pro-
330:1   portion as mortals give up error for Truth and the un-
        derstanding of being supersedes mere belief. Until the
330:3   author of this book learned the vastness of
        Christian Science, the fixedness of mortal illu-
        sions, and the human hatred of Truth, she cherished
330:6   sanguine hopes that Christian Science would meet with
        immiediate and universal acceptance.

        When the following platform is understood and the
330:9   letter and the spirit bear witness, the infallibility of divine
        metaphysics will be demonstrated.

                          The deific supremacy

        I. God is infinite, the only Life, substance, Spirit, or
330:12  Soul, the only intelligence of the universe, including man.
        Eye hath neither seen God nor His image and
        likeness. Neither God nor the perfect man
330:15  can be discerned by the material senses. The individ-
        uality of Spirit, or the infinite, is unknown, and thus a
        knowledge of it is left either to human conjecture or to the
330:18  revelation of divine Science.

                         The deific definitions

        II. God is what the Scriptures declare Him to be, -
        Life, Truth, Love. Spirit is divine Principle, and divine
330:21  Principle is Love, and Love is Mind, and
        Mind is not both good and bad, for God is
        Mind; therefore there is in reality one Mind only, be-
330:24  cause there is one God.

                              Evil obsolete

        III. The notion that both evil and good are real is a
        delusion of material sense, which Science annihilates.
330:27  Evil is nothing, no thing, mind, nor power.
        As manifested by mankind it stands for a lie,
        nothing claiming to be something, - for lust, dishonesty,
330:30  selfishness, envy, hypocrisy, slander, hate, theft, adultery,
        murder, dementia, insanity, inanity, devil, hell, with all
        the etceteras that word includes.

                            Life the creator

331:1   IV. God is divine Life, and Life is no more confined
        to the forms which reflect it than substance is in its
331:3   shadow. If life were in mortal man or mate-
        rial things, it would be subject to their limi-
        tations and would end in death. Life is Mind, the creator
331:6   reflected in His creations. If He dwelt within what He
        creates, God would not be reflected but absorbed, and the
        Science of being would be forever lost through a mortal
331:9   sense, which falsely testifies to a beginning and an
        end.

                            Allness of Spirit

        V. The Scriptures imply that God is All-in-all. From
331:12  this it follows that nothing possesses reality nor existence
        except the divine Mind and His ideas. The
        Scriptures also declare that God is Spirit.
331:15  Therefore in Spirit all is harmony, and there can be no
        discord; all is Life, and there is no death. Everything
        in God's universe expresses Him.

                           The universal cause

331:18  VI. God is individual, incorporeal. He is divine Prin-
        ciple, Love, the universal cause, the only creator, and
        there is no other self-existence. He is all-
331:21  inclusive, and is reflected by all that is real
        and eternal and by nothing else. He fills all space, and
        it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and in-
331:24  dividuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind. Hence all
        is Spirit and spiritual.

                             Divine trinity

        VII. Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune Person
331:27  called God, - that is, the triply divine Principle, Love.
        They represent a trinity in unity, three in
        one, - the same in essence, though multi-
331:30  form in office: God the Father-Mother; Christ the spirit-
        ual idea of sonship; divine Science or the Holy Comforter.
        These three express in divine Science the threefold, essen-
332:1   tial nature of the infinite. They also indicate the divine
        Principle of scientific being, the intelligent relation of God
332:3   to man and the universe.

                              Father-Mother

        VIII. Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which in-
        dicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation.
332:6   As the apostle expressed it in words which he
        quoted with approbation from a classic poet:
        "For we are also His offspring."

                             The Son of God

332:9   IX. Jesus was born of Mary. Christ is the true idea
        voicing good, the divine message from God to men speak-
        ing to the human consciousness. The Christ
332:12  is incorporeal, spiritual, - yea, the divine
        image and likeness, dispelling the illusions of the senses;
        the Way, the Truth, and the Life, healing the sick and
332:15  casting out evils, destroying sin, disease, and death. As
        Paul says: "There is one God, and one mediator between
        God and men, the man Christ Jesus." The corporeal
332:18  man Jesus was human.

                         Holy Ghost or Comforter

        X. Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ
        is the divine idea of God - the Holy Ghost,
332:21  or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle,
        Love, and leading into all truth.

                              Christ Jesus

        XI. Jesus was the son of a virgin. He was appointed
332:24  to speak God's word and to appear to mortals in such
        a form of humanity as they could understand
        as well as perceive. Mary's conception of
332:27  him was spiritual, for only purity could reflect Truth
        and Love, which were plainly incarnate in the good and
        pure Christ Jesus. He expressed the highest type of
332:30  divinity, which a fleshly form could express in that age.
        Into the real and ideal man the fleshly element cannot
        enter. Thus it is that Christ illustrates the coincidence,
333:1   or spiritual agreement, between God and man in His
        image.

                            Messiah or Christ

333:3   XII. The word /Christ/ is not properly a synonym for
        Jesus, though it is commonly so used. Jesus was a human
        name, which belonged to him in common with
333:6   other Hebrew boys and men, for it is identical
        with the name Joshua, the renowned Hebrew leader. On
        the other hand, Christ is not a name so much as the divine
333:9   title of Jesus. Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal
        nature. The name is synonymous with Messiah, and al-
        ludes to the spirituality which is taught, illustrated, and
333:12  demonstrated in the life of which Christ Jesus was the
        embodiment. The proper name of our Master in the
        Greek was Jesus the Christ; but Christ Jesus better sig-
333:15  nifies the Godlike.

                      The divine Principle and idea

        XIII. The advent of Jesus of Nazareth marked the
        first century of the Christian era, but the Christ is
333:18  without beginning of years or end of days.
        Throughout all generations both before and
        after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spirit-
333:21  ual idea, - the reflection of God, - has come with some
        measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive
        Christ, Truth. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets
333:24  caught glorious glimpses of the Messiah, or Christ, which
        baptized these seers in the divine nature, the essence of
        Love. The divine image, idea, or Christ was, is, and
333:27  ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God.
        Jesus referred to this unity of his spiritual identity thus:
        "Before Abraham was, I am;" "I and my Father are
333:30  one;" "My Father is greater than I." The one Spirit
        includes all identities.

                            Spiritual oneness

        XIV. By these sayings Jesus meant, not that the hu-
334:1   man Jesus was or is eternal, but that the divine idea or
        Christ was and is so and therefore antedated Abraham;
334:3   not that the corporeal Jesus was one with the
        Father, but that the spiritual idea, Christ,
        dwells forever in the bosom of the Father, God, from
334:6   which it illumines heaven and earth; not that the Father
        is greater than Spirit, which is God, but greater, infinitely
        greater, than the fleshly Jesus, whose earthly career was
334:9   brief.

                            The Son's duality

        XV. The invisible Christ was imperceptible to the
        so-called personal senses, whereas Jesus appeared as a
334:12  bodily existence. This dual personality of the
        unseen and the seen, the spiritual and mate-
        rial, the eternal Christ and the corporeal Jesus manifest
334:15  in flesh, continued until the Master's ascension, when
        the human, material concept, or Jesus, disappeared,
        while the spiritual self, or Christ, continues to exist in
334:18  the eternal order of divine Science, taking away the sins
        of the world, as the Christ has always done, even before
        the human Jesus was incarnate to mortal eyes.

                         Eternity of the Christ

334:21  XVI. This was "the Lamb slain from the foundation
        of the world," - slain, that is, according to the testi-
        mony of the corporeal senses, but undying in
334:24  the deific Mind. The Revelator represents the
        Son of man as saying (Revelation i. 17, 18): "I am the
        first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead
334:27  [not understood]; and, behold, I am alive for evermore,
        [Science has explained me]." This is a mystical state-
        ment of the eternity of the Christ, and is also a reference
334:30  to the human sense of Jesus crucified.

                             Infinite Spirit

        XVII. Spirit being God, there is but one Spirit, for
        there can be but one infinite and therefore one God.
335:1   There are neither spirits many nor gods many. There
        is no evil in Spirit, because God is Spirit. The theory,
335:3   that Spirit is distinct from matter but must
        pass through it, or into it, to be individualized,
        would reduce God to dependency on matter, and establish
335:6   a basis for pantheism.

                           The only substance

        XVIII. Spirit, God, has created all in and of Him-
        self. Spirit never created matter. There is nothing in
335:9   Spirit out of which matter could be made,
        for, as the Bible declares, without the Logos,
        the AEon or Word of God, "was not anything made
335:12  that was made." Spirit is the only substance, the in-
        visible and indivisible infinite God. Things spiritual and
        eternal are substantial. Things material and temporal
335:15  are insubstantial.

                           Soul and Spirit one

        XIX. Soul and Spirit being one, God and Soul are
        one, and this one never included in a limited mind or a
335:18  limited body. Spirit is eternal, divine. Noth-
        ing but Spirit, Soul, can evolve Life, for Spirit
        is more than all else. Because Soul is immortal, it does
335:21  not exist in mortality. Soul must be incorporeal to be
        Spirit, for Spirit is not finite. Only by losing the false
        sense of Soul can we gain the eternal unfolding of Life as
335:24  immortality brought to light.

                           The one divine Mind

        XX. Mind is the divine Principle, Love, and can pro-
        duce nothing unlike the eternal Father-Mother, God.
335:27  Reality is spiritual, harmonious, immutable,
        immortal, divine, eternal. Nothing unspirit-
        ual can be real, harmonious, or eternal. Sin, sickness,
335:30  and mortality are the suppositional antipodes of Spirit,
        and must be contradictions of reality.

                             The divine Ego

        XXI. The Ego is deathless and limitless, for limits
336:1   would imply and impose ignorance. Mind is the I AM,
        or infinity. Mind never enters the finite. Intelligence
336:3   never passes into non-intelligence, or matter.
        Good never enters into evil the unlimited into
        the limited, the eternal into the temporal, nor the im-
336:6   mortal into mortality. The divine Ego, or individuality,
        is reflected in all spiritual individuality from the infini-
        tesimal to the infinite.

                            The real manhood

336:9   XXII. Immortal man was and is God's image or idea,
        even the infinite expression of infinite Mind, and immor-
        tal man is coexistent and coeternal with that
336:12  Mind. He has been forever in the eternal
        Mind, God; but infinite Mind can never be in man, but
        is reflected by man. The spiritual man's consciousness
336:15  and individuality are reflections of God. They are the
        emanations of Him who is Life, Truth, and Love. Im-
        mortal man is not and never was material, but always
336:18  spiritual and eternal.

                     Indivisibility of the infinite

        XXIII. God is indivisible. A portion of God could
        not enter man; neither could God's fulness be reflected
336:21  by a single man, else God would be manifestly
        finite, lose the deific character, and become
        less than God. Allness is the measure of the infinite, and
336:24  nothing less can express God.

                           God the parent Mind

        XXIV. God, the divine Principle of man, and man in
        God's likeness are inseparable, harmonious, and eternal.
336:27  The Science of being furnishes the rule of per-
        fection, and brings immortality to light. God
        and man are not the same, but in the order of divine Sci-
336:30  ence, God and man coexist and are eternal. God is the
        parent Mind, and man is God's spiritual offspring.

                      Man reflects the perfect God

        XXV. God is individual and personal in a scientific
337:1   sense, but not in any anthropomorphic sense. Therefore
        man, reflecting God, cannot lose his individuality; but as
337:3   material sensation, or a soul in the body, blind
        mortals do lose sight of spiritual individuality.
        Material personality is not realism; it is not
337:6   the reflection or likeness of Spirit, the perfect God. Sen-
        sualism is not bliss, but bondage. For true happiness,
        man must harmonize with his Principle, divine Love; the
337:9   Son must be in accord with the Father, in conformity with
        Christ. According to divine Science, man is in a degree
        as perfect as the Mind that forms him. The truth of be-
337:12  ing makes man harmonious and immortal, while error is
        mortal and discordant.

                      Purity the path to perfection

        XXVI. Christian Science demonstrates that none but
337:15  the pure in heart can see God, as the gospel
        teaches. In proportion to his purity is man
        perfect; and perfection is the order of celestial
337:18  being which demonstrates Life in Christ, Life's spiritual
        ideal.

                            True idea of man

        XXVII. The true idea of man, as the reflection of the
337:21  invisible God, is as incomprehensible to the limited senses
        as is man's infinite Principle. The visible uni-
        verse and material man are the poor counter-
337:24  feits of the invisible universe and spiritual man. Eternal
        things (verities) are God's thoughts as they exist in the
        spiritual realm of the real. Temporal things are the
337:27  thoughts of mortals and are the unreal, being the oppo-
        site of the real or the spiritual and eternal.

                           Truth demonstrated

        XXVIII. Subject sickness, sin, and death to the rule
337:30  of health and holiness in Christian Science,
        and you ascertain that this Science is demon-
        strably true, for it heals the sick and sinning as no
338:1   other system can. Christian Science, rightly under-
        stood, leads to eternal harmony. It brings to light the
338:3   only living and true God and man as made in His like-
        ness; whereas the opposite belief - that man originates
        in matter and has beginning and end, that he is both
338:6   soul and body, both good and evil, both spiritual and
        material - terminates in discord and mortality, in the
        error which must be destroyed by Truth. The mortality
338:9   of material man proves that error has been ingrafted
        into the premises and conclusions of material and mortal
        humanity.

                           Adam not ideal man

338:12  XXIX. The word /Adam /is from the Hebrew /adamah/,
        signifying the /red color of the ground, dust, nothingness/.
        Divide the name Adam into two syllables,
338:15  and it reads, /a dam/, or obstruction. This
        suggests the thought of something fluid, of mortal mind
        in solution. It further suggests the thought of that
338:18  " darkness . . . upon the face of the deep," when mat-
        ter or dust was deemed the agent of Deity in creating
        man, - when matter, as that which is accursed, stood
338:21  opposed to Spirit. Here /a dam/ is not a mere play upon
        words; it stands for obstruction, error, even the sup-
        posed separation of man from God, and the obstacle
338:24  which the serpent, sin, would impose between man and
        his creator. The dissection and definition of words,
        aside from their metaphysical derivation, is not scien-
338:27  tific. Jehovah declared the ground was accursed; and
        from this ground, or matter, sprang Adam, notwith-
        standing God had blessed the earth "for man's sake."
338:30  From this it follows that Adam was not the ideal man
        for whom the earth was blessed. The ideal man was
        revealed in due time, and was known as Christ Jesus.

                              Divine pardon

339:1   XXX. The destruction of sin is the divine method of
        pardon. Divine Life destroys death, Truth destroys
339:3   error, and Love destroys hate. Being de-
        stroyed, sin needs no other form of forgiveness.
        Does not God's pardon, destroying any one sin, prophesy
339:6   and involve the final destruction of all sin?

                        Evil not produced by God

        XXXI. Since God is All, there is no room for His
        unlikeness. God, Spirit, alone created all, and called it
339:9   good. Therefore evil, being contrary to good,
        is unreal, and cannot be the product of God.
        A sinner can receive no encouragement from the fact that
339:12  Science demonstrates the unreality of evil, for the sinner
        would make a reality of sin, - would make that real
        which is unreal, and thus heap up "wrath against the
339:15  day of wrath." He is joining in a conspiracy against
        himself, - against his own awakening to the awful un-
        reality by which he has been deceived. Only those, who
339:18  repent of sin and forsake the unreal, can fully understand
        the unreality of evil.

                     Basis of health and immortality

        XXXII. As the mythology of pagan Rome has yielded
339:21  to a more spiritual idea of Deity, so will our material
        theories yield to spiritual ideas, until the finite
        gives place to the infinite, sickness to health,
339:24  sin to holiness, and God's kingdom comes "in
        earth, as it is in heaven." The basis of all health, sin-
        lessness, and immortality is the great fact that God is
339:27  the only Mind; and this Mind must be not merely be-
        lieved, but it must be understood. To get rid of sin
        through Science, is to divest sin of any supposed mind
339:30  or reality, and never to admit that sin can have intelli-
        gence or power, pain or pleasure. You conquer error by
        denying its verity. Our various theories will never lose
340:1   their imaginary power for good or evil, until we lose our
        faith in them and make life its own proof of harmony
340:3   and God.

        This text in the book of Ecclesiastes conveys the
        Christian Science thought, especially when the word
340:6   /duty/, which is not in the original, is omitted: "Let
        us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God,
        and keep His commandments: for this is the whole
340:9   duty of man." In other words: Let us hear the con-
        clusion of the whole matter: love God and keep His
        commandments: for this is the whole of man in His
340:12  image and likeness. Divine Love is infinite. Therefore
        all that really exists is in and of God, and manifests His
        love.

340:15  "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus
        xx. 3.) The First Commandment is my favorite text.
        It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the tri-
340:18  unity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall
        have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and
        that all men shall have one Mind. The divine Principle
340:21  of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by
        which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal.
        One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; con-
340:24  stitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the
        Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates
        pagan and Christian idolatry, - whatever is wrong in
340:27  social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes;
        equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves
        nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.




        CHAPTER XI - SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED

        And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
        Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth,
        why do ye not believe me? - JESUS.

        But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead
        dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall
        also quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth
        in you. - PAUL.

341:1   THE strictures on this volume would condemn to
        oblivion the truth, which is raising up thousands
341:3   from helplessness to strength and elevating them from
        a theoretical to a practical Christianity. These criticisms
        are generally based on detached sentences or clauses sep-
341:6   arated from their context. Even the Scriptures, which
        grow in beauty and consistency from one grand root, ap-
        pear contradictory when subjected to such usage. Jesus
341:9   said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see
        God" [Truth].

                           Supported by facts

        In Christian Science mere opinion is valueless. Proof
341:12  is essential to a due estimate of this subject. Sneers at
        the application of the word/ Science /to Chris-
        tianity cannot prevent that from being scien-
341:15  tific which is based on divine Principle, demonstrated ac-
        cording to a divine given rule, and subjected to proof.
        The facts are so absolute and numerous in support of
341:18  Christian Science, that misrepresentation and denuncia-
342:1   tion cannot overthrow it. Paul alludes to "doubtful dis-
        putations." The hour has struck when proof and demon-
342:3   stration, instead of opinion and dogma, are summoned to
        the support of Christianity, "making wise the simple."

                            Commands of Jesus

        In the result of some unqualified condemnations of
342:6   scientific Mind-healing, one may see with sorrow the sad
        effects on the sick of denying Truth. He that
        decries this Science does it presumptuously,
342:9   in the face of Bible history and in defiance of the direct
        command of Jesus, "Go ye into all the world, and preach
        the gospel," to which command was added the promise
342:12  that his students should cast out evils and heal the sick.
        He bade the seventy disciples, as well as the twelve,
        heal the sick in any town where they should be hospitably
342:15  received.

                         Christianity scientific

        If Christianity is not scientific, and Science is not of
        God, then there is no invariable law, and truth becomes
342:18  an accident. Shall it be denied that a system
        which works according to the Scriptures has
        Scriptural authority?

                         Argument of good works

342:21  Christian Science awakens the sinner, reclaims the
        infidel, and raises from the couch of pain the helpless
        invalid. It speaks to the dumb the words of
342:24  Truth, and they answer with rejoicing. It
        causes the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the blind
        to see. Who would be the first to disown the Christli-
342:27  ness of good works, when our Master says, "By their
        fruits ye shall know them"?

        If Christian Scientists were teaching or practising
342:30  pharmacy or obstetrics according to the common theo-
        ries, no denunciations would follow them, even if their
        treatment resulted in the death of a patient. The people
343:1   are taught in such cases to say, Amen. Shall I then be
        smitten for healing and for teaching Truth as the Prin-
343:3   ciple of healing, and for proving my word by my deed?
        James said: "Show me thy faith without thy works, and
        I will show thee my faith by my works."

                           Personal experience

343:6   Is not finite mind ignorant of God's method? This
        makes it doubly unfair to impugn and misrepresent the
        facts, although, without this cross-bearing,
343:9   one might not be able to say with the apostle,
        "None of these things move me." The sick, the halt,
        and the blind look up to Christian Science with blessings,
343:12  and Truth will not be forever hidden by unjust parody
        from the quickened sense of the people.

                           Proof from miracles

        Jesus strips all disguise from error, when his teachings
343:15  are fully understood. By parable and argument he ex-
        plains the impossibility of good producing evil;
        and he also scientifically demonstrates this great
343:18  fact, proving by what are wrongly called miracles, that
        sin, sickness, and death are beliefs - illusive errors -
        which he could and did destroy.
343:21  It would sometimes seem as if truth were rejected be-
        cause meekness and spirituality are the conditions of its
        acceptance, while Christendom generally demands so
343:24  much less.

                        Example of the disciples

        Anciently those apostles who were Jesus' students,
        as well as Paul who was not one of his students, healed
343:27  the sick and reformed the sinner by their
        religion. Hence the mistake which allows
        words, rather than works, to follow such examples!
343:30  Whoever is the first meekly and conscientiously to press
        along the line of gospel-healing, is often accounted a
        heretic.

                             Strong position

344:1   It is objected to Christian Science that it claims God
        as the only absolute Life and Soul, and man to be His
344:3   idea, - that is, His image. It should be
        added that this is claimed to represent the
        normal, healthful, and sinless condition of man in divine
344:6   Science, and that this claim is made because the Scrip-
        tures say that God has created man in His own image
        and after His likeness. Is it sacrilegious to assume that
344:9   God's likeness is not found in matter, sin, sickness, and
        death?

                        Efficacy may be attested

        Were it more fully understood that Truth heals and
344:12  that error causes disease, the opponents of a demonstrable
        Science would perhaps mercifully withhold
        their misrepresentations, which harm the sick;
344:15  and until the enemies of Christian Science test its efficacy
        according to the rules which disclose its merits or de-
        merits, it would be just to observe the Scriptural precept,
344:18  "Judge not."

                          The one divine method

        There are various methods of treating disease, which
        are not included in the commonly accepted systems; but
344:21  there is only one which should be presented
        to the whole world, and that is the Christian
        Science which Jesus preached and practised and left to us
344:24  as his rich legacy.

        Why should one refuse to investigate this method
        of treating disease? Why support the popular systems
344:27  of medicine, when the physician may perchance be an
        infidel and may lose ninety-and-nine patients, while
        Christian Science cures its hundred? Is it because
344:30  allopathy and homoeopathy are more fashionable and
        less spiritual?

                          Omnipotence set forth

        In the Bible the word /Spirit /is so commonly applied
345:1   to Deity, that Spirit and God are often regarded as syn-
        onymous terms; and it is thus they are uniformly used
345:3   and understood in Christian Science. As it
        is evident that the likeness of Spirit cannot be
        material, does it not follow that God cannot be in His
345:6   unlikeness and work through drugs to heal the sick?
        When the omnipotence of God is preached and His ab-
        soluteness is set forth, Christian sermons will heal the
345:9   sick.

                        Contradictions not found

        It is sometimes said, in criticising Christian Science,
        that the mind which contradicts itself neither knows
345:12  itself nor what it is saying. It is indeed no
        small matter to know one's self; but in this
        volume of mine there are no contradictory
345:15  statements, - at least none which are apparent to those
        who understand its propositions well enough to pass
        judgment upon them. One who understands Christian
345:18  Science can heal the sick on the divine Principle of Chris-
        tian Science, and this practical proof is the only feasible
        evidence that one does understand this Science.

345:21  Anybody, who is able to perceive the incongruity be-
        tween God's idea and poor humanity, ought to be able
        to discern the distinction (made by Christian Science)
345:24  between God's man, made in His image, and the sinning
        race of Adam.

        The apostle says: "For if a man think himself to be
345:27  something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself."
        This thought of human, material nothingness, which
        Science inculcates, enrages the carnal mind and is the
345:30  main cause of the carnal mind's antagonism.

                        God's idea the ideal man

        It is not the purpose of Christian Science to "educate
        the idea of God, or treat it for disease," as is alleged
346:1   by one critic. I regret that such criticism confounds /man/
        with Adam. When man is spoken of as made in God's
346:3   image, it is not sinful and sickly mortal man
        who is referred to, but the ideal man, reflecting
        God's likeness.

                          Nothingness of error

346:6   It is sometimes said that Christian Science teaches the
        nothingness of sin, sickness, and death, and then teaches
        how this nothingness is to be saved and healed.
346:9   The nothingness of nothing is plain; but we
        need to understand that error is nothing, and that its
        nothingness is not saved, but must be demonstrated in
346:12  order to prove the somethingness - yea, the allness -
        of Truth. It is self-evident that we are harmonious only
        as we cease to manifest evil or the belief that we suffer
346:15  from the sins of others. Disbelief in error destroys error,
        and leads to the discernment of Truth. There are no
        vacuums. How then can this demonstration be "fraught
346:18  with falsities painful to behold"?

                          Truth antidotes error

        We treat error through the understanding of Truth,
        because Truth is error's antidote. If a dream ceases, it
346:21  is self-destroyed, and the terror is over. When
        a sufferer is convinced that there is no reality
        in his belief of pain, - because matter has no sensation,
346:24  hence pain in matter is a false belief, - how can he suffer
        longer? Do you feel the pain of tooth-pulling, when you
        believe that nitrous-oxide gas has made you unconscious?
346:27  Yet, in your concept, the tooth, the operation, and the
        forceps are unchanged.

                           Serving two masters

        Material beliefs must be expelled to make room for
346:30  spiritual understanding. We cannot serve both
        God and mammon at the same time; but is
        not this what frail mortals are trying to do? Paul says:
347:1   "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
        the flesh." Who is ready to admit this?

347:3   It is said by one critic, that to verify this wonderful
        philosophy Christian Science declares that whatever is
        mortal or discordant has no origin, existence, nor real-
347:6   ness. Nothing really has Life but God, who is infinite
        Life; hence all is Life, and death has no dominion. This
        writer infers that if anything needs to be doctored, it
347:9   must be the one God, or Mind. Had he stated his syllo-
        gism correctly, the conclusion would be that there is noth-
        ing left to be doctored.

                    Essential element of Christianity

347:12  Critics should consider that the so-called mortal man
        is not the reality of man. Then they would behold the
        signs of Christ's coming. Christ, as the spir-
347:15  itual or true idea of God, comes now as of
        old, preaching the gospel to the poor, heal-
        ing the sick, and casting out evils. Is it error which
347:18  is restoring an essential element of Christianity, -
        namely, apostolic, divine healing? No; it is the Science
        of Christianity which is restoring it, and is the light
347:21  shining in darkness, which the darkness comprehends
        not.

        If Christian Science takes away the popular gods, -
347:24  sin, sickness, and death, - it is Christ, Truth, who de-
        stroys these evils, and so proves their nothingness.

        The dream that matter and error are something
347:27  must yield to reason and revelation. Then mortals
        will behold the nothingness of sickness and sin, and
        sin and sickness will disappear from consciousness.
347:30  The harmonious will appear real, and the inharmo-
        nious unreal. These critics will then see that error
        is indeed the nothingness, which they chide us for
348:1   naming nothing and which we desire neither to honor
        nor to fear.

348:3   Medical theories virtually admit the nothingness of
        hallucinations, even while treating them as disease; and
        who objects to this? Ought we not, then, to approve
348:6   any cure, which is effected by making the disease appear
        to be - what it really is - an illusion?

                         All disease a delusion

        Here is the difficulty: it is not generally understood how
348:9   one disease can be just as much a delusion as another. It
        is a pity that the medical faculty and clergy
        have not learned this, for Jesus established
348:12  this foundational fact, when devils, delusions, were cast
        out and the dumb spake.

                         Elimination of sickness

        Are we irreverent towards sin, or imputing too much
348:15  power to God, when we ascribe to Him almighty Life
        and Love? I deny His cooperation with evil,
        because I desire to have no faith in evil or in
348:18  any power but God, good. Is it not well to eliminate from
        so-called mortal mind that which, so long as it remains in
        mortal mind, will show itself in forms of sin, sickness, and
348:21  death? Instead of tenaciously defending the supposed
        rights of disease, while complaining of the suffering, dis-
        ease brings, would it not be well to abandon the defence,
348:24  especially when by so doing our own condition can be im-
        proved and that of other persons as well?

                        Full fruitage yet to come

        I have never supposed the world would immediately
348:27  witness the full fruitage of Christian Science, or that sin,
        disease, and death would not be believed for
        an indefinite time; but this I do aver, that,
348:30  as a result of teaching Christian Science, ethics and
        temperance have received all impulse, health has been
        restored, and longevity increased. If such are the pres-
349:1   ent fruits, what will the harvest be, when this Science is
        more generally understood?

                             Law and gospel

349:3   As Paul asked of the unfaithful in ancient days, so
        the rabbis of the present day ask concerning our heal-
        ing and teaching, "Through breaking the law,
349:6   dishonorest thou God?" We have the gospel,
        however, and our Master annulled material law by heal-
        ing contrary to it. We propose to follow the Master's
349:9   example. We should subordinate material law to spirit-
        ual law. Two essential points of Christian Science are,
        that neither Life nor man dies, and that God is not the
349:12  author of sickness.

                           Language inadequate

        The chief difficulty in conveying the teachings of divine
        Science accurately to human thought lies in this, that like
349:15  all other languages, English is inadequate to
        the expression of spiritual conceptions and
        propositions, because one is obliged to use material terms
349:18  in dealing with spiritual ideas. The elucidation of Chris-
        tian Science lies in its spiritual sense, and this sense must
        be gained by its disciples in order to grasp the meaning of
349:21  this Science. Out of this condition grew the prophecy
        concerning the Christian apostles, "They shall speak with
        new tongues."

349:24  Speaking of the things of Spirit while dwelling on
        a material plane, material terms must be generally em-
        ployed. Mortal thought does not at once catch the
349:27  higher meaning, and can do so only as thought is edu-
        cated up to spiritual apprehension. To a certain extent
        this is equally true of all learning, even that which is
349:30  wholly material.

                           Substance spiritual

        In Christian Science, substance is understood to be
        Spirit, while the opponents of Christian Science believe
350:1   substance to be matter. They think of matter as some-
        thing and almost the only thing, and of the things which
350:3   pertain to Spirit as next to nothing, or as very
        far removed from daily experience. Christian
        Science takes exactly the opposite view.

                          Both words and works

350:6   To understand all our Master's sayings as recorded
        in the New Testament, sayings infinitely important,
        his followers must grow into that stature of
350:9   manhood in Christ Jesus which enables them
        to interpret his spiritual meaning. Then they know
        how Truth casts out error and heals the sick. His
350:12  words were the offspring of his deeds, both of which
        must be understood. Unless the works are com-
        prehended which his words explained, the words are
350:15  blind.

        The Master often refused to explain his words, because
        it was difficult in a material age to apprehend spiritual
350:18  Truth. He said: "This people's heart is waxed gross,
        and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they
        have closed; lest at any time they should see with their
350:21  eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand
        with their heart, and should be converted, and I should
        heal them."

                          The divine life-link

350:24  "The Word was made flesh." Divine Truth must be
        known by its effects on the body as well as on the mind,
        before the Science of being can be demon-
350:27  strated. Hence its embodiment in the incar-
        nate Jesus, - that life-link forming the connection through
        which the real reaches the unreal, Soul rebukes sense, and
350:30  Truth destroys error.

                          Truth a present help

        In Jewish worship the Word was materially explained,
        and the spiritual sense was scarcely perceived. The
351:1   religion which sprang from half-hidden Israelitish history
        was pedantic and void of healing power. When we lose
351:3   faith in God's power to heal, we distrust the
        divine Principle which demonstrates Christian
        Science, and then we cannot heal the sick. Neither can
351:6   we heal through the help of Spirit, if we plant ourselves
        on a material basis.

        The author became a member of the orthodox Con-
351:9   gregational Church in early years. Later she learned
        that her own prayers failed to heal her as did the prayers
        of her devout parents and the church; but when the
351:12  spiritual sense of the creed was discerned in the Science
        of Christianity, this spiritual sense was a/ present help/. It
        was the living, palpitating presence of Christ, Truth, which
351:15  healed the sick.

                             Fatal premises

        We cannot bring out the practical proof of Christianity,
        which Jesus required, while error seems as potent and
351:18  real to us as Truth, and while we make a per-
        sonal devil and an anthropomorphic God our
        starting-points, - especially if we consider Satan as a
351:21  being coequal in power with Deity, if not superior to Him.
        Because such starting-points are neither spiritual nor
        scientific, they cannot work out the Spirit-rule of Christian
351:24  healing, which proves the nothingness of error, discord,
        by demonstrating the all-inclusiveness of harmonious
        Truth.

                            Fruitless worship

351:27  The Israelites centred their thoughts on the material
        in their attempted worship of the spiritual. To them
        matter was substance, and Spirit was shadow.
351:30  They thought to worship Spirit from a ma-
        terial standpoint, but this was impossible. They might
        appeal to Jehovah, but their prayer brought down no
352:1   proof that it was heard, because they did not sufficiently
        understand God to be able to demonstrate His power
352:3   to heal, - to make harmony the reality and discord the
        unreality.

                           Spirit the tangible

        Our Master declared that his material body was not
352:6   spirit, evidently considering it a mortal and material be-
        lief of flesh and bones, whereas the Jews took
        a diametrically opposite view. To Jesus, not
352:9   materiality, but spirituality, was the reality of man's ex-
        istence, while to the rabbis the spiritual was the intangi-
        ble and uncertain, if not the unreal.

                          Ghosts not realities

352:12  Would a mother say to her child, who is frightened at
        imaginary ghosts and sick in consequence of the fear:
        "I know that ghosts are real. They exist,
352:15  and are to be feared; but you must not be
        afraid of them"?

        Children, like adults, /ought/ to fear a reality which
352:18  can harm them and which they do not understand, for
        at any moment they may become its helpless victims;
        but instead of increasing children's fears by declaring
352:21  ghosts to be real, merciless, and powerful, thus water-
        ing the very roots of childish timidity, children should
        be assured that their fears are groundless, that ghosts
352:24  are not realities, but traditional beliefs, erroneous and
        man-made.

        In short, children should be told not to believe in ghosts,
352:27  because there are no such things. If belief in their reality
        is destroyed, terror of ghosts will depart and health be re-
        stored. The objects of alarm will then vanish into noth-
352:30  ingness, no longer seeming worthy of fear or honor. To
        accomplish a good result, it is certainly not irrational to
        tell the truth about ghosts.

                         The real and the unreal

353:1   The Christianly scientific real is the sensuous unreal.
        Sin, disease, whatever seems real to material sense, is un-
353:3   real in divine Science. The physical senses
        and Science have ever been antagonistic, and
        they will so continue, till the testimony of the physical
353:6   senses yields entirely to Christian Science.

        How can a Christian, having the stronger evidence of
        Truth which contradicts the evidence of error, think of
353:9   the latter as real or true, either in the form of sickness or
        of sin? All must admit that Christ is "the way, the
        truth, and the life," and that omnipotent Truth certainly
353:12  does destroy error.

                          Superstition obsolete

        The age has not wholly outlived the sense of ghostly
        beliefs. It still holds them more or less. Time has not
353:15  yet reached eternity, immortality, complete
        reality. All the real is eternal. Perfection
        underlies reality. Without perfection, nothing is wholly
353:18  real. All things will continue to disappear, until per-
        fection appears and reality is reached. We must give up
        the spectral at all points. We must not continue to admit
353:21  the somethingness of superstition, but we must yield up
        all belief in it and be wise. When we learn that error
        is not real, we shall be ready for progress, "forgetting
353:24  those things which are behind."

        The grave does not banish the ghost of materiality.
        So long as there are supposed limits to Mind, and those
353:27  limits are human, so long will ghosts seem to continue.
        Mind is limitless. It never was material. The true idea
        of being is spiritual and immortal, and from this it follows
353:30  that whatever is laid off is the ghost, some unreal belief.
        Mortal beliefs can neither demonstrate Christianity nor
        apprehend the reality of Life.

                            Christian warfare

354:1   Are the protests of Christian Science against the notion
        that there can be material life, substance, or mind "utter
354:3   falsities and absurdities," as some aver? Why
        then do Christians try to obey the Scriptures
        and war against "the world, the flesh, and the devil"?
354:6   Why do they invoke the divine aid to enable them to leave
        all for Christ, Truth? Why do they use this phraseology,
        and yet deny Christian Science, when it teaches precisely
354:9   this thought? The words of divine Science find their
        immortality in deeds, for their Principle heals the sick
        and spiritualizes humanity.

                             Healing omitted

354:12  On the other hand, the Christian opponents of Chris-
        tian Science neither give nor offer any proofs that their
        Master's religion can heal the sick. Surely
354:15  it is not enough to cleave to barren and desul-
        tory dogmas, derived from the traditions of the elders who
        thereunto have set their seals.

                         Scientific consistency

354:18  Consistency is seen in example more than in precept.
        Inconsistency is shown by words without deeds, which
        are like clouds without rain. If our words
354:21  fail to express our deeds, God will redeem that
        weakness, and out of the mouth of babes He will perfect
        praise. The night of materiality is far spent, and with
354:24  the dawn Truth will waken men spiritually to hear and
        to speak the new tongue.

        Sin should become unreal to every one. It is in itself
354:27  inconsistent, a divided kingdom. Its supposed realism
        has no divine authority, and I rejoice in the apprehension
        of this grand verity.

                            Spiritual meaning

354:30  The opponents of divine Science must be
        charitable, if they would be Christian. If the
        letter of Christian Science appears inconsistent, they should
355:1   gain the spiritual meaning of Christian Science, and then
        the ambiguity will vanish.

                           Practical arguments

355:3   The charge of inconsistency in Christianly scientific
        methods of dealing with sin and disease is met by some-
        thing practical, - namely, the proof of the
355:6   utility of these methods; and proofs are better
        than mere verbal arguments or prayers which evince no
        spiritual power to heal.

355:9   As for sin and disease, Christian Science says, in the
        language of the Master, "Follow me; and let the dead
        bury their dead." Let discord of every name and nature
355:12  be heard no more, and let the harmonious and true sense
        of Life and being take possession of human consciousness.

        What is the relative value of the two conflicting the-
355:15  ories regarding Christian healing? One, according to
        the commands of our Master, heals the sick. The other,
        popular religion, declines to admit that Christ's religion
355:18  has exercised any systematic healing power since the first
        century.

                         Conditions of criticism

        The statement that the teachings of Christian Sci-
355:21  ence in this work are "absolutely false, and the most
        egregious fallacies ever offered for accept-
        ance," is an opinion wholly due to a misap-
355:24  prehension both of the divine Principle and practice of
        Christian Science and to a consequent inability to demon-
        strate this Science. Without this understanding, no one
355:27  is capable of impartial or correct criticism, because demon-
        stration and spiritual understanding are God's immortal
        keynotes, proved to be such by our Master and evidenced
355:30  by the sick who are cured and by the sinners who are
        reformed.

                      Weakness of material theories

        Strangely enough, we ask for material theories in sup-
356:1   port of spiritual and eternal truths, when the two are so
        antagonistic that the material thought must become spir-
356:3   itualized before the spiritual fact is attained.
        So-called material existence affords no evidence
        theories of spiritual existence and immortality. Sin,
356:6   sickness, and death do not prove man's entity or immor-
        tality. Discord can never establish the facts of harmony.
        Matter is not the vestibule of Spirit.

                       Irreconciliable differences

356:9   Jesus reasoned on this subject practically, and con-
        trolled sickness, sin, and death on the basis of his spir-
        ituality. Understanding the nothingness of
356:12  material things, he spoke of flesh and Spirit
        as the two opposites, - as error and Truth, not contrib-
        uting in any way to each other's happiness and existence.
356:15  Jesus knew, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh
        profiteth nothing."

                        Copartnership impossible

        There is neither a present nor an eternal copartner-
356:18  ship between error and Truth, between flesh and Spirit.
        God is as incapable of producing sin, sick-
        ness, and death as He is of experiencing these
356:21  errors. How then is it possible for Him to create man
        subject to this triad of errors, - man who is made in the
        divine likeness?

356:24  Does God create a material man out of Himself, Spirit?
        Does evil proceed from good? Does divine Love com-
        mit a fraud on humanity by making man inclined to sin,
356:27  and then punishing him for it? Would any one call it
        wise and good to create the primitive, and then punish its
        derivative?

                      Two infinite creators absurd

356:30  Does subsequent follow its antecedent? It does.
        Was there original self-creative sin? Then there must
        have been more than one creator, more than one God.
357:1   In common justice, we must admit that God will not
        punish man for doing what He created man
357:3   capable of doing, and knew from the outset
        that man would do. God is "of purer eyes
        than to behold evil." We sustain Truth, not by accept-
357:6   ing, but by rejecting a lie.

        Jesus said of personified evil, that it was "a liar, and
        the father of it." Truth creates neither a lie, a capacity
357:9   to lie, nor a liar. If mankind would relinquish the belief
        that God makes sickness, sin, and death, or makes man
        capable of suffering on account of this malevolent triad,
357:12  the foundations of error would be sapped and error's de-
        struction ensured; but if we theoretically endow mortals
        with the creativeness and authority of Deity, how dare we
357:15  attempt to destroy what He hath made, or even to deny
        that God made man evil and made evil good?

                            Anthropomorphism

        History teaches that the popular and false notions
357:18  about the Divine Being and character have originated
        in the human mind. As there is in reality but
        one God, one Mind, wrong notions about God
357:21  must have originated in a false supposition, not in im-
        mortal Truth, and they are fading out. They are false
        claims, which will eventually disappear, according to the
357:24  vision of St. John in the Apocalypse.

                              One supremacy

        If what opposes God is real, there must be two
        powers, and God is not supreme and infinite. Can
357:27  Deity be almighty, if another mighty and
        self-creative cause exists and sways man-
        kind? Has the Father "Life in Himself," as the Scrip-
357:30  tures say, and, if so, can Life, or God, dwell in evil and
        create it? Can matter drive Life, Spirit, hence, and so
        defeat omnipotence?

                             Matter impotent

358:1   Is the woodman's axe, which destroys a tree's so-called
        life, superior to omnipotence? Can a leaden bullet de-
358:3   prive a man of Life, - that is, of God, who is
        man's Life? If God is at the mercy of matter,
        then matter is omnipotent. Such doctrines are "confu-
358:6   sion worse confounded." If two statements directly con-
        tradict each other and one is true, the other must be false.
        Is Science thus contradictory?

                      Scientific and Biblical facts

358:9   Christian Science, understood, coincides with the
        Scriptures, and sustains logically and demonstratively
        every point it presents. Otherwise it would
358:12  not be Science, and could not present its
        proofs. Christian Science is neither made up of contra-
        dictory aphorisms nor of the inventions of those who scoff
358:15  at God. It presents the calm and clear verdict of Truth
        against error, uttered and illustrated by the prophets,
        by Jesus, by his apostles, as is recorded throughout the
358:18  Scriptures.

        Why are the words of Jesus more frequently cited
        for our instruction than are his remarkable works? Is
358:21  it not because there are few who have gained a true
        knowledge of the great import to Christianity of those
        works?

                           Personal confidence

358:24  Sometimes it is said; "Rest assured that whatever
        effect Christian Scientists may have on the sick, comes
        through rousing within the sick a belief
358:27  that in the removal of disease these healers
        have wonderful power, derived from the Holy Ghost."
        Is it likely that church-members have more faith in
358:30  some Christian Scientist, whom they have perhaps
        never seen and against whom they have been warned,
        than they have in their own accredited and orthodox
359:1   pastors, whom they have seen and have been taught
        to love and to trust?

359:3   Let any clergyman try to cure his friends by their
        faith in him. Will that faith heal them? Yet Scien-
        tists will take the same cases, and cures will follow.
359:6   Is this because the patients have more faith in the Scien-
        tist than in their pastor? I have healed infidels whose
        only objection to this method was, that I as a Chris-
359:9   tian Scientist believed in the Holy Spirit, while they, the
        patients, did not.

        Even though you aver that the material senses are
359:12  indispensable to man's existence or entity, you must
        change the human concept of life, and must at length
        know yourself spiritually and scientifically. The evi-
359:15  dence of the existence of Spirit, Soul, is palpable only to
        spiritual sense, and is not apparent to the material senses,
        which cognize only that which is the opposite of Spirit.

359:18  True Christianity is to be honored wherever found,
        but when shall we arrive at the goal which that word
        implies? From Puritan parents, the discov-
359:21  erer of Christian Science early received her
        religious education. In childhood, she often listened
        with joy to these words, falling from the lips of her
359:24  saintly mother, "God is able to raise you up from sick-
        ness;" and she pondered the meaning of that Scripture
        she so often quotes: "And these signs shall follow them
359:27  that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick,
        and they shall recover."

                          Two different artists

        A Christian Scientist and an opponent are like two
359:30  artists. One says: "I have spiritual ideals,
        indestructible and glorious. When others see
        them as I do, in their true light and loveliness, - and
360:1   know that these ideals are real and eternal because drawn
        from Truth, - they will find that nothing is lost, and all
360:3   is won, by a right estimate of what is real."

        The other artist replies: "You wrong my experience.
        I have no mind-ideals except those which are both mental
360:6   and material. It is true that materiality renders these
        ideals imperfect and destructible; yet I would not ex-
        change mine for thine, for mine give me such personal
360:9   pleasure, and they are not so shockingly transcendental.
        They require less self-abnegation, and keep Soul well out
        of sight. Moreover, I have no notion of losing my old
360:12  doctrines or human opinions."

                            Choose ye to-day

        Dear reader, which mind-picture or externalized thought
        shall be real to you, - the material or the spiritual?
360:15  Both you cannot have. You are bringing out
        your own ideal. This ideal is either temporal
        or eternal. Either Spirit or matter is your model. If you
360:18  try to have two models, then you practically have none.
        Like a pendulum in a clock, you will be thrown back and
        forth, striking the ribs of matter and swinging between the
360:21  real and the unreal.

        Hear the wisdom of Job, as given in the excellent trans-
        lation of the late Rev. George R. Noyes, D.D.: -
360:24  Shall mortal man be more just than God?
        Shall man be more pure than his Maker?
        Behold, He putteth no trust in His ministering spirits,
360:27  And His angels He chargeth with frailty.

        Of old, the Jews put to death the Galilean Prophet,
        the best Christian on earth, for the truth he spoke and
360:30  demonstrated, while to-day, Jew and Christian can unite
        in doctrine and denomination on the very basis of Jesus'
        words and works. The Jew believes that the Messiah or
361:1   Christ has not yet come; the Christian believes that
        Christ is God. Here Christian Science intervenes, ex-
361:3   plains these doctrinal points, cancels the disagreement,
        and settles the question. Christ, as the true spiritual idea,
        is the ideal of God now and forever, here and everywhere.
361:6   The Jew who believes in the First Commandment is a
        monotheist; he has one omnipresent God. Thus the Jew
        unites with the Christian's doctrine that God is come and
        is present now and forever. The Christian who believes
        in the First Commandment is a monotheist. This he
        virtually unites with the Jew's belief in one God, and
361:12  recognizes that Jesus Christ is not God, as Jesus himself
        declared, but is the Son of God. This declaration of
        Jesus, understood, conflicts not at all with another of his
361:15  sayings: "I and my Father are one," - that is, one in
        quality, not in quantity. As a drop of water is one with
        the ocean, a ray of light one with the, sun, even so God
361:18  and man, Father and son, are one in being. The Scrip-
        ture reads: "For in Him we live, and move, and have
        our being."

361:21  I have revised /Science and Health/ only to give a
        clearer and fuller expression of its original meaning. Spir-
        itual ideas unfold as we advance. A human perception of
361:24  divine Science, however limited, must be correct in order
        to be Science and subject to demonstration. A germ of in-
        finite Truth, though least in the kingdom of heaven is the
361:27  higher hope on earth, but it will be rejected and reviled
        until God prepares the soil for the seed. That which
        when sown bears immortal fruit, enriches mankind only
361:30  when it is understood, - hence the many readings given
        the Scriptures, and the requisite revisions of /Science and
        Health with Key to the Scriptures/.




        CHAPTER XII - CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PRACTICE

        Why art thou cast down, O my soul [sense]?
        And why art thou disquieted within me?
        Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him,
        Who is the health of my countenance and my God. - PSALMS.

        And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name
        shall they cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues;
        they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly
        thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the
        sick, and they shall recover. - JESUS.

                           A gospel narrative

362:1   IT is related in the seventh chapter of Luke's Gospel
        that Jesus was once the honored guest of a certain
362:3   Pharisee, by name Simon, though he was quite unlike
        Simon the disciple. While they were at meat, an unusual
        incident occurred, as if to interrupt the scene
362:6   of Oriental festivity. A "strange woman"
        came in. Heedless of the fact that she was debarred from
        such a place and such society, especially under the stern
362:9   rules of rabbinical law, as positively as if she were a Hin-
        doo pariah intruding upon the household of a high-caste
        Brahman, this woman (Mary Magdalene, as she has
362:12  since been called) approached Jesus. According to the
        custom of those days, he reclined on a couch with his
        head towards the table and his bare feet away from it.
362:15  It was therefore easy for the Magdalen to come behind
363:1   the couch and reach his feet. She bore an alabaster jar
        containing costly and fragrant oil, - sandal oil perhaps,
363:3   which is in such common use in the East. Breaking
        the sealed jar, she perfumed Jesus' feet with the oil,
        wiping them with her long hair, which hung loosely
363:6   about her shoulders, as was customary with women of her
        grade.

                         Parable of the creditor

        Did Jesus spurn the woman? Did he repel her adora-
363:9   tion? No! He regarded her compassionately. Nor was
        this all. Knowing what those around him
        were saying in their hearts, especially his host,
363:12  - that they were wondering why, being a prophet, the
        exalted guest did not at once detect the woman's immoral
        status and bid her depart, - knowing this, Jesus rebuked
363:15  them with a short story or parable. He described two
        debtors, one for a large sum and one for a smaller, who
        were released from their obligations by their common
363:18  creditor. "Which of them will love him most?" was the
        Master's question to Simon the Pharisee; and Simon re-
        plied, "He to whom he forgave most." Jesus approved
363:21  the answer, and so brought home the lesson to all, follow-
        ing it with that remarkable declaration to the woman,
        "Thy sins are forgiven."

                             Divine insight

363:24  Why did he thus summarize her debt to divine Love?
        Had she repented and reformed, and did his insight
        detect this unspoken moral uprising? She
363:27  bathed his feet with her tears before she
        anointed them with the oil. In the absence of other
        proofs, was her grief sufficient evidence to warrant the
363:30  expectation of her repentance, reformation, and growth
        in wisdom? Certainly there was encouragement in the
        mere fact that she was showing her affection for a man
364:1   of undoubted goodness and purity, who has since been
        rightfully regarded as the best man that ever trod this
364:3   planet. Her reverence was unfeigned, and it was mani-
        fested towards one who was soon, though they knew it
        not, to lay down his mortal existence in behalf of all
364:6   sinners, that through his word and works they might be
        redeemed from sensuality and sin.

                        Penitence or hospitality

        Which was the higher tribute to such ineffable affec-
364:9   tion, the hospitality of the Pharisee or the contrition of
        the Magdalen? This query Jesus answered
        by rebuking self-righteousness and declaring
364:12  the absolution of the penitent. He even said that this
        poor woman had done what his rich entertainer had neg-
        lected to do, - wash and anoint his guest's feet, a special
364:15  sign of Oriental courtesy.

        Here is suggested a solemn question, a question indi-
        cated by one of the needs of this age. Do Christian
364:18  Scientists seek Truth as Simon sought the Saviour, through
        material conservatism and for personal homage? Jesus
        told Simon that such seekers as he gave small reward
364:21  in return for the spiritual purgation which came through
        the Messiah. If Christian Scientists are like Simon,
        then it must be said of them also that they /love/
364:24  little.

                           Genuine repentance

        On the other hand, do they show their regard for
        Truth, or Christ, by their genuine repentance, by their
364:27  broken hearts, expressed by meekness and
        human affection, as did this woman? If
        so, then it may be said of them, as Jesus said of the
364:30  unwelcome visitor, that they indeed love much, because
        much is forgiven them.

                          Compassion requisite

        Did the careless doctor, the nurse, the cook, and the
365:1   brusque business visitor sympathetically know the thorns
        they plant in the pillow of the sick and the heavenly
365:3   homesick looking away from earth, - Oh, did
        they know! - this knowledge would do much
        more towards healing the sick and preparing their helpers
365:6   for the "midnight call," than all cries of "Lord, Lord!"
        The benign thought of Jesus, finding utterance in such
        words as "Take no thought for your life," would heal
365:9   the sick, and so enable them to rise above the supposed
        necessity for physical thought-taking and doctoring;
        but if the unselfish affections be lacking, and common
365:12  sense and common humanity are disregarded, what men-
        tal quality remains, with which to evoke healing from
        the outstretched arm of righteousness?

                             Speedy healing

365:15  If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine
        Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one
        visit, and the disease will vanish into its native
365:18  nothingness like dew before the morning sun-
        shine. If the Scientist has enough Christly affection to
        win his own pardon, and such commendation as the Mag-
365:21  dalen gained from Jesus, then he is Christian enough to
        practise scientifically and deal with his patients compas-
        sionately; and the result will correspond with the spiritual
365:24  intent.

                            Truth desecrated

        If hypocrisy, stolidity, inhumanity, or vice finds its
        way into the chambers of disease through the would-be
365:27  healer, it would, if it were possible, convert
        into a den of thieves the temple of the Holy
        Ghost, - the patient's spiritual power to resuscitate him-
365:30  self. The unchristian practitioner is not giving to mind
        or body the joy and strength of Truth. The poor suf-
        fering heart needs its rightful nutriment, such as peace,
366:1   patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear
        Father's loving-kindness.

                       Moral evils to be cast out

366:3   In order to cure his patient, the metaphysician
        must first cast moral evils out of himself and thus
        attain the spiritual freedom which will en-
366:6   able him to cast physical evils out of his
        patient; but heal he cannot, while his own spiritual
        barrenness debars him from giving drink to the thirsty
366:9   and hinders him from reaching his patient's thought, -
        yea, while mental penury chills his faith and under-
        standing.

                           The true physician

366:12  The physician who lacks sympathy for his fellow-
        being is deficient in human affection, and we have the
        apostolic warrant for asking: "He that loveth
366:15  not his brother whom he hath seen, how can
        he love God whom he hath not seen?" Not having this
        spiritual affection, the physician lacks faith in the divine
366:18  Mind and has not that recognition of infinite Love which
        alone confers the healing power. Such so-called Scien-
        tists will strain out gnats, while they swallow the camels
366:21  of bigoted pedantry.

                           Source of calmness

        The physician must also watch, lest he be over-
        whelmed by a sense of the odiousness of sin and by the
366:24  unveiling of sin in his own thoughts. The
        sick are terrified by their sick beliefs, and
        sinners should be affrighted by their sinful beliefs; but
366:27  the Christian Scientist will be calm in the presence of
        both sin and disease, knowing, as he does, that Life is
        God and God is All.

                             Genuine healing

366:30  If we would open their prison doors for the sick, we
        must first learn to bind up the broken-hearted. If we
        would heal by the Spirit, we must not hide the talent
367:1   of spiritual healing under the napkin of its form, nor
        bury the /morale /of Christian Science in the grave-clothes
367:3   of its letter. The tender word and Christian
        encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience
        with his fears and the removal of them, are better than
367:6   hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed
        speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so
        many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame
367:9   with divine Love.

                         Gratitude and humility

        This is what is meant by seeking Truth, Christ, not
        "for the loaves and fishes," nor, like the Pharisee, with
367:12  the arrogance of rank and display of scholar-
        ship, but like Mary Magdalene, from the sum-
        mit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and
367:15  the perfume of /gratitude/, with tears of repentance and
        with those hairs all numbered by the Father.

                          The salt of the earth

        A Christian Scientist occupies the place at this period
367:18  of which Jesus spoke to his disciples, when he said: "Ye
        are the salt of the earth." "Ye are the light
        of the world. A city that is set on an hill can-
367:21  not be hid." Let us watch, work, and pray that this salt
        lose not its saltness, and that this light be not hid, but
        radiate and glow into noontide glory.

367:24  The infinite Truth of the Christ-cure has come to this
        age through a "still, small voice," through silent utter-
        ances and divine anointing which quicken and increase
367:27  the beneficial effects of Christianity. I long to see the
        consummation of my hope, namely, the student's higher
        attainments in this line of light.

                          Real and counterfeit

367:30  Because Truth is infinite, error should be known as
        nothing. Because Truth is omnipotent in goodness,
        error, Truth's opposite, has no might. Evil is but the
368:1   counterpoise of nothingness. The greatest wrong is
        but a supposititious opposite of the highest right. The
368:3   confidence inspired by Science lies in the fact
        that Truth is real and error is unreal. Error
        is a coward before Truth. Divine Science insists that
368:6   time will prove all this. Both truth and error have come
        nearer than ever before to the apprehension of mortals,
        and truth will become still clearer as error is self-
368:9   destroyed.

                        Results of faith in Truth

        Against the fatal beliefs that error is as real as Truth,
        that evil is equal in power to good if not superior, and that
368:12  discord is as normal as harmony, even the hope
        of freedom from the bondage of sickness and
        sin has little inspiration to nerve endeavor. When we
368:15  come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have
        in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith
        in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man,
368:18  then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing
        the sick and destroying error.

                       Life independent of matter

        That Life is not contingent on bodily conditions is
368:21  proved, when we learn that life and man survive this
        body. Neither evil, disease, nor death can be
        spiritual, and the material belief in them dis-
368:24  appears in the ratio of one's spiritual growth. Because
        matter has no consciousness or Ego, it cannot act; its
        conditions are illusions, and these false conditions are the
368:27  source of all seeming sickness. Admit the existence of
        matter, and you admit that mortality (and therefore dis-
        ease) has a foundation in fact. Deny the existence of
        matter, and you can destroy the belief in material con-
        ditions. When fear disappears, the foundation of disease
        is gone. Once let the mental physician believe in the
369:1   reality of matter, and he is liable to admit also the reality
        of all discordant conditions, and this hinders his de-
369:3   stroying them. Thus he is unfitted for the successful
        treatment of disease.

                              Man's entity

        In proportion as matter loses to human sense all en-
369:6   tity as man, in that proportion does man become its
        master. He enters into a diviner sense of the
        facts, and comprehends the theology of Jesus
369:9   as demonstrated in healing the sick, raising the dead,
        and walking over the wave. All these deeds manifested
        Jesus' control over the belief that matter is substance,
369:12  that it can be the arbiter of life or the constructor of any
        form of existence.

                          The Christ treatment

        We never read that Luke or Paul made a reality of
369:15  disease in order to discover some means of healing it.
        Jesus never asked if disease were acute or
        chronic, and he never recommended atten-
369:18  tion to laws of health, never give drugs, never prayed
        to know if God were willing that a man should live. He
        understood man, whose life is God, to be immortal, and
369:21  knew that man has not two lives, one to be destroyed and
        the other to be made indestructible.

                           Matter not medicine

        The prophylactic and therapeutic (that is, the prevent-
369:24  ive and curative) arts belong emphatically to Christian
        Science, as would be readily seen, if psychology,
        or the Science of Spirit, God, was understood.
369:27  Unscientific methods are finding their dead level. Lim-
        ited to matter by their own law, what have they of the
        advantages of Mind and immortality?

                            No healing in sin

369:30  No man is physically healed in wilful error or by it,
        any more than he is morally saved in or by sin. It is
        error even to murmur or to be angry over sin. To be
370:1   every whit whole, man must be better spiritually as well
        as physically. To be immortal, we must forsake the
370:3   mortal sense of things, turn from the lie of false
        belief to Truth, and gather the facts of being
        from the divine Mind. The body improves under the
370:6   same regimen which spiritualizes the thought; and if
        health is not made manifest under this regimen, this
        proves that fear is governing the body. This is the law
370:9   of cause and effect, or like producing like.

                            Like curing like

        Homoeopathy furnishes the evidence to the senses, that
        symptoms, which might be produced by a certain drug,
370:12  are removed by using the same drug which
        might cause the symptoms. This confirms
        my theory that faith in the drug is the sole factor in the
370:15  cure. The effect, which mortal mind produces through
        one belief, it removes through an opposite belief, but it
        uses the same medicine in both cases.
370:18  The moral and spiritual facts of health, whispered
        into thought, produce very direct and marked effects on
        the body. A physical diagnosis of disease - since mor-
370:21  tal mind must be the cause of disease - tends to induce
        disease.

                       Transient potency of drugs

        According to both medical testimony and individual
370:24  experience, a drug may eventually lose its supposed power
        and do no more for the patient. Hygienic
        treatment also loses its efficacy. Quackery
370:27  likewise fails at length to inspire the credulity
        of the sick, and then they cease to improve. These les-
        sons are useful. They should naturally and genuinely
370:30  change our basis from sensation to Christian Science,
        from error to Truth, from matter to Spirit.

                           Diagnosis of matter

        Physicians examine the pulse, tongue, lungs, to dis-
371:1   cover the condition of matter, when in fact all is
        Mind. The body is the substratum of mortal mind,
371:3   and this so-called mind must finally yield
        to the mandate of immortal Mind.

                       Ghost-stories inducing fear

        Disquisitions on disease have a mental effect similar
371:6   to that produced on children by telling ghost-stories in
        the dark. By those uninstructed in Christian
        Science, nothing is really understood of material
371:9   existence. Mortals are believed to be here without their
        consent and to be removed as involuntarily, not knowing
        why nor when. As frightened children look everywhere
371:12  for the imaginary ghost, so sick humanity sees danger in
        every direction, and looks for relief in all ways except the
        right one. Darkness induces fear. The adult, in bond-
371:15  age to his beliefs, no more comprehends his real being
        than does the child; and the adult must be taken out of
        his darkness, before he can get rid of the illusive suffer-
371:18  ings which throng the gloaming. The way in divine
        Science is the only way out of this condition.

                Mind imparts purity, health, and beauty

        I would not transform the infant at once into a
371:21  man, nor would I keep the suckling a lifelong babe.
        No impossible thing do I ask when urging
        the claims of Christian Science; but because
371:24  this teaching is in advance of the age, we
        should not deny our need of its spiritual unfoldment.
        Mankind will improve through Science and Christi-
371:27  anity. The necessity for uplifting the race is father to
        the fact that Mind can do it; for Mind can impart
        purity instead of impurity, strength instead of weak-
371:30  ness, and health instead of disease. Truth is an altera-
        tive in the entire system, and can make it "every whit
        whole."

                          Brain not intelligent

372:1   Remember, brain is not mind. Matter cannot be sick,
        and Mind is immortal. The mortal body is only an erro-
372:3   neous mortal belief of mind in matter. What
        you call matter was originally error in solu-
        tion, elementary mortal mind, - likened by Milton to
372:6   "chaos and old night." One theory about this mortal
        mind is, that its sensations can reproduce man, can form
        blood, flesh, and bones. The Science of being, in which
372:9   all is divine Mind, or God and His idea, would be clearer
        in this age, but for the belief that matter is the medium
        of man, or that man can enter his own embodied thought,
372:12  bind himself with his own beliefs, and then call his bonds
        material and name them divine law.

                            Veritable success

        When man demonstrates Christian Science absolutely,
372:15  he will be perfect. He can neither sin, suffer, be subject
        to matter, nor disobey the law of God. There-
        fore he will be as the angels in heaven. Chris-
372:18  tian Science and Christianity are one. How, then, in
        Christianity any more than in Christian Science, can we
        believe in the reality and power of both Truth and error,
372:21  Spirit and matter, and hope to succeed with contraries?
        Matter is not self-sustaining. Its false supports fail one
        after another. Matter succeeds for a period only by
372:24  falsely parading in the vestments of law.

                         Recognition of benefits

        "Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also
        deny before my Father which is in heaven." In Chris-
372:27  tian Science, a denial of Truth is fatal, while
        a just acknowledgment of Truth and of what
        it has done for us is an effectual help. If pride, super-
372:30  stition, or any error prevents the honest recognition of
        benefits received, this will be a hindrance to the recovery
        of the sick and the success of the student.

                   Disease far more docile than iniquity

373:1   If we are Christians on all moral questions, but are in
        darkness as to the physical exemption which Christian-
373:3   ity includes, then we must have more faith
        in God on this subject and be more alive to
        His promises. It is easier to cure the most
373:6   malignant disease than it is to cure sin. The author has
        raised up the dying, partly because they were willing to
        be restored, while she has struggled long, and perhaps in
373:9   vain, to lift a student out of a chronic sin. Under all
        modes of pathological treatment, the sick recover more
        rapidly from disease than does the sinner from his sin.
373:12  Healing is easier than teaching, if the teaching is faithfully
        done.

                          Love frees from fear

        The fear of disease and the love of sin are the sources
373:15  of man's enslavement. "The fear of the Lord
        is the beginning of wisdom," but the Scriptures
        also declare, through the exalted thought of John, that
373:18  "perfect Love casteth out fear."

        The fear occasioned by ignorance can be cured; but
        to remove the effects of fear produced by sin, you must
373:21  rise above both fear and sin. Disease is expressed not
        so much by the lips as in the functions of the body. Es-
        tablish the scientific sense of health, and you relieve the
373:24  oppressed organ. The inflammation, decomposition, or
        deposit will abate, and the disabled organ will resume its
        healthy functions.

                          Mind circulates blood

373:27  When the blood rushes madly through the veins or
        languidly creeps along its frozen channels, we call these
        conditions disease. This is a misconception.
373:30  Mortal mind is producing the propulsion or the
        languor, and we prove this to be so when by mental means
        the circulation is changed, and returns to that standard
374:1   which mortal mind has decided upon as essential for
        health. Anodynes, counter-irritants, and depletion never
374:3   reduce inflammation scientifically, but the truth of being,
        whispered into the ear of mortal mind, will bring relief.

                        Mind can destroy all ills

        Hatred and its effects on the body are removed by
374:6   Love. Because mortal mind seems to be conscious, the
        sick say: "How can my mind cause a disease
        I never thought of and knew nothing about,
374:9   until it appeared on my body?" The author has an-
        swered this question in her explanation of disease as origi-
        nating in human belief before it is consciously apparent
374:12  on the body, which is in fact the objective state of mortal
        mind, though it is called matter. This mortal blindness
        and its sharp consequences show our need of divine meta-
374:15  physics. Through immortal Mind, or Truth, we can
        destroy all ills which proceed from mortal mind.

        Ignorance of the cause or approach of disease is no
374:18  argument against the mental origin of disease. You con-
        fess to ignorance of the future and incapacity to preserve
        your own existence, and this belief helps rather than
374:21  hinders disease. Such a state of mind induces sickness.
        It is like walking in darkness on the edge of a precipice.
        You cannot forget the belief of danger, and your steps
374:24  are less firm because of your fear, and ignorance of mental
        cause and effect.

                          Temperature is mental

        Heat and cold are products of mortal mind. The body,
374:27  when bereft of mortal mind, at first cools, and after-
        wards it is resolved into its primitive mortal
        elements. Nothing that lives ever dies, and
374:30  /vice versa/. Mortal mind produces animal heat, and then
        expels it through the abandonment of a belief, or in-
        creases it to the point of self-destruction. Hence it is
375:1   mortal mind, not matter, which says, "I die." Heat
        would pass from the body as painlessly as gas dissipates
375:3   into the air when it evaporates but for the belief that in-
        flammation and pain must accompany the separation of
        heat from the body.

                       Science /versus /hypnotism

375:6   Chills and heat are often the form in which fever mani-
        fests itself. Change the mental state, and the chills and
        fever disappear. The old-school physician
375:9   proves this when his patient says, " I am better,"
        but the patient believes that matter, not mind,
        has helped him. The Christian Scientist demonstrates
375:12  that divine Mind heals, while the hypnotist dispossesses
        the patient of his individuality in order to control him.
        No person is benefited by yielding his mentality to any
375:15  mental despotism or malpractice. All unscientific mental
        practice is erroneous and powerless, and should be under-
        stood and so rendered fruitless. The genuine Christian
375:18  Scientist is adding to his patient's mental and moral power,
        and is increasing his patient's spirituality while restoring
        him physically through divine Love.

                             Cure for palsy

375:21  Palsy is a belief that matter governs mortals, and can
        paralyze the body, making certain portions of
        it motionless. Destroy the belief, show mortal
375:24  mind that muscles have no power to be lost, for Mind is
        supreme, and you cure the palsy.

                          Latent fear diagnosed

        Consumptive patients always show great hopeful-
375:27  ness and courage, even when they are supposed to be in
        hopeless danger. This state of mind seems
        anomalous except to the expert in Christian
375:30  Science. This mental state is not understood, simply
        because it is a stage of fear so excessive that it amounts
        to fortitude. The belief in consumption presents to mor-
376:1   tal thought a hopeless state, an image more terrifying than
        that of most other diseases. The patient turns involun-
376:3   tarily from the contemplation of it, but though unacknowl-
        edged, the latent fear and the despair of recovery remain
        in thought.

                           Insidious concepts

376:6   Just so is it with the greatest sin. It is the most subtle,
        and does its work almost self-deceived. The diseases
        deemed dangerous sometimes come from the
376:9   most hidden, undefined, and insidious beliefs.
        The pallid invalid, whom you declare to be wasting away
        with consumption of the blood, should be told that blood
376:12  never gave life and can never take it away, - that Life is
        Spirit, and that there is more life and immortality in one
        good motive and act, than in all the blood which ever
376:15  flowed through mortal veins and simulated a corporeal
        sense of life.

                            Remedy for fever

        If the body is material, it cannot, for that very reason,
376:18  suffer with a fever. Because the so-called material body
        is a mental concept and governed by mortal
        mind, it manifests only what that so-called
376:21  mind expresses. Therefore the efficient remedy is to
        destroy the patient's false belief by both silently and au-
        dibly arguing the true facts in regard to harmonious
376:24  being, - representing man as healthy instead of diseased,
        and showing that it is impossible for matter to suffer, to
        feel pain or heat, to be thirsty or sick. Destroy fear,
376:27  and you end fever. Some people, mistaught as to Mind-
        science, inquire when it will be safe to check a fever.
        Know that in Science you cannot check a fever after ad-
376:30  mitting that it must have its course. To fear and admit
        the power of disease, is to paralyze mental and scientific
        demonstration.

377:1   If your patient believes in taking cold, mentally con-
        vince him that matter cannot take cold, and that thought
377:3   governs this liability. If grief causes suffering, convince
        the sufferer that affliction is often the source of joy, and
        that he should rejoice always in ever-present Love.

                            Climate harmless

377:6   Invalids flee to tropical climates in order to save their
        lives, but they come back no better than when they went
        away. Then is the time to cure them through
377:9   Christian Science, and prove that they can
        be healthy in all climates, when their fear of climate is
        exterminated.

                            Mind governs body

377:12  Through different states of mind, the body becomes
        suddenly weak or abnormally strong, showing mortal
        mind to be the producer of strength or weak-
377:15  ness. A sudden joy or grief has caused what
        is termed instantaneous death. Because a belief origi-
        nates unseen, the mental state should be continually
377:18  watched that it may not produce blindly its bad effects.
        The author never knew a patient who did not recover
        when the belief of the disease had gone. Remove the
377:21  leading error or governing fear of this lower so-called mind,
        and you remove the cause of all disease as well as the mor-
        bid or excited action of any organ. You also remove in
377:24  this way what are termed organic diseases as readily as
        functional difficulties.

        The cause of all so-called disease is mental, a mortal
377:27  fear, a mistaken belief or conviction of the necessity and
        power of ill-health; also a fear that Mind is helpless to
        defend the life of man and incompetent to control it. With-
377:30  out this ignorant human belief, any circumstance is of it-
        self powerless to produce suffering. It is latent belief in
        disease, as well as the fear of disease, which associates sick-
378:1   ness with certain circumstances and causes the two to
        appear conjoined, even as poetry and music are repro-
378:3   duced in union by human memory. Disease has no in-
        telligence. Unwittingly you sentence yourself to suffer.
        The understanding of this will enable you to commute this
378:6   self-sentence, and meet every circumstance with truth.
        Disease is less than mind, and Mind can control it.

                              Latent power

        Without the so-called human mind, there can be no
378:9   inflammatory nor torpid action of the system. Remove
        the error, and you destroy its effects. By
        looking a tiger fearlessly in the eye, Sir Charles
378:12  Napier sent it cowering back into the jungle. An ani-
        mal may infuriate another by looking it in the eye, and
        both will fight for nothing. A man's gaze, fastened
378:15  fearlessly on a ferocious beast, often causes the beast to
        retreat in terror. This latter occurrence represents the
        power of Truth over error, - the might of intelligence
378:18  exercised over mortal beliefs to destroy them; whereas
        hypnotism and hygienic drilling and drugging, adopted
        to cure matter, is represented by two material erroneous
378:21  bases.

                            Disease powerless

        Disease is not an intelligence to dispute the empire of
        Mind or to dethrone Mind and take the government into
378:24  its own hands. Sickness is not a God-given,
        nor a self-constituted material power, which
        copes astutely with Mind and finally conquers it. God
378:27  never endowed matter with power to disable Life or to
        chill harmony with a long and cold night of discord.
        Such a power, without the divine permission, is incon-
378:30  ceivable; and if such a power could be divinely directed,
        it would manifest less wisdom than we usually find dis-
        played in human governments.

                          Jurisdiction of Mind

379:1   If disease can attack and control the body without
        the consent of mortals, sin can do the same, for both
379:3   are errors, announced as partners in the be-
        ginning. The Christian Scientist finds only
        effects, where the ordinary physician looks for causes.
379:6   The real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind, controlling
        every effect and recognizing all causation as vested in
        divine Mind.

                          Power of imagination

379:9   A felon, on whom certain English students experi-
        mented, fancied himself bleeding to death, and died be-
        cause of that belief, when only a stream of
379:12  warm water was trickling over his arm. Had
        he known his sense of bleeding was an illusion, he would
        have risen above the false belief. Let the despairing in-
379:15  valid, inspecting the hue of her blood on a cambric hand-
        kerchief, think of the experiment of those Oxford boys,
        who caused the death of a man, when not a drop of his
379:18  blood was shed. Then let her learn the opposite state-
        ment of life as taught in Christian Science, and she will
        understand that she is not dying on account of the state of
379:21  her blood, but is suffering from her belief that blood is
        destroying her life. The so-called vital current does not
        affect the invalid's health, but her belief produces the
379:24  very results she dreads.

                        Fevers the effect of fear

        Fevers are errors of various types. The quickened
        pulse, coated tongue, febrile heat, dry skin, pain in the
379:27  head and limbs, are pictures drawn on the
        body by a mortal mind. The images, held in
        this disturbed mind, frighten conscious thought. Unless
379:30  the fever-picture, drawn by millions of mortals and im-
        aged on the body through the belief that mind is in matter
        and discord is as real as harmony, is destroyed through
380:1   Science, it may rest at length on some receptive thought,
        and become a fever case, which ends in a belief called
380:3   death, which belief must be finally conquered by eternal
        Life. Truth is always the victor. Sickness and sin fall
        by their own weight. Truth is the rock of ages, the head-
380:6   stone of the corner, "but on whomsoever it shall fall, it
        will grind him to powder."

                         Misdirected contention

        Contending for the evidence or indulging the demands
380:9   of sin, disease, or death, we virtually contend against
        the control of Mind over body, and deny the
        power of Mind to heal. This false method
380:12  is as though the defendant should argue for the plaintiff
        in favor of a decision which the defendant knows will
        be turned against himself.

                         Benefits of metaphysics

380:15  The physical effects of fear illustrate its illusion. Gaz-
        ing at a chained lion, crouched for a spring, should not
        terrify a man. The body is affected only with
380:18  the belief of disease produced by a so-called
        mind ignorant of the truth which chains disease. Noth-
        ing but the power of Truth can prevent the fear of
380:21  error, and prove man's dominion over error.

                           A higher discovery

        Many years ago the author made a spiritual discov-
        ery, the scientific evidence of which has accumulated to
380:24  prove that the divine Mind produces in man
        health, harmony, and immortality. Gradu-
        ally this evidence will gather momentum and clearness,
380:27  until it reaches its culmination of scientific statement and
        proof. Nothing is more disheartening than to believe
        that there is a power opposite to God, or good, and that
380:30  God endows this opposing power with strength to be used
        against Himself, against Life, health, harmony.

                         Ignorance of our rights

        Every law of matter or the body, supposed to govern
381:1   man, is rendered null and void by the law of Life, God.
        Ignorant of our God-given rights, we submit to unjust
381:3   decrees, and the bias of education enforces
        this slavery. Be no more willing to suffer the
        illusion that you are sick or that some disease is develop-
381:6   ing in the system, than you are to yield to a sinful temp-
        tation on the ground that sin has its necessities.

                            No laws of matter

        When infringing some supposed law, you say that
381:9   there is danger. This fear is the danger and induces the
        physical effects. We cannot in reality suffer
        from breaking anything except a moral or
381:12  spiritual law. The so-called laws of mortal belief are
        destroyed by the understanding that Soul is immortal,
        and that mortal mind cannot legislate the times, periods,
381:15  and types of disease, with which mortals die. God is the
        lawmaker, but He is not the author of barbarous codes.
        In infinite Life and Love there is no sickness, sin, nor
381:18  death, and the Scriptures declare that we live, move, and
        have our being in the infinite God.

                           God-given dominion

        Think less of the enactments of mortal mind, and you
381:21  will sooner grasp man's God-given dominion. You must
        understand your way out of human theories
        relating to health, or you will never believe
381:24  that you are quite free from some ailment. The har-
        mony and immortality of man will never be reached
        without the understanding that Mind is not in matter.
381:27  Let us banish sickness as an outlaw, and abide by the
        rule of perpetual harmony, - God's law. It is man's
        moral right to annul an unjust sentence, a sentence never
381:30  inflicted by divine authority.

                              Begin rightly

        Christ Jesus overruled the error which would impose
        penalties for transgressions of the physical laws of
382:1   health; he annulled supposed laws of matter, opposed
        to the harmonies of Spirit, lacking divine au-
382:3   thority and having only human approval for
        their sanction.

                            Hygiene excessive

        If half the attention given to hygiene were given to the
382:6   study of Christian Science and to the spiritualization of
        thought, this alone would usher in the millen-
        inium. Constant bathing and rubbing to alter
382:9   the secretions or to remove unhealthy exhalations from
        the cuticle receive a useful rebuke from Jesus' precept,
        "Take no thought . . . for the body." We must beware
382:12  of making clean merely the outside of the platter.

                           Blissful ignorance

        He, who is ignorant of what is termed hygienic law, is
        more receptive of spiritual power and of faith in one
382:15  God, than is the devotee of supposed hygienic
        law, who comes to teach the so-called igno-
        rant one. Must we not then consider the so-called law
382:18  of matter a canon "more honored in the breach than
        the observance"? A patient thoroughly booked in medi-
        cal theories is more difficult to heal through Mind than
382:21  one who is not. This verifies the saying of our Master:
        "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a
        little child, shall in no wise enter therein."

382:24  One whom I rescued from seeming spiritual oblivion,
        in which the senses had engulfed him, wrote to me: "I
        should have died, but for the glorious Principle you teach,
382:27  - supporting the power of Mind over the body and show-
        ing me the nothingness of the so-called pleasures and pains
        of sense. The treatises I had read and the medicines I
382:30  had taken only abandoned me to more hopeless suffering
        and despair. Adherence to hygiene was useless. Mortal
        mind needed to be set right. The ailment was not bodily,
383:1   but mental, and I was cured when I learned my way in
        Christian Science."

                          A clean mind and body

383:3   We need a clean body and a clean mind, - a body
        rendered pure by Mind as well as washed by water.
        One says: "I take good care of my body."
383:6   To do this, the pure and exalting influence of
        the divine Mind on the body is requisite, and the Christian
        Scientist takes the best care of his body when he leaves
383:9   it most out of his thought, and, like the Apostle Paul, is
        "willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be pres-
        ent with the Lord."

383:12  A hint may be taken from the emigrant, whose filth
        does not affect his happiness, because mind and body
        rest on the same basis. To the mind equally gross, dirt
383:15  gives no uneasiness. It is the native element of such a
        mind, which is symbolized, and not chafed, by its sur-
        roundings; but impurity and uncleanliness, which do
383:18  not trouble the gross, could not be borne by the refined.
        This shows that the mind must be clean to keep the body
        in proper condition.

                            Beliefs illusive

383:21  The tobacco-user, eating or smoking poison for half a
        century, sometimes tells you that the weed preserves
        his health, but does this make it so? Does his
383:24  assertion prove the use of tobacco to be a salu-
        brious habit, and man to be the better for it? Such in-
        stances only prove the illusive physical effect of a false
383:27  belief, confirming the Scriptural conclusion concerning a
        man, "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he."

        The movement-cure - pinching and pounding the poor
383:30  body, to make it sensibly well when it ought to be in-
        sensibly so - is another medical mistake, resulting from
        the common notion that health depends on inert matter
384:1   instead of on Mind. Can matter, or what is termed
        matter, either feel or act without mind?

                           Corporeal penalties

384:3   We should relieve our minds from the depressing thought
        that we have transgressed a material law and must of
        necessity pay the penalty. Let us reassure
384:6   ourselves with the law of Love. God never
        punishes man for doing right, for honest labor, or for
        deeds of kindness, though they expose him to fatigue,
384:9   cold, heat, contagion. If man seems to incur the penalty
        through matter, this is but a belief of mortal mind, not
        an enactment of wisdom, and man has only to enter his
384:12  protest against this belief in order to annul it. Through
        this action of thought and its results upon the body, the
        student will prove to himself, by small beginnings, the
384:15  grand verities of Christian Science.

                          Not matter, but Mind

        If exposure to a draught of air while in a state of
        perspiration is followed by chills, dry cough, influenza,
384:18  congestive symptoms in the lungs, or hints of
        inflammatory rheumatism, your Mind-remedy
        is safe and sure. If you are a Christian Scientist, such
384:21  symptoms are not apt to follow exposure; but if you
        believe in laws of matter and their fatal effects when
        transgressed, you are not fit to conduct your own case or
384:24  to destroy the bad effects of your belief. When the fear
        subsides and the conviction abides that you have broken
        no law, neither rheumatism, consumption, nor any other
384:27  disease will ever result from exposure to the weather. In
        Science this is an established fact which all the evidence
        before the senses can never overrule.

                         Benefit of philanthropy

384:30  Sickness, sin, and death must at length quail before
        the divine rights of intelligence, and then the power
        of Mind over the entire functions and organs of the
385:1   human system will be acknowledged. It is proverbial
        that Florence Nightingale and other philanthropists en-
385:3   gaged in humane labors have been able to
        undergo without sinking fatigues and expo-
        sures which ordinary people could not endure. The ex-
385:6   planation lies in the support which they derived from
        the divine law, rising above the human. The spiritual
        demand, quelling the material, supplies energy and en-
385:9   durance surpassing all other aids, and forestalls the
        penalty which our beliefs would attach to our best
        deeds. Let us remember that the eternal law of right,
385:12  though it can never annul the law which makes sin its
        own executioner, exempts man from all penalties but
        those due for wrong-doing.

                       Honest toil has no penalty

385:15  Constant toil, deprivations, exposures, and all untow-
        ard conditions, /if without sin/, can be experienced with-
        out suffering. Whatever it is your duty to do,
385:18  you can do without harm to yourself. If you
        sprain the muscles or wound the flesh, your
        remedy is at hand. Mind decides whether or not the
385:21  flesh shall be discolored, painful, swollen, and inflamed.

                           Our sleep and food

        You say that you have not slept well or have overeaten.
        You are a law unto yourself. Saying this and believing
385:24  it, you will suffer in proportion to your belief
        and fear. Your sufferings are not the penalty
        for having broken a law of matter, for it is a law of mortal
385:27  mind which you have disobeyed. You say or think, be-
        cause you have partaken of salt fish, that you must be
        thirsty, and you are thirsty accordingly, while the oppo-
385:30  site belief would produce the opposite result.

                            Doubtful evidence

        Any supposed information, coming from the body or
        from inert matter as if either were intelligent, is an illu-
386:1   sion of mortal mind, - one of its dreams. Realize that
        the evidence of the senses is not to be accepted
386:3   in the case of sickness, any more than it is in
        the case of sin.

                           Climate and belief

        Expose the body to certain temperatures, and belief
386:6   says that you may catch cold and have catarrh; but no
        such result occurs without mind to demand
        it and produce it. So long as mortals declare
386:9   that certain states of the atmosphere produce catarrh,
        fever, rheumatism, or consumption, those effects will
        follow, - not because of the climate, but on account of
386:12  the belief. The author has in too many instances healed
        disease through the action of Truth on the minds of mor-
        tals, and the corresponding effects of Truth on the body,
386:15  not to know that this is so.

                           Erroneous despatch

        A blundering despatch, mistakenly announcing the
        death of a friend, occasions the same grief that the friend's
386:18  real death would bring. You think that your
        anguish is occasioned by your loss. Another
        despatch, correcting the mistake, heals your grief, and
386:21  you learn that your suffering was merely the result of
        your belief. Thus it is with all sorrow, sickness, and
        death. You will learn at length that there is no cause
386:24  for grief, and divine wisdom will then be understood.
        Error, not Truth, produces all the suffering on earth.

                           Mourning causeless

        If a Christian Scientist had said, while you were labor-
386:27  ing under the influence of the belief of grief, "Your sor-
        row is without cause," you would not have
        understood him, although the correctness of
386:30  the assertion might afterwards be proved to you. So,
        when our friends pass from our sight and we lament,
        that lamentation is needless and causeless. We shall
387:1   perceive this to be true when we grow into the under-
        standing of Life, and know that there is no death.

                        Mind heals brain-disease

387:3   Because mortal mind is kept active, must it pay the
        penalty in a softened brain? Who dares to say that actual
        Mind can be overworked? When we reach
387:6   our limits of mental endurance, we conclude
        that intellectual labor has been carried sufficiently far;
        but when we realize that immortal Mind is ever active,
387:9   and that spiritual energies can neither wear out nor can
        so-called material law trespass upon God-given powers
        and resources, we are able to rest in Truth, refreshed by
387:12  the assurances of immortality, opposed to mortality.

                         Right never punishable

        Our thinkers do not die early because they faithfully
        perform the natural functions of being. If printers and
387:15  authors have the shortest span of earthly ex-
        istence, it is not because they occupy the most
        important posts and perform the most vital functions in
387:18  society. That man does not pay the severest penalty
        who does the most good. By adhering to the realities of
        eternal existence, - instead of reading disquisitions on
387:21  the inconsistent supposition that death comes in obedience
        to the law of life, and that God punishes man for doing
        good, - one cannot suffer as the result of any labor of
387:24  love, but grows stronger because of it. It is a law of so-
        called mortal mind, misnamed matter, which causes all
        things discordant.

                            Christian history

387:27  The history of Christianity furnishes sublime proofs
        of the supporting influence and protecting power bestowed
        on man by his heavenly Father, omnipotent
387:30  Mind, who gives man faith and understanding
        whereby to defend himself, not only from temptation, but
        from bodily suffering.

388:1   The Christian martyrs were prophets of Christian
        Science. Through the uplifting and consecrating power
388:3   of divine Truth, they obtained a victory over the corpo-
        real senses, a victory which Science alone can explain.
        Stolidity, which is a resisting state of mortal mind, suffers
388:6   less, only because it knows less of material law.

        The Apostle John testified to the divine basis of Chris-
        tian Science, when dire inflictions failed to destroy his
388:9   body. Idolaters, believing in more than one mind, had
        "gods many," and thought that they could kill the body
        with matter, independently of mind.

                          Sustenance spiritual

388:12  Admit the common hypothesis that food is the nutri-
        ment of life, and the follows the necessity for another
        admission in the opposite direction, - that
388:15  food has power to destroy Life, God, through
        a deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity. This
        is a specimen of the ambiguous nature of all material
388:18  health-theories. They are self-contradictory and self-de-
        structive, constituting a "kingdom divided against itself,"
        which is "brought to desolation." If food was prepared
388:21  by Jesus for his disciples, it cannot destroy life.

                            God sustains man

        The fact is, food does not affect the absolute Life of
        man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that
388:24  God is our Life. Because sin and sickness are
        not qualities of Soul, or Life, we have hope in
        immortality; but it would be foolish to venture beyond
388:27  our present understanding, foolish to stop eating until
        we gain perfection and a clear comprehension of the living
        Spirit. In that perfect day of understanding, we shall
388:30  neither eat to live nor live to eat.

                           Diet and digestion

        If mortals think that food disturbs the harmonious
        functions of mind and body, either the food or this thought
389:1   must be dispensed with, for the penalty is coupled with
        the belief. Which shall it be? If this decision be left
389:3   to Christian Science, it will be given in behalf
        of the control of Mind over this belief and every
        erroneous belief, or material condition. The less we
389:6   know or think about hygiene, the less we are predisposed
        to sickness. Recollect that it is not the nerves, not mat-
        ter, but mortal mind, which reports food as undigested.
389:9   Matter does not inform you of bodily derangements; it
        is supposed to do so. This pseudo-mental testimony can
        be destroyed only by the better results of Mind's oppo-
389:12  site evidence.

                            Scripture rebukes

        Our dietetic theories first admit that food sustains the
        life of man, and then discuss the certainty that food can
389:15  kill man. This false reasoning is rebuked in
        Scripture by the metaphors about the fount
        and stream, the tree and its fruit, and the kingdom di-
389:18  vided against itself. If God has, as prevalent theories
        maintain, instituted laws that food shall support human
        life, He cannot annul these regulations by an opposite
389:21  law that food shall be inimical to existence.

                            Ancient confusion

        Materialists contradict their own statements. Their
        belief in material laws and in penalties for their infrac-
389:24  tion is the ancient error that there is fraternity
        between pain and pleasure, good and evil, God
        and Satan. This belief totters to its falling before the
389:27  battle-axe of Science.

        A case of convulsions, produced by indigestion, came
        under my observation. In her belief the woman had
389:30  chronic liver-complaint, and was then suffering from a
        complication of symptoms connected with this belief. I
        cured her in a few minutes. One instant she spoke de-
390:1   spairingly of herself. The next minute she said, "My
        food is all digested, and I should like something more
390:3   to eat."

                            Ultimate harmony

        We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and we
        should never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, sim-
390:6   ply because, to the mortal senses, there is seem-
        ing discord. It is our ignorance of God, the
        divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and
390:9   the right understanding of Him restores harmony. Truth
        will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and
        pains of sense for the joys of Soul.

                         Unnecessary prostration

390:12  When the first symptoms of disease appear, dispute the
        testimony of the material senses with divine Science. Let
        your higher sense of justice destroy the false
390:15  process of mortal opinions which you name
        law, and then you will not be confined to a sick-room nor
        laid upon a bed of suffering in payment of the last far-
390:18  thing, the last penalty demanded by error. "Agree with
        thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with
        him." Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon
390:21  the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that
        it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more
        the author of sickness than He is of sin. You have no
390:24  law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sick-
        ness, but you have divine authority for denying that neces-
        sity and healing the sick.

                          Treatment of disease

390:27  "Agree to disagree" with approaching symptoms of
        chronic or acute disease, whether it is cancer, consump-
        tion, or smallpox. Meet the incipient stages
390:30  of disease with as powerful mental opposi-
        tion as a legislator would employ to defeat the passage of
        an inhuman law. Rise in the conscious strength of the
391:1   spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind,
        /alias/ matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit.
391:3   Blot out the images of mortal thought and its beliefs in
        sickness and sin. Then, when thou art delivered to the
        judgment of Truth, Christ, the judge will say, "Thou
391:6   art whole!"

                           Righteous rebellion

        Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient
        or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against
391:9   them. Banish the belief that you can possi-
        bly entertain a single intruding pain which can-
        not be ruled out by the might of Mind, and in this way
391:12  you can prevent the development of pain in the body.
        No law of God hinders this result. It is error to suffer
        for aught but your own sins. Christ, or Truth, will de-
391:15  stroy all other supposed suffering, and real suffering for
        your own sins will cease in proportion as the sin ceases.

                            Contradict error

        Justice is the moral signification of law. Injustice de-
391:18  clares the absence of law. When the body is supposed
        to say, "I am sick," never plead guilty. Since
        matter cannot talk, it must be mortal mind
391:21  which speaks; therefore meet the intimation with a pro-
        test. If you say, "I am sick," you plead guilty. Then
        your adversary will deliver you to the judge (mortal
391:24  mind), and the judge will sentence you. Disease has
        no intelligence to declare itself something and announce
        its name. Mortal mind alone sentences itself. Therefore
391:27  make your own terms with sickness, and be just to yourself
        and to others.

                           Sin to be overcome

        Mentally contradict every complaint from the body,
391:30  and rise to the true consciousness of Life as
        Love, - as all that is pure, and bearing the
        fruits of Spirit. Fear is the fountain of sickness,
392:1   and you master fear and sin through divine Mind; hence
        it is through divine Mind that you overcome disease.
392:3   Only while fear or sin remains can it bring forth death.
        To cure a bodily ailment, every broken moral law should
        be taken into account and the error be rebuked. Fear,
392:6   which is an element of all disease, must be cast out to
        readjust the balance for God. Casting out evil and fear
        enables truth to outweigh error. The only course is to
392:9   take antagonistic grounds against all that is opposed to
        the health, holiness, and harmony of man, God's image.

                         Illusions about nerves

        The physical affirmation of disease should always be
392:12  met with the mental negation. Whatever benefit is pro-
        duced on the body, must be expressed men-
        tally, and thought should be held fast to this
392:15  ideal. If you believe in inflamed and weak nerves, you
        are liable to an attack from that source. You will call it
        neuralgia, but we call it a belief. If you think that con-
392:18  sumption is hereditary in your family, you are liable to
        the development of that thought in the form of what is
        termed pulmonary disease, unless Science shows you
392:21  otherwise. If you decide that climate or atmosphere is
        unhealthy, it will be so to you. Your decisions will mas-
        ter you, whichever direction they take.

                            Guarding the door

392:24  Reverse the case. Stand porter at the door of thought.
        Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in
        bodily results, you will control yourself har-
392:27  moniously. When the condition is present
        which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise,
        heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office
392:30  as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears.
        Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the
        body cannot suffer from them. The issues of pain or
393:1   pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman
        forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forget-
393:3   ting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance.

                         The strength of Spirit

        The body seems to be self-acting, only because mortal
        mind is ignorant of itself, of its own actions, and of their
393:6   results, - ignorant that the predisposing, re-
        mote, and exciting cause of all bad effects is a
        law of so-called mortal mind, not of matter. Mind is the
393:9   master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness,
        sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority. Take
        possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action.
393:12  Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike
        good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing
        can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on
393:15  man.

                            No pain in matter

        Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind
        governs, and that in Science man reflects God's govern-
393:18  ment. Have no fear that matter can ache,
        swell, and be inflamed as the result of a law
        of any kind, when it is self-evident that matter can have
393:21  no pain nor inflammation. Your body would suffer no
        more from tension or wounds than the trunk of a tree
        which you gash or the electric wire which you stretch,
393:24  were it not for mortal mind.

        When Jesus declares that "the light of the body is the
        eye," he certainly means that light depends upon Mind,
393:27  not upon the complex humors, lenses, muscles, the iris
        and pupil, constituting the visual organism.

                             No real disease

        Man is never sick, for Mind is not sick and matter
393:30  cannot be. A false belief is both the tempter
        and the tempted, the sin and the sinner, the
        disease and its cause. It is well to be calm in sickness;
394:1   to be hopeful is still better; but to understand that sick-
        ness is not real and that Truth can destroy its seeming
394:3   reality, is best of all, for this understanding is the uni-
        versal and perfect remedy.

                           Recuperation mental

        By conceding power to discord, a large majority of
394:6   doctors depress mental energy, which is the only real
        recuperative power. Knowledge that we
        can accomplish the good we hope for, stimu-
394:9   lates the system to act in the direction which Mind points
        out. The admission that any bodily condition is beyond
        the control of Mind disarms man, prevents him from
394:12  helping himself, and enthrones matter through error. To
        those struggling with sickness, such admissions are dis-
        couraging, - as much so as would be the advice to a man
394:15  who is down in the world, that he should not try to rise
        above his difficulties.

        Experience has proved to the author the fallacy of
394:18  material systems in general, - that their theories are
        sometimes pernicious, and that their denials are better
        than their affirmations. Will you bid a man let evils
394:21  overcome him, assuring him that all misfortunes are from
        God, against whom mortals should not contend? Will
        you tell the sick that their condition is hopeless, unless it
394:24  can be aided by a drug or climate? Are material means
        the only refuge from fatal chances? Is there no divine
        permission to conquer discord of every kind with harmony,
394:27  with Truth and Love?

                             Arguing wrongly

        We should remember that Life is God, and that God
        is omnipotent. Not understanding Christian
394:30  Science, the sick usually have little faith in
        it till they feel its beneficent influence. This shows
        that faith is not the healer in such cases. The sick
395:1   unconsciously argue for suffering, instead of against it.
        They admit its reality, whereas they should deny it.
395:3   They should plead in opposition to the testimony of the
        deceitful senses, and maintain man's immortality and
        eternal likeness to God.

                            Divine authority

395:6   Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak to
        disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to
        master the false evidences of the corporeal
395:9   senses and to assert its claims over mortal-
        ity and disease. The same Principle cures both sin and
        sickness. When divine Science overcomes faith in a car-
395:12  nal mind, and faith in God destroys all faith in sin and in
        material methods of healing, then sin, disease, and death
        will disappear.

                            Aids in sickness

395:15  Prayers, in which God is not asked to heal but is be-
        sought to take the patient to Himself, do not benefit the
        sick. An ill-tempered, complaining, or deceit-
395:18  ful person should not be a nurse. The nurse
        should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of
        faith, - receptive to Truth and Love.

                             Mental quackery

395:21  It is mental quackery to make disease a reality - to
        hold it as something seen and felt - and then to attempt
        its cure through Mind. It is no less erroneous
395:24  to believe in the real existence of a tumor, a
        cancer, or decayed lungs, while you argue against their
        reality, than it is for your patient to feel these ills in
395:27  physical belief. Mental practice, which holds disease
        as a reality, fastens disease on the patient, and it may
        appear in a more alarming form.

                       Effacing images of disease

395:30  The knowledge that brain-lobes cannot kill a man nor
        affect the functions of mind would prevent the brain from
        becoming diseased, though a moral offence is indeed the
396:1   worst of diseases. One should never hold in mind
        the thought of disease, but should efface from
396:3   thought all forms and types of disease, both for
        one's own sake and for that of the patient.

                          Avoid talking disease

        Avoid talking illness to the patient. Make no unne-
396:6   cessary inquiries relative to feelings or disease. Never
        startle with a discouraging remark about re-
        covery, nor draw attention to certain symp-
396:9   toms as unfavorable, avoid speaking aloud the name of
        the disease. Never say beforehand how much you have
        to contend with in a case, nor encourage in the patient's
396:12  thought the expectation of growing worse before a crisis
        is passed.

                         False testimony refuted

        The refutation of the testimony of material sense is
396:15  not a difficult task in view of the conceded falsity of this
        testimony. The refutation becomes arduous,
        not because the testimony of sin or disease is
396:18  true, but solely on account of the tenacity of belief in its
        truth, due to the force of education and the overwhelm-
        ing weight of opinions on the wrong side, - all teaching
396:21  that the body suffers, as if matter could have sensation.

                          Healthful explanation

        At the right time explain to the sick the power which
        their beliefs exercise over their bodies. Give them divine
396:24  and wholesome understanding, with which to
        combat their erroneous sense, and so efface the
        images of sickness from mortal mind. Keep distinctly in
396:27  thought that man is the offspring of God, not of man;
        that man is spiritual, not material; that Soul is Spirit,
        outside of matter, never in it, never giving the body life
396:30  and sensation. It breaks the dream of disease to under-
        stand that sickness is formed by the human mind, not by
        matter nor by the divine Mind.

                           Misleading methods

397:1   By not perceiving vital metaphysical points, not seeing
        how mortal mind affects the body, - acting beneficially
397:3   or injuriously on the health, as well as on the
        morals and the happiness of mortals, - we are
        misled in our conclusions and methods. We throw the
397:6   mental influence on the wrong side, thereby actually in-
        juring those whom we mean to bless.

                          Remedy for accidents

        Suffering is no less a mental condition than is enjoy-
397:9   ment. You cause bodily sufferings and increase them
        by admitting their reality and continuance,
        as directly as you enhance your joys by be-
397:12  lieving them to be real and continuous. When an ac-
        cident happens, you think or exclaim, "I am hurt!"
        Your thought is more powerful than your words, more
397:15  powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury
        real.

        Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt
397:18  and understand the reason why, and you will find the
        ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your
        disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine meta-
397:21  physics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures
        declare Him to be.

                          Independent mentality

        To heal the sick, one must be familiar with the great
397:24  verities of being. Mortals are no more material in their
        waking hours than when they act, walk, see,
        hear, enjoy, or suffer in dreams. We can
397:27  never treat mortal mind and matter separately, because
        they combine as one. Give up the belief that mind
        is, even temporarily, compressed within the skull, and
397:30  you will quickly become more manly or womanly. You
        will understand yourself and your Maker better than
        before.

                             Naming maladies

398:1   Sometimes Jesus called a disease by name, as when he
        said to the epileptic boy, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I
398:3   charge thee, come out of him, and enter no
        more into him." It is added that "the spirit
        [error] cried, and rent him sore and came out of him, and
398:6   he was as one dead," - clear evidence that the malady
        was not material. These instances show the concessions
        which Jesus was willing to make to the popular ignorance
398:9   of spiritual Life-laws. Often he gave no name to the
        distemper he cured. To the synagogue ruler's daughter,
        whom they called dead but of whom he said, "she is not
398:12  dead, but sleepeth," he simply said, "Damsel, I say unto
        thee, arise!" To the sufferer with the withered hand
        he said, "Stretch forth thine hand," and it "was restored
398:15  whole, like as the other."

                           The action of faith

        Homoeopathic remedies, sometimes not containing a
        particle of medicine, are known to relieve the symptoms
398:18  of disease. What produces the change? It is
        the faith of the doctor and the patient, which
        reduces self-inflicted sufferings and produces a new effect
398:21  upon the body. In like manner destroy the illusion of
        pleasure in intoxication, and the desire for strong drink
        is gone. Appetite and disease reside in mortal mind, not
398:24  in matter.

        So also faith, cooperating with a belief in the healing
        effects of time and medication, will soothe fear and change
398:27  the belief of disease to a belief of health. Even a blind
        faith removes bodily ailments for a season, but hypnotism
        changes such ills into new and more difficult forms of dis-
398:30  ease. The Science of Mind must come to the rescue,
        to work a radical cure. Then we understand the process.
        The great fact remains that evil is not mind. Evil has
399:1   no power, no intelligence, for God is good, and therefore
        good is infinite, is All.

                         Corporeal combinations

399:3   You say that certain material combinations produce
        disease; but if the material body causes disease, can
        matter cure what matter has caused? Mortal
399:6   mind prescribes the drug, and administers it.
        Mortal mind plans the exercise, and puts the body through
        certain motions. No gastric gas accumulates, not a se-
399:9   cretion nor combination can operate, apart from the
        action of mortal thought, /alias /mortal mind.

                           Automatic mechanism

        So-called mortal mind sends its despatches over its
399:12  body, but this so-called mind is both the service and
        message of this telegraphy. Nerves are un-
        able to talk, and matter can return no an-
399:15  swer to immortal Mind. If Mind is the only actor, how
        can mechanism be automatic? Mortal mind perpetuates
        its own thought. It constructs a machine, manages it,
399:18  and then calls it material. A mill at work or the action
        of a water-wheel is but a derivative from, and continua-
        tion of, the primitive mortal mind. Without this force
399:21  the body is devoid of action, and this deadness shows
        that so-called mortal life is mortal mind, not matter.

                             Mental strength

        Scientifically speaking, there is no mortal mind out of
399:24  which to make material beliefs, springing from illusion.
        This misnamed mind is not an entity. It is
        only a false sense of matter, since matter is not
399:27  sensible. The one Mind, God, contains no mortal opin-
        ions. All that is real is included in this immortal Mind.

                        Confirmation in a parable

        Our Master asked: "How can one enter into a strong
399:30  man's house and spoil his goods, except he first
        bind the strong man?" In other words: How
        can I heal the body, without beginning with so-called
400:1   mortal mind, which directly controls the body? When
        disease is once destroyed in this so-called mind, the fear
400:3   of disease is gone, and therefore the disease is thor-
        oughly cured. Mortal mind is "the strong man," which
        must be held in subjection before its influence upon health
400:6   and morals can be removed. This error conquered, we
        can despoil "the strong man" of his goods, - namely, of
        sin and disease.

                      Eradicate error from thought

400:9   Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they
        forsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divine
        Mind, and abandon their material beliefs.
400:12  Eradicate the image of disease from the per-
        turbed thought before it has taken tangible
        shape in conscious thought, /alias/ the body, and you pre-
400:15  vent the development of disease. This task becomes easy,
        if you understand that every disease is an error, and has
        no character nor type, except what mortal mind assigns to
400:18  it. By lifting thought above error, or disease, and con-
        tending persistently for truth, you destroy error.

                         Mortal mind controlled

        When we remove disease by addressing the disturbed
400:21  mind, giving no heed to the body, we prove that thought
        alone creates the suffering. Mortal mind
        rules all that is mortal. We see in the body
400:24  the images of this mind, even as in optics we see painted
        on the retina the image which becomes visible to the
        senses. The action of so-called mortal mind must be
400:27  destroyed by the divine Mind to bring out the harmony
        of being. Without divine control there is discord, mani-
        fest as sin, sickness, and death.

                        Mortal mind not a healer

400:30  The Scriptures plainly declare the baneful influence of
        sinful thought on the body. Even our Master felt this.
        It is recorded that in certain localities he did not many
401:1   mighty works "because of their unbelief" in Truth. Any
        human error is its own enemy, and works against itself;
401:3   it does nothing in the right direction and much
        in the wrong. If so-called mind is cherishing
        evil passions and malicious purposes, it is not a healer,
401:6   but it engenders disease and death.

                           Effect of opposites

        If faith in the truth of being, which you impart men-
        tally while destroying error, causes chemicalization (as
401:9   when an alkali is destroying an acid), it is be-
        cause the truth of being must transform the
        error to the end of producing a higher manifestation.
401:12  This fermentation should not aggravate the disease, but
        should be as painless to man as to a fluid, since matter
        has no sensation and mortal mind only feels and sees
401:15  materially.

        What I term /chemicalization/ is the upheaval produced
        when immortal Truth is destroying erroneous mortal be-
401:18  lief. Mental chemicalization brings sin and sickness to
        the surface, forcing impurities to pass away, as is the case
        with a fermenting fluid.

                           Medicine and brain

401:21  The only effect produced by medicine is dependent upon
        mental action. If the mind were parted from the body,
        could you produce any effect upon the brain
401:24  or body by applying the drug to either? Would
        the drug remove paralysis, affect organization, or restore
        will and action to cerebrum and cerebellum?

                             Skilful surgery

401:27  Until the advancing age admits the efficacy and suprem-
        acy of Mind, it is better for Christian Scientists to leave
        surgery and the adjustment of broken bones
401:30  and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon,
        while the mental healer confines himself chiefly to mental
        reconstruction and to the prevention of inflammation.
402:1   Christian Science is always the most skilful surgeon, but
        surgery is the branch of its healing which will be last
402:3   acknowledged. However, it is but just to say that the
        author has already in her possession well-authenticated
        records of the cure, by herself and her students through
402:6   mental surgery alone, of broken bones, dislocated joints,
        and spinal vertebrae.

                       Indestructible life of man

        The time approaches when mortal mind will forsake
402:9   its corporeal, structural, and material basis, when im-
        mortal Mind and its formations will be appre-
        hended in Science, and material beliefs will
402:12  not interfere with spiritual facts. Man is indestructible
        and eternal. Sometime it will be learned that mortal
        mind constructs the mortal body with this mind's own
402:15  mortal materials. In Science, no breakage nor dislocation
        can really occur. You say that accidents, injuries, and
        disease kill man, but this is not true. The life of man is
402:18  Mind. The material body manifests only what mortal
        mind believes, whether it be a broken bone, disease, or sin.

                          The evil of mesmerism

        We say that one human mind can influence another and
402:21  in this way affect the body, but we rarely remember that
        we govern our own bodies. The error, mes-
        merism - or hypnotism, to use the recent term
402:24  - illustrates the fact just stated. The operator would
        make his subjects believe that they cannot act voluntarily
        and handle themselves as they should do. If they yield
402:27  to this influence, it is because their belief is not better
        instructed by spiritual understanding. Hence the proof
        that hypnotism is not scientific; Science cannot produce
402:30  both disorder and order. The involuntary pleasure or
        pain of the person under hypnotic control is proved to be
        a belief without a real cause.

                        Wrong-doer should suffer

403:1   So the sick through their beliefs have induced their own
        diseased conditions. The great difference between vol-
403:3   untary and involuntary mesmerism is that vol-
        untary mesmerism is induced consciously and
        should and does cause the perpetrator to suffer, while self-
403:6   mesmerism is induced unconsciously and by his mistake
        a man is often instructed. In the first instance it is under-
        stood that the difficulty is a mental illusion, while in the
403:9   second it is believed that the misfortune is a material effect.
        The human mind is employed to remove the illusion in
        one case, but matter is appealed to in the other. In real-
403:12  ity, both have their origin in the human mind, and can be
        healed only by the divine Mind.

                         Error's power imaginary

        You command the situation if you understand that
403:15  mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not the
        truth of being. Mortal mind is constantly
        producing on mortal body the results of false
403:18  opinions; and it will continue to do so, until mortal
        error is deprived of its imaginary powers by Truth,
        which sweeps away the gossamer web of mortal illusion.
403:21  The most Christian state is one of rectitude and spir-
        itual understanding, and this is best adapted for heal-
        ing the sick. Never conjure up some new discovery from
403:24  dark forebodings regarding disease and then acquaint
        your patient with it.

                           Disease-production

        The mortal so-called mind produces all that is unlike
403:27  the immortal Mind. The human mind determines the
        nature of a case, and the practitioner improves
        or injures the case in proportion to the truth
403:30  or error which influences his conclusions. The mental
        conception and development of disease are not under-
        stood by the patient, but the physician should be familiar
404:1   with mental action and its effect in order to judge the case
        according to Christian Science.

                        Appetites to be abandoned

404:3   If a man is an inebriate, a slave to tobacco, or the special
        servant of any one of the myriad forms of sin, meet and
        destroy these errors with the truth of being, -
404:6   by exhibiting to the wrong-doer the suffering
        which his submission to such habits brings, and by con-
        vincing him that there is no real pleasure in false appe-
404:9   tites. A corrupt mind is manifested in a corrupt body.
        Lust, malice, and all sorts of evil are diseased beliefs, and
        you can destroy them only by destroying the wicked
404:12  motives which produce them. If the evil is over in the
        repentant mortal mind, while its effects still remain on the
        individual, you can remove this disorder as God's law is
404:15  fulfilled and reformation cancels the crime. The healthy
        sinner is the hardened sinner.

                            Temperance reform

        The temperance reform, felt all over our land, results
404:18  from metaphysical healing, which cuts down every tree
        that brings not forth good fruit. This con-
        viction, that there is no real pleasure in sin,
404:21  is one of the most important points in the theology of
        Christian Science. Arouse the sinner to this new and
        true view of sin, show him that sin confers no pleasure,
404:24  and this knowledge strengthens his moral courage and
        increases his ability to master evil and to love good.

                    Sin or fear the root of sickness

        Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one and
404:27  the same thing in Christian Science. Both cures require
        the same method and are inseparable in Truth.
        Hatred, envy, dishonesty, fear, and so forth,
404:30  make a man sick, and neither material medi-
        cine nor Mind can help him permanently, even in body,
        unless it makes him better mentally, and so delivers him
405:1   from his destroyers. The basic error is mortal mind.
        Hatred inflames the brutal propensities. The indulgence
405:3   of evil motives and aims makes any man, who is above the
        lowest type of manhood, a hopeless sufferer.

                           Mental conspirators

        Christian Science commands man to master the pro-
405:6   pensities, - to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness,
        to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with
        charity, and to overcome deceit with hon-
405:9   esty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you
        would not cherish an army of conspirators against
        health, happiness, and success. They will deliver you
405:12  to the judge, the arbiter of truth against error. The
        judge will deliver you to justice, and the sentence of
        the moral law will be executed upon mortal mind and
405:15  body. Both will be manacled until the last farthing
        is paid, - until you have balanced your account with
        God. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
405:18  reap." The good man finally can overcome his fear of
        sin. This is sin's necessity, - to destroy itself. Im-
        mortal man demonstrates the government of God, good,
405:21  in which is no power to sin.

                          Cumulative repentence

        It were better to be exposed to every plague on earth
        than to endure the cumulative 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 God 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 God'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 appetite 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 -
        passion, 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 passions, 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 classification, 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, shield 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 God 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 God, 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 God," 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 God 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 ILLUSTRATED

                              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 practitioner'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 reassure 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 God lovingly
        governs all, never punishing 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

        You may call the disease by name when you mentally
        deny it; but by naming it audibly, you are liable under
412:12  some circumstances to impress it upon the
        thought. The power of Christian Science and
        divine Love is omnipotent. It is indeed adequate to un-
412:15  clasp the hold and to destroy disease, sin, and death.

                          Insistence requisite

        To prevent disease or to cure it, the power of Truth,
        of divine Spirit, must break the dream of the material
412:18  senses. To heal by argument, find the type
        of the ailment, get its name, and array your
        mental plea against the physical. Argue at first men-
412:21  tally, not audibly, that the patient has no disease, and
        conform the argument so as to destroy the evidence of
        disease. Mentally insist that harmony is the fact, and
412:24  that sickness is a temporal dream. Realize the presence
        of health and the fact of harmonious being, until the
        body corresponds with the normal conditions of health
412:27  and harmony.

                           The cure of infants

        If the case is that of a young child or an infant, it needs
        to be met mainly through the parent's thought, silently
412:30  or audibly on the aforesaid basis of Christian
        Science. The Scientist knows that there can
        be no hereditary disease, since matter is not intelligent
413:1   and cannot transmit good or evil intelligence to man, and
        God, the only Mind, does not produce pain in matter.
413:3   The act of yielding one's thoughts to the undue contem-
        plation of physical wants or conditions induces those very
        conditions. A single requirement, beyond what is neces-
413:6   sary to meet the simplest needs of the babe is harmful.
        Mind regulates the condition of the stomach, bowels, and
        food, the temperature of children and of men, and matter
413:9   does not. The wise or unwise views of parents and other
        persons on these subjects produce good or bad effects on
        the health of children.

                        Ablutions for cleanliness

413:12  The daily ablutions of an infant are no more natural
        nor necessary than would be the process of taking a fish
        out of water every day and covering it with dirt
413:15  in order to make it thrive more vigorously in its
        own element. "Cleanliness is next to godliness," but
        washing should be only for the purpose of keeping the
413:18  body clean, and this can be effected without scrubbing the
        whole surface daily. Water is not the natural habitat of
        humanity. I insist on bodily cleanliness within and with-
413:21  out. I am not patient with a speck of dirt; but in caring
        for an infant one need not wash his little body all over each
        day in order to keep it sweet as the new-blown flower.

                            Juvenile ailments

413:24  Giving drugs to infants, noticing every symptom of
        flatulency, and constantly directing the mind to such
        signs, - that mind being laden with illusions
413:27  about disease, health-laws, and death, - these
        actions convey mental images to children's budding
        thoughts, and often stamp them there, making it probable
413:30  at any time that such ills may be reproduced in the very
        ailments feared. A child may have worms, if you say so,
        or any other malady, timorously held in the beliefs con-
414:1   cerning his body. Thus are laid the foundations of the
        belief in disease and death, and thus are children educated
414:3   into discord.

                            Cure of insanity

        The treatment of insanity is especially interesting.
        However obstinate the case, it yields more readily than
414:6   do most diseases to the salutary action of
        truth, which counteracts error. The argu-
        ments to be used in curing insanity are the same as in
414:9   other diseases: namely, the impossibility that matter,
        brain, can control or derange mind, can suffer or cause
        suffering; also the fact that truth and love will establish
414:12  a healthy state, guide and govern mortal mind or the
        thought of the patient, and destroy all error, whether it is
        called dementia, hatred, or any other discord.

414:15  To fix truth steadfastly in your patients' thoughts, ex-
        plain Christian Science to them, but not too soon, - not
        until your patients are prepared for the explanation, -
414:18  lest you array the sick against their own interests by troub-
        ling and perplexing their thought. The Christian Scien-
        tist's argument rests on the Christianly scientific basis of
414:21  being. The Scripture declares, "The Lord He is God
        [good]; there is none else beside Him." Even so, harmony
        is universal, and discord is unreal. Christian Science de-
414:24  clares that Mind is substance, also that matter neither
        feels, suffers, nor enjoys. Hold these points strongly in
        view. Keep in mind the verity of being, - that man is
414:27  the image and likeness of God, in whom all being is
        painless and permanent. Remember that man's perfec-
        tion is real and unimpeachable, whereas imperfection is
414:30  blameworthy, unreal, and is not brought about by divine
        Love.

                         Matter is not inflamed

        Matter cannot be inflamed. Inflammation is fear, an
415:1   excited state of mortals which is not normal. Immor-
        tal Mind is the only cause; therefore disease is neither a
415:3   cause nor an effect. Mind in every case is the
        eternal God, good. Sin, disease, and death
        have no foundations in Truth. Inflamation as a mor-
415:6   tal belief quickens or impedes the action of the system,
        because thought moves quickly or slowly, leaps or halts
        when it contemplates unpleasant things, or when the in-
415:9   dividual looks upon some object which he dreads. In-
        flammation never appears in a part which mortal thought
        does not reach. That is why opiates relieve inflammation.
415:12  They quiet the thought by inducing stupefaction and by
        resorting to matter instead of to Mind. Opiates do not
        remove the pain in any scientific sense. They only ren-
415:15  der mortal mind temporarily less fearful, till it can master
        an erroneous belief.

                         Truth calms the thought

        Note how thought makes the face pallid. It either re-
415:18  tards the circulation or quickens it, causing a pale or
        flushed cheek. In the same way thought in-
        creases or diminishes the secretions, the action
415:21  of the lungs, of the bowels, and of the heart. The mus-
        cles, moving quickly or slowly and impelled or palsied by
        thought, represent the action of all the organs of the hu-
415:24  man system, including brain and viscera. To remove
        the error producing disorder, you must calm and instruct
        mortal mind with immortal Truth.

                         Effects of etherization

415:27  Etherization will apparently cause the body to dis-
        appear. Before the thoughts are fully at rest, the limbs
        will vanish from consciousness. Indeed, the
415:30  whole frame will sink from sight along with
        surrounding objects, leaving the pain standing forth as
        distinctly as a mountain-peak, as if it were a separate
416:1   bodily member. At last the agony also vanishes. This
        process shows the pain to be in the mind, for the inflam-
416:3   mation is not suppressed; and the belief of pain will
        presently return, unless the mental image occasioning
        the pain be removed by recognizing the truth of being.

                           Sedatives valueless

416:6   A hypodermic injection of morphine is administered
        to a patient, and in twenty minutes the sufferer is qui-
        etly asleep. To him there is no longer any
416:9   pain. Yet any physician - allopathic, homoe-
        opathic, botanic, eclectic - will tell you that the trouble-
        some material cause is unremoved, and that when the
416:12  soporific influence of the opium is exhausted, the pa-
        tient will find himself in the same pain, unless the belief
        which occasions the pain has meanwhile been changed.
416:15  Where is the pain while the patient sleeps?

                       The so-called physical ego

        The material body, which you call /me/, is mortal mind,
        and this mind is material in sensation, even as the body,
416:18  which has originated from this material sense
        and been developed according to it, is mate-
        rial. This materialism of parent and child is only in
416:21  mortal mind, as the dead body proves; for when the
        mortal has resigned his body to dust, the body is no
        longer the parent, even in appearance.

                          Evil thought depletes

416:24  The sick know nothing of the mental process by
        which they are depleted, and next to nothing of the
        metaphysical method by which they can be
416:27  healed. If they ask about their disease, tell
        them only what is best for them to know. Assure them
        that they think too much about their ailments, and
416:30  have already heard too much on that subject. Turn
        their thoughts away from their bodies to higher ob-
        jects. Teach them that their being is sustained by
417:1   Spirit, not by matter, and that they find health, peace,
        and harmony in God, divine Love.

                          Helpful encouragement

417:3   Give sick people credit for sometimes knowing more
        than their doctors. Always support their trust in the
        power of Mind to sustain the body. Never
417:6   tell the sick that they have more courage
        than strength. Tell them rather, that their strength
        is in proportion to their courage. If you make the sick
417:9   realize this great truism, there will be no reaction from
        over-exertion or from excited conditions. Maintain
        the facts of Christian Science, - that Spirit is God, and
417:12  therefore cannot be sick; that what is termed matter
        cannot be sick; that all causation is Mind, acting
        through spiritual law. Then hold your ground with
417:15  the unshaken understanding of Truth and Love, and
        you will win. When you silence the witness against your
        plea, you destroy the evidence, for the disease disap-
417:18  pears. The evidence before the corporeal senses is not
        the Science of immortal man.

                        Disease to be made unreal

        To the Christian Science healer, sickness is a dream
417:21  from which the patient needs to be awakened. Dis-
        ease should not appear real to the physician,
        since it is demonstrable that the way to
417:24  cure the patient is to make disease unreal to him. To
        do this, the physician must understand the unreality
        of disease in Science.

417:27  Explain audibly to your patients, as soon as they can
        bear it, the complete control which Mind holds over the
        body. Show them how mortal mind seems to induce
417:30  disease by certain fears and false conclusions, and how
        divine Mind can cure by opposite thoughts. Give your
        patients an underlying understanding to support them
418:1   and to shield them from the baneful effects of their own
        conclusions. Show them that the conquest over sickness,
418:3   as well as over sin, depends on mentally destroying all
        belief in material pleasure or pain.

                           Christian pleading

        Stick to the truth of being in contradistinction to the
418:6   error that life, substance, or intelligence can be in matter.
        Plead with an honest conviction of truth and
        a clear perception of the unchanging, unerr-
418:9   ing, and certain effect of divine Science. Then, if your
        fidelity is half equal to the truth of your plea, you will
        heal the sick.

                           Truthful arguments

418:12  It must be clear to you that sickness is no more
        the reality of being than is sin. This mortal dream
        of sickness, sin, and death should cease
418:15  through Christian Science. Then one dis-
        ease would be as readily destroyed as another. What-
        ever the belief is, if arguments are used to destroy it,
418:18  the belief must be repudiated, and the negation must ex-
        tend to the supposed disease and to whatever decides its
        type and symptoms. Truth is affirmative, and confers
418:21  harmony. All metaphysical logic is inspired by this sim-
        ple rule of Truth, which governs all reality. By the
        truthful arguments you employ, and especially by the
418:24  spirit of Truth and Love which you entertain, you will
        heal the sick.

                            Morality required

        Include moral as well as physical belief in your efforts
418:27  to destroy error. Cast out all manner of evil. "Preach
        the gospel to every creature." Speak the
        truth to every form of error. Tumors, ulcers,
418:30  tubercles, inflammation, pain, deformed joints, are wak-
        ing dream-shadows, dark images of mortal thought, which
        flee before the light of Truth.

419:1   A moral question may hinder the recovery of the sick.
        Lurking error, lust, envy, revenge, malice, or hate will
419:3   perpetuate or even create the belief in disease. Errors
        of all sorts tend in this direction. Your true course is
        to destroy the foe, and leave the field to God, Life, Truth,
419:6   and Love, remembering that God and His ideas alone
        are real and harmonious.

                           Relapse unnecessary

        If your patient from any cause suffers a relapse, meet
419:9   the cause mentally and courageously, knowing that
        there can be no reaction in Truth. Neither
        disease itself, sin, nor fear has the power to
419:12  cause disease or a relapse. Disease has no intelligence
        with which to move itself about or to change itself from
        one form to another. If disease moves, mind, not mat-
419:15  ter, moves it; therefore be sure that you move it off.
        Meet every adverse circumstance as its master. Ob-
        serve mind instead of body, lest aught unfit for develop-
419:18  ment enter thought. Think less of material conditions
        and more of spiritual.

                        Conquer beliefs and fears

        Mind produces all action. If the action proceeds from
419:21  Truth, from immortal Mind, there is harmony; but mor-
        tal mind is liable to any phase of belief. A
        relapse cannot in reality occur in mortals or
419:24  so-called mortal minds, for there is but one
        Mind, one God. Never fear the mental malpractitioner,
        the mental assassin, who, in attempting to rule mankind,
419:27  tramples upon the divine Principle of metaphysics, for God
        is the only power. To succeed in healing, you must con-
        quer your own fears as well as those of your patients, and
419:30  rise into higher and holier consciousness.

                         True government of man

        If it is found necessary to treat against relapse, know
        that disease or its symptoms cannot change forms, nor
420:1   go from one part to another, for Truth destroys disease.
        There is no metastasis, no stoppage of harmonious
420:3   action, no paralysis. Truth not error, Love
        not hate, Spirit not matter, governs man. If
        students do not readily heal themselves, they should
420:6   early call an experienced Christian Scientist to aid
        them. If they are unwilling to do this for themselves,
        they need only to know that error cannot produce this
420:9   unnatural reluctance.

                          Positive reassurance

        Instruct the sick that they are not helpless victims,
        for if they will only accept Truth, they can resist disease
420:12  and ward it off, as positively as they can the
        temptation to sin. This fact of Christian Sci-
        ence should be explained to invalids when they are in a
420:15  fit mood to receive it, - when they will not array them-
        selves against it, but are ready to become receptive to the
        new idea. The fact that Truth overcomes both disease
420:18  and sin reassures depressed hope. It imparts a healthy
        stimulus to the body, and regulates the system. It in-
        creases or diminishes the action, as the case may require,
420:21  better than any drug, alterative, or tonic.

                             Proper stimulus

        Mind is the natural stimulus of the body, but erro-
        neous belief, taken at its best, is not promotive of health
420:24  or happiness. Tell the sick that they can
        meet disease fearlessly, if they only realize
        that divine Love gives them all power over every physical
420:27  action and condition.

                           Awaken the patient

        If it becomes necessary to startle mortal mind to break
        its dream of suffering, vehemently tell your patient that
420:30  he must awake. Turn his gaze from the false
        evidence of the senses to the harmonious facts
        of Soul and immortal being. Tell him that he suffers
421:1   only as the insane suffer, from false beliefs. The only
        difference is, that insanity implies belief in a diseased
421:3   brain, while physical ailments (so-called) arise from the
        belief that other portions of the body are deranged. De-
        rangement, or /disarrangement/, is a word which conveys
421:6   the true definition of all human belief in ill-health, or dis-
        turbed harmony. Should you thus startle mortal mind
        in order to remove its beliefs, afterwards make known
421:9   to the patient your motive for this shock, showing him
        that it was to facilitate recovery.

                          How to treat a crisis

        If a crisis occurs in your treatment, you must treat
421:12  the patient less for the disease and more for the mental
        disturbance or fermentation, and subdue the
        symptoms by removing the belief that this
421:15  chemicalization produces pain or disease. Insist vehe-
        mently on the great fact which covers the whole ground,
        that God, Spirit, is all, and that there is none beside
421:18  Him. There is /no disease/. When the supposed suffer-
        ing is gone from mortal mind, there can be no pain; and
        when the fear is destroyed, the inflammation will sub-
421:21  side. Calm the excitement sometimes induced by chemi-
        calization, which is the alterative effect produced by
        Truth upon error, and sometimes explain the symptoms
421:24  and their cause to the patient.

                      No perversion of Mind-science

        It is no more Christianly scientific to see disease than
        it is to experience it. If you would destroy the sense
421:27  of disease, you should not build it up by
        wishing to see the forms it assumes or by
        employing a single material application for
421:30  its relief. The perversion of Mind-science is like as-
        serting that the products of eight multiplied by five, and
        of seven by ten, are both forty, and that their combined
422:1   sum is fifty, and then calling the process mathematics.
        Wiser than his persecutors, Jesus said: "If I by Beelze-
422:3   bub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them
        out?"

                           Effect of this book

        If the reader of this book observes a great stir through-
422:6   out his whole system, and certain moral and physical
        symptoms seem aggravated, these indications
        are favorable. Continue to read, and the book
422:9   will become the physician, allaying the tremor which
        Truth often brings to error when destroying it.

                           Disease neutralized

        Patients, unfamiliar with the cause of this commotion
422:12  and ignorant that it is a favorable omen, may be alarmed.
        If such be the case, explain to them the law
        of this action. As when an acid and alkali
422:15  meet and bring out a third quality, so mental and moral
        chemistry changes the material base of thought, giving
        more spirituality to consciousness and causing it to depend
422:18  less on material evidence. These changes which go on
        in mortal mind serve to reconstruct the body. Thus
        Christian Science, by the alchemy of Spirit, destroys sin
422:21  and death.

                         Bone-healing by surgery

        Let us suppose two parallel cases of bone-disease, both
        similarly produced and attended by the same symptoms.
422:24  A surgeon is employed in one case, and a
        Christian Scientist in the other. The sur-
        geon, holding that matter forms its own conditions and
422:27  renders them fatal at certain points, entertains fears and
        doubts as to the ultimate outcome of the injury. Not
        holding the reins of government in his own hands, he
422:30  believes that something stronger than Mind - namely,
        matter - governs the case. His treatment is therefore
        tentative. This mental state invites defeat. The belief
423:1   that he has met his master in matter and may not be
        able to mend the bone, increases his fear; yet this belief
423:3   should not be communicated to the patient, either ver-
        bally or otherwise, for this fear greatly diminishes the
        tendency towards a favorable result. Remember that the
423:6   unexpressed belief oftentimes affects a sensitive patient
        more strongly than the expressed thought.

                          Scientific corrective

        The Christian Scientist, understanding scientifically
423:9   that all is Mind, commences with mental causation, the
        truth of being, to destroy the error. This cor-
        rective is an alterative, reaching to every part
423:12  of the human system. According to Scripture, it searches
        "the joints and marrow," and it restores the harmony of
        man.

                        Coping with difficulties

423:15  The matter-physician deals with matter as both his foe
        and his remedy. He regards the ailment as weakened or
        strengthened according to the evidence which
423:18  matter presents. The metaphysician, making
        Mind his basis of operation irrespective of matter and
        regarding the truth and harmony of being as superior to
423:21  error and discord, has rendered himself strong, instead
        of weak, to cope with the case; and he proportionately
        strengthens his patient with the stimulus of courage and
423:24  conscious power. Both Science and consciousness are
        now at work in the economy of being according to the law
        of Mind, which ultimately asserts its absolute supremacy.

                         Formation from thought

423:27  Ossification or any abnormal condition or derange-
        ment of the body is as directly the action of mortal
        mind as is dementia or insanity. Bones have
423:30  only the substance of thought which forms
        them. They are only phenomena of the mind of mor-
        tals. The so-called substance of bone is formed first
424:1   by the parent's mind, through self-division. Soon the
        child becomes a separate, individualized mortal mind,
424:3   which takes possession of itself and its own thoughts of
        bones.

                        Accidents unknown to God

        Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind,
424:6   and we must leave the mortal basis of belief
        and unite with the one Mind, in order to
        change the notion of chance to the proper sense
424:9   of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony.

                           Opposing mentality

        Under divine Providence there can be no accidents,
        since there is no room for imperfection in perfection.

424:12  In medical practice objections would be raised if one
        doctor should administer a drug to counteract the work-
        ing of a remedy prescribed by another doctor.
424:15  It is equally important in metaphysical prac-
        tice that the /minds /which surround your patient should
        not act against your influence by continually expressing
424:18  such opinions as may alarm or discourage, - either by
        giving antagonistic advice or through unspoken thoughts
        resting on your patient. While it is certain that the
424:21  divine Mind can remove any obstacle, still you need the
        ear of your auditor. It is not more difficult to make your-
        self heard mentally while others are thinking about your
424:24  patients or conversing with them, if you understand
        Christian Science - the oneness and the allness of divine
        Love; but it is well to be alone with God and the sick
424:27  when treating disease.

                          Mind removes scrofula

        To prevent or to cure scrofula and other so-called he-
        reditary diseases, you must destroy the belief in these ills
424:30  and the faith in the possibility of their trans-
        mission. The patient may tell you that he
        has a humor in the blood, a scrofulous diathesis. His
425:1   parents or some of his progenitors farther back have so
        believed. Mortal mind, not matter, induces this con-
425:3   clusion and its results. You will have humors, just so
        long as you believe them to be safety-valves or to be
        ineradicable.

                           Nothing to consume

425:6   If the case to be mentally treated is consumption, take
        up the leading points included (according to belief) in
        this disease. Show that it is not inherited;
425:9   that inflammation, tubercles, hemorrhage, and
        decomposition are beliefs, images of mortal thought su-
        perimposed upon the body; that they are not the truth
425:12  of man; that they should be treated as error and put out
        of thought. Then these ills will disappear.

                           The lungs re-formed

        If the body is diseased, this is but one of the beliefs of
425:15  mortal mind. Mortal man will be less mortal, when he
        learns that matter never sustained existence
        and can never destroy God, who is man's Life.
425:18  When this is understood, mankind will be more spiritual
        and know that there is nothing to consume, since Spirit,
        God, is All-in-all. What if the belief is consumption?
425:21  God is more to a man than his belief, and the less we ac-
        knowledge matter or its laws, the more immortality we
        possess. Consciousness constructs a better body when
425:24  faith in matter has been conquered. Correct material
        belief by spiritual understanding, and Spirit will form
        you anew. You will never fear again except to offend
425:27  God, and you will never believe that heart or any por-
        tion of the body can destroy you.

                          Soundness maintained

        If you have sound and capacious lungs and want
425:30  them to remain so, be always ready with the
        mental protest against the opposite belief in
        heredity. Discard all notions about lungs, tubercles, in-
426:1   herited consumption, or disease arising from any cir-
        cumstance, and you will find that mortal mind, when
426:3   instructed by Truth, yields to divine power, which steers
        the body into health.

                        Our footsteps heavenward

        The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less
426:6   difficult when she has the high goal always before her
        thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps
        in endeavoring to reach it. When the desti-
426:9   nation is desirable, expectation speeds our progress. The
        struggle for Truth makes one strong instead of weak,
        resting instead of wearying one. If the belief in death
426:12  were obliterated, and the understanding obtained that
        there is no death, this would be a "tree of life," known
        by its fruits. Man should renew his energies and en-
426:15  deavors, and see the folly of hypocrisy, while also learn-
        ing the necessity of working out his own salvation. When
        it is learned that disease cannot destroy life, and that
426:18  mortals are not saved from sin or sickness by death, this
        understanding will quicken into newness of life. It will
        master either a desire to die or a dread of the grave,
426:21  and thus destroy the great fear that besets mortal
        existence.

                           Christian standard

        The relinquishment of all faith in death and also of
426:24  the fear of its sting would raise the standard of health
        and morals far beyond its present elevation,
        and would enable us to hold the banner of
426:27  Christianity aloft with unflinching faith in God, in Life
        eternal. Sin brought death, and death will disappear
        with the disappearance of sin. Man is immortal, and
426:30  the body cannot die, because matter has no life to sur-
        render. The human concepts named matter, death, dis-
        ease, sickness, and sin are all that can be destroyed.

                      Life not contingent on matter

427:1   If it is true that man lives, this fact can never change
        in Science to the opposite belief that man dies. Life is
427:3   the law of Soul, even the law of the spirit of
        Truth, and Soul is never without its represent-
        ative. Man's individual being can no more
427:6   die nor disappear in unconsciousness than can Soul, for
        both are immortal. If man believes in death now, he
        must disbelieve in it when learning that there is no reality
427:9   in death, since the truth of being is deathless. The be-
        lief that existence is contingent on matter must be met
        and mastered by Science, before Life can be understood
427:12  and harmony obtained.

                          Mortality vanquished

        Death is but another phase of the dream that exist-
        ence can be material. Nothing can interfere with the
427:15  harmony of being nor end the existence of
        man in Science. Man is the same after as
        before a bone is broken or the body guillotined. If man
427:18  is never to overcome death, why do the Scriptures say,
        "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death"? The
        tenor of the Word shows that we shall obtain the victory
427:21  over death in proportion as we overcome sin. The great
        difficulty lies in ignorance of what God is. God, Life,
        Truth, and Love make man undying. Immortal Mind,
427:24  governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the
        physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual.

                          No death nor inaction

        Called to the bed of death, what material remedy has
427:27  man when all such remedies have failed? Spirit is his
        last resort, but it should have been his first
        and only resort. The dream of death must
427:30  be mastered by Mind here or hereafter. Thought
        will waken from its own material declaration, "I am
        dead," to catch this trumpet-word of Truth, "There
428:1   is no death, no inaction, diseased action, overaction, nor
        reaction."

                             Vision opening

428:3   Life is real, and death is the illusion. A demonstra-
        tion of the facts of Soul in Jesus' way resolves the dark
        visions of material sense into harmony and
428:6   immortality. Man's privilege at this supreme
        moment is to prove the words of our Master: "If a man
        keep my saying, he shall never see death." To divest
428:9   thought of false trusts and material evidences in order
        that the spiritual facts of being may appear, - this is
        the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep
428:12  away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may
        establish in truth the temple, or body, "whose builder
        and maker is God."

                        Intelligent consecration

428:15  We should consecrate existence, not "to the unknown
        God" whom we "ignorantly worship," but to the eternal
        builder, the everlasting Father, to the Life
428:18  which mortal sense cannot impair nor mortal
        belief destroy. We must realize the ability of mental
        might to offset human misconceptions and to replace them
428:21  with the life which is spiritual, not material.

                         The present immortality

        The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man
        /is/, not /shall be/, perfect and immortal. We must hold
428:24  forever the consciousness of existence, and
        sooner or later, through Christ and Christian
        Science, we must master sin and death. The evidence
428:27  of man's immortality will become more apparent, as ma-
        terial beliefs are given up and the immortal facts of being
        are admitted.

                            Careful guidance

428:30  The author has healed hopeless organic disease, and
        raised the dying to life and health through the under-
        standing of God as the only Life. It is a sin to believe
429:1   that aught can overpower omnipotent and eternal Life,
        and this Life must be brought to light by the understand-
429:3   ing that there is no death, as well as by other
        graces of Spirit. We must begin, however,
        with the more simple demonstrations of control, and
429:6   the sooner we begin the better. The final demonstration
        takes time for its accomplishment. When walking, we
        are guided by the eye. We look before our feet, and if
429:9   we are wise, we look beyond a single step in the line of
        spiritual advancement.

                       Clay replying to the potter

        The corpse, deserted by thought, is cold and decays,
429:12  but it never suffers. Science declares that man is sub-
        ject to Mind. Mortal mind affirms that mind
        is subordinate to the body, that the body is
429:15  dying, that it must be buried and decomposed
        into dust; but mortal mind's affirmation is not true.
        Mortals waken from the dream of death with bodies un-
429:18  seen by those who think that they bury the body.

                         Continuity of existence

        If man did not exist before the material organization
        began, he could not exist after the body is disintegrated.
429:21  If we live after death and are immortal, we
        must have lived before birth, for if Life ever
        had any beginning, it must also have an ending, even ac-
429:24  cording to the calculations of natural science. Do you
        believe this? No! Do you understand it? No! This
        is why you doubt the statement and do not demonstrate
429:27  the facts it involves. We must have faith in all the say-
        ings of our Master, though they are not included in the
        teachings of the schools, and are not understood gener-
429:30  ally by our ethical instructors.

                           Life all-inclusive

        Jesus said (John viii. 51), "If a man keep my saying,
        he shall never see death." That statement is not con-
430:1   fined to spiritual life, but includes all the phenomena of
        existence. Jesus demonstrated this, healing the dying
430:3   and raising the dead. Mortal mind must part
        with error, must put off itself with its deeds,
        and immortal manhood, the Christ ideal, will appear.
430:6   Faith should enlarge its borders and strengthen its base
        by resting upon Spirit instead of matter. When man
        gives up his belief in death, he will advance more rapidly
430:9   towards God, Life, and Love. Belief in sickness and
        death, as certainly as belief in sin, tends to shut out the
        true sense of Life and health. When will mankind wake
430:12  to this great fact in Science?

        I here present to my readers an allegory illustrative
        of the law of divine Mind and of the supposed laws of mat-
430:15  ter and hygiene, an allegory in which the plea of Christian
        Science heals the sick.

                           A mental court case

        Suppose a mental case to be on trial, as cases are tried
430:18  in court. A man is charged with having committed liver-
        complaint. The patient feels ill, ruminates,
        and the trial commences. Personal Sense is
430:21  the plaintiff. Mortal Man is the defendant. False Belief
        is the attorney for Personal Sense. Mortal Minds, Ma-
        teria Medica, Anatomy, Physiology, Hypnotism, Envy,
430:24  Greed and Ingratitude, constitute the jury. The court-
        room is filled with interested spectators, and Judge
        Medicine is on the bench.
430:27  The evidence for the prosecution being called for, a
        witness testifies thus: -

        I represent Health-laws. I was present on certain nights
430:30  when the prisoner, or patient, watched with a sick friend.
        Although I have the superintendence of human affairs, I
        was personally abused on those occasions. I was told that
431:1   I must remain silent until called for at this trial, when I
        would be allowed to testify in the case. Notwithstanding
431:3   my rules to the contrary, the prisoner watched with the sick
        every night in the week. When the sick mortal was thirsty,
        the prisoner gave him drink. During all this time the pris-
431:6   oner attended to his daily labors, partaking of food at ir-
        regular intervals, sometimes going to sleep immediately
        after a heavy meal. At last he committed liver-complaint,
431:9   which I considered criminal, inasmuch as this offence is
        deemed punishable with death. Therefore I arrested Mor-
        tal Man in behalf of the state (namely, the body) and cast
431:12  him into prison.

        At the time of the arrest the prisoner summoned Physi-
        ology, Materia Medica, and Hypnotism to prevent his pun-
431:15  ishment. The struggle on their part was long. Materia
        Medica held out the longest, but at length all these assist-
        ants resigned to me, Health-laws, and I succeeded in get-
431:18  ting Mortal Man into close confinement until I should
        release him.

        The next witness is called:-

431:21  I am Coated Tongue. I am covered with a foul fur,
        placed on me the night of the liver-attack. Morbid Secre-
        tion hypnotized the prisoner and took control of his mind,
431:24  making him despondent.

        Another witness takes the stand and testifies:-

        I am Sallow Skin. I have been dry, hot, and chilled by
431:27  turns since the night of the liver-attack. I have lost my
        healthy hue and become unsightly, although nothing on my
        part has occasioned this change. I practise daily ablutions
431:30  and perform my functions as usual, but I am robbed of my
        good looks.

432:1   The next witness testifies: -

        I am Nerve, the State Commissioner for Mortal Man.
432:3   I am intimately acquainted with the plaintiff, Personal
        Sense, and know him to be truthful and upright, whereas
        Mortal Man, the prisoner at the bar, is capable of false-
432:6   hood. I was witness to the crime of liver-complaint. I
        knew the prisoner would commit it, for I convey messages
        from my residence in matter, alias brain, to body.

432:9   Another witness is called for by the Court of Error
        and says: -

        I am Mortality, Governor of the Province of Body, in
432:12  which Mortal Man resides. In this province there is a stat-
        ute regarding disease, - namely, that he upon whose per-
        son disease is found shall be treated as a criminal and
432:15  punished with death.

        The Judge asks if by doing good to his neighbor, it is
        possible for man to become diseased, transgress the laws,
432:18  and merit punishment, and Governor Mortality replies in
        the affirmative.

        Another witness takes the stand and testifies: -

432:21  I am Death. I was called for, shortly after the report of
        the crime, by the officer of the Board of Health, who pro-
        tested that the prisoner had abused him, and that my pres-
432:24  ence was required to confirm his testimony. One of the
        prisoner's friends, Materia Medica, was present when I
        arrived, endeavoring to assist the prisoner to escape from
432:27  the hands of justice, /alias /nature's so-called law; but my
        appearance with a message from the Board of Health
        changed the purpose of Materia Medica, and he decided at
432:30  once that the prisoner should die.

                     Judge Medicine charges the jury

433:1   The testimony for the plaintiff, Personal Sense, being
        closed, Judge Medicine arises, and with great solemnity
433:3   addresses the jury of Mortal Minds. He an-
        alyzes the offence, reviews the testimony, and
        explains the law relating to liver-complaint.
433:6   His conclusion is, that laws of nature render disease
        homicidal. In compliance with a stern duty, his Honor,
        Judge Medicine, urges the jury not to allow their judg-
433:9   ment to be warped by the irrational, unchristian sugges-
        tions of Christian Science. The jury must regard in such
        cases only the evidence of Personal Sense against Mortal
433:12  Man.

        As the Judge proceeds, the prisoner grows restless. His
        sallow face blanches with fear, and a look of despair and
433:15  death settles upon it. The case is given to the jury. A
        brief consultation ensues, and the jury returns a verdict
        of "Guilty of liver-complaint in the first degree."

                          Mortal Man sentenced

433:18  Judge Medicine then proceeds to pronounce the solemn
        sentence of death upon the prisoner. Because he has
        loved his neighbor as himself, Mortal Man has
433:21  been guilty of benevolence in the first degree,
        and this has led him into the commission of the second
        crime, liver-complaint, which material laws condemn as
433:24  homicide. For this crime Mortal Man is sentenced to
        be tortured until he is dead. "May God have mercy on
        your soul," is the Judge's solemn peroration.

433:27  The prisoner is then remanded to his cell (sick-bed),
        and Scholastic Theology is sent for to prepare the fright-
        ened sense of Life, God, - which sense must be immortal,
433:30  - for /death/.

                       Appeal to a higher tribunal

        Ah! but Christ, Truth, the spirit of Life and the
        friend of Mortal Man, can open wide those prison doors
434:1   and set the captive free. Swift on the wings of divine
        Love, there comes a despatch: "Delay the execution;
434:3   the prisoner is not guilty." Consternation fills
        the prison-yard. Some exclaim, "It is con-
        trary to law and justice." Others say,
434:6   "The law of Christ supersedes /our/ laws; let us follow
        Christ."

                           Counsel for defence

        After much debate and opposition, permission is ob-
434:9   tained for a trial in the Court of Spirit, where Christian
        Science is allowed to appear as counsel for
        the unfortunate prisoner. Witnesses, judges
434:12  and jurors, who were at the previous Court of Error,
        are now summoned to appear before the bar of Justice
        and eternal Truth.

434:15  When the case for Mortal Man /versus/ Personal Sense
        is opened, Mortal Man's counsel regards the prisoner
        with the utmost tenderness. The counsel's earnest,
434:18  solemn eyes, kindling with hope and triumph, look up-
        ward. Then Christian Science turns suddenly to the
        supreme tribunal, and opens the argument for the
434:21  defence: -

        The prisoner at the bar has been unjustly sentenced.
        His trial was a tragedy, and is morally illegal. Mortal
434:24  Man has had no proper counsel in the case. All the test-
        mony has been on the side of Personal Sense, and we shall
        unearth this foul conspiracy against the liberty and life of
434:27  Man. The only valid testimony in the case shows the
        alleged crime never to have been committed. The pris-
        oner is not proved "worthy of death, or of bonds."

434:30  Your Honor, the lower court has sentenced Mortal Man
        to die, but God made Man immortal and amenable to
        Spirit only. Denying justice to the body, that court com-
435:1   mended man's immortal Spirit to heavenly mercy, - Spirit
        which is God Himself and Man's only lawgiver! Who or
435:3   what has sinned? Has the body or has Mortal Mind
        committed a criminal deed? Counsellor False Belief has
        argued that the body should die, while Reverend Theology
435:6   would console conscious Mortal Mind, which alone is capa-
        ble of sin and suffering. The body committed no offence.
        Mortal Man, in obedience to higher law, helped his fellow-
435:9   man, an act which should result in good to himself as well
        as to others.

        The law of our Supreme Court decrees that whosoever
435:12  /sinneth/ shall die; but good deeds are immortal, bringing
        joy instead of grief, pleasure instead of pain, and life
        instead of death. If liver-complaint was committed by
435:15  trampling on Laws of Health, this was a good deed, for the
        agent of those laws is an outlaw, a destroyer of Mortal
        Man's liberty and rights. Laws of Health should be sen-
435:18  tenced to die.

        Watching beside the couch of pain in the exercise of a
        love that "is the fulfilling of the law," - doing "unto
435:21  others as ye would that they should do unto you," - this
        is no infringement of law, for no demand, human or divine,
        renders it just to punish a man for acting justly. If mor-
435:24  tals sin, our Supreme Judge in equity decides what penalty
        is due for the sin, and Mortal Man can suffer only for his
        sin. For naught else can he be punished, according to the
435:27  law of Spirit, God.

        Then what jurisdiction had his Honor, Judge Medicine,
        in this case? To him I might say, in Bible language, "Sit-
435:30  test thou to judge . . . after the law, and commandest . . .
        to be smitten contrary to the law?" The only jurisdiction
        to which the prisoner can submit is that of Truth, Life, and
435:33  Love. If they condemn him not, neither shall Judge Medi-
        cine condemn him; and I ask that the prisoner be restored
        to the liberty of which he has been unjustly deprived.

436:1   The principal witness (the officer of the Health-laws)
        deposed that he was an eye-witness to the good deeds for
436:3   which Mortal Man is under sentence of death. After be-
        traying him into the hands of your law, the Health-agent
        disappeared, to reappear however at the trial as a witness
436:6   against Mortal Man and in the interest of Personal Sense,
        a murderer. Your Supreme Court must find the pris-
        oner on the night of the alleged offence to have been acting
436:9   within the limits of the divine law, and in obedience
        thereto. Upon this statute hangs all the law and testimony.
        Giving a cup of cold water in Christ's name, is a Christian
436:12  service. Laying down his life for a good deed, Mortal Man
        should find it again. Such acts bear their own justifica-
        tion, and are under the protection of the Most High.

436:15  Prior to the night of his arrest, the prisoner summoned
        two professed friends, Materia Medica and Physiology, to
        prevent his committing liver-complaint, and thus save him
436:18  from arrest. But they brought with them Fear, the sheriff,
        to precipitate the result which they were called to prevent.
        It was Fear who handcuffed Mortal Man and would now
436:21  punish him. You have left Mortal Man no alternative.
        He must obey your law, fear its consequences, and be pun-
        ished for his fear. His friends struggled hard to rescue the
436:24  prisoner from the penalty they considered justly due, but
        they were compelled to let him be taken into custody, tried,
        and condemned. Thereupon Judge Medicine sat in judg-
436:27  ment on the case, and substantially charged the jury, twelve
        Mortal Minds, to find the prisoner guilty. His Honor sen-
        tenced Mortal Man to die for the very deeds which the di-
436:30  vine law compels man to commit. Thus the Court of Error
        construed obedience to the law of divine Love as disobedi-
        ence to the law of Life. Claiming to protect Mortal Man
436:33  in right-doing, that court pronounced a sentence of death
        for doing right.

        One of the principal witnesses, Nerve, testified that he
437:1   was a ruler of Body, in which province Mortal Man resides.
        He also testified that he was on intimate terms with the
437:3   plaintiff, and knew Personal Sense to be truthful; that he
        knew Man, and that Man was made in the image of God,
        but was a criminal. This is a foul aspersion on man's
437:6   Maker. It blots the fair escutcheon of omnipotence. It in-
        dicates malice aforethought, a determination to condemn
        Man in the interest of Personal Sense. At the bar of Truth,
437:9   in the presence of divine Justice, before the Judge of our
        higher tribunal, the Supreme Court of Spirit, and before
        its jurors, the Spiritual Senses, I proclaim this witness,
437:12  Nerve, to be destitute of intelligence and truth and to be
        a false witness.

        Man self-destroyed; the testimony of matter respected;
437:15  Spirit not allowed a hearing; Soul a criminal though
        recommended to mercy; the helpless innocent body tor-
        tured, - these are the terrible records of your Court of
437:18  Error, and I ask that the Supreme Court of Spirit reverse
        this decision.

        Here the opposing counsel, False Belief, called Chris-
437:21  tian Science to order for contempt of court. Various
        notables - Materia Medica, Anatomy, Physiology, Scho-
        lastic Theology, and Jurisprudence - rose to the ques-
437:24  tion of expelling Christian Science from the bar, for such
        high-handed illegality. They declared that Christian Sci-
        ence was overthrowing the judicial proceedings of a regu-
437:27  larly constituted court.

        But Judge Justice of the Supreme Court of Spirit over-
        ruled their motions on the ground that unjust usages
437:30  were not allowed at the bar of Truth, which ranks above
        the lower Court of Error.

        The attorney, Christian Science, then read from the
437:33  supreme statute-book, the Bible, certain extracts on the
438:1   Rights of Man, remarking, that the Bible was better au-
        thority than Blackstone: -

438:3   Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and
        let them have dominion.

        Behold, I give unto you power . . . over all the power
438:6   of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

        If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.

        Then Christian Science proved the witness, Nerve, to
438:9   be a perjurer. Instead of being a ruler in the Province
        of Body, in which Mortal Man was reported to reside,
        Nerve was an insubordinate citizen, putting in false
438:12  claims to office and bearing false witness against Man.
        Turning suddenly to Personal Sense, by this time silent,
        Christian Science continued: -

438:15  I ask your arrest in the name of Almighty God on three
        distinct charges of crime, to wit: perjury, treason, and con-
        spiracy against the rights and life of man.

438:18  Then Christian Science continued:

        Another witness, equally inadequate, said that on the
        night of the crime a garment of foul fur was spread over
438:21  him by Morbid Secretion, while the facts in the case show
        that this fur is a foreign substance, imported by False Be-
        lief, the attorney for Personal Sense, who is in partnership
438:24  with Error and smuggles Error's goods into market with-
        out the inspection of Soul's government officers. When
        the Court of Truth summoned Furred Tongue for examina-
438:27  tion, he disappeared and was never heard of more.

        Morbid Secretion is not an importer or dealer in fur, but
        we have heard Materia Medica explain how this fur is
438:30  manufactured, and we know Morbid Secretion to be on
        friendly terms with the firm of Personal Sense, Error, &
439:1   Co., receiving pay from them and introducing their goods
        into the market. Also, be it known that False Belief, the
439:3   counsel for the plaintiff, Personal Sense, is a buyer for this
        firm. He manufactures for it, keeps a furnishing store,
        and advertises largely for his employers.

439:6   Death testified that he was absent from the Province of
        Body, when a message came from False Belief, command-
        ing him to take part in the homicide. At this request
439:9   Death repaired to the spot where the liver-complaint was
        in process, frightening away Materia Medica, who was then
        manacling the prisoner in the attempt to save him. True,
439:12  Materia Medica was a misguided participant in the misdeed
        for which the Health-officer had Mortal Man in custody,
        though Mortal Man was innocent.

439:15  Christian Science turned from the abashed witnesses,
        his words flashing as lightning in the perturbed faces
        of these worthies, Scholastic Theology, Materia Medica,
439:18  Physiology, the blind Hypnotism, and the masked Per-
        sonal Sense, and said: -

        God will smite you, O whited walls, for injuring in your
439:21  ignorance the unfortunate Mortal Man who sought your
        aid in his struggles against liver-complaint and Death.
        You came to his rescue, only to fasten upon him an offence
439:24  of which he was innocent. You aided and abetted Fear
        and Health-laws. You betrayed Mortal Man, meanwhile
        declaring Disease to be God's servant and the righteous
439:27  executor of His laws. Our higher statutes declare you all,
        witnesses, jurors, and judges, to be offenders, awaiting the
        sentence which General Progress and Divine Love will
439:30  pronounce.

        We send our best detectives to whatever locality is re-
        ported to be haunted by Disease, but on visiting the spot,
439:33  they learn that Disease was never there, for he could not
440:1   possibly elude their search. Your Material Court of Errors,
        when it condemned Mortal Man on the ground of hygienic
440:3   disobedience, was manipulated by the oleaginous machina-
        tions of the counsel, False Belief, whom Truth arraigns
        before the supreme bar of Spirit to answer for his crime.
440:6   Morbid Secretion is taught how to make sleep befool reason
        before sacrificing mortals to their false gods.

        Mortal Minds were deceived by your attorney, False Be-
440:9   lief, and were influenced to give a verdict delivering Mortal
        Man to Death. Good deeds are transformed into crimes,
        to which you attach penalties; but no warping of justice
440:12  can render disobedience to the so-called laws of Matter
        disobedience to God, or an act of homicide. Even penal
        law holds homicide, under stress of circumstances, to be
440:15  justifiable. Now what greater justification can any deed
        have, than that it is for the good of one's neighbor? Where-
        fore, then, in the name of outraged justice, do you sentence
440:18  Mortal Man for ministering to the wants of his fellow-man
        in obedience to divine law? You cannot trample upon the
        decree of the Supreme Bench. Mortal Man has his appeal
440:21  to Spirit, God, who sentences only for sin.

        The false and unjust beliefs of your human mental legis-
        lators compel them to enact wicked laws of sickness and so
440:24  forth, and then render obedience to these laws punishable
        as crime. In the presence of the Supreme Lawgiver, stand-
        ing at the bar of Truth, and in accordance with the divine
440:27  statutes, I repudiate the false testimony of Personal. Sense.
        I ask that he be forbidden to enter against Mortal Man
        any more suits to be tried at the Court of Material Error.
440:30  I appeal to the just and equitable decisions of divine Spirit
        to restore to Mortal Man the rights of which he has been
        deprived.

                       Charge of the Chief Justice

440:33  Here the counsel for the defence closed, and the Chief
        Justice of the Supreme Court, with benign and imposing
441:1   presence, comprehending and defining all law and evi-
        dence, explained from his statute-book, the
441:3   Bible, that any so-called law, which under-
        takes to punish aught but sin, is null and void.

        He also decided that the plaintiff, Personal Sense, be
441:6   not permitted to enter any suits at the bar of Soul, but
        be enjoined to keep perpetual silence, and in case of
        temptation, to give heavy bonds for good behavior. He
441:9   concluded his charge thus: -

        The plea of False Belief we deem unworthy of a hearing.
        Let what False Belief utters, now and forever, fall into
441:12  oblivion, "unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown." Accord-
        ing to our statute, Material Law is a liar who cannot bear
        witness against Mortal Man, neither can Fear arrest Mortal
441:15  Man nor can Disease cast him into prison. Our law refuses
        to recognize Man as sick or dying, but holds him to be for-
        ever in the image and likeness of his Maker. Reversing the
441:18  testimony of Personal Sense and the decrees of the Court of
        Error in favor of Matter, Spirit decides in favor of Man
        and against Matter. We further recommend that Materia
441:21  Medica adopt Christian Science and that Health-laws,
        Mesmerism, Hypnotism, Oriental Witchcraft, and Esoteric
        Magic be publicly executed at the hands of our sheriff,
441:24  Progress.

        The Supreme Bench decides in favor of intelligence, that
        no law outside of divine Mind can punish or reward Mortal
441:27  Man. Your personal jurors in the Court of Error are
        myths. Your attorney, False Belief, is an impostor, per-
        suading Mortal Minds to return a verdict contrary to law
441:30  and gospel. The plaintiff, Personal Sense, is recorded in
        our Book of books as a liar. Our great Teacher of mental
        jurisprudence speaks of him also as "a murderer from the
441:33  beginning." We have no trials for sickness before the tri-
442:1   bunal of divine Spirit. There, Man is adjudged innocent
        of transgressing physical laws, because there are no such
442:3   laws. Our statute is spiritual, our Government is divine.
        "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

                             Divine verdict

        The Jury of Spiritual Senses agreed at once upon a
442:6   verdict, and there resounded throughout the vast audience-
        chamber of Spirit the cry, Not guilty. Then
        the prisoner rose up regenerated, strong, free.
442:9   We noticed, as he shook hands with his counsel, Chris-
        tian Science, that all sallowness and debility had dis-
        appeared. His form was erect and commanding, his
442:12  countenance beaming with health and happiness. Divine
        Love had cast out fear. Mortal Man, no longer sick
        and in prison, walked forth, his feet "beautiful upon the
442:15  mountains," as of one "that bringeth good tidings."

                       Christ the great physician

        Neither animal magnetism nor hypnotism enters into
        the practice of Christian Science, in which truth cannot
442:18  be reversed, but the reverse of error is true.
        An improved belief cannot retrograde. When
        Christ changes a belief of sin or of sickness into
442:21  a better belief, then belief melts into spiritual understand-
        ing, and sin, disease, and death disappear. Christ, Truth,
        gives mortals temporary food and clothing until the ma-
442:24  terial, transformed with the ideal, disappears, and man
        is clothed and fed spiritually. St. Paul says, "Work
        out your own salvation with fear and trembling:" Jesus
442:27  said, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good
        pleasure to give you the kingdom." This truth is
        Christian Science.

442:30  Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental
        malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when
        awake.




        CHAPTER XIII - TEACHING CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

        Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser:
        teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. - PROVERBS.

                            Study of medicine

443:1   WHEN the discoverer of Christian Science is con-
        sulted by her followers as to the propriety, advan-
443:3   tage, and consistency of systematic medical
        study, she tries to show them that under ordi-
        nary circumstances a resort to faith in corporeal means
443:6   tends to deter those, who make such a compromise, from
        entire confidence in omnipotent Mind as really possessing
        all power. While a course of medical study is at times
443:9   severely condemned by some Scientists, she feels, as she
        always has felt, that all are privileged to work out their
        own salvation according to their light, and that our motto
443:12  should be the Master's counsel, "Judge not, that ye be
        not judged."

                            Failure's lessons

        If patients fail to experience the healing power of
443:15  Christian Science, and think they can be benefited by
        certain ordinary physical methods of medical
        treatment, then the Mind-physician should
443:18  give up such cases, and leave invalids free to resort to
        whatever other systems they fancy will afford relief.
        Thus such invalids may learn the value of the apostolic
443:21  precept: "Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering
        and doctrine." If the sick find these material expedients
444:1   unsatisfactory, and they receive no help from them, these
        very failures may open their blind eyes. In some way,
444:3   sooner or later, all must rise superior to materiality, and
        suffering is oft the divine agent in this elevation. "All
        things work together for good to them that love God," is
444:6   the dictum of Scripture.

                           Refuge and strength

        If Christian Scientists ever fail to receive aid from
        other Scientists, - their brethren upon whom they may
444:9   call, - God will still guide them into the right
        use of temporary and eternal means. Step by
        step will those who trust Him find that "God is our refuge
444:12  and strength, a very present help in trouble."

                        Charity to those opposed

        Students are advised by the author to be charitable
        and kind, not only towards differing forms of religion
444:15  and medicine, but to those who hold these dif-
        fering opinions. Let us be faithful in pointing
        the way through Christ, as we understand it,
444:18  but let us also be careful always to "judge righteous judg-
        ment," and never to condemn rashly. "Whosoever shall
        smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."
444:21  That is, Fear not that he will smite thee again for thy for-
        bearance. If ecclesiastical sects or medical schools turn
        a deaf ear to the teachings of Christian Science, then part
444:24  from these opponents as did Abraham when he parted
        from Lot, and say in thy heart: "Let there be no strife, I
        pray thee, between me and thee, and between My herd-
444:27  men and thy herdmen; for we be brethren." Immortals,
        or God's children in divine Science, are one harmonious
        family; but mortals, or the "children of men" in material
444:30  sense, are discordant and ofttimes false brethren.

                      Conforming to explicit rules

        The teacher must make clear to students the Science
        of healing, especially its ethics, - that all is Mind, and
445:1   that the Scientist must conform to God's requirements.
        Also the teacher must thoroughly fit his students to defend
445:3   themselves against sin, and to guard against the
        attacks of the would-be /mental assassin/, who
        attempts to kill morally and physically. No
445:6   hypothesis as to the existence of another power should
        interpose a doubt or fear to hinder the demonstration of
        Christian Science. Unfold the latent energies and capac-
445:9   ities for good in your pupil. Teach the great possibilities
        of man endued with divine Science. Teach the dangerous
        possibility of dwarfing the spiritual understanding and
445:12  demonstration of Truth by sin, or by recourse to material
        means for healing. Teach the meekness and might of life
        "hid with Christ in God," and there will be no desire for
445:15  other healing methods. You render the divine law of
        healing obscure and void, when you weigh the human in
        the scale with the divine, or limit in any direction of
445:18  thought the omnipresence and omnipotence of God.

                              Divine energy

        Christian Science silences human will, quiets fear with
        Truth and Love, and illustrates the unlabored motion
445:21  of the divine energy in healing the sick. Self-
        seeking, envy, passion, pride, hatred, and
        revenge are cast out by the divine Mind which heals
445:24  disease. The human will which maketh and worketh a lie,
        hiding the divine Principle of harmony, is destructive to
        health, and is the cause of disease rather than its cure.

                            Blight of avarice

445:27  There is great danger in teaching Mind-healing indis-
        criminately, thus disregarding the morals of the student
        and caring only for the fees. Recalling Jeffer-
445:30  son's words about slavery, "I tremble, when I
        remember that God is just," the author trembles whenever
        she sees a man, for the petty consideration of money,
446:1   teaching his slight knowledge of Mind-power, - per-
        haps communicating his own bad morals, and in this way
446:3   dealing pitilessly with a community unprepared for self-
        defence.

        A thorough perusal of the author's publications heals
446:6   sickness. If patients sometimes seem worse while read-
        ing this book, the change may either arise from the alarm
        of the physician, or it may mark the crisis of the disease.
446:9   Perseverance in the perusal of the book has generally
        completely healed such cases.

                        Exclusion of malpractice

        Whoever practises the Science the author teaches,
446:12  through which Mind pours light and healing upon this
        generation, can practise on no one from sin-
        ister or malicious motives without destroying
446:15  his own power to heal and his own health. Good must
        dominate in the thoughts of the healer, or his demon-
        stration is protracted, dangerous, and impossible in Sci-
446:18  ence. A wrong motive involves defeat. In the Science
        of Mind-healing, it is imperative to be honest, for victory
        rests on the side of immutable right. To understand
446:21  God strengthens hope, enthrones faith in Truth, and
        verifies Jesus' word: "Lo, I am with you alway, even
        unto the end of the world."

                            Iniquity overcome

446:24  Resisting evil, you overcome it and prove its nothing-
        ness. Not human platitudes, but divine beatitudes, re-
        flect the spiritual light and might which heal
446:27  the sick. The exercise of will brings on a
        hypnotic state, detrimental to health and integrity of
        thought. This must therefore be watched and guarded
446:30  against. Covering iniquity will prevent prosperity and the
        ultimate triumph of any cause. Ignorance of the error
        to be eradicated oftentimes subjects you to its abuse.

                       No trespass on human rights

447:1   The heavenly law is broken by trespassing upon
        man's individual right of self-government. We have no
447:3   authority in Christian Science and no moral
        right to attempt to influence the thoughts of
        others, except it be to benefit them. In men-
447:6   tal practice you must not forget that erring human opin-
        ions, conflicting selfish motives, and ignorant attempts
        to do good may render you incapable of knowing or
447:9   judging accurately the need of your fellow-men. There-
        fore the rule is, heal the sick when called upon for aid,
        and save the victims of the mental assassins.

                   Expose sin without believing in it

447:12  Ignorance, subtlety, or false charity does not for-
        ever conceal error; evil will in time disclose and pun-
        ish itself. The recuperative action of the
447:15  system, when mentally sustained by Truth,
        goes on naturally. When sin or sickness -
        the reverse of harmony - seems true to material sense,
447:18  impart without frightening or discouraging the pa-
        tient the truth and spiritual understanding, which de-
        stroy disease. Expose and denounce the claims of
447:21  evil and disease in all their forms, but realize no
        reality in them. A sinner is not reformed merely
        by assuring him that he cannot be a sinner because
447:24  there is no sin. To put down the claim of sin,
        you must detect it, remove the mask, point out the
        illusion, and thus get the victory over sin and so prove
447:27  its unreality. The sick are not healed merely by
        declaring there is no sickness, but by knowing that
        there is none.

                             Wicked evasions

447:30  A sinner is afraid to cast the first stone. He may
        say, as a subterfuge, that evil is unreal, but to know it,
        he must demonstrate his statement. To assume that
448:1   there are no claims of evil and yet to indulge them, is
        a moral offence. Blindness and self-righteousness cling
448:3   fast to iniquity. When the Publican's wail
        went out to the great heart of Love, it won his
        humble desire. Evil which obtains in the bodily senses,
448:6   but which the heart condemns, has no foundation; but if
        evil is uncondemned, it is undenied and nurtured. Under
        such circumstances, to say that there is no evil, is an evil
448:9   in itself. When needed tell the truth concerning the lie.
        Evasion of Truth cripples integrity, and casts thee down
        from the pinnacle.

                          Truth's grand results

448:12  Christian Science rises above the evidence of the cor-
        poreal senses; but if you have not risen above sin your-
        self, do not congratulate yourself upon your
448:15  blindness to evil or upon the good you know
        and /do/ not. A dishonest position is far from Christianly
        scientific. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper:
448:18  but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have
        mercy." Try to leave on every student's mind the strong
        impress of divine Science, a high sense of the moral and
448:21  spiritual qualifications requisite for healing, well knowing
        it to be impossible for error, evil, and hate to accomplish
        the grand results of Truth and Love. The reception or
448:24  pursuit of instructions opposite to absolute Christian
        Science must always hinder scientific demonstration.

                       Adherence to righteousness

        If the student adheres strictly to the teachings of Chris-
448:27  tian Science and ventures not to break its rules, he can-
        not fail of success in healing. It is Christian
        Science to do right, and nothing short of right-
448:30  doing has any claim to the name. To talk the right and
        live the wrong is foolish deceit, doing one's self the most
        harm. Fettered by sin yourself, it is difficult to free
449:1   another from the fetters of disease. With your own wrists
        manacled, it is hard to break another's chains. A little
449:3   leaven causes the whole mass to ferment. A grain of
        Christian Science does wonders for mortals, so omnip-
        otent is Truth, but more of Christian Science must be
449:6   gained in order to continue in well doing.

                        Right adjusts the balance

        The wrong done another reacts most heavily against
        one's self. Right adjusts the balance sooner or later.
449:9   Think it "easier for a camel to go through
        the eye of a needle," than for you to benefit
        yourself by injuring others. Man's moral mercury, ris-
449:12  ing or falling, registers his healing ability and fitness to
        teach. You should practise well what you know, and
        you will then advance in proportion to your honesty
449:15  and fidelity, - qualities which insure success in this
        Science; but it requires a higher understanding to teach
        this subject properly and correctly than it does to heal
449:18  the most difficult case.

                         Inoculation of thought

        The baneful effect of evil associates is less seen than
        felt. The inoculation of evil human thoughts ought to
449:21  be understood and guarded against. The
        first impression, made on a mind which is
        attracted or repelled according to personal merit or de-
449:24  merit, is a good detective of individual character. Cer-
        tain minds meet only to separate through simultaneous
        repulsion. They are enemies without the preliminary
449:27  offence. The impure are at peace with the impure.
        Only virtue is a rebuke to vice. A proper teacher of Chris-
        tian Science improves the health and the morals of his
449:30  student if the student practises what he is taught, and
        unless this result follows, the teacher is a Scientist only
        in name.

                       Three classes of neophytes

450:1   There is a large class of thinkers whose bigotry and
        conceit twist every fact to suit themselves. Their creed
450:3   teaches belief in a mysterious, supernatural
        God, and in a natural, all-powerful devil. An-
        other class, still more unfortunate, are so depraved that
450:6   they appear to be innocent. They utter a falsehood,
        while looking you blandly in the face, and they never
        fail to stab their benefactor in the back. A third class
450:9   of thinkers build with solid masonry. They are sincere,
        generous, noble, and are therefore open to the approach
        and recognition of Truth. To teach Christian Science
450:12  to such as these is no task. They do not incline long-
        ingly to error, whine over the demands of Truth, nor
        play the traitor for place and power.

                          Touchstone of Science

450:15  Some people yield slowly to the touch of Truth. Few
        yield without a struggle, and many are reluctant to ac-
        knowledge that they have yielded; but un-
450:18  less this admission is made, evil will boast
        itself above good. The Christian Scientist has enlisted
        to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome
450:21  them by understanding their nothingness and the allness
        of God, or good. Sickness to him is no less a temptation
        than is sin, and he heals them both by understanding
450:24  God's power over them. The Christian Scientist knows
        that they are errors of belief, which Truth can and will
        destroy.

                        False claims annihilated

450:27  Who, that has felt the perilous beliefs in life, substance,
        and intelligence separated from God, can say that there
        is no error of belief? Knowing the claim of
450:30  animal magnetism, that all evil combines in
        the belief of life, substance, and intelligence in matter,
        electricity, animal nature, and organic life, who will deny
451:1   that these are the errors which Truth must and will an-
        nihilate? Christian Scientists must live under the con-
451:3   stant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from
        the material world and be separate. They must re-
        nounce aggression, oppression and the pride of power.
451:6   Christianity, with the crown of Love upon her brow,
        must be their queen of life.

                           Treasure in heaven

        Students of Christian Science, who start with its letter
451:9   and think to succeed without the spirit, will either make
        shipwreck of their faith or be turned sadly
        awry. They must not only seek, but strive,
451:12  to enter the narrow path of Life, for "wide is the gate,
        and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and
        many there be which go in thereat." Man walks in the
451:15  direction towards which he looks, and where his treasure
        is, there will his heart be also. If our hopes and affec-
        tions are spiritual, they come from above, not from be-
451:18  neath, and they bear as of old the fruits of the Spirit.

                         Obligations of teachers

        Every Christian Scientist, every conscientious teacher
        of the Science of Mind-healing, knows that human will
451:21  is not Christian Science, and he must recog-
        nize this in order to defend himself from the
        influence of human will. He feels morally obligated to
451:24  open the eyes of his students that they may perceive the
        nature and methods of error of every sort, especially any
        subtle degree of evil, deceived and deceiving. All mental
451:27  malpractice arises from ignorance or malice aforethought.
        It is the injurious action of one mortal mind controlling
        another from wrong motives, and it is practised either
451:30  with a mistaken or a wicked purpose.

                          Indispensable defence

        Show your student that mental malpractice tends to
        blast moral sense, health, and the human life. Instruct
452:1   him how to bar the door of his thought against this
        seeming power, - a task not difficult, when one under-
452:3   stands that evil has in reality no power.
        Incorrect reasoning leads to practical error.
        The wrong thought should be arrested before it has a
452:6   chance to manifest itself.

                           Egotistic darkness

        Walking in the light, we are accustomed to the light
        and require it; we cannot see in darkness. But eyes ac-
452:9   customed to darkness are pained by the light.
        When outgrowing the old, you should not fear
        to put on the new. Your advancing course may pro-
452:12  voke envy, but it will also attract respect. When error
        confronts you, withhold not the rebuke or the explana-
        tion which destroys error. Never breathe an immoral
452:15  atmosphere, unless in the attempt to purify it. Better is
        the frugal intellectual repast with contentment and virtue,
        than the luxury of learning with egotism and vice.

                        Unwarranted expectations

452:18  Right is radical. The teacher must know the truth
        himself. He must live it and love it, or he cannot impart
        it to others. We soil our garments with con-
452:21  servatism, and afterwards we must wash them
        clean. When the spiritual sense of Truth unfolds its
        harmonies, you take no risks in the policy of error. Ex-
452:24  pect to heal simply by repeating the author's words, by
        right talking and wrong acting, and you will be disap-
        pointed. Such a practice does not demonstrate the
452:27  Science by which divine Mind heals the sick.

                           Reliable authority

        Acting from sinful motives destroys your power of
        healing from the right motive. On the other hand, if
452:30  you had the inclination or power to practise
        wrongly and then should adopt Christian
        Science, the wrong power would be destroyed. You do
453:1   not deny the mathematician's right to distinguish the cor-
        rect from the incorrect among the examples on the black-
453:3   board, nor disbelieve the musician when he distinguishes
        concord from discord. In like manner it should be granted
        that the author understands what she is saying.

                            Winning the field

453:6   Right and wrong, truth and error, will be at strife in
        the minds of students, until victory rests on the side of
        invincible truth. Mental chemicalization fol-
453:9   lows the explanation of Truth, and a higher
        basis is thus won; but with some individuals the morbid
        moral or physical symptoms constantly reappear. I
453:12  have never witnessed so decided effects from the use of
        material remedies as from the use of spiritual.

                          Knowledge and honesty

        Teach your student that he must know himself be-
453:15  fore he can know others and minister to human needs.
        Honesty is spiritual power. Dishonesty is
        human weakness, which forfeits divine help.
453:18  You uncover sin, not in order to injure, but in order
        to bless the corporeal man; and a right motive has
        its reward. Hidden sin is spiritual wickedness in high
453:21  places. The masquerader in this Science thanks God
        that there is no evil, yet serves evil in the name of
        good.

                         Metaphysical treatment

453:24  You should treat sickness mentally just as you would
        sin, except that you must not tell the patient that he is
        sick nor give names to diseases, for such a
453:27  course increases fear, the foundation of dis-
        ease, and impresses more deeply the wrong mind-picture.
        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 trespass 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
        illustrates 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 God 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 class 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 God cannot mistake. God 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 God
455:27  to discern it.

                            Integrity assured

        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 entitles 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 shield, 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
        partnership, 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 practitioner 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
        constituents 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
        assertion, "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 manuscript 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 illustrates
        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 God 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.

                        Rapidity of assimilation

        Systematic teaching and the student's spiritual growth
        and experience in practice are requisite for a thorough
462:1   comprehension of Christian Science. Some individu-
        als assimilate truth more readily than others, but any
462:3   student, who adheres to the divine rules
        of Christian Science and imbibes the spirit
        of Christ, can demonstrate Christian Science, cast out
462:6   error, heal the sick, and add continually to his store of
        spiritual understanding, potency, enlightenment, and
        success.

                             Divided loyalty

462:9   If the student goes away to practise Truth's teach-
        ings only in part, dividing his interests between God and
        mammon and substituting his own views for
462:12  Truth, he will inevitably reap the error he sows.
        Whoever would demonstrate the healing of Christian
        Science must abide strictly by its rules, heed every state-
462:15  ment, and advance from the rudiments laid down. There
        is nothing difficult nor toilsome in this task, when the way
        is pointed out; but self-denial, sincerity, Christianity, and
462:18  persistence alone win the prize, as they usually do in every
        department of life.

                             Anatomy defined

        Anatomy, when conceived of spiritually, is mental self-
462:21  knowledge, and consists in the dissection of thoughts to
        discover their quality, quantity, and origin.
        Are thoughts divine or human? That is the
462:24  important question. This branch of study is indispen-
        sable to the excision of error. The anatomy of Christian
        Science teaches when and how to probe the self-in-
462:27  flicted wounds of selfishness, malice, envy, and hate. It
        teaches the control of mad ambition. It unfolds the
        hallowed influences of unselfishness, philanthropy, spir-
462:30  itual love. It urges the government of the body both
        in health and in sickness. The Christian Scientist,
        through understanding mental anatomy, discerns and
463:1   deals with the real cause of disease. The material physi-
        cian gropes among phenomena, which fluctuate every in-
463:3   stant under influences not embraced in his diagnosis, and
        so he may stumble and fall in the darkness.

                          Scientific obstetrics

        Teacher and student should also be familiar with the
463:6   obstetrics taught by this Science. To attend properly
        the birth of the new child, or divine idea,
        you should so detach mortal thought from its
463:9   material conceptions, that the birth will be natural and
        safe. Though gathering new energy, this idea cannot
        injure its useful surroundings in the travail of spiritual
463:12  birth. A spiritual idea has not a single element of error,
        and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive.
        The new idea, conceived and born of Truth and Love, is
463:15  clad in white garments. Its beginning will be meek, its
        growth sturdy, and its maturity undecaying. When
        this new birth takes place, the Christian Science infant
463:18  is born of the Spirit, born of God, and can cause the
        mother no more suffering. By this we know that Truth
        is here and has fulfilled its perfect work.

                          Unhesitating decision

463:21  To decide quickly as to the proper treatment of error -
        whether error is manifested in forms of sickness, sin,
        or death - is the first step towards destroy-
463:24  ing error. Our Master treated error through
        Mind. He never enjoined obedience to the laws of nature,
        if by these are meant laws of matter, nor did he use drugs.
463:27  There is a law of God applicable to healing, and it is a
        spiritual law instead of material. The sick are not healed
        by inanimate matter or drugs, as they believe that they
463:30  are. Such seeming medical effect or action is that of so-
        called mortal mind.

                         Seclusion of the author

        It has been said to the author, "The world is bene-
464:1   fited by you, but it feels your influence without seeing
        you. Why do you not make yourself more widely
464:3   known?" Could her friends know how little
        time the author has had, in which to make
        herself outwardly known except through her laborious
464:6   publications, - and how much time and toil are still re-
        quired to establish the stately operations of Christian
        Science, - they would understand why she is so secluded.
464:9   Others could not take her place, even if willing so to do.
        She therefore remains unseen at her post, seeking no self-
        aggrandizement but praying, watching, and working for
464:12  the redemption of mankind.

        If from an injury or from any cause, a Christian Scien-
        tist were seized with pain so violent that he could not
464:15  treat himself mentally, - and the Scientists had failed
        to relieve him, - the sufferer could call a surgeon, who
        would give him a hypodermic injection, then, when the
464:18  belief of pain was lulled, he could handle his own case
        mentally. Thus it is that we "prove all things; [and]
        hold fast that which is good."

                     The right motive and its reward

464:21  In founding a pathological system of Christianity, the
        author has labored to expound divine Principle, and not
        to exalt personality. The weapons of bigotry,
464:24  ignorance, envy, fall before an honest heart.
        Adulterating Christian Science, makes it void.
        Falsity has no foundation. "The hireling fleeth, because
464:27  he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep." Neither
        dishonesty nor ignorance ever founded, nor can they over-
        throw a scientific system of ethics.




        CHAPTER XIV - RECAPITULATION

        For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept;
        line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there
        a little. - ISAIAH.

465:1   THIS chapter is from the first edition of the author's
        class-book, copyrighted in 1870. After much labor
465:3   and increased spiritual understanding, she revised that
        treatise for this volume in 1875. Absolute Christian
        Science pervades its statements, to elucidate scientific
465:6   metaphysics.

        QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

        /Question/. - What is God?
465:9   /Answer/. - God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite
        Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.

        /Question/. - Are these terms synonymous?
465:12  /Answer/. - They are. They refer to one absolute God.
        They are also intended to express the nature, essence, and
        wholeness of Deity. The attributes of God are justice,
465:15  mercy, wisdom, goodness, and so on.

        /Question/. - Is there more than one God or Principle?
        /Answer/. - There is not. Principle and its idea is one,
465:18  and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-
466:1   present Being, and His reflection is man and the universe.
        /Omni/ is adopted from the Latin adjective signifying /all/.
466:3   Hence God combines all-power or potency, all-science
        or true knowledge, all-presence. The varied manifesta-
        tions of Christian Science indicate Mind, never matter,
466:6   and have one Principle.

                          Real /versus/ unreal

        /Question/. - What are spirits and souls?
        /Answer/. - To human belief, they are personalities
466:9   constituted of mind and matter, life and death, truth and
        error, good and evil; but these contrasting
        pairs of terms represent contraries, as Chris-
466:12  tian Science reveals, which neither dwell together nor
        assimilate. Truth is immortal; error is mortal. Truth
        is limitless; error is limited. Truth is intelligent; error
466:15  is non-intelligent. Moreover, Truth is real, and error is
        unreal. This last statement contains the point you will
        most reluctantly admit, although first and last it is the
466:18  most important to understand.

                            Mankind redeemed

        The term /souls/ or /spirits/ is as improper as the term
        /gods/. Soul or Spirit signifies Deity and nothing else.
466:21  There is no finite soul nor spirit. Soul or
        Spirit means only one Mind, and cannot be
        rendered in the plural. Heathen mythology and Jewish
466:24  theology have perpetuated the fallacy that intelligence,
        soul, and life can be in matter; and idolatry and ritualism
        are the outcome of all man-made beliefs. The Science
466:27  of Christianity comes with fan in hand to separate the
        chaff from the wheat. Science will declare God aright,
        and Christianity will demonstrate this declaration and
466:30  its divine Principle, making mankind better physically,
        morally, and spiritually.

                           Two chief commands

467:1   /Question/. - What are the demands of the Science of
        Soul?
467:3   /Answer/. - The first demand of this Science is, " Thou
        shalt have no other gods before me." This /me/ is Spirit.
        Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt
467:6   have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no
        truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second
        is like unto it, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
467:9   It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one
        Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love.
        Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact
467:12  becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brother-
        hood of man will be established. Having no other gods,
        turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide
467:15  him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, hav-
        ing that Mind which was also in Christ.

                        Soul not confined in body

        Science reveals Spirit, Soul, as not in the body, and
467:18  God as not in man but as reflected by man. The greater
        cannot be in the lesser. The belief that the
        greater can be in the lesser is an error that
467:21  works ill. This is a leading point in the Science of Soul,
        that Principle is not in its idea. Spirit, Soul, is not
        confined in man, and is never in matter. We reason im-
467:24  perfectly from effect to cause, when we conclude that
        matter is the effect of Spirit; but /a priori/ reasoning
        shows material existence to be enigmatical. Spirit gives
467:27  the true mental idea. We cannot interpret Spirit, Mind,
        through matter. Matter neither sees, hears, nor feels.

                        Sinlessness of Mind, Soul

        Reasoning from cause to effect in the Science of Mind,
467:30  we begin with Mind, which must be under-
        stood through the idea which expresses it and
        cannot be learned from its opposite, matter. Thus we
468:1   arrive at Truth, or intelligence, which evolves its own
        unerring idea and never can be coordinate with human
468:3   illusions. If Soul sinned, it would be mortal, for sin is
        mortality's self, because it kills itself. If Truth is im-
        mortal, error must be mortal, because error is unlike
468:6   Truth. Because Soul is immortal, Soul cannot sin, for
        sin is not the eternal verity of being.

        /Question/. - What is the scientific statement of being?
468:9   /Answer/. - There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor sub-
        stance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite
        manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal
468:12  Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and
        eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is
        God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore
468:15  man is not material; he is spiritual.

                           Spiritual synonyms

        /Question/. - What is substance?
        /Answer/. - Substance is that which is eternal and inca-
468:18  pable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are
        substance, as the Scriptures use this word in
        Hebrews: "The substance of things hoped
468:21  for, the evidence of things not seen." Spirit, the synonym
        of Mind, Soul, or God, is the only real substance. The
        spiritual universe, including individual man, is a com-
468:24  pound idea, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit.

                            Eternity of Life

        /Question/. - What is Life?
        /Answer/. - Life is divine Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit.
468:27  Life is without beginning and without end.
        Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of
        Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in
468:30  proportion as the other is recognized. Time is finite;
469:1   eternity is forever infinite. Life is neither in nor of mat-
        ter. What is termed matter is unknown to Spirit, which
469:3   includes in itself all substance and is Life eternal. Mat-
        ter is a human concept. Life is divine Mind. Life is not
        limited. Death and finiteness are unknown to Life. If
469:6   Life ever had a beginning, it would also have an ending.

        /Question/. - What is intelligence?
        /Answer/. - Intelligence is omniscience, omnipresence,
469:9   and omnipotence. It is the primal and eternal quality
        of infinite Mind, of the triune Principle, - Life, Truth,
        and Love, - named God.

                        True sense of infinitude

469:12  /Question/. - What is Mind?
        /Answer/. - Mind is God. The exterminator of error
        is the great truth that God, good, is the /only/ Mind, and
469:15  that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind
        - called /devil/ or evil - is not Mind, is not
        Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality. There
469:18  can be but one Mind, because there is but one God; and
        if mortals claimed no other Mind and accepted no other,
        sin would be unknown. We can have but one Mind, if
469:21  that one is infinite. We bury the sense of infinitude,
        when we admit that, although God is infinite, evil has a
        place in this infinity, for evil can have no place, where all
469:24  space is filled with God.

                            The sole governor

        We lose the high signification of omnipotence, when
        after admitting that God, or good, is omnipresent and
469:27  has all-power, we still believe there is another
        power, named /evil/. This belief that there
        is more than one mind is as pernicious to divine theology
469:30  as are ancient mythology and pagan idolatry. With
470:1   one Father, even God, the whole family of man would
        be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good,
470:3   the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth,
        and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which
        constitute divine Science. The supposed existence of
470:6   more than one mind was the basic error of idolatry. This
        error assumed the loss of spiritual power, the loss of the
        spiritual presence of Life as infinite Truth without an
470:9   unlikeness, and the loss of Love as ever present and
        universal.

                    The divine standard of perfection

        Divine Science explains the abstract statement that
470:12  there is one Mind by the following self-evident propo-
        sition: If God, or good, is real, then evil, the
        unlikeness of God, is unreal. And evil can
470:15  only seem to be real by giving reality to the
        unreal. The children of God have but one Mind. How
        can good lapse into evil, when God, the Mind of man,
470:18  never sins? The standard of perfection was originally
        God and man. Has God taken down His own standard,
        and has man fallen?

                       Indestructible relationship

470:21  God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle
        of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection,
        man, remains perfect. Man is the expression
470:24  of God's being. If there ever was a moment
        when man did not express the divine perfec-
        tion, then there was a moment when man did not express
470:27  God, and consequently a time when Deity was unex-
        pressed - that is, without entity. If man has lost per-
        fection, then he has lost his perfect Principle, the divine
470:30  Mind. If man ever existed without this perfect Principle
        or Mind, then man's existence was a myth.

        The relations of God and man, divine Principle and
471:1   idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows
        no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine
471:3   order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He cre-
        ates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged
        in its eternal history.

                           Celestial evidence

471:6   The unlikeness of Truth, - named /error/, - the op-
        posite of Science, and the evidence before the five cor-
        poreal senses, afford no indication of the grand
471:9   facts of being; even as these so-called senses
        receive no intimation of the earth's motions or of the
        science of astronomy, but yield assent to astronomical
471:12  propositions on the authority of natural science.

        The facts of divine Science should be admitted, -
        although the evidence as to these facts is not supported
471:15  by evil, by matter, or by material sense, - because the
        evidence that God and man coexist is fully sustained by
        spiritual sense. Man is, and forever has been, God's re-
471:18  flection. God is infinite, therefore ever present, and
        there is no other power nor presence. Hence the spirit-
        uality of the universe is the only fact of creation. "Let
471:21  God be true, but every [material] man a liar."

                         The test of experience

        /Question/. - Are doctrines and creeds a benefit to man?
        /Answer/. - The author subscribed to an orthodox
471:24  creed in early youth, and tried to adhere to it until she
        caught the first gleam of that which inter-
        prets God as above mortal sense. This
471:27  view rebuked human beliefs, and gave the spiritual im-
        port, expressed through Science, of all that proceeds
        from the divine Mind. Since then her highest creed has
471:30  been divine Science, which, reduced to human apprehen-
        sion, she has named Christian Science. This Science
472:1   teaches man that God is the only Life, and that this Life
        is Truth and Love; that God is to be understood, adored,
472:3   and demonstrated; that divine Truth casts out supposi-
        tional error and heals the sick.

                         God's law destroys evil

        The way which leads to Christian Science is straight
472:6   and narrow. God has set His signet upon Science, mak-
        ing it coordinate with all that is real and only
        with that which is harmonious and eternal.
472:9   Sickness, sin, and death, being inharmonious, do not
        originate in God nor belong to His government. His
        law, rightly understood, destroys them. Jesus furnished
472:12  proofs of these statements.

                         Evanescent materiality

        /Question/. - What is error?
        /Answer/. - Error is a supposition that pleasure and
472:15  pain, that intelligence, substance, life, are existent in mat-
        ter. Error is neither Mind nor one of Mind's
        faculties. Error is the contradiction of Truth.
472:18  Error is a belief without understanding. Error is unreal
        because untrue. It is that which seemeth to be and is not.
        If error were true, its truth would be error, and we should
472:21  have a self-evident absurdity - namely, /erroneous truth/.
        Thus we should continue to lose the standard of Truth.

                       Unrealities that seem real

        /Question/. - Is there no sin?
472:24  /Answer/. - All reality is in God and His creation, har-
        monious and eternal. That which He creates is good,
        and He makes all that is made. Therefore
472:27  the only reality of sin, sickness, or death is
        the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human, erring
        belief, until God strips off their disguise. They are not
472:30  true, because they are not of God. We learn in Christian
473:1   Science that all inharmony of mortal mind or body is illu-
        sion, possessing neither reality nor identity though seeming
473:3   to be real and identical.

                         Christ the ideal Truth

        The Science of Mind disposes of all evil. Truth, God,
        is not the father of error. Sin, sickness, and death are
473:6   to be classified as effects of error. Christ
        came to destroy the belief of sin. The God-
        principle is omnipresent and omnipotent. God is every-
473:9   where, and nothing apart from Him is present or has
        power. Christ is the ideal Truth, that comes to heal
        sickness and sin through Christian Science, and attributes
473:12  all power to God. Jesus is the name of the man who,
        more than all other men, has presented Christ, the true
        idea of God, healing the sick and the sinning and destroy-
473:15  ing the power of death. Jesus is the human man, and
        Christ is the divine idea; hence the duality of Jesus the
        Christ.

                              Jesus not God

473:18  In an age of ecclesiastical despotism, Jesus introduced
        the teaching and practice of Christianity, affording the
        proof of Christianity's truth and love; but to
473:21  reach his example and to test its unerring Sci-
        ence according to his rule, healing sickness, sin, and
        death, a better understanding of God as divine Prin-
473:24  ciple, Love, rather than personality or the man Jesus, is
        required.

                          Jesus not understood

        Jesus established what he said by demonstration,
473:27  thus making his acts of higher importance than his
        words. He proved what he taught. This
        is the Science of Christianity. Jesus /proved/
473:30  the Principle, which heals the sick and casts out error,
        to be divine. Few, however, except his students un-
        derstood in the least his teachings and their glorious
474:1   proofs, - namely, that Life, Truth, and Love (the Prin-
        ciple of this unacknowledged Science) destroy all error,
474:3   evil, disease, and death.

                            Miracles rejected

        The reception accorded to Truth in the early Chris-
        tian era is repeated to-day. Whoever introduces the
474:6   Science of Christianity will be scoffed at and
        scourged with worse cords than those which
        cut the flesh. To the ignorant age in which it first
474:9   appears, Science seems to be a mistake, - hence the
        misinterpretation and consequent maltreatment which
        it receives. Christian marvels (and /marvel/ is the sim-
474:12  ple meaning of the Greek word rendered /miracle/ in the
        New Testament) will be misunderstood and misused
        by many, until the glorious Principle of these marvels is
474:15  gained.

                            Divine fulfilment

        If sin, sickness, and death are as real as Life, Truth,
        and Love, then they must all be from the same source;
474:18  God must be their author. Now Jesus came
        to destroy sin, sickness, and death yet the
        Scriptures aver, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."
474:21  Is it possible, then, to believe that the evils which Jesus
        lived to destroy are real or the offspring of the divine
        will?

                         Truth destroys falsity

474:24  Despite the hallowing influence of Truth in the de-
        struction of error, must error still be immortal? Truth
        spares all that is true. If evil is real, Truth
474:27  must make it so; but error, not Truth, is
        the author of the unreal, and the unreal vanishes,
        while all that is real is eternal. The apostle says that
474:30  the mission of Christ is to "destroy the works of the
        devil." Truth destroys falsity and error, for light and
        darkness cannot dwell together. Light extinguishes the
475:1   darkness, and the Scripture declares that there is "no
        night there." To Truth there is no error, - all is Truth.
475:3   To infinite Spirit there is no matter, - all is Spirit, divine
        Principle and its idea.

                         Fleshly factors unreal

        /Question/. - What is man?
475:6   /Answer/. - Man is not matter; he is not made up of
        brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The
        Scriptures inform us that man is made in
475:9   the image and likeness of God. Matter is
        not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so
        unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and be-
475:12  cause he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so under-
        stood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of
        Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of
475:15  God, including all right ideas; the generic term for
        all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious
        identity of being as found in Science, in which man is
475:18  the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal;
        that which has no separate mind from God; that which
        has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which
475:21  possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his
        own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker.

        And God said: "Let us make man in our image, after
475:24  our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish
        of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,
        and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that
475:27  creepeth upon the earth."

                              Man unfallen

        Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The
        real man cannot depart from holiness, nor
475:30  can God, by whom man is evolved, engender
        the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not
476:1   God's man. Mortals are the counterfeits of immortals.
        They are the children of the wicked one, or the one evil,
476:3   which declares that man begins in dust or as a material
        embryo. In divine Science, God and the real man are
        inseparable as divine Principle and idea.

                        Mortals are not immortals

476:6   Error, urged to its final limits, is self-destroyed.
        Error will cease to claim that soul is in body, that life
        and intelligence are in matter, and that
476:9   this matter is man. God is the Principle of
        man, and man is the idea of God. Hence man is not
        mortal nor material. Mortals will disappear, and im-
476:12  mortals, or the children of God, will appear as the only
        and eternal verities of man. Mortals are not fallen chil-
        dren of God. They never had a perfect state of being,
476:15  which may subsequently be regained. They were, from
        the beginning of mortal history, "conceived in sin and
        brought forth in iniquity." Mortality is finally swallowed
476:18  up in immortality. Sin, sickness, and death must dis-
        appear to give place to the facts which belong to immortal
        man.

                          Imperishable identity

476:21  Learn this, O mortal, and earnestly seek the spiritual
        status of man, which is outside of all material selfhood.
        Remember that the Scriptures say of mortal
476:24  man: "As for man, his days are as grass: as
        a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind
        passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall
476:27  know it no more."

                           The kingdom within

        When speaking of God's children, not the children of
        men, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you;"
476:30  that is, Truth and Love reign in the real
        man, showing that man in God's image is
        unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the per-
477:1   fect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal
        man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour
477:3   saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man
        healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom
        of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.
477:6   Man is not a material habitation for Soul; he is himself
        spiritual. Soul, being Spirit, is seen in nothing imperfect
        nor material.

                     Material body never God's idea

477:9   Whatever is material is mortal. To the five corporeal
        senses, man appears to be matter and mind united; but
        Christian Science reveals man as the idea of
477:12  God, and declares the corporeal senses to be
        mortal and erring illusions. Divine Science
        shows it to be impossible that a material body, though
477:15  interwoven with matter's highest stratum, misnamed
        mind, should be man, - the genuine and perfect man,
        the immortal idea of being, indestructible and eternal.
477:18  Were it otherwise, man would be annihilated.

                          Reflection of Spirit

        /Question/. - What are body and Soul?
        /Answer/. - Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the re-
477:21  flection in multifarious forms of the living Principle,
        Love. Soul is the substance, Life, and intelli-
        gence of man, which is individualized, but not
477:24  in matter. Soul can never reflect anything inferior to
        Spirit.

                       Man inseparable from Spirit

        Man is the expression of Soul. The Indians caught
477:27  some glimpses of the underlying reality, when
        they called a certain beautiful lake "the smile
        of the Great Spirit." Separated from man,
477:30  who expresses Soul, Spirit would be a nonentity; man,
        divorced from Spirit, would lose his entity. But there is,
478:1   there can be, no such division, for man is coexistent with
        God.

                            A vacant domicile

478:3   What evidence of Soul or of immortality have you
        within mortality? Even according to the teachings of
        natural science, man has never beheld Spirit
478:6   or Soul leaving a body or entering it. What
        basis is there for the theory of indwelling spirit, except
        the claim of mortal belief? What would be thought of
478:9   the declaration that a house was inhabited, and by a cer-
        tain class of persons, when no such persons were ever seen
        to go into the house or to come out of it, nor were they
478:12  even visible through the windows? Who can see a soul
        in the body?

                          Harmonious functions

        /Question/. - Does brain think, and do nerves feel, and
478:15  is there intelligence in matter?
        /Answer/. - No, not if God is true and mortal man a
        liar. The assertion that there can be pain or pleasure
478:18  in matter is erroneous. That body is most
        harmonious in which the discharge of the nat-
        ural functions is least noticeable. How can intelligence
478:21  dwell in matter when matter is non-intelligent and
        brain-lobes cannot think? Matter cannot perform the
        functions of Mind. Error says, "I am man;" but this
478:24  belief is mortal and far from actual. From beginning
        to end, whatever is mortal is composed of material hu-
        man beliefs and of nothing else. That only is real which
478:27  reflects God. St. Paul said, "But when it pleased God,
        who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me
        by His grace, . . . I conferred not with flesh and blood."

                           Immortal birthright

478:30  /Mortal man/ is really a self-contradictory phrase, for
        man is not mortal, "neither indeed can be;" man is im-
479:1   mortal. If a child is the offspring of physical sense and
        not of Soul, the child must have a material, not a spirit-
479:3   ual origin. With what truth, then, could the
        Scriptural rejoicing be uttered by any mother,
        "I have gotten a man from the Lord"? On the con-
479:6   trary, if aught comes from God, it cannot be mortal and
        material; it must be immortal and spiritual.

                       Matter's supposed selfhood

        Matter is neither self-existent nor a product of Spirit.
479:9   An image of mortal thought, reflected on the retina, is
        all that the eye beholds. Matter cannot see,
        feel, hear, taste, nor smell. It is not self-
479:12  cognizant, - cannot feel itself, see itself, nor
        understand itself. Take away so-called mortal mind,
        which constitutes matter's supposed selfhood, and matter
479:15  can take no cognizance of matter. Does that which we
        call dead ever see, hear, feel, or use any of the physical
        senses?

                           Chaos and darkness

479:18  "In the beginning God created the heaven and the
        earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and
        darkness was upon the face of the deep."
479:21  (Genesis i. 1, 2.) In the vast forever, in the
        Science and truth of being, the only facts are Spirit
        and its innumerable creations. Darkness and chaos
479:24  are the imaginary opposites of light, understanding,
        and eternal harmony, and they are the elements of
        nothingness.

                          Spiritual reflection

479:27  We admit that black is not a color, because it reflects
        no light. So evil should be denied identity or power,
        because it has none of the divine hues. Paul
479:30  says: "For the invisible things of Him, from
        the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being under-
        stood by the things that are made." (Romans i. 20.)
480:1   When the substance of Spirit appears in Christian Sci-
        ence, the nothingness of matter is recognized. Where
480:3   the spirit of God is, and there is no place where God is
        not, evil becomes nothing, - the opposite of the some-
        thing of Spirit. If there is no spiritual reflection, then
480:6   there remains only the darkness of vacuity and not a trace
        of heavenly tints.

                           Harmony from Spirit

        Nerves are an element of the belief that there is sensa-
480:9   tion in matter, whereas matter is devoid of sensation.
        Consciousness, as well as action, is governed
        by Mind, - is in God, the origin and gov-
480:12  ernor of all that Science reveals. Material sense has
        its realm apart from Science in the unreal. Harmonious
        action proceeds from Spirit, God. inharmony has no
480:15  Principle; its action is erroneous and presupposes man
        to be in matter. Inharmony would make matter the
        cause as well as the effect of intelligence, or Soul, thus
480:18  attempting to separate Mind from God.

                            Evil non-existent

        Man is not God, and God is not man. Again, God,
        or good, never made man capable of sin. It is the oppo-
480:21  site of good - that is, evil - which seems to
        make men capable of wrong-doing. Hence,
        evil is but an illusion, and it has no real basis. Evil is a
480:24  false belief. God is not its author. The supposititious
        parent of evil is a lie.

                          Vapor and nothingness

        The Bible declares: "All things were made by Him
480:27  [the divine Word]; and without Him was not anything,
        made that was made." This is the eternal
        verity of divine Science. If sin, sickness,
480:30  death were understood as nothingness, they would dis-
        appear. As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would
        vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the
481:1   other. How important, then, to choose good as the
        reality! Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing
481:3   else. God's being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and
        boundless bliss. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is,
        there is liberty." Like the archpriests of yore, man is
481:6   free "to enter into the holiest," - the realm of God.

                           The fruit forbidden

        Material sense never helps mortals to understand
        Spirit, God. Through spiritual sense only, man com-
481:9   prehends and loves Deity. The various con-
        tradictions of the Science of Mind by the ma-
        terial senses do not change the unseen Truth, which re-
481:12  mains forever intact. The forbidden fruit of knowledge,
        against which wisdom warns man, is the testimony of
        error, declaring existence to be at the mercy of death,
481:15  and good and evil to be capable of commingling. This
        is the significance of the Scripture concerning this "tree
        of the knowledge of good and evil," - this growth of
481:18  material belief, of which it is said: "In the day that thou
        eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Human hypotheses
        first assume the reality of sickness, sin, and death, and
481:21  then assume the necessity of these evils because of their
        admitted actuality. These human verdicts are the pro-
        curers of all discord.

                           Sense and pure Soul

481:24  If Soul sins, it must be mortal. Sin has the elements
        of self-destruction. It cannot sustain itself. If sin is
        supported, God must uphold it, and this is
481:27  impossible, since Truth cannot support error.
        Soul is the divine Principle of man and never sins, -
        hence the immortality of Soul. In Science we learn that
481:30  it is material sense, not Soul, which sins; and it will be
        found that it is the sense of sin which is lost, and not a
        sinful soul. When reading the Scriptures, the substitu-
482:1   tion of the word /sense/ for /soul/ gives the exact meaning in
        a majority of cases.

                              Soul defined

482:3   Human thought has adulterated the meaning of the
        word /soul/ through the hypothesis that soul is both an evil
        and a good intelligence, resident in matter.
482:6   The proper use of the word /soul/ can always
        be gained by substituting the word /God/, where the deific
        meaning is required. In other cases, use the word /sense/,
482:9   and you will have the scientific signification. As used
        in Christian Science, Soul is properly the synonym of
        Spirit, or God; but out of Science, soul is identical with
482:12  sense, with material sensation.

                            Sonship of Jesus

        /Question/. - Is it important to understand these ex-
        planations in order to heal the sick?
482:15  /Answer/. - It is, since Christ is "the way" and the
        truth casting out all error. Jesus called himself " the
        Son of man," but not the son of Joseph. As
482:18  woman is but a species of the genera, he was
        literally the Son of Man. Jesus was the highest human
        concept of the perfect man. He was inseparable from
482:21  Christ, the Messiah, - the divine idea of God outside
        the flesh. This enabled Jesus to demonstrate his con-
        trol over matter. Angels announced to the Wisemen of
482:24  old this dual appearing, and angels whisper it, through
        faith, to the hungering heart in every age.

                           Sickness erroneous

        Sickness is part of the error which Truth casts out.
482:27  Error will not expel error. Christian Science is the law
        of Truth, which heals the sick, on the basis
        of the one Mind or God. It can heal in no
482:30  other way, since the human, mortal mind so-called is not
        a healer, but causes the belief in disease.

                        True healing transcendent

483:1   Then comes the question, how do drugs, hygiene, and
        animal magnetism heal? It may be affirmed that they
483:3   do not heal, but only relieve suffering tempo-
        rarily, exchanging one disease for another.
        We classify disease as error, which nothing but Truth or
483:6   Mind can heal, and this Mind must be divine, not human.
        Mind transcends all other power, and will ultimately su-
        persede all other means in healing. In order to heal by
483:9   Science, you must not be ignorant of the moral and spir-
        itual demands of Science nor disobey them. Moral igno-
        rance or sin affects your demonstration, and hinders its
483:12  approach to the standard in Christian Science.

                       Terms adopted by the author

        After the author's sacred discovery, she affixed the
        name "Science" to Christianity, the name "error" to
483:15  corporeal sense, and the name "substance" to
        Mind. Science has called the world to battle
        over this issue and its demonstration, which
483:18  heals the sick, destroys error, and reveals the universal
        harmony. To those natural Christian Scientists, the an-
        cient worthies, and to Christ Jesus, God certainly revealed
483:21  the spirit of Christian Science, if not the absolute letter.

                             Science the way

        Because the Science of Mind seems to bring into dis-
        honor the ordinary scientific schools, which wrestle with
483:24  material observations alone, this Science has
        met with opposition; but if any system honors
        God, it ought to receive aid, not opposition, from all think-
483:27  ing persons. And Christian Science does honor God as
        no other theory honors Him, and it does this in the way
        of His appointing, by doing many wonderful works
483:30  through the divine name and nature. One must fulfil
        one's mission without timidity or dissimulation, for to be
        well done, the work must be done unselfishly. Christianity
484:1   will never be based on a divine Principle and so found to
        be unerring, until its absolute Science is reached. When
484:3   this is accomplished, neither pride, prejudice, bigotry,
        nor envy can wash away its foundation, for it is built upon
        the rock, Christ.

                            Mindless methods

484:6   /Question/. - Does Christian Science, or metaphysical
        healing, include medication, material hygiene, mesmer-
        ism, hypnotism, theosophy, or spiritualism?
484:9   /Answer/. - Not one of them is included in it. In di-
        vine Science, the supposed laws of matter yield to the
        law of Mind. What are termed natural
484:12  science and material laws are the objective
        states of mortal mind. The physical universe expresses
        the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals.
484:15  Physical force and mortal mind are one. Drugs and
        hygiene oppose the supremacy of the divine Mind.
        Drugs and inert matter are unconscious, mindless. Cer-
484:18  tain results, supposed to proceed from drugs, are really
        caused by the faith in them which the false human con-
        sciousness is educated to feel.

                         Animal magnetism error

484:21  Mesmerism is mortal, material illusion. Animal mag-
        netism is the voluntary or involuntary action of error
        in all its forms; it is the human antipode
484:24  of divine Science. Science must triumph
        over material sense, and Truth over error, thus putting
        an end to the hypotheses involved in all false theories
484:27  and practices.

                          Error only ephemeral

        /Question/. - Is materiality the concomitant of spirit-
        uality, and is material sense a necessary preliminary to
484:30  the understanding and expression of Spirit?
485:1   /Answer/. - If error is necessary to define or to reveal
        Truth, the answer is yes; but not otherwise. /Material
485:3   sense/ is an absurd phrase, for matter has no
        sensation. Science declares that Mind, not
        matter, sees, hears, feels, speaks. Whatever contradicts
485:6   this statement is the false sense, which ever betrays
        mortals into sickness, sin, and death. If the unimpor-
        tant and evil appear, only soon to disappear because
485:9   of their uselessness or their iniquity, then these ephem-
        eral views of error ought to be obliterated by Truth.
        Why malign Christian Science for instructing mortals how
485:12  to make sin, disease, and death appear more and more
        unreal?

                         Scientific translations

        Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not
485:15  to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come
        naturally into Spirit through better health and
        morals and as the result of spiritual growth.
485:18  Not death, but the understanding of Life, makes man im-
        mortal. The belief that life can be in matter or soul in
        body, and that man springs from dust or from an egg,
485:21  is the result of the mortal error which Christ, or Truth,
        destroys by fulfilling the spiritual law of being, in which
        man is perfect, even as the "Father which is in heaven
485:24  is perfect." If thought yields its dominion to other '
        powers, it cannot outline on the body its own beautiful
        images, but it effaces them and delineates foreign agents,
485:27  called disease and sin.

                            Material beliefs

        The heathen gods of mythology controlled war and
        agriculture as much as nerves control sensation or
485:30  muscles measure strength. To say that
        strength is in matter, is like saying that the
        power is in the lever. The notion of any life or intelli-
486:1   gence in matter is without foundation in fact, and you
        can have no faith in falsehood when you have learned
486:3   falsehood's true nature.

                           Sense /versus/ Soul

        Suppose one accident happens to the eye, another to
        the ear, and so on, until every corporeal sense is quenched.
486:6   What is man's remedy? To die, that he may
        regain these senses? Even then he must gain
        spiritual understanding and spiritual sense in order to
486:9   possess immortal consciousness. Earth's preparatory
        school must be improved to the utmost. In reality man
        never dies. The belief that he dies will not establish his
486:12  scientific harmony. Death is not the result of Truth but
        of error, and one error will not correct another.

                             Death an error

        Jesus proved by the prints of the nails, that his body
486:15  was the same immediately after death as before. If death
        restores sight, sound, and strength to man,
        then death is not an enemy but a better friend
486:18  than Life. Alas for the blindness of belief, which makes
        harmony conditional upon death and matter, and yet
        supposes Mind unable to produce harmony! So long
486:21  as this error of belief remains, mortals will continue mor-
        tal in belief and subject to chance and change.

                          Permanent sensibility

        Sight, hearing, all the spiritual senses of man, are
486:24  eternal. They cannot be lost. Their reality and immor-
        tality are in Spirit and understanding, not in
        matter, - hence their permanence. If this
486:27  were not so, man would be speedily annihilated. If the
        five corporeal senses were the medium through which
        to understand God, then palsy, blindness, and deafness
486:30  would place man in a terrible situation, where he would
        be like those "having no hope, and without God in the
        world;" but as a matter of fact, these calamities often
487:1   drive mortals to seek and to find a higher sense of happi-
        ness and existence.

                       Exercise of Mind-faculties

487:3   Life is deathless. Life is the origin and ultimate of
        man, never attainable through death, but gained by walk-
        ing in the pathway of Truth both before and
487:6   after that which is called death. There is more
        Christianity in seeing and hearing spiritually
        than materially. There is more Science in the perpetual
487:9   exercise of the Mind-faculties than in their loss. Lost
        they cannot be, while Mind remains. The apprehension
        of this gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf cen-
487:12  turies ago, and it will repeat the wonder.

                      Understanding /versus/ belief

        /Question/. - You speak of belief. Who or what is it
        that believes?
487:15  /Answer/. - Spirit is all-knowing; this precludes the
        need of believing. Matter cannot believe, and Mind
        understands. The body cannot believe. The
487:18  believer and belief are one and are mortal.
        Christian evidence is founded on Science or
        demonstrable Truth, flowing from immortal Mind, and
487:21  there is in reality no such thing as /mortal/ mind. Mere
        belief is blindness without Principle from which to ex-
        plain the reason of its hope. The belief that life is sen-
487:24  tient and intelligent matter is erroneous.

        The Apostle James said, "Show me thy faith without
        thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works."
487:27  The understanding that Life is God, Spirit, lengthens
        our days by strengthening our trust in the deathless
        reality of Life, its almightiness and immortality.

                         Confirmation by healing

487:30  This faith relies upon an understood Principle. This
        Principle makes whole the diseased, and brings out the
488:1   enduring and harmonious phases of things. The result
        of our teachings is their sufficient confirmation. When,
488:3   on the strength of these instructions, you are
        able to banish a severe malady, the cure shows
        that you understand this teaching, and therefore you re-
488:6   ceive the blessing of Truth.

                          Belief and firm trust

        The Hebrew and Greek words often translated /belief/
        differ somewhat in meaning from that conveyed by the
488:9   English verb /believe/; they have more the sig-
        nificance of faith, understanding, trust, con-
        stancy, firmness. Hence the Scriptures often appear in
488:12  our common version to approve and endorse belief, when
        they mean to enforce the necessity of understanding.

                         All faculties from Mind

        /Question/. - Do the five corporeal senses constitute
488:15  man?
        /Answer/. - Christian Science sustains with immortal
        proof the impossibility of any material sense, and defines
488:18  these so-called senses as /mortal beliefs/, the
        testimony of which cannot be true either of
        man or of his Maker. The corporeal senses can take no
488:21  cognizance of spiritual reality and immortality. Nerves
        have no more sensation, apart from what belief be-
        stows upon them, than the fibres of a plant. Mind alone
488:24  possesses all faculties, perception, and comprehension.
        Therefore mental endowments are not at the mercy of
        organization and decomposition, - otherwise the very
488:27  worms could unfashion man. If it were possible for the
        real senses of man to be injured, Soul could reproduce
        them in all their perfection; but they cannot be dis-
488:30  turbed nor destroyed, since they exist in immortal Mind,
        not in matter.

                          Possibilities of Life

489:1   The less mind there is manifested in matter the better.
        When the unthinking lobster loses its claw, the claw grows
489:3   again. If the Science of Life were understood,
        it would be found that the senses of Mind are
        never lost and that matter has no sensation. Then the
489:6   human limb would be replaced as readily as the lobster's
        claw, - not with an artificial limb, but with the genuine
        one. Any hypothesis which supposes life to be in matter
489:9   is an educated belief. In infancy this belief is not equal
        to guiding the hand to the mouth; and as consciousness
        develops, this belief goes out, - yields to the reality of
489:12  everlasting Life.

                          Decalogue disregarded

        Corporeal sense defrauds and lies; it breaks all the
        commands of the Mosaic Decalogue to meet its own de-
489:15  mands. How then can this sense be the God-
        given channel to man of divine blessings or
        understanding? How can man, reflecting God, be de-
489:18  pendent on material means for knowing, hearing, seeing?
        Who dares to say that the senses of man can be at one time
        the medium for sinning against God, at another the me-
489:21  dium for obeying God? An affirmative reply would con-
        tradict the Scripture, for the same fountain sendeth not
        forth sweet waters and bitter.

                     Organic construction valueless

489:24  The corporeal senses are the only source of evil or
        error. Christian Science shows them to be false, be-
        cause matter has no sensation, and no organic
489:27  construction can give it hearing and sight nor
        make it the medium of Mind. Outside the
        material sense of things, all is harmony. A wrong sense
489:30  of God, man, and creation is /non-sense/, want of sense.
        Mortal belief would have the material senses sometimes
        good and sometimes bad. It assures mortals that there
490:1   is real pleasure in sin; but the grand truths of Christian
        Science dispute this error.

                     Will-power an animal propensity

490:3   Will-power is but a product of belief, and this belief
        commits depredations on harmony. Human will is an
        animal propensity, not a faculty of Soul.
490:6   Hence it cannot govern man aright. Chris-
        tian Science reveals Truth and Love as the
        motive-powers of man. Will - blind, stubborn, and head-
490:9   long - cooperates with appetite and passion. From this
        cooperation arises its evil. From this also comes its pow-
        erlessness, since all power belongs to God, good.

                            Theories helpless

490:12  The Science of Mind needs to be understood. Until
        it is understood, mortals are more or less deprived of
        Truth. Human theories are helpless to make
490:15  man harmonious or immortal, since he is so
        already, according to Christian Science. Our only need
        is to know this and reduce to practice the real man's di-
490:18  vine Principle, Love

                         True nature and origin

        "Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings."
        Human belief - or knowledge gained from the so-called
490:21  material senses - would, by fair logic, anni-
        hilate man along with the dissolving elements
        of clay. The scientifically Christian explanations of the
490:24  nature and origin of man destroy all material sense with
        immortal testimony. This immortal testimony ushers
        in the spiritual sense of being, which can be obtained
490:27  in no other way.

                            Sleep an illusion

        Sleep and mesmerism explain the mythical nature of
        material sense. Sleep shows material sense as either
490:30  oblivion, nothingness, or an illusion or dream.
        Under the mesmeric illusion of belief, a man
        will think that he is freezing when he is warm, and that he
491:1   is swimming when he is on dry land. Needle-thrusts will
        not hurt him. A delicious perfume will seem intolerable.
491:3   Animal magnetism thus uncovers material sense, and
        shows it to be a belief without actual foundation or va-
        lidity. Change the belief, and the sensation changes.
491:6   Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears.

                         Man linked with Spirit

        Material man is made up of involuntary and voluntary
        error, of a negative right and a positive wrong, the latter
491:9   calling itself right. Man's spiritual individual-
        ity is never wrong. It is the likeness of man's
        Maker. Matter cannot connect mortals with the true
491:12  origin and facts of being, in which all must end. It is only
        by acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annuls
        the claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and
491:15  find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man
        forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator.

                         Material man as a dream

        The belief that matter and mind are one, - that mat-
491:18  ter is awake at one time and asleep at another, some-
        times presenting no appearance of mind, -
        this belief culminates in another belief, that
491:21  man dies. Science reveals material man as never the real
        being. The dream or belief goes on, whether our eyes are
        closed or open. In sleep, memory and consciousness are
491:24  lost from the body, and they wander whither they will
        apparently with their own separate embodiment. Per-
        sonality is not the individuality of man. A wicked man
491:27  may have an attractive personality.

                    Spiritual existence the one fact

        When we are awake, we dream of the pains and pleas-
        ures of matter. Who will say, even though he
491:30  does not understand Christian Science, that
        this dream - rather than the dreamer - may
        not be mortal man? Who can rationally say otherwise,
492:1   when the dream leaves mortal man intact in body and
        thought, although the so-called dreamer is unconscious?
492:3   For right reasoning there should be but one fact before
        the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there
        is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its
492:6   unlikeness, mortality.

                            Mind one and all

        Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already
        proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree,
492:9   will uplift the physical and moral standard
        of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify
        and elevate character. Thus progress will finally destroy
492:12  all error, and bring immortality to light. We know that
        a statement proved to be good must be correct. New
        thoughts are constantly obtaining the floor. These two
492:15  contradictory theories - that matter is something, or
        that all is Mind - will dispute the ground, until one is
        acknowledged to be the victor. Discussing his cam-
492:18  paign, General Grant said: "I propose to fight it out on
        this line, if it takes all summer." Science says: All is
        Mind and Mind's idea. You must fight it out on this
492:21  line. Matter can afford you no aid.

                          Scientific ultimatum

        The notion that mind and matter commingle in the
        human illusion as to sin, sickness, and death must even-
492:24  tually submit to the Science of Mind, which
        denies this notion. /God is Mind, and God is
        infinite; hence all is Mind/. On this statement rests the
492:27  Science of being, and the Principle of this Science is di-
        vine, demonstrating harmony and immortality.

                            Victory for Truth

        The conservative theory, long believed, is that there
492:30  are two factors, matter and mind, uniting on some im-
        possible basis. This theory would keep truth and error
        always at war. Victory would perch on neither banner.
493:1   On the other hand, Christian Science speedily shows
        Truth to be triumphant. To corporeal sense, the sun
493:3   appears to rise and set, and the earth to stand
        still; but astronomical science contradicts this,
        and explains the solar system as working on a differ-
493:6   ent plan. All the evidence of physical sense and all the
        knowledge obtained from physical sense must yield to
        Science, to the immortal truth of all things.

                           Mental preparation

493:9   /Question/, - Will you explain sickness and show how it
        is to be healed?
        /Answer/. - The method of Christian Science Mind-heal-
493:12  ing is touched upon in a previous chapter entitled Christian
        Science Practice. A full answer to the above
        question involves teaching, which enables the
493:15  healer to demonstrate and prove for himself the Principle
        and rule of Christian Science or metaphysical healing.

                         Mind destroys all ills

        Mind must be found superior to all the beliefs of the
493:18  five corporeal senses, and able to destroy all ills. Sick-
        ness is a belief, which must be annihilated by
        the divine Mind. Disease is an experience of
493:21  so-called mortal mind. It is fear made manifest on the
        body. Christian Science takes away this physical sense
        of discord, just as it removes any other sense of moral or
493:24  mental inharmony. That man is material, and that mat-
        ter suffers, - these propositions can only seem real and
        natural in illusion. Any sense of soul in matter is not the
493:27  reality of being.

        If Jesus awakened Lazarus from the dream, illusion, of
        death, this proved that the Christ could improve on a false
493:30  sense. Who dares to doubt this consummate test of the
        power and willingness of divine Mind to hold man forever
494:1   intact in his perfect state, and to govern man's entire
        action? Jesus said: "Destroy this temple [body], and
494:3   in three days I [Mind] will raise it up;" and he did this
        for tired humanity's reassurance.

                        Inexhaustible divine Love

        Is it not a species of infidelity to believe that so great
494:6   a work as the Messiah's was done for himself or for God,
        who needed no help from Jesus' example to
        preserve the eternal harmony? But mortals
494:9   did need this help, and Jesus pointed the way for them.
        Divine Love always has met and always will meet every
        human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demon-
494:12  strated the divine power to heal only for a select number
        or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and
        in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.

                           Reason and Science

494:15  The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love. Jesus
        demonstrated the inability of corporeality, as well as the
        infinite ability of Spirit, thus helping erring
494:18  human sense to flee from its own convictions
        and seek safety in divine Science. Reason, rightly di-
        rected, serves to correct the errors of corporeal sense; but
494:21  sin, sickness, and death will seem real (even as the ex-
        periences of the sleeping dream seem real) until the Sci-
        ence of man's eternal harmony breaks their illusion with
494:24  the unbroken reality of scientific being.

        Which of these two theories concerning man are you
        ready to accept? One is the mortal testimony, changing,
494:27  dying, unreal. The other is the eternal and real evidence,
        bearing Truth's signet, its lap piled high with immortal
        fruits.

                           Followers of Jesus

494:30  Our Master cast out devils (evils) and healed the sick.
        It should be said of his followers also, that they cast fear
        and all evil out of themselves and others and heal the sick.
495:1   God will heal the sick through man, whenever man is
        governed by God. Truth casts out error now
495:3   as surely as it did nineteen centuries ago. All
        of Truth is not understood; hence its healing power is not
        fully demonstrated.

                         Destruction of all evil

495:6   If sickness is true or the idea of Truth, you cannot
        destroy sickness, and it would be absurd to try. Then
        classify sickness and error as our Master did,
495:9   when he spoke of the sick, "whom Satan hath
        bound," and find a sovereign antidote for error in the life-
        giving power of Truth acting on human belief, a power
495:12  which opens the prison doors to such as are bound, and
        sets the captive free physically and morally.

                        Steadfast and calm trust

        When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling
495:15  steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His
        likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither
        fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and
495:18  calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious - as
        Life eternally is - can destroy any painful sense of, or
        belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science,
495:21  instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of
        being, and this understanding will supplant error with
        Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence dis-
495:24  cord with harmony.

                          Rudiments and growth

        /Question/. - How can I progress most rapidly in the
        understanding of Christian Science?
495:27  /Answer/. - Study thoroughly the letter and imbibe
        the spirit. Adhere to the divine Principle of Chris-
        tian Science and follow the behests of God,
495:30  abiding steadfastly in wisdom, Truth, and
        Love. In the Science of Mind, you will soon ascertain
496:1   that error cannot destroy error. You will also learn
        that in Science there is no transfer of evil suggestions
496:3   from one mortal to another, for there is but one Mind,
        and this ever-present omnipotent Mind is reflected by
        man and governs the entire universe. You will learn
496:6   that in Christian Science the first duty is to obey
        God, to have one Mind, and to love another as
        yourself.

                          Condition of progress

496:9   We all must learn that Life is God. Ask yourself:
        Am I living the life that approaches the supreme good?
        Am I demonstrating the healing power of
496:12  Truth and Love? If so then the way will
        grow brighter "unto the perfect day." Your fruits
        will prove what the understanding of God brings to man.
496:15  Hold perpetually this thought, - that it is the spiritual
        idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to
        demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing,
496:18  based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, over-
        lying, and encompassing all true being.

                           Triumph over death

        "The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is
496:21  the law," - the law of mortal belief, at war with the
        facts of immortal Life, even with the spiritual
        law which says to the grave, "Where is thy
496:24  victory?" But "when this corruptible shall have put
        on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on im-
        mortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that
496:27  is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."

        /Question/. - Have Christian Scientists any religious
        creed?
496:30  /Answer/. - They have not, if by that term is meant
        doctrinal beliefs. The following is a brief exposition of
497:1   the important points, or religious tenets, of Christian
        Science: -

497:3   1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word
        of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.

        2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and in-
497:6   finite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the
        Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's
        image and likeness.

497:9   3. We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the
        destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that
        casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is pun-
497:12  ished so long as the belief lasts.

        4. We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evi-
        dence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity
497:15  with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and
        we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ,
        through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the
497:18  Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming
        sin and death.

        5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and
497:21  his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eter-
        nal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the noth-
        ingness of matter.

497:24  6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for
        that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to
        do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and
497:27  to be merciful, just, and pure.







        KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES

        These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that
        hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth;
        and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold,
        I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.
        - REVELATION.




        CHAPTER XV - GENESIS

        And I appeared unto Abraham,, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the
        name of God Almighty; but by My name Jehovah was I not known to
        them. - EXODUS.

        All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything
        made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light
        of men. - JOHN.

                        Spiritual interpretation

501:1   SCIENTIFIC interpretation of the Scriptures prop-
        erly starts with the beginning of the Old Testa-
501:3   ment, chiefly because the spiritual import of
        the Word, in its earliest articulations, often
        seems so smothered by the immediate context as to
501:6   require explication; whereas the New Testament narra-
        tives are clearer and come nearer the heart. Jesus il-
        lumines them, showing the poverty of mortal existence,
501:9   but richly recompensing human want and woe with
        spiritual gain. The incarnation of Truth, that amplifi-
        cation of wonder and glory which angels could only
501:12  whisper and which God illustrated by light and har-
        mony, is consonant with ever-present Love. So-called
        mystery and miracle, which subserve the end of natural
501:15  good, are explained by that Love for whose rest the
        weary ones sigh when needing something more native
        to their immortal cravings than the history of perpetual
501:18  evil.

                           Spiritual overture

502:1   A second necessity for beginning with Genesis is that
        the living and real prelude of the older Scriptures is so
502:3   brief that it would almost seem, from the
        preponderance of unreality in the entire nar-
        rative, as if reality did not predominate over unreality,
502:6   the light over the dark, the straight line of Spirit over
        the mortal deviations and inverted images of the creator
        and His creation.

                           Deflection of being

502:9   Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the history
        of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This
        deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves to
502:12  suggest the proper reflection of God and the
        spiritual actuality of man, as given in the first chapter
        of Genesis. Even thus the crude forms of human thought
502:15  take on higher symbols and significations, when scien-
        tifically Christian views of the universe appear, illuminat-
        ing time with the glory of eternity.

502:18  In the following exegesis, each text is followed by its
        spiritual interpretation according to the teachings of Chris-
        tian Science.

502:21                          EXEGESIS

        /Genesis/ i. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven
        and the earth.

                          Ideas and identities

502:24  The infinite has no beginning. This word /beginning/
        is employed to signify /the only/, - that is, the eternal ver-
        ity and unity of God and man, including
502:27  the universe. The creative Principle - Life,
        Truth, and Love - is God. The universe reflects God.
        There is but one creator and one creation. This crea-
503:1   tion consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their
        identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and
503:3   forever reflected. These ideas range from the infini-
        tesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons
        and daughters of God.

503:6   /Genesis/ i. 2. And the earth was without form, and void;
        and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the
        spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

                            Spiritual harmony

503:9   The divine Principle and idea constitute spiritual har-
        mony, - heaven and eternity. In the universe of Truth,
        matter is unknown. No supposition of error
503:12  enters there. Divine Science, the Word of
        God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, "God
        is All-in-all," and the light of ever-present Love illumines
503:15  the universe. Hence the eternal wonder, - that infinite
        space is peopled with God's ideas, reflecting Him in
        countless spiritual forms.

503:18  /Genesis/ i. 3. And God said, Let there be light: and
        there was light.

                          Mind's idea faultless

        Immortal and divine Mind presents the idea of God:
503:21  /first/, in light; /second/, in reflection; /third/, in spiritual and
        immortal forms of beauty and goodness. But
        this Mind creates no element nor symbol of
503:24  discord and decay. God creates neither erring thought,
        mortal life, mutable truth, nor variable love.

        /Genesis/ i. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good:
503:27  and God divided the light from the darkness.

        God, Spirit, dwelling in infinite light and harmony
504:1   from which emanates the true idea, is never reflected by
        aught but the good.

504:3   /Genesis/ i. 5. And God called the light Day, and the
        darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morn-
        ing were the first day.

                         Light preceding the sun

504:6   All questions as to the divine creation being both
        spiritual and material are answered in this passage, for
        though solar beams are not yet included in
504:9   the record of creation, still there is light. This
        light is not from the sun nor from volcanic flames, but it
        is the revelation of Truth and of spiritual ideas. This
504:12  also shows that there is no place where God's light is not
        seen, since Truth, Life, and Love fill immensity and are
        ever-present. Was not this a revelation instead of a
504:15  creation?

                          Evenings and mornings

        The successive appearing of God's ideas is represented
        as taking place on so many /evenings/ and /mornings/, -
504:18  words which indicate, in the absence of solar
        time, spiritually clearer views of Him, views
        which are not implied by material darkness and dawn.
504:21  Here we have the explanation of another passage of
        Scripture, that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand
        years." The rays of infinite Truth, when gathered into
504:24  the focus of ideas, bring light instantaneously, whereas
        a thousand years of human doctrines, hypotheses, and
        vague conjectures emit no such effulgence.

                        Spirit /versus/ darkness

504:27  Did infinite Mind create matter, and call it /light?/
        Spirit is light, and the contradiction of Spirit is matter,
        darkness, and darkness obscures light. Mate-
504:30  rial sense is nothing but a supposition of the
        absence of Spirit. No solar rays nor planetary revolutions
505:1   form the day of Spirit. Immortal Mind makes its own
        record, but mortal mind, sleep, dreams, sin, disease, and
505:3   death have no record in the first chapter of Genesis.

        /Genesis/ i. 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in
        the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from
505:6   the waters.

                           Spiritual firmament

        Spiritual understanding, by which human conception,
        material sense, is separated from Truth, is the firmament.
505:9   The divine Mind, not matter, creates all iden-
        tities, and they are forms of Mind, the ideas of
        Spirit apparent only as Mind, never as mindless matter
505:12  nor the so-called material senses.

        /Genesis/ i. 7. And God made the firmament, and divided
        the waters which were under the firmament from the waters
505:15  which were above the firmament: and it was so.

                         Understanding imparted

        Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts con-
        sciousness and leads into all truth. The Psalmist saith:
505:18  "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise
        of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of
        the sea." Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual
505:21  good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between
        the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds
        Mind, - Life, Truth, and Love, - and demonstrates the
505:24  divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in
        Christian Science.

                           Original reflected

        This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result
505:27  of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things
        brought to light. God's ideas reflect the im-
        mortal, unerring, and infinite. The mortal,
505:30  erring, and finite are human beliefs, which apportion to
506:1   themselves a task impossible for them, that of distinguish-
        ing between the false and the true. Objects utterly un-
506:3   like the original do not reflect that original. Therefore
        matter, not being the reflection of Spirit, has no real en-
        tity. Understanding is a quality of God, a quality which
506:6   separates Christian Science from supposition and makes
        Truth final.

        /Genesis/ i. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven.
506:9   And the evening and the morning were the second day.

                             Exalted thought

        Through divine Science, Spirit, God, unites under-
        standing to eternal harmony. The calm and exalted
506:12  thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace.
        Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each
        successive stage of progress.

506:15  /Genesis/ i. 9. And God said, Let the waters under the
        heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry
        land appear: and it was so.

                          Unfolding of thoughts

506:18  Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their
        proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts,
        even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose
506:21  in order that the purpose may appear.

        /Genesis/ i. 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and
        the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and
506:24  God saw that it was good.

                        Spirit names and blesses

        Here the human concept and divine idea seem con-
        fused by the translator, but they are not so in the scien-
506:27  tifically Christian meaning of the text. Upon
        Adam devolved the pleasurable task of find-
        ing names for all material things, but Adam has not yet
507:1   appeared in the narrative. In metaphor, the /dry land/
        illustrates the absolute formations instituted by Mind,
507:3   while /water/ symbolizes the elements of Mind. Spirit duly
        feeds and clothes every object, as it appears in the line
        of spiritual creation, thus tenderly expressing the father-
507:6   hood and motherhood of God. Spirit names and blesses
        all. Without natures particularly defined, objects and
        subjects would be obscure, and creation would be full of
507:9   nameless offspring, - wanderers from the parent Mind,
        strangers in a tangled wilderness.

        /Genesis/ i. 11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth
507:12  grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding
        fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth:
        and it was so.

                           Divine propagation

507:15  The universe of Spirit reflects the creative power of
        the divine Principle, or Life, which reproduces the multi-
        tudinous forms of Mind and governs the mul-
507:18  tiplication of the compound idea man. The
        tree and herb do not yield fruit because of any propagat-
        ing power of their own, but because they reflect the Mind
507:21  which includes all. A material world implies a mortal
        mind and man a creator. The scientific divine creation
        declares immortal Mind and the universe created by God.

                         Ever-appearing creation

507:24  Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the men-
        tal molecule to infinity. This divine Principle of all
        expresses Science and art throughout His
507:27  creation, and the immortality of man and the
        universe. Creation is ever appearing, and must ever con-
        tinue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source.
507:30  Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas mate-
        rial. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall
508:1   to the level of a human or material belief, called mortal
        man. But the seed is in itself, only as the divine Mind
508:3   is All and reproduces all - as Mind is the multiplier,
        and Mind's infinite idea, man and the universe, is the
        product. The only intelligence or substance of a thought,
508:6   a seed, or a flower is God, the creator of it. Mind is the
        Soul of all. Mind is Life, Truth, and Love which gov-
        erns all.

508:9   /Genesis/ i. 12. And the earth brought forth grass, and
        herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding
        fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw
508:12  that it was good.

                           Mind's pure thought

        God determines the gender of His own ideas. Gen-
        der is mental, not material. The seed within itself is
508:15  the pure thought emanating from divine
        Mind. The feminine gender is not yet ex-
        pressed in the text. /Gender/ means simply /kind/ or /sort/,
508:18  and does not necessarily refer either to masculinity or
        femininity. The word is not confined to sexuality, and
        grammars always recognize a neuter gender, neither
508:21  male nor female. The Mind or intelligence of produc-
        tion names the female gender last in the ascending order
        of creation. The intelligent individual idea, be it male
508:24  or female, rising from the lesser to the greater, unfolds
        the infinitude of Love.

        /Genesis/ i. 13. And the evening and the morning were
508:27  the third day.

                           Rising to the light

        The third stage in the order of Christian Science is an
        important one to the human thought, letting in the light
509:1   of spiritual understanding. This period corresponds to
        the resurrection, when Spirit is discerned to be the Life of
509:3   all, and the deathless Life, or Mind, dependent
        upon no material organization. Our Master
        reappeared to his students, - to their apprehension he
509:6   rose from the grave, - on the third day of his ascending
        thought, and so presented to them the certain sense of
        eternal Life.

509:9   /Genesis/ i. 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the
        firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night;
        and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days,
509:12  and years.

                         Rarefaction of thought

        Spirit creates no other than heavenly or celestial bodies,
        but the stellar universe is no more celestial than our earth.
509:15  This text gives the idea of the rarefaction of
        thought as it ascends higher. God forms and
        peoples the universe. The light of spiritual understand-
509:18  ing gives gleams of the infinite only, even as nebulae indi-
        cate the immensity of space.

                         Divine nature appearing

        So-called mineral, vegetable, and animal substances
509:21  are no more contingent now on time or material struc-
        ture than they were when "the morning stars
        sang together." Mind made the "plant of
509:24  the field before it was in the earth." The periods of
        spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind's
        creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness
509:27  - yea, the divine nature - appear in man and the uni-
        verse never to disappear.

                       Spiritual ideas apprehended

        Knowing the Science of creation, in which all is Mind
509:30  and its ideas, Jesus rebuked the material thought of his
        fellow-countrymen: "Ye can discern the face of the
510:1   sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?"
        How much more should we seek to apprehend the spirit-
510:3   ual ideas of God, than to dwell on the objects
        of sense! To discern the rhythm of Spirit
        and to be holy, thought must be purely spiritual.

510:6   /Genesis/ i. 15. And let them be for lights in the firma-
        ment of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it
        was so.

510:9   Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose
        "light shall we see light;" and this illumination is re-
        flected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn
510:12  away from a false material sense.

        /Genesis/ i. 16. And God made two great lights; the
        greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the
510:15  night: He made the stars also.

                            Geology a failure

        The sun is a metaphorical representation of Soul out-
        side the body, giving existence and intelligence to the
510:18  universe. Love alone can impart the limit-
        less idea of infinite Mind. Geology has never
        explained the earth's formations; it cannot explain them.
510:21  There is no Scriptural allusion to solar light until time has
        been already divided into evening and morning; and the
        allusion to fluids (Genesis i. 2) indicates a supposed for-
510:24  mation of matter by the resolving of fluids into solids,
        analogous to the suppositional resolving of thoughts into
        material things.

                          Spiritual subdivision

510:27  Light is a symbol of Mind, of Life, Truth, and Love,
        and not a vitalizing property of matter. Sci-
        ence reveals only one Mind, and this one shin-
510:30  ing by its own light and governing the universe, including
511:1   man, in perfect harmony. This Mind forms ideas, its
        own images, subdivides and radiates their borrowed light,
511:3   intelligence, and so explains the Scripture phrase, "whose
        seed is in itself." Thus God's ideas "multiply and re-
        plenish the earth." The divine Mind supports the sub-
511:6   limity, magnitude, and infinitude of spiritual creation.

        /Genesis/ i. 17, 18. And God set them in the firmament of
        the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over
511:9   the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the
        darkness: and God saw that it was good.

                           Darkness scattered

        In divine Science, which is the seal of Deity and has
511:12  the impress of heaven, God is revealed as in-
        finite light. In the eternal Mind, no night is
        there.

511:15  /Genesis/ i. 19. And the evening and the morning were
        the fourth day.

        The changing glow and full effulgence of God's infi-
511:18  nite ideas, images, mark the periods of progress.

        /Genesis/ i. 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth
        abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl
511:21  that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of
        heaven.

                           Soaring aspirations

        To mortal mind, the universe is liquid, solid, and aeri-
511:24  form. Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains stand
        for solid and grand ideas. Animals and mor-
        tals metaphorically present the gradation of
511:27  mortal thought, rising in the scale of intelligence, taking
        form in masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. The
        fowls, which fly above the earth in the open firmament
512:1   of heaven, correspond to aspirations soaring beyond and
        above corporeality to the understanding of the incorporeal
512:3   and divine Principle, Love.

        /Genesis/ i. 21. And God created great whales, and every
        living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth
512:6   abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after
        his kind: and God saw that it was good.

                            Seraphic symbols

        Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power,
512:9   and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These an-
        gels of His presence, which have the holiest
        charge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of
512:12  Mind, and consequently reproduce their own character-
        istics. Their individual forms we know not, but we do
        know that their natures are allied to God's nature; and
512:15  spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the externalized, yet
        subjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding.

        /Genesis/ i. 22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruit-
512:18  ful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let
        fowl multiply in the earth.

                      Multiplication of pure ideas

        Spirit blesses the multiplication of its own pure and
512:21  perfect ideas. From the infinite elements of the one
        Mind emanate all form, color, quality, and
        quantity, and these are mental, both primarily
512:24  and secondarily. Their spiritual nature is discerned only
        through the spiritual senses. Mortal mind inverts the true
        likeness, and confers animal names and natures upon its
512:27  own misconceptions. Ignorant of the origin and opera-
        tions of mortal mind, - that is, ignorant of itself, - this
        so-called mind puts forth its own qualities, and claims
512:30  God as their author; albeit God is ignorant of the ex-
513:1   istence of both this mortal mentality, so-called, and its
        claim, for the claim usurps the deific prerogatives and is
513:3   an attempted infringement on infinity.

        /Genesis/ i. 23. And the evening and the morning were
        the fifth day.

                            Spiritual spheres

513:6   Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of
        Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. To
        material sense, this divine universe is dim and
513:9   distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight;
        but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light.
        In the record, time is not yet measured by solar revolutions,
513:12  and the motions and reflections of deific power cannot be
        apprehended until divine Science becomes the interpreter.

        /Genesis/ i. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth
513:15  the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing,
        and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

                         Continuity of thoughts

        Spirit diversifies, classifies, and individualizes all
513:18  thoughts, which are as eternal as the Mind
        conceiving them; but the intelligence, exist-
        ence, and continuity of all individuality remain in God,
513:21  who is the divinely creative Principle thereof.

        /Genesis/ i. 25. And God made the beast of the earth after
        his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that
513:24  creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that
        it was good.

                  God's thoughts are spiritual realities

        God creates all forms of reality. His thoughts are
513:27  spiritual realities. So-called mortal mind - being non-
        existent and consequently not within the range of im-
514:1   mortal existence - could not by simulating deific power
        invert the divine creation, and afterwards recreate per-
514:3   sons or things upon its own plane, since noth-
        ing exists beyond the range of all-inclusive
        infinity, in which and of which God is the
514:6   sole creator. Mind, joyous in strength, dwells in the
        realm of Mind. Mind's infinite ideas run and dis-
        port themselves. In humility they climb the heights of
514:9   holiness.

                          Qualities of thought

        Moral courage is "the lion of the tribe of Juda," the
        king of the mental realm. Free and fearless it roams in
514:12  the forest. Undisturbed it lies in the open
        field, or rests in "green pastures, . . . beside
        the still waters." In the figurative transmission from the
514:15  divine thought to the human, diligence, promptness, and
        perseverance are likened to "the cattle upon a thousand
        hills." They carry the baggage of stern resolve, and
514:18  keep pace with highest purpose. Tenderness accompa-
        nies all the might imparted by Spirit. The individ-
        uality created by God is not carnivorous, as witness the
514:21  millennial estate pictured by Isaiah: -

             The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
             And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
514:24       And the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together;
             And a little child shall lead them.

                         Creatures of God useful

        Understanding the control which Love held over all,
514:27  Daniel felt safe in the lions' den, and Paul proved the
        viper to be harmless. All of God's creatures
        moving in the harmony of Science, are harm-
514:30  less, useful, indestructible. A realization of this grand
        verity was a source of strength to the ancient worthies.
515:1   It supports Christian healing, and enables its possessor
        to emulate the example of Jesus. "And God saw that
515:3   it was good."

                          The serpent harmless

        Patience is symbolized by the tireless worm, creeping
        over lofty summits, persevering in its intent. The ser-
515:6   pent of God's creating is neither subtle nor
        poisonous, but is a wise idea, charming in its
        adroitness, for Love's ideas are subject to the Mind which
515:9   forms them, - the power which changeth the serpent
        into a staff.

        /Genesis/ i. 26. And God said, Let us make man in our
515:12  image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over
        the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
        the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
515:15  thing that creepeth upon the earth.

                           Elohistic plurality

        The eternal Elohim includes the forever universe.
        The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of
515:18  Spirit does not imply more than one God, nor
        does it imply three persons in one. It relates
        to the oneness, the triunity of Life, Truth, and Love.
515:21  "Let /them/ have dominion." Man is the family name
        for all ideas, - the sons and daughters of God. All that
        God imparts moves in accord with Him, reflecting good-
515:24  ness and power.

                           Reflected likeness

        Your mirrored reflection is your own image or like-
        ness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also.
515:27  If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in
        accord with yours. Now compare man before
        the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror
515:30  divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note
516:1   how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection
        to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in
516:3   the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of
        God. The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love,
        which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation;
516:6   and when we subordinate the false testimony of the
        corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see
        this true likeness and reflection everywhere.

                           Love imparts beauty

516:9   God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life
        is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in
        goodness, which impart their own peace and
516:12  permanence. Love, redolent with unselfish-
        ness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneath
        our feet silently exclaims, "The meek shall inherit the
516:15  earth." The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath to
        heaven. The great rock gives shadow and shelter. The
        sunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the
516:18  prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the
        flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth. Man,
        made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God's domin-
516:21  ion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistent
        and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality,
        the infinite Father-Mother God.

516:24  /Genesis/ i. 27. So God created man in His own image,
        in the image of God created He him; male and female
        created He them.

                           Ideal man and woman

516:27  To emphasize this momentous thought, it is repeated
        that God made man in His own image, to reflect the
        divine Spirit. It follows that man is a generic
516:30  term. Masculine, feminine, and neuter gen-
        ders are human concepts. In one of the ancient lan-
517:1   guages the word for /man/ is used also as the synonym of
        /mind/. This definition has been weakened by anthropo-
517:3   morphism, or a humanization of Deity. The word /an-
        thropomorphic/, in such a phrase as "an anthropomorphic
        God," is derived from two Greek words, signifying /man/
517:6   and /form/, and may be defined as a mortally mental at-
        tempt to reduce Deity to corporeality. The life-giving
        quality of Mind is Spirit, not matter. The ideal man
517:9   corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth.
        The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love. In
        divine Science, we have not as much authority for con-
517:12  sidering God masculine, as we have for considering
        Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of
        Deity.

                           Divine personality

517:15  The world believes in many persons; but if God is per-
        sonal, there is but one person, because there is but one
        God. His personality can only be reflected,
517:18  not transmitted. God has countless ideas, and
        they all have one Principle and parentage. The only
        proper symbol of God as person is Mind's infinite ideal.
517:21  What is this ideal? Who shall behold it? This ideal
        is God's own image, spiritual and infinite. Even eternity
        can never reveal the whole of God, since there is no limit
517:24  to infinitude or to its reflections.

        /Genesis/ i. 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto
        them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,
517:27  and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea,
        and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing
        that moveth upon the earth.

                            Birthright of man

517:30  Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to
        multiply, - to manifest His power. Man is not made
518:1   to till the soil. His birthright is dominion, not sub-
        jection. He is lord of the belief in earth
518:3   and heaven, - himself subordinate alone to
        his Maker. This is the Science of being.

        /Genesis/ i. 29, 30. And God said, Behold, I have given
518:6   you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all
        the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree
        yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every
518:9   beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to
        everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is
        life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it
518:12  was so.

                        Assistance in brotherhood

        God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a link to the
        greater, and in return, the higher always protects the
518:15  lower. The rich in spirit help the poor in
        one grand brotherhood, all leaving the same
        Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth
518:18  his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in
        another's good. Love giveth to the least spiritual idea
        might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through
518:21  all as the blossom shines through the bud. All the varied
        expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality -
        infinite Life, Truth, and Love.

518:24  /Genesis/ i. 31. And God saw everything that He had
        made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and
        the morning were the sixth day.

                         Perfection of creation

518:27  The divine Principle, or Spirit, comprehends and ex-
        presses all, and all must therefore be as perfect is the
        divine Principle is perfect. Nothing is new to Spirit.
519:1   Nothing can be novel to eternal Mind, the author of all
        things, who from all eternity knoweth His own ideas.
519:3   Deity was satisfied with His work. How could
        He be otherwise, since the spiritual creation
        was the outgrowth, the emanation, of His infinite self-
519:6   containment and immortal wisdom?

        /Genesis/ ii. 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were
        finished, and all the host of them.

                          Infinity measureless

519:9   Thus the ideas of God in universal being are complete
        and forever expressed, for Science reveals infinity and
        the fatherhood and motherhood of Love. Hu-
519:12  man capacity is slow to discern and to grasp
        God's creation and the divine power and presence which
        go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin. Mortals
519:15  can never know the infinite, until they throw off the old
        man and reach the spiritual image and likeness. What
        can fathom infinity! How shall we declare Him, till,
519:18  in the language of the apostle, "we all come in the unity
        of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto
        a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the ful-
519:21  ness of Christ"?

        /Genesis/ ii. 2. And on the seventh day God ended His
        work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh
519:24  day from all His work which He had made.

                          Resting in holy work

        God rests in action. Imparting has not impoverished,
        can never impoverish, the divine Mind. No
519:27  exhaustion follows the action of this Mind,
        according to the apprehension of divine Science. The
520:1   highest and sweetest rest, even from a human standpoint,
        is in holy work.

                         Love and man coexistent

520:3   Unfathomable Mind is expressed. The depth, breadth,
        height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all
        space. That is enough! Human language
520:6   can repeat only an infinitesimal part of what
        exists. The absolute ideal, man, is no more seen nor
        comprehended by mortals, than is His infinite Principle,
520:9   Love. Principle and its idea, man, are coexistent and
        eternal. The numerals of infinity, called /seven days/, can
        never be reckoned according to the calendar of time.
520:12  These days will appear as mortality disappears, and they
        will reveal eternity, newness of Life, in which all sense of
        error forever disappears and thought accepts the divine
520:15  infinite calculus.

        /Genesis/ ii. 4, 5. These are the generations of the heavens
        and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the
520:18  Lord God [Jehovah] made the earth and the heavens, and
        every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every
        herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God [Jehovah]
520:21  had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not
        a man to till the ground.

                           Growth is from Mind

        Here is the emphatic declaration that God creates all
520:24  through Mind, not through matter, - that the plant
        grows, not because of seed or soil, but because
        growth is the eternal mandate of Mind. Mor-
520:27  tal thought drops into the ground, but the immortal creat-
        ing thought is from above, not from beneath. Because
        Mind makes all, there is nothing left to be made by a
520:30  lower power. Spirit acts through the Science of Mind,
        never causing man to till the ground, but making him
521:1   superior to the soil. Knowledge of this lifts man above
        the sod, above earth and its environments, to conscious
521:3   spiritual harmony and eternal being.

                           Spiritual narrative

        Here the inspired record closes its narrative of being
        that is without beginning or end. All that is made is
521:6   the work of God, and all is good. We leave
        this brief, glorious history of spiritual creation
        (as stated in the first chapter of Genesis) in the hands of
521:9   God, not of man, in the keeping of Spirit, not matter, -
        joyfully acknowledging now and forever God's supremacy,
        omnipotence, and omnipresence.

521:12  The harmony and immortality of man are intact. We
        should look away from the opposite supposition that man
        is created materially, and turn our gaze to the spiritual
521:15  record of creation, to that which should be engraved on
        the understanding and heart "with the point of a diamond"
        and the pen of an angel.


521:18  The reader will naturally ask if there is nothing more
        about creation in the book of Genesis. Indeed there is,
        but the continued account is mortal and material.

521:21  /Genesis/ ii. 6. But there went up a mist from the earth,
        and watered the whole face of the ground.

                           The story of error

        The Science and truth of the divine creation have been
521:24  presented in the verses already considered, and now the
        opposite error, a material view of creation, is
        to be set forth. The second chapter of Gene-
521:27  sis contains a statement of this material view of God and
        the universe, a statement which is the exact opposite of
        scientific truth as before recorded. The history of error
521:30  or matter, if veritable, would set aside the omnipotence
522:1   of Spirit; but it is the false history in contradistinction
        to the true.

                             The two records

522:3   The Science of the first record proves the falsity of
        the second. If one is true, the other is false, for they are
        antagonistic. The first record assigns all
522:6   might and government to God, and endows
        man out of God's perfection and power. The second
        record chronicles man as mutable and mortal, - as hav-
522:9   ing broken away from Deity and as revolving in an orbit
        of his own. Existence, separate from divinity, Science
        explains as impossible.

522:12  This second record unmistakably gives the history of
        error in its externalized forms, called life and intelli-
        gence in matter. It records pantheism, opposed to the
522:15  supremacy of divine Spirit; but this state of things is
        declared to be temporary and this man to be mortal, -
        dust returning to dust.

                        Erroneous representation

522:18  In this erroneous theory, matter takes the place of Spirit.
        Matter is represented as the life-giving principle of the
        earth. Spirit is represented as entering mat-
522:21  ter in order to create man. God's glowing
        denunciations of man when not found in His
        image, the likeness of Spirit, convince reason and coincide
522:24  with revelation in declaring this material creation false.

                          Hypothetical reversal

        This latter part of the second chapter of Genesis, which
        portrays Spirit as supposedly cooperating with matter in
522:27  constructing the universe, is based on some
        hypothesis of error, for the Scripture just pre-
        ceding declares God's work to be finished. Does Life,
522:30  Truth, and Love produce death, error, and hatred? Does
        the creator condemn His own creation? Does the un-
        erring Principle of divine law change or repent? It can-
523:1   not be so. Yet one might so judge from an unintelligent
        perusal of the Scriptural account now under comment.

                          Mist, or false claim

523:3   Because of its false basis, the mist of obscurity evolved
        by error deepens the false claim, and finally declares that
        God knows error and that error can improve
523:6   His creation. Although presenting the exact
        opposite of Truth, the lie claims to be truth. The crea-
        tions of matter arise from a mist or false claim, or from
523:9   mystification, and not from the firmament, or under-
        standing, which God erects between the true and false.
        In error everything comes from beneath, not from above.
523:12  All is material myth, instead of the reflection of
        Spirit.

                           Distinct documents

        It may be worth while here to remark that, according
523:15  to the best scholars, there are clear evidences of two dis-
        tinct documents in the early part of the book of
        Genesis. One is called the Elohistic, because
523:18  the Supreme Being is therein called Elohim. The other
        document is called the Jehovistic, because Deity therein is
        always called Jehovah, - or Lord God, as our common
523:21  version translates it.

                            Jehovah or Elohim

        Throughout the first chapter of Genesis and in three
        verses of the second, - in what we understand to be the
523:24  spiritually scientific account of creation, - it is
        Elohim (God) who creates. From the fourth
        verse of chapter two to chapter five, the creator is called
523:27  Jehovah, or the Lord. The different accounts become
        more and more closely intertwined to the end of chapter
        twelve, after which the distinction is not definitely trace-
523:30  able. In the historic parts of the Old Testament, it is
        usually Jehovah, peculiarly the divine sovereign of the
        Hebrew people, who is referred to.

                           Gods of the heathen

524:1   The idolatry which followed this material mythology is
        seen in the Phoenician worship of Baal, in the Moabitish
524:3   god Chemosh, in the Moloch of the Amorites,
        in the Hindoo Vishnu, in the Greek Aphro-
        dite, and in a thousand other so-called deities.

                         Jehovah a tribal deity

524:6   It was also found among the Israelites, who constantly
        went after "strange gods." They called the Supreme
        Being by the national name of Jehovah. In
524:9   that name of Jehovah, the true idea of God
        seems almost lost. God becomes "a man of war," a
        tribal god to be worshipped, rather than Love, the divine
524:12  Principle to be lived and loved.

        /Genesis/ ii. 7. And the Lord God [Jehovah] formed man
        of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils
524:15  the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

                            Creation reversed

        Did the divine and infinite Principle become a finite
        deity, that he should now be called Jehovah? With
        l8 a single command, Mind had made man,
        both male and female. How then could a
        material organization become the basis of man? How
524:21  could the non-intelligent become the medium of Mind,
        and error be the enunciator of Truth? Matter is not
        the reflection of Spirit, yet God is reflected in all His
524:24  creation. Is this addition to His creation real or un-
        real? Is it the truth, or is it a lie concerning man and
        God?

524:27  It must be a lie, for God presently curses the ground.
        Could Spirit evolve its opposite, matter, and give matter
        ability to sin and suffer? Is Spirit, God, injected into
524:30  dust, and eventually ejected at the demand of matter?
        Does Spirit enter dust, and lose therein the divine nature
525:1   and omnipotence? Does Mind, God, enter matter to be-
        come there a mortal sinner, animated by the breath of
525:3   God? In this narrative, the validity of matter is opposed,
        not the validity of Spirit or Spirit's creations. Man re-
        flects God; /mankind/ represents the Adamic race, and is
525:6   a human, not a divine, creation.

                           Definitions of man

        The following are some of the equivalents of the term
        /man/ in different languages. In the Saxon, /mankind, a
525:9   /woman, any one/; in the Welsh, /that which rises
        up/, - the primary sense being /image, form/; in
        the Hebrew, /image, similitude/; in the Icelandic, /mind/.
525:12  The following translation is from the Icelandic: -

        And God said, Let us make man after our mind and
        our likeness; and God shaped man after His mind; after
525:15  God's mind shaped He Him; and He shaped them male and
        female.

                           No baneful creation

        In the Gospel of John, it is declared that all things were
525:18  made through the Word of God, "and without Him [the
        /logos/, or /word/] was not anything made that
        was made." Everything good or worthy, God
525:21  made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not
        make, - hence its unreality. In the Science of Genesis
        we read that He saw everything which He had made,
525:24  "and, behold, it was very good." The corporeal senses
        declare otherwise; and if we give the same heed to the
        history of error as to the records of truth, the Scriptural
525:27  record of sin and death favors the false conclusion of the
        material senses. Sin, sickness, and death must be deemed
        as devoid of reality as they are of good, God.

525:30  /Genesis/ ii. 9. And out of the ground made the Lord God
        [Jehovah] to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight,
526:1   and good for food; the tree of life also, in the midst of the
        garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

                      Contradicting first creation

526:3   The previous and more scientific record of creation
        declares that God made "every plant of the field be-
        fore it was in the earth." This opposite
526:6   declaration, this statement that life issues
        from matter, contradicts the teaching of the first chap-
        ter, - namely, that all Life is God. Belief is less than
526:9   understanding. Belief involves theories of material hear-
        ing, sight, touch, taste, and smell, termed the five senses.
        The appetites and passions, sin, sickness, and death,
526:12  follow in the train of this error of a belief in intelligent
        matter.

                             Record of error

        The first mention of evil is in the legendary Scriptural
526:15  text in the second chapter of Genesis. God pronounced
        good all that He created, and the Scriptures
        declare that He created all. The "tree of
526:18  life" stands for the idea of Truth, and the sword which
        guards it is the type of divine Science. The "tree of
        knowledge" stands for the erroneous doctrine that the
526:21  knowledge of evil is as real, hence as God-bestowed, as
        the knowledge of good. Was evil instituted through God,
        Love? Did He create this fruit-bearer of sin in contra-
526:24  diction of the first creation? This second biblical account
        is a picture of error throughout.

        /Genesis/ ii. 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] took the
526:27  man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and
        to keep it.

                             Garden of Eden

        The name Eden, according to Cruden, means /pleasure/,
526:30  /delight./ In this text Eden stands for the mortal, mate-
527:1   rial body. God could not put Mind into matter nor in-
        finite Spirit into finite form to dress it and
527:3   keep it, - to make it beautiful or to cause it
        to live and grow. Man is God's reflection, needing no
        cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete.

527:6   /Genesis/ ii. 16, 17. And the Lord God [Jehovah] com-
        manded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou
        mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good
527:9   and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou
        eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

                         No temptation from God

        Here the metaphor represents God, Love, as tempting
527:12  man, but the Apostle James says: "God cannot be
        tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any
        man." It is true that a knowledge of evil would
527:15  make man mortal. It is plain also that mate-
        rial perception, gathered from the corporeal senses, consti-
        tutes evil and mortal knowledge. But is it true that God,
527:18  good, made "the tree of life" to be the tree of death to His
        own creation? Has evil the reality of good? Evil is un-
        real because it is a lie, - false in every statement.

527:21  /Genesis/ ii. 19. And out of the ground the Lord God
        [Jehovah] formed every beast of the field, and every fowl
        of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he
527:24  would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living
        creature, that was the name thereof.

                         Creation's counterfeit

        Here the lie represents God as repeating creation, but
527:27  doing so materially, not spiritually, and ask-
        ing a prospective sinner to help Him. Is the
        Supreme Being retrograding, and is man giving up his
527:30  dignity? Was it requisite for the formation of man
528:1   that dust should become sentient, when all being is the
        reflection of the eternal Mind, and the record declares
528:3   that God has already created man, both male and
        female? That Adam gave the name and nature of
        animals, is solely mythological and material. It can-
528:6   not be true that man was ordered to create man anew
        in partnership with God; this supposition was a dream,
        a myth.

528:9   /Genesis/ ii. 21, 22. And the Lord God [Jehovah, Yawah]
        caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and
        He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead
528:12  thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God [Jehovah] had
        taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto
        the man.

                            Hypnotic surgery

528:15  Here falsity, error, credits Truth, God, with inducing
        a sleep or hypnotic state in Adam in order to perform a
        surgical operation on him and thereby create
528:18  woman. This is the first record of magnet-
        ism. Beginning creation with darkness instead of light,
        - materially rather than spiritually, - error now simu-
528:21  lates the work of Truth, mocking Love and declar-
        ing what great things error has done. Beholding the
        creations of his own dream and calling them real and
528:24  God-given, Adam - /alias/ error - gives them names.
        Afterwards he is supposed to become the basis of the
        creation of woman and of his own kind, calling them
528:27  /mankind/, - that is, a kind of man.

                            Mental midwifery

        But according to this narrative, surgery was first per-
        formed mentally and without instruments;
528:30  and this may be a useful hint to the medical
        faculty. Later in human history, when the forbidden
529:1   fruit was bringing forth fruit of its own kind, there
        came a suggestion of change in the /modus operandi/, -
529:3   that man should be born of woman, not woman again
        taken from man. It came about, also, that instruments
        were needed to assist the birth of mortals. The first
529:6   system of suggestive obstetrics has changed. Another
        change will come as to the nature and origin of man,
        and this revelation will destroy the /dream/ of existence,
529:9   reinstate reality, usher in Science and the glorious fact
        of creation, that both man and woman proceed from
        God and are His eternal children, belonging to no lesser
529:12  parent.

        /Genesis/ iii. 1-3. Now the serpent was more subtle than
        any beast of the field which the Lord God [Jehovah] had
529:15  made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said,
        Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the
        woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of
529:18  the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is
        in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat
        of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

                            Mythical serpent

529:21  Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the
        children of divine Love? The serpent enters into the
        metaphor only as evil. We have nothing in the
529:24  animal kingdom which represents the species
        described, - a talking serpent, - and should rejoice that
        evil, by whatever figure presented, contradicts itself and
529:27  has neither origin nor support in Truth and good. Seeing
        this, we should have faith to fight all claims of evil, be-
        cause we know that they are worthless and unreal.

                              Error or Adam

529:30  Adam, the synonym for error, stands for a belief of
        material mind. He begins his reign over man some-
530:1   what mildly, but he increases in falsehood and his days
        become shorter. In this development, the im-
530:3   mortal, spiritual law of Truth is made manifest
        as forever opposed to mortal, material sense.

                            Divine providence

        In divine Science, man is sustained by God, the divine
530:6   Principle of being. The earth, at God's command, brings
        forth food for man's use. Knowing this, Jesus
        once said, "Take no thought for your life,
530:9   what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink," - presuming
        not on the prerogative of his creator, but recognizing God,
        the Father and Mother of all, as able to feed and clothe
530:12  man as He doth the lilies.

        /Genesis/ iii. 4, 5. And the serpent said unto the woman,
        Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day
530:15  ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall
        be as gods, knowing good and evil.

                           Error's assumption

        This myth represents error as always asserting its su-
530:18  periority over truth, giving the lie to divine Science and
        saying, through the material senses: "I can
        open your eyes. I can do what God has not
530:21  done for you. Bow down to me and have another god.
        Only admit that I am real, that sin and sense are more
        pleasant to the eyes than spiritual Life, more to be de-
530:24  sired than Truth, and I shall know you, and you will be
        mine." Thus Spirit and flesh war.

                           Scriptural allegory

        The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream
530:27  has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the
        dreamer and dream are one, for neither is
        true nor real. /First/, this narrative supposes
530:30  that something springs from nothing, that matter pre-
        cedes mind. /Second/, it supposes that mind enters matter,
531:1   and matter becomes living, substantial, and intelligent.
        The order of this allegory - the belief that everything
531:3   springs from dust instead of from Deity - has been main-
        tained in all the subsequent forms of belief. This is the
        error, - that mortal man starts materially, that non-
531:6   intelligence becomes intelligence, that mind and soul are
        both right and wrong.

                               Higher hope

        It is well that the upper portions of the brain represent
531:9   the higher moral sentiments, as if hope were ever prophe-
        sying thus: The human mind will sometime
        rise above all material and physical sense, ex-
531:12  changing it for spiritual perception, and exchanging hu-
        man concepts for the divine consciousness. Then man
        will recognize his God-given dominion and being.

                          Biological inventions

531:15  If, in the beginning, man's body originated in non-
        intelligent dust, and mind was afterwards put into body
        by the creator, why is not this divine order
531:18  still maintained by God in perpetuating the
        species? Who will say that minerals, vegetables, and
        animals have a propagating property of their own?
531:21  Who dares to say either that God is in matter or that
        matter exists without God? Has man sought out other
        creative inventions, and so changed the method of his
531:24  Maker?

        Which institutes Life, - matter or Mind? Does Life
        begin with Mind or with matter? Is Life sustained by
531:27  matter or by Spirit? Certainly not by both, since flesh
        wars against Spirit and the corporeal senses can take no
        cognizance of Spirit. The mythologic theory of mate-
531:30  rial life at no point resembles the scientifically Christian
        record of man as created by Mind in the image and like-
        ness of God and having dominion over all the earth. Did
532:1   God at first create one man unaided, - that is, Adam, -
        but afterwards require the union of the two sexes in order
532:3   to create the rest of the human family? No! God makes
        and governs all.

                             Progeny cursed

        All human knowledge and material sense must be
532:6   gained from the five corporeal senses. Is this knowledge
        safe, when eating its first fruits brought death?
        "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
532:9   surely die," was the prediction in the story under consid-
        eration. Adam and his progeny were cursed, not blessed;
        and this indicates that the divine Spirit, or Father, con-
532:12  demns material man and remands him to dust.

        /Genesis/ iii. 9, 10. And the Lord God [Jehovah] called
        unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he
532:15  said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid,
        because I was naked; and I hid myself.

                         Shame the effect of sin

        Knowledge and pleasure, evolved through material
532:18  sense, produced the immediate fruits of fear and shame.
        Ashamed before Truth, error shrank abashed
        from the divine voice calling out to the cor-
532:21  poreal senses. Its summons may be thus paraphrased:
        "Where art thou, man? Is Mind in matter? Is Mind
        capable of error as well as of truth, of evil as well as of
532:24  good, when God is All and He is Mind and there is but
        one God, hence one Mind?"

                           Fear comes of error

        Fear was the first manifestation of the error of mate-
532:27  rial sense. Thus error began and will end the dream of
        matter, In the allegory the body had been
        naked, and Adam knew it not; but now error
532:30  demands that /mind/ shall see and feel through matter, the
        five senses. The first impression material man had of
533:1   himself was one of nakedness and shame. Had he lost
        man's rich inheritance and God's behest, dominion over
533:3   all the earth? No! This had never been bestowed on
        Adam.

        /Genesis/ iii. 11, 12. And He said, Who told thee that
533:6   thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I
        commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man
        said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave
533:9   me of the tree, and I did eat.

                         The beguiling first lie

        Here there is an attempt to trace all human errors
        directly or indirectly to God, or good, as if He were the
533:12  creator of evil. The allegory shows that the
        snake-talker utters the first voluble lie, which
        beguiles the woman and demoralizes the man. Adam,
533:15  /alias mortal error/, charges God and woman with his own
        dereliction, saying, "The woman, whom Thou gavest
        me, is responsible." According to this belief, the rib taken
533:18  from Adam's side has grown into an evil mind, named
        /woman/, who aids man to make sinners more rapidly than
        he can alone. Is this an help meet for man?

533:21  Materiality, so obnoxious to God, is already found in the
        rapid deterioration of the bone and flesh which came from
        Adam to form Eve. The belief in material life and in-
533:24  telligence is growing worse at every step, but error has its
        suppositional day and multiplies until the end thereof.

                             False womanhood

        Truth, cross-questioning man as to His knowledge of
533:27  error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She
        says, " The serpent beguiled me, and I did
        eat;" as much as to say in meek penitence,
533:30  "Neither man nor God shall father my fault." She has
        already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence
534:1   she is first to abandon the belief in the material origin of
        man and to discern spiritual creation. This hereafter
534:3   enabled woman to be the mother of Jesus and to behold
        at the sepulchre the risen Saviour, who was soon to mani-
        fest the deathless man of God's creating. This enabled
534:6   woman to be first to interpret the Scriptures in their true
        sense, which reveals the spiritual origin of man.

        /Genesis/ iii. 14, 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said
534:9   unto the serpent, . . . I will put enmity between thee and
        the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall
        bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

                            Spirit and flesh

534:12  This prophecy has been fulfilled. The Son of the Virgin-
        mother unfolded the remedy for Adam, or error; and the
        Apostle Paul explains this warfare between the
534:15  idea of divine power, which Jesus presented,
        and mythological material intelligence called /energy/ and
        opposed to Spirit.

534:18  Paul says in his epistle to the Romans: "The carnal
        mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the
        law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that
534:21  are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the
        flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell
        in you."

                           Bruising sin's head

534:24  There will be greater mental opposition to the spirit-
        ual, scientific meaning of the Scriptures than there has
        ever been since the Christian era began. The
534:27  serpent, material sense, will bite the heel of
        the woman, - will struggle to destroy the spiritual idea
        of Love; and the woman, this idea, will bruise the head
534:30  of lust. The spiritual idea has given the understanding
535:1   a foothold in Christian Science. The seed of Truth and
        the seed of error, of belief and of understanding, - yea,
535:3   the seed of Spirit and the seed of matter, - are the wheat
        and tares which time will separate, the one to be burned,
        the other to be garnered into heavenly places.

535:6   /Genesis/ iii. 16. Unto the woman He said, I will greatly
        multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow thou
        shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy
535:9   husband, and he shall rule over thee.

                            Judgment on error

        Divine Science deals its chief blow at the supposed ma-
        terial foundations of life and intelligence. It dooms idol-
535:12  atry. A belief in other gods, other creators,
        and other creations must go down before Chris-
        tian Science. It unveils the results of sin as shown in
535:15  sickness and death. When will man pass through the
        open gate of Christian Science into the heaven of Soul,
        into the heritage of the first born among men? Truth is
535:18  indeed " the way."

        /Genesis/ iii. 17-19. And unto Adam He said, Because
        thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast
535:21  eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou
        shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in
        sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns
535:24  also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt
        eat the herb of the field: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou
        eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it
535:27  wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt
        thou return.

                        New earth and no more sea

        In the first chapter of Genesis we read: "And God
535:30  called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together
536:1   of the waters called He Seas." In the Apocalypse it is
        written: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for
536:3   the first heaven and the first earth were passed
        away; and there was no more sea." In St.
        John's vision, heaven and earth stand for spir-
536:6   itual ideas, and the sea, as a symbol of tempest-tossed
        human concepts advancing and receding, is represented
        as having passed away. The divine understanding reigns,
536:9   is /all/ and there is no other consciousness.

                            The fall of error

        The way of error is awful to contemplate. The illu-
        sion of sin is without hope or God. If man's spiritual
536:12  gravitation and attraction to one Father, in
        whom we " live, and move, and have our be-
        ing," should be lost, and if man should be governed by
536:15  corporeality instead of divine Principle, by body instead
        of by Soul, man would be annihilated. Created by flesh
        instead of by Spirit, starting from matter instead of from
536:18  God, mortal man would be governed by himself. The
        blind leading the blind, both would fall.

                             True attainment

        Passions and appetites must end in pain. They are
536:21  "of few days, and full of trouble." Their supposed joys
        are cheats. Their narrow limits belittle their gratifica-
        tions, and hedge about their achievements with thorns.
536:24  Mortal mind accepts the erroneous, material concep-
        tion of life and joy, but the true idea is gained from the
        immortal side. Through toil, struggle, and sor-
536:27  row, what do mortals attain? They give up
        their belief in perishable life and happiness; the mortal
        and material return to dust, and the immortal is reached.

536:30  /Genesis/ iii. 22-24. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said,
        Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good
537:1   and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take
        also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore
537:3   the Lord God [Jehovah] sent him forth from the garden
        of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
        So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east
537:6   of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword
        which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of
        life.

                         Justice and recompense

537:9   A knowledge of evil was never the essence of divin-
        ity or manhood. In the first chapter of Genesis, evil
        has no local habitation nor name. Crea-
537:12  tion is there represented as spiritual, entire,
        and good. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he
        also reap." Error excludes itself from harmony. Sin
537:15  is its own punishment. Truth guards the gateway
        to harmony. Error tills its own barren soil and buries
        itself in the ground, since ground and dust stand for
537:18  nothingness.

                         Inspired interpretation

        No one can reasonably doubt that the purpose of this
        allegory - this second account in Genesis - is to depict
537:21  the falsity of error and the effects of error.
        Subsequent Bible revelation is coordinate
        with the Science of creation recorded in the
537:24  first chapter of Genesis. Inspired writers interpret the
        Word spiritually, while the ordinary historian interprets
        it literally. Literally taken, the text is made to appear
537:27  contradictory in some places, and divine Love, which
        blessed the earth and gave it to man for a possession, is
        represented as changeable. The literal meaning would
537:30  imply that God withheld from man the opportunity to
        reform, lest man should improve it and become better;
        but this is not the nature of God, who is Love always, -
538:1   Love infinitely wise and altogether lovely, who "seeketh
        not her own."

                            Spiritual gateway

538:3   Truth should, and does, drive error out of all selfhood.
        Truth is a two-edged sword, guarding and guiding.
        Truth places the cherub wisdom at the gate
538:6   of understanding to note the proper guests.
        Radiant with mercy and justice, the sword of Truth
        gleams afar and indicates the infinite distance between
538:9   Truth and error, between the material and spiritual, -
        the unreal and the real.

                          Contrasted testimony

        The sun, giving light and heat to the earth, is a figure
538:12  of divine Life and Love, enlightening and sustaining the
        universe. The "tree of life" is significant of
        eternal reality or being. The "tree of knowl-
538:15  edge" typifies unreality. The testimony of the serpent is
        significant of the illusion of error, of the false claims that
        misrepresent God, good. Sin, sickness, and death have
538:18  no record in the Elohistic introduction of Genesis, in which
        God creates the heavens, earth, and man. Until that
        which contradicts the truth of being enters into the arena,
538:21  evil has no history, and evil is brought into view only as
        the unreal in contradistinction to the real and eternal.

        /Genesis/ iv. 1. And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she
538:24  conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man
        from the Lord [Jehovah].

                          Erroneous conception

        This account is given, not of immortal man, but of mor-
538:27  tal man, and of sin which is temporal. As both mortal
        man and sin have a beginning, they must
        consequently have an end, while the sinless,
538:30  real man is eternal. Eve's declaration, "I have gotten
        a man from the Lord," supposes God to be the author
539:1   of sin and sin's progeny. This false sense of existence
        is fratricidal. In the words of Jesus, it (evil, devil) is
539:3   "a murderer from the beginning." Error begins by
        reckoning life as separate from Spirit, thus sapping the
        foundations of immortality, as if life and immortality
539:6   were something which matter can both give and take
        away.

                            Only one standard

        What can be the standard of good, of Spirit, of Life,
539:9   or of Truth, if they produce their opposites, such as evil,
        matter, error, and death? God could never
        impart an element of evil, and man possesses
539:12  nothing which he has not derived from God. How then
        has man a basis for wrong-doing? Whence does he
        obtain the propensity or power to do evil? Has Spirit
539:15  resigned to matter the government of the universe?

                           A type of falsehood

        The Scriptures declare that God condemned this lie as
        to man's origin and character by condemning its symbol,
539:18  the serpent, to grovel beneath all the beasts
        of the field. It is false to say that Truth and
        error commingle in creation. In parable and argument,
539:21  this falsity is exposed by our Master as self-evidently
        wrong. Disputing these points with the Pharisees and
        arguing for the Science of creation, Jesus said: "Do men
539:24  gather grapes of thorns?" Paul asked: "What com-
        munion hath light with darkness? And what concord
        hath Christ with Belial?"

                          Scientific offspring

539:27  The divine origin of Jesus gave him more than human
        power to expound the facts of creation, and demonstrate
        the one Mind which makes and governs man
539:30  and the universe. The Science of creation,
        so conspicuous in the birth of Jesus inspired his wisest
        and least-understood sayings, and was the basis of his
540:1   marvellous demonstrations. Christ is the offspring of
        Spirit, and spiritual existence shows that Spirit creates
540:3   neither a wicked nor a mortal man, lapsing into sin, sick-
        ness, and death.

                           Cleansing upheaval

        In Isaiah we read: "I make peace, and create evil. I
540:6   the Lord do all these things;" but the prophet referred to
        divine law as stirring up the belief in evil to its
        utmost, when bringing it to the surface and re-
540:9   ducing it to its common denominator, nothingness. The
        muddy river-bed must be stirred in order to purify the
        stream. In moral chemicalization, when the symptoms
540:12  of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our igno-
        rance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought
        to know that God's law uncovers so-called sin and its
540:15  effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil
        and all power to sin.

                          Allegiance to Spirit

        Science renders "unto Caesar the things which are
540:18  Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." It
        saith to the human sense of sin, sickness, and
        death, "God never made you, and you are a
540:21  false sense which hath no knowledge of God." The pur-
        pose of the Hebrew allegory, representing error as assum-
        ing a divine character, is to teach mortals never to believe
540:24  a lie.

        /Genesis/ iv. 3, 4. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground
        an offering unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And Abel, he also
540:27  brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.

                         Spiritual and material

        Cain is the type of mortal and material man, conceived
        in sin and "shapen in iniquity;" he is not the
540:30  type of Truth and Love. Material in origin
        and sense, he brings a material offering to God. Abel
541:1   takes his offering from the firstlings of the flock. A lamb
        is a more animate form of existence, and more nearly re-
541:3   sembles a mind-offering than does Cain's fruit. Jealous
        of his brother's gift, Cain seeks Abel's life, instead of mak-
        ing his own gift a higher tribute to the Most High.

541:6   /Genesis/ iv. 4, 5. And the Lord [Jehovah] had respect
        unto Abel, and to his offering: but unto Cain, and to his
        offering, He had not respect.

541:9   Had God more respect for the homage bestowed through
        a gentle animal than for the worship expressed by Cain's
        fruit? No; but the lamb was a more spiritual type of
541:12  even the human concept of Love than the herbs of the
        ground could be.

        /Genesis/ iv. 8. Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and
541:15  slew him.

        The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelli-
        gence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood
541:18  of man at the very outset.

        /Genesis/ iv. 9. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Cain,
        Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am
541:21  I my brother's keeper?

                         Brotherhood repudiated

        Here the serpentine lie invents new forms. At first it
        usurps divine power. It is supposed to say
541:24  in the first instance, "Ye shall be as gods."
        Now it repudiates even the human duty of man towards
        his brother.

541:27  /Genesis/ iv. 10, 11. And He [Jehovah] said, . . . The
        voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground.
        And now art thou cursed from the earth.

                         Murder brings its curse

542:1   The belief of life in matter sins at every step. It in-
        curs divine displeasure, and it would kill Jesus that it
542:3   might be rid of troublesome Truth. Material
        beliefs would slay the spiritual idea when-
        ever and wherever it appears. Though error hides
542:6   behind a lie and excuses guilt, error cannot forever be
        concealed. Truth, through her eternal laws, unveils
        error. Truth causes sin to betray itself, and sets upon
542:9   error the mark of the beast. Even the disposition to
        excuse guilt or to conceal it is punished. The avoidance
        of justice and the denial of truth tend to perpetuate sin,
542:12  invoke crime, jeopardize self-control, and mock divine
        mercy.

        /Genesis/ iv. 15. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him
542:15  Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken
        on him sevenfold. And the Lord [Jehovah] set a mark
        upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

                         Retribution and remorse

542:18  "They that take the sword shall perish with the
        sword." Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God's
        own way, and let human justice pattern the
542:21  divine. Sin will receive its full penalty, both
        for what it is and for what it does. Justice marks
        the sinner, and teaches mortals not to remove the
542:24  waymarks of God. To envy's own hell, justice con-
        signs the lie which, to advance itself, breaks God's
        commandments.

542:27  /Genesis/ iv. 16. And Cain went out from the presence of
        the Lord [Jehovah], and dwelt in the land of Nod.

                           Climax of suffering

        The sinful misconception of Life as something less
543:1   than God, having no truth to support it, falls back upon
        itself. This error, after reaching the climax of suffering,
543:3   yields to Truth and returns to dust; but it
        is only mortal man and not the real man,
        who dies. The image of Spirit cannot be effaced, since it
543:6   is the idea of Truth and changes not, but becomes more
        beautifully apparent at error's demise.

                          Dwelling in dreamland

        In divine Science, the material man is shut out from
543:9   the presence of God. The five corporeal senses cannot
        take cognizance of Spirit. They cannot come
        into His presence, and must dwell in dream-
543:12  land, until mortals arrive at the understanding that ma-
        terial life, with all its sin, sickness, and death, is an illu-
        sion, against which divine Science is engaged in a warfare
543:15  of extermination. The great verities of existence are
        never excluded by falsity.

                          Man springs from Mind

        All error proceeds from the evidence before the mate-
543:18  rial senses. If man is material and originates in an
        egg, who shall say that he is not primarily
        dust? May not Darwin be right in think-
543:21  ing that apehood preceded mortal manhood? Minerals
        and vegetables are found, according to divine Science,
        to be the creations of erroneous thought, not of matter.
543:24  Did man, whom God created with a word, originate
        in an egg? When Spirit made all, did it leave aught
        for matter to create? Ideas of Truth alone are reflected
543:27  in the myriad manifestations of Life, and thus it is
        seen that man springs solely from Mind. The belief
        that matter supports life would make Life, or God,
543:30  mortal.

                           Material inception

        The text, "In the day that the Lord God [Jehovah
        God] made the earth and the heavens," introduces the
544:1   record of a material creation which followed the spiritual,
        - a creation so wholly apart from God's, that Spirit
544:3   had no participation in it. In God's creation
        ideas became productive, obedient to Mind.
        There was no rain and "not a man to till the ground."
544:6   Mind, instead of matter, being the producer, Life was
        self-sustained. Birth, decay, and death arise from the
        material sense of things, not from the spiritual, for in
544:9   the latter Life consisteth not of the things which a man
        eateth. Matter cannot change the eternal fact that
        man exists because God exists. Nothing is new to the
544:12  infinite Mind.

                          First evil suggestion

        In Science, Mind neither produces matter nor does
        matter produce mind. No mortal mind has the might
544:15  or right or wisdom to create or to destroy.
        All is under the control of the one Mind,
        even God. The first statement about evil, - the first
544:18  suggestion of more than the one Mind, - is in the fable
        of the serpent. The facts of creation, as previously re-
        corded, include nothing of the kind.

                          Material personality

544:21  The serpent is supposed to say, "Ye shall be as gods,"
        but these gods must be evolved from materiality and be
        the very antipodes of immortal and spiritual
544:24  being. Man is the likeness of Spirit, but a
        material personality is not this likeness. Therefore man,
        in this allegory, is neither a lesser god nor the image and
544:27  likeness of the one God.

        Material, erroneous belief reverses understanding and
        truth. It declares mind to be in and of matter, so-called
544:30  mortal life to be Life, infinity to enter man's nostrils
        so that matter becomes spiritual. Error begins with
        corporeality as the producer instead of divine Prin-
545:1   ciple, and explains Deity through mortal and finite con-
        ceptions.

545:3   "Behold, the man is become as one of us." This could
        not be the utterance of Truth or Science, for according
        to the record, material man was fast degenerating and
545:6   never had been divinely conceived.

                             Mental tillage

        The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means
        this, - that mortals should so improve material belief
545:9   by thought tending spiritually upward as to
        destroy materiality. Man, created by God,
        was given dominion over the whole earth. The notion
545:12  of a material universe is utterly opposed to the theory
        of man as evolved from Mind. Such fundamental errors
        send falsity into all human doctrines and conclusions,
545:15  and do not accord infinity to Deity. Error tills the
        whole ground in this material theory, which is entirely a
        false view, destructive to existence and happiness. Out-
545:18  side of Christian Science all is vague and hypothetical, the
        opposite of Truth; yet this opposite, in its false view of
        God and man, impudently demands a blessing.

                          Erroneous standpoint

545:21  The translators of this record of scientific creation
        entertained a false sense of being. They believed in
        the existence of matter, its propagation and
545:24  power. From that standpoint of error, they
        could not apprehend the nature and operation of Spirit.
        Hence the seeming contradiction in that Scripture, which
545:27  is so glorious in its spiritual signification. Truth has
        but one reply to all error, - to sin, sickness, and death:
        "Dust [nothingness] thou art, and unto dust [nothingness]
545:30  shalt thou return."

                           Mortality mythical

        "As in Adam [error] all die, even so in Christ [Truth]
        shall all be made alive." The mortality of man is a
546:1   myth, for man is immortal. The false belief that spirit is
        now submerged in matter, at some future time to be eman-
546:3   cipated from it, - this belief alone is mortal.
        Spirit, God, never germinates, but is "the same
        yesterday, and to-day, and forever." If Mind, God, cre-
546:6   ates error, that error must exist in the divine Mind, and
        this assumption of error would dethrone the perfection
        of Deity.

                     No truth from a material basis

546:9   Is Christian Science contradictory? Is the divine
        Principle of creation misstated? Has God no Science to
        declare Mind, while matter is governed by un-
546:12  erring intelligence? "There went up a mist
        from the earth." This represents error as
        starting from an idea of good on a material basis. It
546:15  supposes God and man to be manifested only through
        the corporeal senses, although the material senses can
        take no cognizance of Spirit or the spiritual idea.
546:18  Genesis and the Apocalypse seem more obscure than
        other portions of the Scripture, because they cannot
        possibly be interpreted from a material standpoint. To
546:21  the author, they are transparent, for they contain the deep
        divinity of the Bible.

                       Dawning of spiritual facts

        Christian Science is dawning upon a material age.
546:24  The great spiritual facts of being, like rays of light, shine
        in the darkness, though the darkness, com-
        prehending them not, may deny their reality.
546:27  The proof that the system stated in this book is Chris-
        tianly scientific resides in the good this system accom-
        plishes, for it cures on a divine demonstrable Principle
546:30  which all may understand.

                         Proof given in healing

        If mathematics should present a thousand different
        examples of one rule, the proving of one example would
547:1   authenticate all the others. A simple statement of Chris-
        tian Science, if demonstrated by healing, contains the
547:3   proof of all here said of Christian Science. If
        one of the statements in this book is true, every
        one must be true, for not one departs from the stated sys-
547:6   tem and rule. You can prove for yourself, dear reader,
        the Science of healing, and so ascertain if the author has
        given you the correct interpretation of Scripture.

                           Embryonic evolution

547:9   The late Louis Agassiz, by his microscopic examination
        of a vulture's ovum, strengthens the thinker's conclusions
        as to the scientific theory of creation. Agassiz
547:12  was able to see in the egg the earth's atmos-
        phere, the gathering clouds, the moon and stars, while the
        germinating speck of so-called embryonic life seemed a
547:15  small sun. In its history of mortality, Darwin's theory
        of evolution from a material basis is more consistent than
        most theories. Briefly, this is Darwin's theory, - that
547:18  Mind produces its opposite, matter, and endues matter
        with power to recreate the universe, including man. Ma-
        terial evolution implies that the great First Cause must
547:21  become material, and afterwards must either return to
        Mind or go down into dust and nothingness.

                       True theory of the universe

        The Scriptures are very sacred. Our aim must be to
547:24  have them understood spiritually, for only by this under-
        standing can truth be gained. The true the-
        ory of the universe, including man, is not in
547:27  material history but in spiritual development.
        Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and
        mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and
547:30  immortal.

                          Scriptural perception

        It is this spiritual perception of Scripture, which lifts
        humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith.
548:1   "The Spirit and the bride say, Come! . . . and whoso-
        ever will, let him take the water of life freely." Christian
548:3   Science separates error from truth, and breathes
        through the sacred pages the spiritual sense of
        life, substance, and intelligence. In this Science, we dis-
548:6   cover man in the image and likeness of God. We see that
        man has never lost his spiritual estate and his eternal
        harmony.

                          The clouds dissolving

548:9   How little light or heat reach our earth when clouds
        cover the sun's face! So Christian Science can be seen
        only as the clouds of corporeal sense roll away.
548:12  Earth has little light or joy for mortals before
        Life is spiritually learned. Every agony of mortal error
        helps error to destroy error, and so aids the apprehension
548:15  of immortal Truth. This is the new birth going on
        hourly, by which men may entertain angels, the true
        ideas of God, the spiritual sense of being.

                       Prediction of a naturalist

548:18  Speaking of the origin of mortals, a famous naturalist
        says: "It is very possible that many general statements
        now current, about birth and generation, will
548:21  be changed with the progress of information."
        Had the naturalist, through his tireless researches, gained
        the diviner side in Christian Science, - so far apart from
548:24  his material sense of animal growth and organization, -
        he would have blessed the human race more abundantly.

                         Methods of reproduction

        Natural history is richly endowed by the labors and
548:27  genius of great men. Modern discoveries have brought
        to light important facts in regard to so-called
        embryonic life. Agassiz declares ("Methods
548:30  of Study in Natural History,") "Certain ani-
        mals, besides the ordinary process of generation, also
        increase their numbers naturally and constantly by self-
549:1   division." This discovery is corroborative of the Science
        of Mind, for this discovery shows that the multiplication
549:3   of certain animals takes place apart from sexual condi-
        tions. The supposition that life germinates in eggs and
        must decay after it has grown to maturity, if not before,
549:6   is shown by divine metaphysics to be a mistake, - a
        blunder which will finally give place to higher theories
        and demonstrations.

                           The three processes

549:9   Creatures of lower forms of organism are supposed
        to have, as classes, three different methods of reproduc-
        tion and to multiply their species sometimes
549:12  through eggs, sometimes through buds, and
        sometimes through self-division. According to recent
        lore, successive generations do not begin with the /birth/ of
549:15  new individuals, or personalities, but with the formation
        of the nucleus, or egg, from which one or more individu-
        alities subsequently emerge; and we must therefore look
549:18  upon the simple ovum as the germ, the starting-point, of
        the most complicated corporeal structures, including those
        which we call human. Here these material researches
549:21  culminate in such vague hypotheses as must necessarily
        attend false systems, which rely upon physics and are de-
        void of metaphysics.

                        Deference to material law

549:24  In one instance a celebrated naturalist, Agassiz, dis-
        covers the pathway leading to divine Science, and beards
        the lion of materialism in its den. At that
549:27  point, however, even this great observer mis-
        takes nature, forsakes Spirit as the divine origin of
        creative Truth, and allows matter and material law to
549:30  usurp the prerogatives of omnipotence. He absolutely
        drops from his summit, coming down to a belief in the
        material origin of man, for he virtually affirms that
550:1   the germ of humanity is in a circumscribed and non-
        intelligent egg.

                      Deep-reaching interrogations

550:3   If this be so, whence cometh Life, or Mind, to the
        human race? Matter surely does not possess Mind.
        God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms
550:6   and preserves the individuality and identity
        of animals as well as of men. God cannot
        become finite, and be limited within material bounds.
550:9   Spirit cannot become matter, nor can Spirit be developed
        through its opposite. Of what avail is it to investigate
        what is miscalled material life, which ends, even as it be-
550:12  gins, in nameless nothingness? The true sense of being
        and its eternal perfection should appear now, even as it
        will hereafter.

                           Stages of existence

550:15  Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The
        continual contemplation of existence as material and cor-
        poreal - as beginning and ending, and with
550:18  birth, decay, and dissolution as its component
        stages - hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes
        our standard to trail in the dust. If Life has any starting-
550:21  point whatsoever, then the great I AM is a myth. If Life
        is God, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embry-
        onic, it is infinite. An egg is an impossible enclosure for
550:24  Deity.

        Embryology supplies no instance of one species pro-
        ducing its opposite. A serpent never begets a bird, nor
550:27  does a lion bring forth a lamb. Amalgamation is deemed
        monstrous and is seldom fruitful, but it is not so hideous
        and absurd as the supposition that Spirit - the pure and
550:30  holy, the immutable and immortal - can originate the
        impure and mortal and dwell in it. As Christian Science
        repudiates self-evident impossibilities, the material senses
551:1   must father these absurdities, for both the material senses
        and their reports are unnatural, impossible, and unreal.

                            The real producer

551:3   Either Mind produces, or it is produced. If Mind is
        first, it cannot produce its opposite in quality and quantity,
        called matter. If matter is first, it cannot pro-
551:6   duce Mind. Like produces like. In natural
        history, the bird is not the product of a beast. In spiritual
        history, matter is not the progenitor of Mind.

                          The ascent of species

551:9   One distinguished naturalist argues that mortals spring
        from eggs and in races. Mr. Darwin admits this, but he
        adds that mankind has ascended through all
551:12  the lower grades of existence. Evolution de-
        scribes the gradations of human belief, but it does not
        acknowledge the method of divine Mind, nor see that ma-
551:15  terial methods are impossible in divine Science and that
        all Science is of God, not of man.

                        Transmitted peculiarities

        Naturalists ask: "What can there be, of a material
551:18  nature, transmitted through these bodies called eggs, -
        themselves composed of the simplest material
        elements, - by which all peculiarities of an-
551:21  cestry, belonging to either sex, are brought down from
        generation to generation?" The question of the natu-
        ralist amounts to this: How can matter originate or trans-
551:24  mit mind? We answer that it cannot. Darkness and
        doubt encompass thought, so long as it bases creation on
        materiality. From a material standpoint, "Canst thou
551:27  by searching find out God?" All must be Mind, or
        else all must be matter. Neither can produce the other.
        Mind is immortal; but error declares that the material
551:30  seed must decay in order to propagate its species, and
        the resulting germ is doomed to the same routine.

                         Causation not in matter

        The ancient and hypothetical question, Which is first,
552:1   the egg or the bird? is answered, if the egg produces the
        parent. But we cannot stop here. Another question
552:3   follows: Who or what produces the parent of
        the egg? That the earth was hatched from the
        "egg of night" was once an accepted theory. Heathen
552:6   philosophy, modern geology, and all other material hy-
        potheses deal with causation as contingent on matter
        and as necessarily apparent to the corporeal senses, even
552:9   where the proof requisite to sustain this assumption is un-
        discovered. Mortal theories make friends of sin, sickness,
        and death; whereas the spiritual scientific facts of exist-
552:12  ence include no member of this dolorous and fatal triad.

                          Emergence of mortals

        Human experience in mortal life, which starts from an
        egg, corresponds with that of Job, when he says, "Man
552:15  that is born of a woman is of few days, and
        full of trouble." Mortals must emerge from
        this notion of material life as all-in-all. They must peck
552:18  open their shells with Christian Science, and look outward
        and upward. But thought, loosened from a material
        basis but not yet instructed by Science, may become wild
552:21  with freedom and so be self-contradictory.

                         Persistence of species

        From a material source flows no remedy for sorrow,
        sin, and death, for the redeeming power, from the ills
552:24  they occasion, is not in egg nor in dust. The
        blending tints of leaf and flower show the
        order of matter to be the order of mortal mind. The
552:27  intermixture of different species, urged to its utmost
        limits, results in a return to the original species. Thus
        it is learned that matter is a manifestation of mortal
552:30  mind, and that matter always surrenders its claims when
        the perfect and eternal Mind is understood.

                      Better basis than embryology

        Naturalists describe the origin of mortal and material
553:1   existence in the various forms of embryology, and ac-
        company their descriptions with important observations,
553:3   which should awaken thought to a higher and
        purer contemplation of man's origin. This
        clearer consciousness must precede an under-
553:6   standing of the harmony of being. Mortal thought must
        obtain a better basis, get nearer the truth of being, or
        health will never be universal, and harmony will never
553:9   become the standard of man.

        One of our ablest naturalists has said: "We have no
        right to assume that individuals have grown or been
553:12  formed under circumstances which made material con-
        ditions essential to their maintenance and reproduction,
        or important to their origin and first introduction."
553:15  Why, then, is the naturalist's basis so materialistic,
        and why are his deductions generally material?

                         All nativity in thought

        Adam was created before Eve. In this instance, it is
553:18  seen that the maternal egg never brought forth Adam.
        Eve was formed from Adam's rib, not from a
        foetal ovum. Whatever theory may be adopted
553:21  by general mortal thought to account for human origin,
        that theory is sure to become the signal for the appear-
        ance of its method in finite forms and operations. If con-
553:24  sentaneous human belief agrees upon an ovum as the
        point of emergence for the human race, this potent belief
        will immediately supersede the more ancient supersti-
553:27  tion about the creation from dust or from the rib of our
        primeval father.

                            Being is immortal

        You may say that mortals are formed before they
553:30  think or know aught of their origin, and you
        may also ask how belief can affect a result
        which precedes the development of that belief. It can
554:1   only be replied, that Christian Science reveals what "eye
        hath not seen," - even the cause of all that exists, - for
554:3   the universe, inclusive of man, is as eternal as God, who
        is its divine immortal Principle. There is no such thing
        as mortality, nor are there properly any mortal beings,
554:6   because being is immortal, like Deity, - or, rather, being
        and Deity are inseparable.

                        Our conscious development

        Error is always error. It is /no thing/. Any statement
554:9   of life, following from a misconception of life, is errone-
        ous, because it is destitute of any knowledge
        of the so-called selfhood of life, destitute of
554:12  any knowledge of its origin or existence. The mortal
        is unconscious of his foetal and infantile existence; but
        as he grows up into another false claim, that of self-con-
554:15  scious matter, he learns to say, "I am somebody; but
        who made me?" Error replies, "God made you." The
        first effort of error has been and is to impute to God the
554:18  creation of whatever is sinful and mortal; but infinite
        Mind sets at naught such a mistaken belief.

                           Mendacity of error

        Jesus defined this opposite of God and His creation
554:21  better than we can, when he said, "He is a liar, and the
        father of it." Jesus also said, "Have not I
        chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?"
554:24  This he said of Judas, one of Adam's race. Jesus never
        intimated that God made a devil, but he did say, "Ye
        are of your father, the devil." All these sayings were to
554:27  show that mind in matter is the author of itself, and is
        simply a falsity and illusion.

                           Ailments of animals

        It is the general belief that the lower animals are less
554:30  sickly than those possessing higher organiza-
        tions, especially those of the human form.
        This would indicate that there is less disease in propor-
555:1   tion as the force of mortal mind is less pungent or sensi-
        tive, and that health attends the absence of mortal mind.
555:3   A fair conclusion from this might be, that it is the human
        belief, and not the divine arbitrament, which brings the
        physical organism under the yoke of disease.

                       Ignorance the sign of error

555:6   An inquirer once said to the discoverer of Christian
        Science: "I like your explanations of truth, but I do
        not comprehend what you say about error."
555:9   This is the nature of error. The mark of igno-
        rance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor
        can be understood. Error would have itself received as
555:12  mind, as if it were as real and God-created as truth; but
        Christian Science attributes to error neither entity nor
        power, because error is neither mind nor the outcome of
555:15  Mind.

                         The origin of divinity

        Searching for the origin of man, who is the reflection
        of God, is like inquiring into the origin of God, the self-
555:18  existent and eternal. Only impotent error
        would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good
        with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this
555:21  sham unity /man/, as if man were the offspring of both
        Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Crea-
        tion rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of
555:24  perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity,
        when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught
        that can become imperfect, that God bestows the power
555:27  to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err. Our
        great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized
        manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in
555:30  death. Knowing that God was the Life of man, Jesus
        was able to present himself unchanged after the cruci-
        fixion. Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be-
556:1   lief in illusion or error. That which is real, is sustained
        by Spirit.

                            Genera classified

556:3   Vertebrata, articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mor-
        tal and material concepts classified, and are supposed to
        possess life and mind. These false beliefs
556:6   will disappear, when the radiation of Spirit
        destroys forever all belief in intelligent matter. Then
        will the new heaven and new earth appear, for the for-
556:9   mer things will have passed away.

                        The Christian's privilege

        Mortal belief infolds the conditions of sin. Mortal
        belief dies to live again in renewed forms, only to go out
556:12  at last forever; for life everlasting is not to be
        gained by dying. Christian Science may ab-
        sorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but
556:15  the Christian alone can fathom it. It is made known
        most fully to him who understands best the divine Life.
        Did the origin and the enlightenment of the race come
556:18  from the deep sleep which fell upon Adam? Sleep is
        darkness, but God's creative mandate was, "Let there be
        light." In sleep, cause and effect are mere illusions.
556:21  They seem to be something, but are not. Oblivion and
        dreams, not realities, come with sleep. Even so goes on
        the Adam-belief, of which mortal and material life is the
556:24  dream.

                      Ontology /versus/ physiology

        Ontology receives less attention than physiology. Why?
        Because mortal mind must waken to spiritual
556:27  life before it cares to solve the problem of
        being, hence the author's experience; but when
        that awakening comes, existence will be on a new stand-
556:30  point.

        It is related that a father plunged his infant babe, only
        a few hours old, into the water for several minutes, and
557:1   repeated this operation daily, until the child could remain
        under water twenty minutes, moving and playing with-
557:3   out harm, like a fish. Parents should remember this
        and learn how to develop their children properly on dry
        land.

                            The curse removed

557:6   Mind controls the birth-throes in the lower realms of
        nature, where parturition is without suffering. Vege-
        tables, minerals, and many animals suffer no
557:9   pain in multiplying; but human propagation
        has its suffering because it is a false belief. Christian Sci-
        ence reveals harmony as proportionately increasing as the
557:12  line of creation rises towards spiritual man, - towards
        enlarged understanding and intelligence; but in the line
        of the corporeal senses, the less a mortal knows of sin,
557:15  disease, and mortality, the better for him, - the less pain
        and sorrow are his. When the mist of mortal mind evap-
        orates, the curse will be removed which says to woman,
557:18  "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." Divine
        Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of
        Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as
557:21  never dying, but as coexistent with his creator.

        Popular theology takes up the history of man as if he
        began materially right, but immediately fell into mental
557:24  sin; whereas revealed religion proclaims the Science of
        Mind and its formations as being in accordance with
        the first chapter of the Old Testament, when God, Mind,
557:27  spake and it was done.




        CHAPTER XVI - THE APOCALYPSE

        Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of
        this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein:
        for the time is at hand. - REVELATION.

        Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of
        our God, in the mountain of His holiness. - PSALMS.

558:1   ST. JOHN writes, in the tenth chapter of his book of
        Revelation: -

558:3   And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven,
        clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and
        his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of
558:6   fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he
        set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the
        earth.

                             The new Evangel

558:9   This angel or message which comes from God, clothed
        with a cloud, prefigures divine Science. To mortal sense
        Science seems at first obscure, abstract, and
558:12  dark; but a bright promise crowns its brow.
        When understood, it is Truth's prism and praise. When
        you look it fairly in the face, you can heal by its means,
558:15  and it has for you a light above the sun, for God "is the
        light thereof." Its feet are pillars of fire, foundations
        of Truth and Love. It brings the baptism of the Holy
558:18  Ghost, whose flames of Truth were prophetically de-
        scribed by John the Baptist as consuming error.

                             Truth's volume

559:1   This angel had in his hand "a little book," open for
        all to read and understand. Did this same book contain
559:3   the revelation of divine Science, the "right
        foot" or dominant power of which was upon
        the sea, - upon elementary, latent error, the source of
559:6   all error's visible forms? The angel's left foot was upon
        the earth; that is, a secondary power was exercised upon
        visible error and audible sin. The "still, small voice"
559:9   of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean
        to the globe's remotest bound. The inaudible voice of
        Truth is, to the human mind, "as when a lion roareth."
559:12  It is heard in the desert and in dark places of fear. It
        arouses the "seven thunders" of evil, and stirs their latent
        forces to utter the full diapason of secret tones. Then is
559:15  the power of Truth demonstrated, - made manifest in
        the destruction of error. Then will a voice from harmony
        cry: "Go and take the little book. . . . Take it, and eat
559:18  it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in
        thy mouth sweet as honey." Mortals, obey the heavenly
        evangel. Take divine Science. Read this book from
559:21  beginning to end. Study it, ponder it. It will be indeed
        sweet at its first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not
        over Truth, if you find its digestion bitter. When you
559:24  approach nearer and nearer to this divine Principle, when
        you eat the divine body of this Principle, - thus partak-
        ing of the nature, or primal elements, of Truth and Love,
559:27  - do not be surprised nor discontented because you must
        share the hemlock cup and eat the bitter herbs; for the
        Israelites of old at the Paschal meal thus prefigured this
559:30  perilous passage out of bondage into the El Dorado of faith
        and hope.

                             To-day's lesson

        The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, or Revela-
560:1   tion of St. John, has a special suggestiveness in connec-
        tion with the nineteenth century. In the opening of the
560:3   sixth seal, typical of six thousand years since
        Adam, the distinctive feature has reference
        to the present age.

560:6   /Revelation/ xii. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in
        heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon
        under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve
560:9   stars.

                    True estimate of God's messenger

        Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science inter-
        prets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great
560:12  miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and
        the grand necessity of existence is to gain the
        true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of
560:15  heaven in man. This goal is never reached while we
        hate our neighbor or entertain a false estimate of any-
        one whom God has appointed to voice His Word. Again,
560:18  without a correct sense of its highest visible idea, we can
        never understand the divine Principle. The botanist must
        know the genus and species of a plant in order to classify
560:21  it correctly. As it is with things, so is it with persons.

                           Persecution harmful

        Abuse of the motives and religion of St. Paul hid from
        view the apostle's character, which made him equal to
560:24  his great mission. Persecution of all who have
        spoken something new and better of God has
        not only obscured the light of the ages, but has been fatal
560:27  to the persecutors. Why? Because it has hid from
        them the true idea which has been presented. To mis-
        understand Paul, was to be ignorant of the divine idea he
560:30  taught. Ignorance of the divine idea betrays at once a
        greater ignorance of the divine Principle of the idea - igno-
561:1   rance of Truth and Love. The understanding of Truth
        and Love, the Principle which works out the ends of eternal
561:3   good and destroys both faith in evil and the practice of
        evil, leads to the discernment of the divine idea.

                           Espousals supernal

        Agassiz, through his microscope, saw the sun in an
561:6   egg at a point of so-called embryonic life. Because of
        his more spiritual vision, St. John saw an
        "angel standing in the sun." The Revelator
561:9   beheld the spiritual idea from the mount of vision.
        Purity was the symbol of Life and Love. The Revelator
        saw also the spiritual ideal as a woman clothed in light, a
561:12  bride coming down from heaven, wedded to the Lamb
        of Love. To John, "the bride" and "the Lamb" repre-
        sented the correlation of divine Principle and spiritual idea,
561:15  God and His Christ, bringing harmony to earth.

                          Divinity and humanity

        John saw the human and divine coincidence, shown in
        the man Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life
561:18  and its demonstration, - reducing to human
        perception and understanding the Life which
        is God. In divine revelation, material and corporeal self-
561:21  hood disappear, and the spiritual idea is understood.

                           Spiritual sunlight

        The woman in the Apocalypse symbolizes generic man,
        the spiritual idea of God; she illustrates the coincidence
561:24  of God and man as the divine Principle and
        divine idea. The Revelator symbolizes Spirit
        by the sun. The spiritual idea is clad with the radiance
561:27  of spiritual Truth, and matter is put under her feet. The
        light portrayed is really neither solar nor lunar, but spirit-
        ual Life, which is "the light of men." In the first chapter
561:30  of the Fourth Gospel it is written, "There was a man sent
        from God . . . to bear witness of that Light."

                         Spiritual idea revealed

        John the Baptist prophesied the coming of the im-
562:1   maculate Jesus, and John saw in those days the spiritual
        idea as the Messiah, who would baptize with the Holy
562:3   Ghost,- divine Science. As Elias presented
        the idea of the fatherhood of God, which Jesus
        afterwards manifested, so the Revelator completed this
562:6   figure with woman, typifying the spiritual idea of God's
        motherhood. The moon is under her feet. This idea
        reveals the universe as secondary and tributary to Spirit,
562:9   from which the universe borrows its reflected light, sub-
        stance, life, and intelligence.

                         Spiritual idea crowned

        The spiritual idea is crowned with twelve stars. The
562:12  twelve tribes of Israel with all mortals, - separated by
        belief from man's divine origin and the true
        idea, - will through much tribulation yield to
562:15  the activities of the divine Principle of man in the har-
        mony of Science. These are the stars in the crown of
        rejoicing. They are the lamps in the spiritual heavens
562:18  of the age, which show the workings of the spiritual idea
        by healing the sick and the sinning, and by manifesting
        the light which shines "unto the perfect day" as the night
562:21  of materialism wanes.

        /Revelation/ xii. 2. And she being with child cried, travail-
        ing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

                             Travail and joy

562:24  Also the spiritual idea is typified by a woman in tra-
        vail, waiting to be delivered of her sweet promise, but re-
        membering no more her sorrow for joy that
562:27  the birth goes on; for great is the idea, and the
        travail portentous.

        /Revelation/ xii. 3. And there appeared another wonder in
562:30  heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads
        and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

                          The dragon as a type

563:1   Human sense may well marvel at discord, while, to a
        diviner sense., harmony is the real and discord the unreal.
563:3   We may well be astonished at sin, sickness, and
        death. We may well be perplexed at human
        fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts
563:6   its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions
        of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness?
        The great red dragon symbolizes a lie, - the belief
563:9   that substance, life, and intelligence can be material.
        This dragon stands for the sum total of human error.
        The ten horns of the dragon typify the belief that mat-
563:12  ter has power of its own, and that by means of an
        evil mind in matter the Ten Commandments can be
        broken.

                        The sting of the serpent

563:15  The Revelator lifts the veil from this embodiment of
        all evil, and beholds its awful character; but he also
        sees the nothingness of evil and the allness of
563:18  God. The Revelator sees that old serpent,
        whose name is devil or evil, holding untiring watch, that
        he may bite the heel of truth and seemingly impede the
563:21  offspring of the spiritual idea, which is prolific in health,
        holiness, and immortality.

        /Revelation/ xii. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the
563:24  stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the
        dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be
        delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

                             Animal tendency

563:27  The serpentine form stands for subtlety, winding its
        way amidst all evil, but doing this in the name of good.
        Its sting is spoken of by Paul, when he refers
563:30  to "spiritual wickedness in high places." It
        is the animal instinct in mortals, which would impel
564:1   them to devour each other and cast out devils through
        Beelzebub.

564:3   As of old, evil still charges the spiritual idea with error's
        own nature and methods. This malicious animal in-
        stinct, of which the dragon is the type, incites mortals to
564:6   kill morally and physically even their fellow-mortals, and
        worse still, to charge the innocent with the crime. This
        last infirmity of sin will sink its perpetrator into a night
564:9   without a star.

                           Malicious barbarity

        The author is convinced that the accusations against
        Jesus of Nazareth and even his crucifixion were instigated
564:12  by the criminal instinct here described. The
        Revelator speaks of Jesus as the Lamb of God
        and of the dragon as warring against innocence. Since Jesus
564:15  must have been tempted in all points, he, the immaculate,
        met and conquered sin in every form. The brutal bar-
        barity of his foes could emanate from no source except the
564:18  highest degree of human depravity. Jesus "/opened not
        his mouth/." Until the majesty of Truth should be demon-
        strated in divine Science, the spiritual idea was arraigned
564:21  before the tribunal of so-called mortal mind, which was
        unloosed in order that the false claim of mind in matter
        might uncover its own crime of defying immortal Mind.

                           Doom of the dragon

564:24  From Genesis to the Apocalypse, sin, sickness, and
        death, envy, hatred, and revenge, - all evil, - are typi-
        fied by a serpent, or animal subtlety. Jesus
564:27  said, quoting a line from the Psalms, "They
        hated me without a cause." The serpent is perpetually
        close upon the heel of harmony. From the beginning
564:30  to the end, the serpent pursues with hatred the spiritual
        idea. In Genesis, this allegorical, talking serpent typi-
        fies mortal mind, "more subtle than any beast of the
565:1   field." In the Apocalypse, when nearing its doom, this
        evil increases and becomes the great red dragon, swollen
565:3   with sin, inflamed with war against spirituality, and ripe
        for destruction. It is full of lust and hate, loathing the
        brightness of divine glory.

565:6   /Revelation/ xii. 5. And she brought forth a man child,
        who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her
        child was caught up unto God, and to His throne.

                        The conflict with purity

565:9   Led on by the grossest element of mortal mind, Herod
        decreed the death of every male child in order that the
        man Jesus, the masculine representative of the
565:12  spiritual idea might never hold sway and de-
        prive Herod of his crown. The impersonation of the
        spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our
565:15  Master; but "of his kingdom there shall be no end,"
        for Christ, God's idea, will eventually rule all nations
        and peoples - imperatively, absolutely, finally - with di-
565:18  vine Science. This immaculate idea, represented first
        by man and, according to the Revelator, last by woman,
        will baptize with fire; and the fiery baptism will burn up
565:21  the chaff of error with the fervent heat of Truth and Love,
        melting and purifying even the gold of human character.
        After the stars sang together and all was primeval har-
565:24  mony, the material lie made war upon the spiritual idea;
        but this only impelled the idea to rise to the zenith of
        demonstration, destroying sin, sickness, and death, and
565:27  to be caught up unto God, - to be found in its divine
        Principle.

        /Revelation/ xii. 6. And the woman fled into the wilder-
565:30  ness, where she hath a place prepared of God.

                           Spiritual guidance

566:1   As the children of Israel were guided triumphantly
        through the Red Sea, the dark ebbing and flowing tides
566:3   of human fear, - as they were led through the
        wilderness, walking wearily through the great
        desert of human hopes, and anticipating the promised
566:6   joy, - so shall the spiritual idea guide all right desires
        in their passage from sense to Soul, from a material sense
        of existence to the spiritual, up to the glory prepared for
566:9   them who love God. Stately Science pauses not, but
        moves before them, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire
        by night, leading to divine heights.

566:12  If we remember the beautiful description which Sir
        Walter Scott puts into the mouth of Rebecca the Jewess
        in the story of Ivanhoe, -
566:15       When Israel, of the Lord beloved,
             Out of the land of bondage came,
             Her fathers' God before her moved,
566:18       An awful guide, in smoke and flame, -

        we may also offer the prayer which concludes the same
        hymn, -
566:21       And oh, when stoops on Judah's path
             In shade and storm the frequent night,
             Be Thou, longsuffering, slow to wrath,
566:24       A burning and a shining light!

        /Revelation/ xii. 7, 8. And there was war in heaven:
        Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the
566:27  dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not; neither
        was their place found any more in heaven.

                             Angelic offices

        The Old Testament assigns to the angels, God's divine
566:30  messages, different offices. Michael's charac-
        teristic is spiritual strength. He leads the
        hosts of heaven against the power of sin, Satan, and
567:1   fights the holy wars. Gabriel has the more quiet task
        of imparting a sense of the ever-presence of ministering
567:3   Love. These angels deliver us from the depths. Truth
        and Love come nearer in the hour of woe, when strong
        faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through
567:6   the understanding of God. The Gabriel of His presence
        has no contests. To infinite, ever-present Love, all is
        Love, and there is no error, no sin, sickness, nor death.
567:9   Against Love, the dragon warreth not long, for he is
        killed by the divine Principle. Truth and Love prevail
        against the dragon because the dragon cannot war with
567:12  them. Thus endeth the conflict between the flesh and
        Spirit.

        /Revelation/ xii. 9. And the great dragon was cast out,
567:15  that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiv-
        eth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his
        angels were cast out with him.

                        Dragon cast down to earth

567:18  That false claim - that ancient belief, that old serpent
        whose name is devil (evil), claiming that there is intelli-
        gence in matter either to benefit or to injure
567:21  men - is pure delusion, the red dragon; and
        it is cast out by Christ, Truth, the spiritual
        idea, and so proved to be powerless. The words "cast
567:24  unto the earth" show the dragon to be nothingness, dust
        to dust; and therefore, in his pretence of being a talker,
        he must be a lie from the beginning. His angels, or mes-
567:27  sages, are cast out with their author. The beast and the
        false prophets are lust and hypocrisy. These wolves in
        sheep's clothing are detected and killed by innocence, the
567:30  Lamb of Love.

                           Warfare with error

        Divine Science shows how the Lamb slays the wolf.
568:1   Innocence and Truth overcome guilt and error. Ever
        since the foundation of the world, ever since error would
568:3   establish material belief, evil has tried to slay
        the Lamb; but Science is able to destroy this
        lie, called evil. The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse
568:6   typifies the divine method of warfare in Science, and the
        glorious results of this warfare. The following chapters
        depict the fatal effects of trying to meet error with error.
568:9   The narrative follows the order used in Genesis. In
        Genesis, first the true method of creation is set forth and
        then the false. Here, also, the Revelator first exhibits
568:12  the true warfare and then the false.

        /Revelation/ xii. 10 - 12. And I heard a loud voice saying
        in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the
568:15  kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the
        accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them
        before our God day and night. And they overcame him by
568:18  the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony;
        and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore
        rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the
568:21  inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is
        come down unto you, having great wrath, because he
        knoweth that he hath but a short time.

                            Paean of jubilee

568:24  For victory over a single sin, we give thanks and mag-
        nify the Lord of Hosts. What shall we say of the mighty
        conquest over all sin? A louder song, sweeter
568:27  than has ever before reached high heaven,
        now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ;
        for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her
568:30  primal and everlasting strain. Self-abnegation, by which
        we lay down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against
        error, is a rule in Christian Science. This rule clearly
569:1   interprets God as divine Principle, - as Life, represented
        by the Father; as Truth, represented by the Son; as Love,
569:3   represented by the Mother. Every mortal at some period,
        here or hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the
        mortal belief in a power opposed to God.

                           The robe of Science

569:6   The Scripture, "Thou hast been faithful over a few
        things, I will make thee ruler over many," is literally ful-
        filled, when we are conscious of the supremacy
569:9   of Truth, by which the nothingness of error
        is seen; and we know that the nothingness of error is in
        proportion to its wickedness. He that touches the hem
569:12  of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality,
        and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing, - in a sweet
        and certain sense that God is Love. Alas for those who
569:15  break faith with divine Science and fail to strangle the
        serpent of sin as well as of sickness! They are dwellers
        still in the deep darkness of belief. They are in the surg-
569:18  ing sea of error, not struggling to lift their heads above the
        drowning wave.

                         Expiation by suffering

        What must the end be? They must eventually expi-
569:21  ate their sin through suffering. The sin, which one has
        made his bosom companion, comes back to him
        at last with accelerated force, for the devil
569:24  knoweth his time is short. Here the Scriptures declare
        that evil is temporal, not eternal. The dragon is at last
        stung to death by his own malice; but how many periods
569:27  of torture it may take to remove all sin, must depend upon
        sin's obduracy.

        /Revelation/ xii. 13. And when the dragon saw that he
569:30  was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which
        brought forth the man child.

                           Apathy to occultism

570:1   The march of mind and of honest investigation will
        bring the hour when the people will chain, with fetters of
570:3   some sort, the growing occultism of this period.
        The present apathy as to the tendency of
        certain active yet unseen mental agencies will finally be
570:6   shocked into another extreme mortal mood, - into human
        indignation; for one extreme follows another.

        /Revelation/ xii. 15, 16. And the serpent cast out of his
570:9   mouth water as a flood, after the woman, that he might
        cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth
        helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and
570:12  swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his
        mouth.

                            Receptive hearts

        Millions of unprejudiced minds - simple seekers for
570:15  Truth, weary wanderers, athirst in the desert - are wait-
        ing and watching for rest and drink. Give
        them a cup of cold water in Christ's name,
570:18  and never fear the consequences. What if the old dragon
        should send forth a new flood to drown the Christ-idea?
        He can neither drown your voice with its roar, nor again
570:21  sink the world into the deep waters of chaos and old night.
        In this age the earth will help the woman; the spiritual
        idea will be understood. Those ready for the blessing
570:24  you impart will give thanks. The waters will be paci-
        fied, and Christ will command the wave.

                         Hidden ways of iniquity

        When God heals the sick or the sinning, they should
570:27  know the great benefit which Mind has wrought. They
        should also know the great delusion of mor-
        tal mind, when it makes them sick or sinful.
570:30  Many are willing to open the eyes of the people to the
        power of good resident in divine Mind, but they are
571:1   not so willing to point out the evil in human thought,
        and expose evil's hidden mental ways of accomplishing
571:3   iniquity.

                            Christly warning

        Why this backwardness, since exposure is necessary
        to ensure the avoidance of the evil? Because people like
571:6   you better when you tell them their virtues
        than when you tell them their vices. It re-
        quires the spirit of our blessed Master to tell a man his
571:9   faults, and so risk human displeasure for the sake of doing
        right and benefiting our race. Who is telling mankind
        of the foe in ambush? Is the informer one who sees the
571:12  foe? If so, listen and be wise. Escape from evil, and
        designate those as unfaithful stewards who have seen the
        danger and yet have given no warning.

                          The armor of divinity

571:15  At all times and under all circumstances, overcome
        evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply
        the wisdom and the occasion for a victory
571:18  over evil. Clad in the panoply of Love,
        human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of a
        higher humanity will unite all interests in the one
571:21  divinity.

                         Pure religion enthroned


        Through trope and metaphor, the Revelator, immortal
        scribe of Spirit and of a true idealism, furnishes the
571:24  mirror in which mortals may see their own
        image. In significant figures he depicts the
        thoughts which he beholds in mortal mind. Thus he
571:27  rebukes the conceit of sin, and foreshadows its doom.
        With his spiritual strength, he has opened wide the gates
        of glory, and illumined the night of paganism with the
571:30  sublime grandeur of divine Science, outshining sin, sorcery,
        lust, and hypocrisy. He takes away mitre and sceptre.
        He enthrones pure and undefiled religion, and lifts on
572:1   high only those who have washed their robes white in
        obedience and suffering.

                        Native nothingness of sin

572:3   Thus we see, in both the first and last books of the
        Bible, - in Genesis and in the Apocalypse, - that sin
        is to be Christianly and scientifically reduced
572:6   to its native nothingness. "Love one an-
        other" (I John, iii. 23), is the most simple and profound
        counsel of the inspired writer. In Science we are chil-
572:9   dren of God; but whatever is of material sense, or mor-
        tal, belongs not to His children, for materiality is the
        inverted image of spirituality.

                          Fulfilment of the Law

572:12  Love fulfils the law of Christian Science, and nothing
        short of this divine Principle, understood and demon-
        strated, can ever furnish the vision of the
572:15  Apocalypse, open the seven seals of error with
        Truth, or uncover the myriad illusions of sin, sickness,
        and death. Under the supremacy of Spirit, it will be seen
572:18  and acknowledged that matter must disappear.

        In Revelation xxi. 1 we read: -

        And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first
572:21  heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was
        no more sea.

                       Man's present possibilities

        The Revelator had not yet passed the transitional
572:24  stage in human experience called death, but he already
        saw a new heaven and a new earth. Through
        what sense came this vision to St. John? Not
572:27  through the material visual organs for seeing, for optics
        are inadequate to take in so wonderful a scene. Were this
        new heaven and new earth terrestrial or celestial, mate-
573:1   rial or spiritual? They could not be the former, for the
        human sense of space is unable to grasp such a view.
573:3   The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet
        beholding what the eye cannot see, - that which is in-
        visible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy
573:6   Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and
        earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness
        which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the
573:9   unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This
        shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms
        matter and spirit indicates states and stages of con-
573:12  sciousness.

                            Nearness of Deity

        Accompanying this scientific consciousness was an-
        other revelation, even the declaration from heaven, su-
573:15  preme harmony, that God, the divine Principle
        of harmony, is ever with men, and they are
        His people. Thus man was no longer regarded as a mis-
573:18  erable sinner, but as the blessed child of God. Why?
        Because St. John's corporeal sense of the heavens and
        earth had vanished, and in place of this false sense was
573:21  the spiritual sense, the subjective state by which he could
        see the new heaven and new earth, which involve the
        spiritual idea and consciousness of reality. This is Scrip-
573:24  tural authority for concluding that such a recognition of
        being is, and has been, possible to men in this present
        state of existence, - that we can become conscious,
573:27  here and now, of a cessation of death, sorrow, and pain.
        This is indeed a foretaste of absolute Christian Science.
        Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality of being will
573:30  surely appear sometime and in some way. There will
        be no more pain, and all tears will be wiped away. When
        you read this, remember Jesus' words, "The kingdom of
574:1   God is within you." This spiritual consciousness is
        therefore a present possibility.

574:3   The Revelator also takes in another view, adapted to
        console the weary pilgrim, journeying " uphill all the way."

        He writes, in Revelation xxi. 9: -

574:6   And there came unto me one of the seven angels which
        had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked
        with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride,
574:9   the Lamb's wife.

                     Vials of wrath and consolation

        This ministry of Truth, this message from divine Love,
        carried John away in spirit. It exalted him till he be-
574:12  came conscious of the spiritual facts of being
        and the "New Jerusalem, coming down from
        God, out of heaven," - the spiritual outpour-
574:15  ing of bliss and glory, which he describes as the city
        which "lieth foursquare." The beauty of this text is,
        that the sum total of human misery, represented by
574:18  the seven angelic vials full of seven plagues, has full
        compensation in the law of Love. Note this, - that the
        very message, or swift-winged thought, which poured
574:21  forth hatred and torment, brought also the experience
        which at last lifted the seer to behold the great city, the
        four equal sides of which were heaven-bestowed and
574:24  heaven-bestowing.

                            Spiritual wedlock

        Think of this, dear reader, for it will lift the sack-
        cloth from your eyes, and you will behold the soft-
574:27  winged dove descending upon you. The very
        circumstance, which your suffering sense
        deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel
574:30  entertained unawares. Then thought gently whispers:
575:1   "Come hither! Arise from your false consciousness
        into the true sense of Love, and behold the Lamb's
575:3   wife, - Love wedded to its own spiritual idea." Then
        cometh the marriage feast, for this revelation will de-
        stroy forever the physical plagues imposed by material
575:6   sense.

                           The city foursquare

        This sacred city, described in the Apocalypse (xxi. 16)
        as one that "lieth foursquare" and cometh "down from
575:9   God, out of heaven," represents the light and
        glory of divine Science. The builder and
        maker of this New Jerusalem is God, as we read in the
575:12  book of Hebrews; and it is "a city which hath founda-
        tions." The description is metaphoric. Spiritual teach-
        ing must always be by symbols. Did not Jesus illustrate
575:15  the truths he taught by the mustard-seed and the prodi-
        gal? Taken in its allegorical sense, the description of
        the city as foursquare has a profound meaning. The
575:18  four sides of our city are the Word, Christ, Christianity,
        and divine Science; "and the gates of it shall not be shut
        at all by day: for there shall be no night there." This
575:21  city is wholly spiritual, as its four sides indicate.

                        The royally divine gates

        As the Psalmist saith, "Beautiful for situation, the
        joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of
575:24  the north, the city of the great King." It is
        indeed a city of the Spirit, fair, royal, and
        square. Northward, its gates open to the North Star,
575:27  the Word, the polar magnet of Revelation; eastward,
        to the star seen by the Wisemen of the Orient, who fol-
        lowed it to the manger of Jesus; southward, to the
575:30  genial tropics, with the Southern Cross in the skies,
        - the Cross of Calvary, which binds human society
        into solemn union; westward, to the grand realization
576:1   of the Golden Shore of Love and the Peaceful Sea of
        Harmony.

                        Revelation's pure zenith

576:3   This heavenly city, lighted by the Sun of Righteous-
        ness, - this New Jerusalem, this infinite All, which to
        us seems hidden in the mist of remoteness, -
576:6   reached St. John's vision while yet he taber-
        nacled with mortals.

        In Revelation xxi. 22, further describing this holy city,
576:9   the beloved Disciple writes: -

        And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty
        and the Lamb are the temple of it.

                          The shrine celestial

576:12  There was no temple, - that is, no material structure
        in which to worship God, for He must be worshipped
        in spirit and in love. The word /temple/ also
576:15  means body. The Revelator was familiar
        with Jesus' use of this word, as when Jesus spoke of his
        material body as the temple to be temporarily rebuilt
576:18  (John ii. 21). What further indication need we of the
        real man's incorporeality than this, that John saw
        heaven and earth with "no temple [body] therein"?
576:21  This kingdom of God "is within you," - is within
        reach of man's consciousness here, and the spiritual
        idea reveals it. In divine Science, man possesses this
576:24  recognition of harmony consciously in proportion to his
        understanding of God.

                          Divine sense of Deity

        The term Lord, as used in our version of the Old
576:27  Testament, is often synonymous with Jehovah, and ex-
        presses the Jewish concept, not yet elevated
        to deific apprehension through spiritual trans-
576:30  figuration. Yet the word gradually approaches a higher
        meaning. This human sense of Deity yields to the divine
577:1   sense, even as the material sense of personality yields
        to the incorporeal sense of God and man as the infinite
577:3   Principle and infinite idea, - as one Father with His uni-
        versal family, held in the gospel of Love. The Lamb's
        wife presents the unity of male and female as no longer
577:6   two wedded individuals, but as two individual natures
        in one; and this compounded spiritual individuality re-
        flects God as Father-Mother, not as a corporeal being.
577:9   In this divinely united spiritual consciousness, there is no
        impediment to eternal bliss, - to the perfectibility of
        God's creation.

                           The city of our God

577:12  This spiritual, holy habitation has no boundary
        nor limit, but its four cardinal points are: first, the
        Word of Life, Truth, and Love; second,
577:15  the Christ, the spiritual idea of God; third,
        Christianity, which is the outcome of the divine Prin-
        ciple of the Christ-idea in Christian history; fourth,
577:18  Christian Science, which to-day and forever interprets
        this great example and the great Exemplar. This city
        of our God has no need of sun or satellite, for Love
577:21  is the light of it, and divine Mind is its own interpreter.
        All who are saved must walk in this light. Mighty
        potentates and dynasties will lay down their honors
577:24  within the heavenly city. Its gates open towards light
        and glory both within and without, for all is good, and
        nothing can enter that city, which "defileth. . . . or
577:27  maketh a lie."

        The writer's present feeble sense of Christian Science
        closes with St. John's Revelation as recorded by the
577:30  great apostle, for his vision is the acme of this Science
        as the Bible reveals it.

        In the following Psalm one word shows, though faintly,
578:1   the light which Christian Science throws on the Scriptures
        by substituting for the corporeal sense, the incorporeal
578:3   or spiritual sense of Deity: -

                               PSALM XXIII

        [DIVINE LOVE] is my shepherd; I shall not want.

578:6   [LOVE] maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
        [LOVE] leadeth me beside the still waters.

        [LOVE] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]: [Love] lead-
578:9   eth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

        Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
        death, I will fear no evil: for [LOVE] is with me; [LOVE's]
578:12  rod and [LOVE'S] staff they comfort me.

        [LOVE] prepareth a table before me in the presence of
        mine enemies: [LOVE] anointeth my head with oil; my cup
578:15  runneth over.

        Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of
        my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness]
578:18  of [LOVE] for ever.




        CHAPTER XVII - GLOSSARY

        These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that
        hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth;
        and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold,
        I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.
        - REVELATION.

579:1   In Christian Science we learn that the substitution of
        the spiritual for the material definition of a Scrip-
579:3   tural word often elucidates the meaning of the inspired
        writer. On this account this chapter is added. It con-
        tains the metaphysical interpretation of Bible terms,
579:6   giving their spiritual sense, which is also their original
        meaning.

        ABEL. Watchfulness; self-offering; surrendering to
579:9   the creator the early fruits of experience.

        ABRAHAM. Fidelity; faith in the divine Life and in the
        eternal Principle of being.
579:12  This patriarch illustrated the purpose of Love to create
        trust in good, and showed the life-preserving power of
        spiritual understanding.

579:15  ADAM. Error; a falsity; the belief in "original sin,"
        sickness, and death; evil; the opposite of good, - of God
        and His creation; a curse; a belief in intelligent matter,
580:1   finiteness, and mortality; "dust to dust;" red sand-
        stone; nothingness; the first god of mythology; not
580:3   God's man, who represents the one God and is His own
        image and likeness; the opposite of Spirit and His crea-
        tions; that which is not the image and likeness of good,
580:6   but a material belief, opposed to the one Mind, or Spirit;
        a so-called finite mind, producing other minds, thus mak-
        ing "gods many and lords many" (I Corinthians viii. 5);
580:9   a product of nothing as the mimicry of something; an
        unreality as opposed to the great reality of spiritual ex-
        istence and creation; a so-called man, whose origin,
580:12  substance, and mind are found to be the antipode of
        God, or Spirit; an inverted image of Spirit; the image
        and likeness of what God has not created, namely, mat-
580:15  ter, sin, sickness, and death; the opposer of Truth,
        termed error; Life's counterfeit, which ultimates in
        death; the opposite of Love, called hate; the usurper
580:18  of Spirit's creation, called self-creative matter; immor-
        tality's opposite, mortality; that of which wisdom saith,
        "Thou shalt surely die."

580:21  The name Adam represents the false supposition that
        Life is not eternal, but has beginning and end; that the
        infinite enters the finite, that intelligence passes into non-
580:24  intelligence, and that Soul dwells in material sense; that
        immortal Mind results in matter, and matter in mortal
        mind; that the one God and creator entered what He cre-
580:27  ated, and then disappeared in the atheism of matter.

        ADVERSARY. An adversary is one who opposes, denies,
        disputes, not one who constructs and sustains reality and
580:30  Truth. Jesus said of the devil, "He was a murderer from
        the beginning, . . . he is a liar and the father of it."
581:1   This view of Satan is confirmed by the name often con-
        ferred upon him in Scripture, the "adversary."

581:3   ALMIGHTY. All-power; infinity; omnipotence.

        ANGELS. God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual
        intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness,
581:6   purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality,
        and mortality.

        ARK. Safety; the idea, or reflection, of Truth, proved
581:9   to be as immortal as its Principle; the understanding of
        Spirit, destroying belief in matter.

        God and man coexistent and eternal; Science show-
581:12  ing that the spiritual realities of all things are created
        by Him and exist forever. The ark indicates temptation
        overcome and followed by exaltation.

581:15  ASHER (Jacob's son). Hope and faith; spiritual com-
        pensation; the ills of the flesh rebuked.

        BABEL. Self-destroying error; a kingdom divided
581:18  against itself, which cannot stand; material knowledge.

        The higher false knowledge builds on the basis of evi-
        dence obtained from the five corporeal senses, the more
581:21  confusion ensues, and the more certain is the downfall
        of its structure.

        BAPTISM. Purification by Spirit; submergence in
581:24  Spirit.

        We are "willing rather to be absent from the body,
        and to be present with the Lord." (II Corinthians v. 8.)

582:1   BELIEVING. Firmness and constancy; not a faltering
        nor a blind faith, but the perception of spiritual Truth.
582:3   Mortal thoughts, illusion.

        BENJAMIN (Jacob's son). A physical belief as to life,
        substance, and mind; human knowledge, or so-called
582:6   mortal mind, devoted to matter; pride; envy; fame;
        illusion; a false belief; error masquerading as the pos-
        sessor of life, strength, animation, and power to act.

582:9   Renewal of affections; self-offering; an improved
        state of mortal mind; the introduction of a more spiritual
        origin; a gleam of the infinite idea of the infinite Prin-
582:12  ciple; a spiritual type; that which comforts, consoles,
        and supports.

        BRIDE. Purity and innocence, conceiving man in the
582:15  idea of God; a sense of Soul, which has spiritual bliss
        and enjoys but cannot suffer.

        BRIDEGROOM. Spiritual understanding; the pure con-
582:18  sciousness that God, the divine Principle, creates man
        as His own spiritual idea, and that God is the only crea-
        tive power.

582:21  BURIAL. Corporeality and physical sense put out of
        sight and hearing; annihilation. Submergence in Spirit;
        immortality brought to light.
582:24  CANAAN (the son of Ham). A sensuous belief; the
        testimony of what is termed material sense; the error
        which would make man mortal and would make mortal
582:27  mind a slave to the body.

        CHILDREN. The spiritual thoughts and representa-
        tives of Life, Truth, and Love.

583:1   Sensual and mortal beliefs; counterfeits of creation,
        whose better originals are God's thoughts, not in em-
583:3   bryo, but in maturity; material suppositions of life, sub-
        stance, and intelligence, opposed to the Science of being.

        CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. The representatives of Soul, not
583:6   corporeal sense; the offspring of Spirit, who, having
        wrestled with error, sin, and sense, are governed by divine
        Science; some of the ideas of God beheld as men, casting
583:9   out error and healing the sick; Christ's offspring.

        CHRIST. The divine manifestation of God, which comes
        to the flesh to destroy incarnate error.
583:12  CHURCH. The structure of Truth and Love; what-
        ever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.

        The Church is that institution, which affords proof of
583:15  its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the
        dormant understanding from material beliefs to the ap-
        prehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of
583:18  divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and
        healing the sick.

        CREATOR. Spirit; Mind; intelligence; the animating
583:21  divine Principle of all that is real and good; self-existent
        Life, Truth, and Love; that which is perfect and eternal;
        the opposite of matter and evil, which have no Prin-
583:24  ciple; God, who made all that was made and could not
        create an atom or an element the opposite of Himself.

        DAN (Jacob's son). Animal magnetism; so-called mor-
583:27  tal mind controlling mortal mind; error, working out
        the designs of error; one belief preying upon another.

584:1   DAY. The irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea
        of Truth and Love.

584:3   "And the evening and the morning were the first day."
        (Genesis i. 5.) The objects of time and sense disappear
        in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind
584:6   measures time according to the good that is unfolded.
        This unfolding is God's day, and "there shall be no night
        there."

584:9   DEATH. An illusion, the lie of life in matter; the un-
        real and untrue; the opposite of Life.

        Matter has no life, hence it has no real existence. Mind
584:12  is immortal. The flesh, warring against Spirit; that
        which frets itself free from one belief only to be fettered
        by another, until every belief of life where Life is not
584:15  yields to eternal Life. Any material evidence of death is
        false, for it contradicts the spiritual facts of being.

        DEVIL. Evil; a lie; error; neither corporeality nor
584:18  mind; the opposite of Truth; a belief in sin, sickness,
        and death; animal magnetism or hypnotism; the lust of
        the flesh, which saith: " I am life and intelligence in
584:21  matter. There is more than one mind, for I am mind, -
        a wicked mind, self-made or created by a tribal god and
        put into the opposite of mind, termed matter, thence to
584:24  reproduce a mortal universe, including man, not after the
        image and likeness of Spirit, but after its own image."

        DOVE. A symbol of divine Science; purity and peace;
584:27  hope and faith.

        DUST. Nothingness; the absence of substance, life, or
        intelligence.

585:1   EARS. Not organs of the so-called corporeal senses,
        but spiritual understanding.

585:3   Jesus said, referring to spiritual perception, "Having
        ears, hear ye not?" (Mark viii. 18.)

        EARTH. A sphere; a type of eternity and immortality,
585:6   which are likewise without beginning or end.

        To material sense, earth is matter; to spiritual sense,
        it is a compound idea.

585:9   ELIAS. Prophecy; spiritual evidence opposed to mate-
        rial sense; Christian Science, with which can be discerned
        the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold;
585:12  the basis of immortality.

        "Elias truly shall first come and restore all things."
        (Matthew xvii. 11.)
585:15  ERROR. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 472.

        EUPHRATES (river). Divine Science encompassing
        the universe and man; the true idea of God; a type
585:18  of the glory which is to come; metaphysics taking the
        place of physics; the reign of righteousness. The atmos-
        phere of human belief before it accepts sin, sickness, or
585:21  death; a state of mortal thought, the only error of which
        is limitation; finity; the opposite of infinity.

        EVE. A beginning; mortality; that which does not
585:24  last forever; a finite belief concerning life, substance,
        and intelligence in matter; error; the belief that the hu-
        man race originated materially instead of spiritually, -
585:27  that man started first from dust, second from a rib, and
        third from an egg.

586:1   EVENING. Mistiness of mortal thought; weariness of
        mortal mind; obscured views; peace and rest.

586:3   EYES. Spiritual discernment, - not material but
        mental. Jesus said, thinking of the outward vision, "Having
586:6   eyes, see ye not?" (Mark viii. 18.)

        FAN. Separator of fable from fact; that which gives
        action to thought.

586:9   FATHER. Eternal Life; the one Mind; the divine
        Principle, commonly called God.

        FEAR. Heat; inflammation; anxiety; ignorance; error;
586:12  desire; caution.

        FIRE. Fear; remorse; lust; hatred; destruction; afflic-
        tion purifying and elevating man.

586:15  FIRMAMENT. Spiritual understanding; the scientific
        line of demarcation between Truth and error, between
        Spirit and so-called matter.

586:18  FLESH. An error of physical belief; a supposition that
        life, substance, and intelligence are in matter; an illusion;
        a belief that matter has sensation.

586:21  GAD (Jacob's son). Science; spiritual being under-
        stood; haste towards harmony.

        GETHSEMANE. Patient woe; the human yielding to
586:24  the divine; love meeting no response, but still remaining
        love.

587:1   GHOST. An illusion; a belief that mind is outlined
        and limited; a supposition that spirit is finite.

587:3   GIHON (river). The rights of woman acknowledged
        morally, civilly, and socially.

        GOD. The great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing,
587:6   all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle;
        Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance;
        intelligence.

587:9   GODS. Mythology; a belief that life, substance, and
        intelligence are both mental and material; a supposition
        of sentient physicality; the belief that infinite Mind is in
587:12  finite forms; the various theories that hold mind to be a
        material sense, existing in brain, nerve, matter; supposi-
        titious minds, or souls, going in and out of matter, erring
587:15  and mortal; the serpents of error, which say, "Ye shall
        be as gods."

        God is one God, infinite and perfect, and cannot be-
587:18  come finite and imperfect.

        GOOD. God; Spirit; omnipotence; omniscience; om-
        nipresence; omni-action.

587:21  HAM (Noah's son). Corporeal belief; sensuality;
        slavery; tyranny.

        HEART. Mortal feelings, motives, affections, joys, and
587:24  sorrows.

        HEAVEN. Harmony; the reign of Spirit; government
        by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere
587:27  of Soul.

588:1   HELL. Mortal belief; error; lust; remorse; hatred;
        revenge; sin; sickness; death; suffering and self-de-
588:3   struction, self-imposed agony; effects of sin; that which
        "worketh abomination or maketh a lie."

        HIDDEKEL (river). Divine Science understood and
588:6   acknowledged.

        HOLY GHOST. Divine Science; the development of
        eternal Life, Truth, and Love.

588:9   I, or EGO. Divine Principle; Spirit; Soul; incor-
        poreal, unerring, immortal, and eternal Mind.

        There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or
588:12  Mind, governing all existence; man and woman un-
        changed forever in their individual characters, even as
        numbers which never blend with each other, though they
588:15  are governed by one Principle. All the objects of God's
        creation reflect one Mind, and whatever reflects not this
        one Mind, is false and erroneous, even the belief that
588:18  life, substance, and intelligence are both mental and
        material.

        I AM. God; incorporeal and eternal Mind; divine
588:21  Principle; the only Ego.

        IN. A term obsolete in Science if used with reference
        to Spirit, or Deity.

588:24  INTELLIGENCE. Substance; self-existent and eternal
        Mind; that which is never unconscious nor limited.

        See chapter on Recapitulation, page 469.

589:1   ISSACHAR (Jacob's son). A corporeal belief; the
        offspring of error; envy; hatred; selfishness; self-will;
589:3   lust.

        JACOB. A corporeal mortal embracing duplicity, re-
        pentance, sensualism. Inspiration; the revelation of
589:6   Science, in which the so-called material senses yield to
        the spiritual sense of Life and Love.

        JAPHET (Noah's son). A type of spiritual peace, flow-
589:9   ing from the understanding that God is the divine Prin-
        ciple of all existence, and that man is His idea, the child
        of His care.

589:12  JERUSALEM. Mortal belief and knowledge obtained
        from the five corporeal senses; the pride of power and
        the power of pride; sensuality; envy; oppression; tyr-
589:15  anny. Home, heaven.

        JESUS. The highest human corporeal concept of the
        divine idea, rebuking and destroying error and bringing
589:18  to light man's immortality.

        JOSEPH. A corporeal mortal; a higher sense of Truth
        rebuking mortal belief, or error, and showing the immor-
589:21  tality and supremacy of Truth; pure affection blessing
        its enemies.

        JUDAH. A corporeal material belief progressing and
589:24  disappearing; the spiritual understanding of God and
        man appearing.

590:1   KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. The rein of harmony in divine
        Science; the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent
590:3   Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme.

        KNOWLEDGE. Evidence obtained from the five cor-
        poreal senses; mortality; beliefs and opinions; human
590:6   theories, doctrines, hypotheses; that which is not divine
        and is the origin of sin, sickness, and death; the oppo-
        site of spiritual Truth and understanding.

590:9   LAMB OF GOD. The spiritual idea of Love; self-im-
        molation; innocence and purity; sacrifice.

        LEVI (Jacob's son). A corporeal and sensual belief;
590:12  mortal man; denial of the fulness of God's creation;
        ecclesiastical despotism.

        LIFE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 468.

590:15  LORD. In the Hebrew, this term is sometimes em-
        ployed as a title, which has the inferior sense of master,
        or ruler. In the Greek, the word /kurios/ almost always
590:18  has this lower sense, unless specially coupled with the
        name God. Its higher signification is Supreme Ruler.

        LORD GOD. Jehovah.

590:21  This double term is not used in the first chapter of
        Genesis, the record of spiritual creation. It is intro-
        duced in the second and following chapters, when the
590:24  spiritual sense of God and of infinity is disappearing
        from the recorder's thought, - when the true scientific
        statements of the Scriptures become clouded through a
591:1   physical sense of God as finite and corporeal. From this
        follow idolatry and mythology, - belief in many gods, or
591:3   material intelligences, as the opposite of the one Spirit,
        or intelligence, named Elohim, or God.

        MAN. The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spirit-
591:6   ual image and likeness of God; the full representation of
        Mind.

        MATTER. Mythology; mortality; another name for
591:9   mortal mind; illusion; intelligence, substance, and life
        in non-intelligence and mortality; life resulting in death,
        and death in life; sensation in the sensationless; mind
591:12  originating in matter; the opposite of Truth; the oppo-
        site of Spirit; the opposite of God; that of which immortal
        Mind takes no cognizance; that which mortal mind sees,
591:15  feels, hears, tastes, and smells only in belief.

        MIND. The only I, or Us; the only Spirit, Soul, divine
        Principle, substance, Life, Truth, Love; the one God;
591:18  not that which is/ in/ man, but the divine Principle, or God,
        of whom man is the full and perfect expression; Deity,
        which outlines but is not outlined.

591:21  MIRACLE. That which is divinely natural, but must
        be learned humanly; a phenomenon of Science.

        MORNING. Light; symbol of Truth; revelation and
591:24  progress.

        MORTAL MIND. Nothing claiming to be something,
        for Mind is immortal; mythology; error creating other
591:27  errors; a suppositional material sense, /alias/ the belief
592:1   that sensation is in matter, which is sensationless; a be-
        lief that life, substance, and intelligence are in and of
592:3   matter; the opposite of Spirit, and therefore the opposite
        of God, or good; the belief that life has a beginning
        and therefore an end; the belief that man is the off-
592:6   spring of mortals; the belief that there can be more than
        one creator; idolatry; the subjective states of error;
        material senses; that which neither exists in Science nor
592:9   can be recognized by the spiritual sense; sin; sickness;
        death.

        MOSES. A corporeal mortal; moral courage; a type
592:12  of moral law and the demonstration thereof; the proof
        that, without the gospel, - the union of justice and affec-
        tion, - there is something spiritually lacking, since justice
592:15  demands penalties under the law.

        MOTHER. God; divine and eternal Principle; Life,
        Truth, and Love.

592:18  NEW JERUSALEM. Divine Science; the spiritual facts
        and harmony of the universe; the kingdom of heaven,
        or reign of harmony.

592:21  NIGHT. Darkness; doubt; fear.

        NOAH. A corporeal mortal; knowledge of the noth-
        ingness of material things and of the immortality of all
592:24  that is spiritual.

        OIL. Consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heav-
        enly inspiration.

592:27  PHARISEE. Corporeal and sensuous belief; self-right-
        eousness; vanity; hypocrisy.

593:1   PISON (river). The love of the good and beautiful, and
        their immortality.

593:3   PRINCIPLE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 465.

        PROPHET. A spiritual seer; disappearance of mate-
        rial sense before the conscious facts of spiritual Truth.

593:6   PURSE. Laying up treasures in matter; error.

        RED DRAGON. Error; fear; inflammation; sensuality;
        subtlety; animal magnetism; envy; revenge.

593:9   RESURRECTION. Spiritualization of thought; a new
        and higher idea of immortality, or spiritual existence;
        material belief yielding to spiritual understanding.

593:12  REUBEN (Jacob's son). Corporeality; sensuality; de-
        lusion; mortality; error.

        RIVER. Channel of thought.

593:15  When smooth and unobstructed, it typifies the course
        of Truth; but muddy, foaming, and dashing, it is a type
        of error.

593:18  ROCK. Spiritual foundation; Truth. Coldness and
        stubbornness.

        SALVATION. Life, Truth, and Love understood and
593:21  demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and
        death destroyed.

        SEAL. The signet of error revealed by Truth

594:1   SERPENT (/ophis/, in Greek; /nacash/, in Hebrew).
        Subtlety; a lie; the opposite of Truth, named error;
594:3   the first statement of mythology and idolatry; the belief
        in more than one God; animal magnetism; the first lie
        of limitation; finity; the first claim that there is an oppo-
594:6   site of Spirit, or good, termed matter, or evil; the first
        delusion that error exists as fact; the first claim that sin,
        sickness, and death are the realities of life. The first
594:9   audible claim that God was not omnipotent and that
        there was another power, named /evil/, which was as real
        and eternal as God, good.

594:12  SHEEP. Innocence; inoffensiveness; those who follow
        their leader.

        SHEM (Noah's son). A corporeal mortal; kindly affec-
594:1   tion; love rebuking error; reproof of sensualism.

        SON. The Son of God, the Messiah or Christ. The
        son of man, the offspring of the flesh. " Son of a year."

594:18  SOULS. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 466.

        SPIRIT. Divine substance; Mind; divine Principle;
        all that is good; God; that only which is perfect, ever-
594:21  lasting, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite.

        SPIRITS. Mortal beliefs; corporeality; evil minds;
        supposed intelligences, or gods; the opposites of God;
594:24  errors; hallucinations. (See page 466.)

        SUBSTANCE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 468.

595:1   SUN. The symbol of Soul governing man, - of
        Truth, Life, and Love.

595:3   SWORD. The idea of Truth; justice. Revenge;
        anger.

        TARES. Mortality; error; sin; sickness; disease;
595:6   death.

        TEMPLE. Body; the idea of Life, substance, and in-
        telligence; the superstructure of Truth; the shrine of
595:9   Love; a material superstructure, where mortals congre-
        gate for worship.

        THUMMIM. Perfection; the eternal demand of divine
595:12  Science.

        The Urim and Thummim, which were to be on Aaron's
        breast when he went before Jehovah, were holiness and
595:15  purification of thought and deed, which alone can fit us
        for the office of spiritual teaching.

        TIME. Mortal measurements; limits, in which are
595:18  summed tip all human acts, thoughts, beliefs, opinions,
        knowledge; matter; error; that which begins before,
        and continues after, what is termed death, until the mortal
595:21  disappears and spiritual perfection appears.

        TITHE. Contribution; tenth part; homage; gratitude.
        A sacrifice to the gods.

595:24  UNCLEANLINESS. Impure thoughts; error; sin; dirt.

        UNGODLINESS. Opposition to the divine Principle and
        its spiritual idea.

596:1   UNKNOWN. That which spiritual sense alone compre-
        hends, and which is unknown to the material senses.

596:3   Paganism and agnosticism may define Deity as "the
        great unknowable;" but Christian Science brings God
        much nearer to man, and makes Him better known as
596:6   the All-in-all, forever near.

        Paul saw in Athens an altar dedicated "to the unknown
        God." Referring to it, he said to the Athenians: "Whom
596:9   therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you."
        (Acts xvii. 23.)

        URIM. Light.

596:12  The rabbins believed that the stones in the breast-
        plate of the high-priest had supernatural illumination,
        but Christian Science reveals Spirit, not matter, as the
596:15  illuminator of all. The illuminations of Science give us
        a sense of the nothingness of error, and they show the
        spiritual inspiration of Love and Truth to be the only fit
596:18  preparation for admission to the presence and power of
        the Most High.

        VALLEY. Depression; meekness; darkness.

596:21  "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
        death, I will fear no evil." (Psalm xxiii.4.)

        Though the way is dark in mortal sense, divine Life
596:24  and Love illumine it, destroy the unrest of mortal thought,
        the fear of death, and the supposed reality of error. Chris-
        tian Science, contradicting sense, maketh the valley to bud
596:27  and blossom as the rose.

        VEIL. A cover; concealment; hiding; hypocrisy.

        The Jewish women wore veils over their faces in token
597:1   of reverence and submission and in accordance with
        Pharisaical notions.

597:3   The Judaic religion consisted mostly of rites and cere-
        monies. The motives and affections of a man were of
        little value, if only he appeared unto men to fast. The
597:6   great Nazarene, as meek as he was mighty, rebuked the
        hypocrisy, which offered long petitions for blessings upon
        material methods, but cloaked the crime, latent in thought,
597:9   which was ready to spring into action and crucify God's
        anointed. The martyrdom of Jesus was the culminating
        sin of Pharisaism. It rent the veil of the temple. It re-
597:12  vealed the false foundations and superstructures of super-
        ficial religion, tore from bigotry and superstition their
        coverings, and opened the sepulchre with divine Science,
597:15  - immortality and Love.

        WILDERNESS. Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spon-
        taneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a
597:18  material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense
        unfolds the great facts of existence.

        WILL. The motive-power of error; mortal belief; ani-
597:21  mal power. The might and wisdom of God.

        "For this is the will of God." (I Thessalonians
        iv. 3.)

597:24  Will, as a quality of so-called mortal mind, is a wrong-
        doer; hence it should not be confounded with the term
        as applied to Mind or to one of God's qualities.

597:27  WIND. That which indicates the might of omnipo-
        tence and the movements of God's spiritual government,
        encompassing all things. Destruction; anger; mortal
597:30  passions.

598:1   The Greek word for /wind/ (/pneuma/) is used also for
        /spirit/, as in the passage in John's Gospel, the third chap-
598:3   ter, where we read: "The wind [/pneuma/] bloweth where
        it listeth. . . . So is every one that is born of the Spirit
        [/pneuma/]." Here the original word is the same in both
598:6   cases, yet it has received different translations, as in other
        passages in this same chapter and elsewhere in the New
        Testament. This shows how our Master had constantly
598:9   to employ words of material significance in order to unfold
        spiritual thoughts. In the record of Jesus' supposed
        death, we read: "He bowed his head, and gave up the
598:12  ghost;" but this word /ghost/ is /pneuma/. It might be trans-
        lated /wind/ or /air/, and the phrase is equivalent to our
        common statement, "He breathed his last." What
598:15  Jesus gave up was indeed air, an etherealized form of
        matter, for never did he give up Spirit, or Soul.

        WINE. Inspiration; understanding. Error; fornica-
598:18  tion; temptation; passion.

        YEAR. A solar measurement of time; mortality;
        space for repentance.

598:21  "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years."
        (II Peter iii. 8.)

        One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual
598:24  understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity.
        This exalted view, obtained and retained when the Sci-
        ence of being is understood, would bridge over with life
598:27  discerned spiritually the interval of death, and man
        would be in the full consciousness of his immortality and
        eternal harmony, where sin, sickness, and death are un-
598:30  known. Time is a mortal thought, the divisor of which
599:1   is the solar year. Eternity is God's measurement of Soul-
        filled years.

599:3   YOU. As applied to corporeality, a mortal; finity.

        ZEAL. The reflected animation of Life, Truth, and
        Love. Blind enthusiasm; mortal will.

599:6   ZION. Spiritual foundation and superstructure; in-
        spiration; spiritual strength. Emptiness; unfaithful-
        ness; desolation.






CHAPTER XVIII - FRUITAGE

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. - JESUS.

That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. - PAUL.

Let us get up early to the vineyards: let us see if the vine flourish,
whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth. -
SOLOMON'S SONG.

THOUSANDS of letters could be presented in testimony of the healing
efficacy of Christian Science and particularly concerning the vast
number of people who have been reformed and healed through the perusal
or study of this book.

For the assurance and encouragement of the reader, a few of these
letters are here republished from THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL and
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE SENTINEL. The originals are in the possession of the
Editor, who can authenticate the testimonials which follow.

RHEUMATISM HEALED

I was a great sufferer from a serious form of rheumatic trouble, my
hands being affected to such an extent that it was impossible for me
even to dress without assistance. The trouble finally reached the knees,
and I became very lame and had to be assisted in and out of bed. I went
to the different health resorts for the benefit I hoped to derive from
the baths and waters that were prescribed by physicians, but found no
permanent relief. I was placed under an X-ray examination, and was told
that the joints were becoming ossified. I then consulted a celebrated
specialist, who after a thorough examination said my condition would
continue to grow worse and that I would become completely helpless.

At that time a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"
by Mrs. Eddy was loaned me. I read it more from curiosity than with the
thought of any physical benefit. As the truth was unfolded to me, I
realized that the mental condition was what needed correcting, and that
the Spirit of truth which inspired this book was my physician. My
healing is complete, and the liberation in thought is manifest in a life
of active usefulness rather than the bondage of helpless invalidism and
suffering. I owe to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, gratitude which words
cannot express. Her revelation of the practical rather than the merely
theoretical application of Jesus' words, "Ye shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free," proved to be my redeemer. I did not even
have to apply to a practitioner, but am most grateful for the helpful
words of loving friends. - E. B. B., Pasadena, Cal.

ASTIGMATISM AND HERNIA HEALED

It is nearly five years since I bought my first copy of Science and
Health, the reading of which cured me of chronic constipation, nervous
headache, astigmatism, and hernia, in less than four months.

Where would I be now, had not this blessed truth been brought to me by
much persuasion of a very dear friend?

I certainly should have been deep in the slough of despond, if not in
the grave. Am I truly thankful for all the good that has come to me and
mine? I try to let my works testify of that; but to those whom I do not
meet in person, I can truly say, Yes; I am indeed more thankful than
words can express for the glorious healing that has come to me, both
physical, mental, and moral, and I also convey herein, my song of
gratitude to the dear Leader who has through her fidelity to Truth
enabled me to touch at least the hem of Christ's garment. - B. S. J.,
Sioux City, Iowa.

SUBSTANCE OF LUNGS RESTORED

It was about fifteen years ago that Christian Science first
came to my notice. At that time I had been a chronic invalid for a good
many years. I had acute bowel trouble, bronchitis, and a number of other
troubles. One physician had told me that my lungs were like wet paper, ready
to tear at any time, and I was filled with fear, as my mother, two brothers,
and a sister had been victims of consumption. I tried many physicians and
every material remedy that promised help, but no help came until I found
a copy of Mrs. Eddy's book, Science and Health. The book was placed in my
hands by one who did not then appreciate it, and I was told that it would
be hard for me to understand it. I commenced reading it with this thought,
but I caught beautiful glimpses of Truth, which took away my fear and healed
me of all those diseases, and they have never returned.

I would also like to tell how I was healed of a sprained ankle. The
accident occurred in the morning, and all that day and during the night
I gave myself Christian Science treatment, as best I could. The next
morning it seemed to be no better, being very sore, badly swollen, and
much discolored. Feeling that I had done all I could, I decided to stop
thinking about it. I took my copy of Science and Health and began
reading. Very soon I became so absorbed in the book that I forgot all
about my ankle; it went entirely out of my thought, for I had a glimpse
of all God's creation as spiritual, and for the time being lost sight of
my material selfhood. After two hours I laid the book down and walked
into another room. When next I thought of my ankle, I found it was not
hurting me. The swelling had gone down, the black and blue appearance
had nearly vanished, and it was perfectly well. It was healed while I
was "absent from the body" and "present with the Lord." This experience
was worth a great deal to me, for it showed me how the healing is done.
- C. H., Portland, Ore.

FIBROID TUMOR HEALED IN A FEW DAYS

My gratitude for Christian Science is boundless. I was afflicted with a
fibroid tumor which weighed not less than fifty pounds, attended by a
continuous hemorrhage for eleven years. The tumor was a growth of
eighteen years.

I lived in Fort Worth, Tex., and I had never heard of Christian Science
before leaving there for Chicago in the year 1887. I had tried to live
near to God, and I feel sure He guided me in all my steps to this
healing and saving truth. After being there several weeks I received
letters from a Texas lady who had herself been healed, and who wrote
urging me to try Christian Science.

Changing my boarding-place, I met a
lady who owned a copy of Science and Health, and in speaking to her of
having seen the book, she informed me she had one, and she got it and
told me I could read it. The revelation was marvelous and brought a
great spiritual awakening. This awakened sense never left me, and one
day when walking alone it came to me very suddenly that I was healed,
and I walked the faster declaring every step that I was healed. When I
reached my boarding-place, I found my hostess and told her I was healed.
She looked the picture of amazement. The tumor began to disappear at
once, the hemorrhage ceased, and perfect strength was manifest.

There was no joy ever greater than mine for this Christ-cure, for I was
very weary and heavy laden. I thought very little of either sleeping or
eating, and my heart was filled with gratitude, since I knew I had
touched the hem of his garment.

I must add that the reading of Science and Health, and that alone,
healed me, and it was the second copy I ever saw. - S. L., Fort Worth,
Tex.

INSANITY AND EPILEPSY HEALED

While an inmate of the State asylum for the insane at Middletown, Conn.,
an epileptic, and at times confined to my bed with bilious attacks,
pronounced incurable by the doctors (at least six in number), the book,
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mrs. Eddy was
placed in my hands. After reading a few pages, I became very much
impressed with the truth therein stated, and although I was surrounded
with opposition, I knew that "underneath are the everlasting arms."
Since that time - past the middle of the year 1899 - I have kept
pressing on, until I have been healed by reading Science and Health. At
times I was beset by what seemed unconquerable opposition, until the
first week in October, 1904, when, upon going to my home in Darien for a
visit, I was given my liberty, and I am now earning my living in this
city. After having been subject to epileptic attacks since 1892, and at
one time pronounced dying by the doctor in charge, I am now well. I have
had no fit, or symptoms of any, since the first week in May, 1904.

I trust that this testimony to the healing power of Truth, realized by
reading Science and Health (for I had no treatment), may reach the eye
of some to whom the battle seems long, and inspire them with fresh
courage and a realization of the worth of the victory. I am filled with
inexpressible gratitude and love to God, and to Mrs. Eddy. - Mrs. B. B.
C., Stamford, Conn.

A CASE OF MENTAL SURGERY

I have felt for some time I should give my experience in mental surgery.
In May, 1902, going home for lunch, on a bicycle, and while riding down
a hill at a rapid gait, I was thrown from the wheel, and falling on my
left side with my arm under my head, the bone was broken about half-way
between the shoulder and elbow. While the pain was intense, I lay still
in the dust, declaring the truth and denying that there could be a break
or accident in the realm of divine Love, until a gentleman came to
assist me, saying, he thought I had been stunned. I was only two and a
half blocks from home, so I mounted my wheel again and managed to reach
it. On arriving there I lay down and asked my little boy to bring me our
textbook. He immediately brought Science and Health, which I read for
about ten minutes, when all pain left.

I said nothing to my family of the accident, but attended to some duties
and was about half an hour late in returning to the office, this being
my only loss of time from work. My friends claimed that the arm had not
been broken, as it would have been impossible for me to continue my work
without having it set, and carrying it in a sling until the bone knit
together. Their insistence almost persuaded me that I might have been
mistaken, until one of my friends invited me to visit a physician's
office where they were experimenting with an X-ray machine. The
physician was asked to examine my left arm to see if it differed from
the ordinary. On looking through it, he said, "Yes, it has been broken,
but whoever set it made a perfect job of it, and you will never have any
further trouble from that break." My friend then asked the doctor to
show how he could tell where the break had been. The doctor pointed out
the place as being slightly thicker at that part, like a piece of steel
that had been welded. This was the first of several cases of mental
surgery that have come under my notice, and it made a deep impression on
me.

For the benefit of others who may have something similar to meet, I will
say that I have overcome almost constant attacks of sick headaches,
extending back to my earliest recollection. - L. C. S., Salt Lake City,
Utah.

CATARACT QUICKLY CURED

I wish to add my testimony to those of others, and hope that it may be
the means of bringing some poor sufferer to health, to happiness, and to
God. I was healed through simply reading this wonderful book, Science
and Health. I had been troubled periodically for many years with sore
eyes, and had been to many doctors, who called the disease iritis and
cataract. They told me that my eyes would always give me trouble, and
that I would eventually lose my sight if I remained in an office, and
advised me to go under an operation. Later on I had to wear glasses at
my work, also out of doors as I could not bear the winds, and my eyes
were gradually becoming worse. I could not read for longer than a few
minutes at a time, otherwise they would smart severely. I had to rest my
eyes each evening to enable me to use them the next day; in fact
gas-light was getting unbearable because of the pain, and I made home
miserable. A dear brother told me about Christian Science, and said that
if I would read Science and Health it would help me. He procured for me
the loan of the book. The first night I read it, it so interested me I
quite forgot all about my eyes until my wife remarked that it was eleven
o'clock. I found that I had been reading this book for nearly four
hours, and I remarked immediately after, "I believe my eyes are cured,"
which was really the case. The next day, on looking at my eyes, my wife
noticed that the cataract had disappeared. I put away my outdoor
glasses, which I have not required since, and through the understanding
gained by studying Christian Science I have been able to do away with my
indoor glasses also, and have had no return of pain in my eyes since.
This is now a year and a half ago. - G. F. S., Liverpool, England.

VALVULAR HEART DISEASE HEALED

Fourteen years ago my heart awoke to gratitude to God and the dear
Leader at the same time. After a patient and persistent effort of three
months' duration, to procure a copy of Science and Health (during which
time I had visited every bookstore, and many of the second-hand
bookstores in the city of St. Paul), and had failed to find it, I at
last remembered that the stranger who told me I might be healed, had
mentioned a name, and McVicker's Theatre Building in Chicago as being in
some way connected with the work. I sent there for information regarding
a book called Health and Science, and the return mail brought me the
book, Science and Health, and in it I at once found sure promise of
deliverance from valvular heart disease, with all the accompaniments,
such as extreme nervousness, weakness, dyspepsia, and insomnia. I had
suffered from these all my life, finding no permanent relief, even, in
material remedies, and no hope of cure at any time. Only those who have
been healed in such bondage and have been liberated by the same means,
can know the eager joy of the first perusal of that wonderful book.

Half a day's reading convinced me that I had found the way to holiness
and health. I read on, thinking only of the spiritual enlightenment,
content to wait until I should be led to some person who would heal me;
but old things had passed away, and all things had become new. I was
completely healed before I had met a Scientist, or one who knew anything
about Christian Science, and before I had read a line of any other
Christian Science literature except one leaf of a tract; so it is
absolutely certain that the healing was entirely impersonal, as was also
the teaching, which enabled me to begin at once demonstrating the power
of Truth to destroy all forms of error. - E. J. W., North Yakima, Wash.

THE TRUE PHYSICIAN FOUND

It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I send the particulars of my
healing through Christian Science. While visiting friends in the
southwestern part of Ontario, about three years ago, my attention was
called to Christian Science and the wonderful healing it was doing. I
had lived in New York for twenty-five years, but had never heard of
Christian Science before, to my recollection.

Up to that time, for seventeen years, I had suffered with indigestion
and gastritis in the worst form, often being overcome from a seeming
pressure against the heart. I had asthma for four years, also had worn
glasses for four years. It seemed to me that I had swallowed every known
medicine to relieve my indigestion, but they only gave me temporary
benefit. I purchased a copy of Science and Health, and simply from the
reading of that grand book I was completely healed of all my physical
ailments in two weeks' time. I have used no medicine from that day to
this, and with God's help, and the wonderful light revealed to me
through the reading of Mrs. Eddy's book, I never expect to again. I used
to smoke eight or ten cigars a day, and also took an occasional drink,
but the desire for these has gone, - I feel forever. I travel on the
road, and am constantly being invited to indulge, but it is no effort to
abstain, and in many instances I find that my refusal helps others.

While I fully appreciate the release from my physical troubles, this
pales into insignificance in comparison with the spiritual uplifting
Christian Science has brought me. I had not been inside a church for
more than ten years, to attend regular services, until I entered a
Christian Science church. What I saw and realized there, seemed so
genuine that I loved Christian Science from the very start. I have never
taken a treatment, - every inch of the way has been through study and
practical demonstration, and I know that all can do the same thing if
they will try.

Since I have been in Science I have overcome a case of ulcerated tooth
in one night through the reading of Science and Health; also a severe
attack of grip in thirty-six hours by obeying the Scripture saying,
"Physician, heal thyself." - B. H. N., New York, N. Y.

CANCER AND CONSUMPTION HEALED

I was a great sufferer for many years from internal cancer and
consumption. I was treated by the best of physicians in New York,
Minneapolis, and Duluth, and was finally given up as incurable, when I
heard of Christian Science. A neighbor who had been healed of
consumption, kindly loaned me Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, which I
read and became interested in. In three months' time, I was healed, the
truth conveyed to me by this book being the healer, and not only of
these diseases, but I was made whole mentally as well. I have not been
in bed one day since, or rather in eleven years. I have had many good
demonstrations during this time, have passed through many a "fiery
trial," but this blessed truth has caused me to stand, at times
seemingly alone, and God was with me.

I will mention a demonstration of painless childbirth which I have had
since coming to Idaho. Perhaps it may help some sister who is looking
through the /Journal/ for a demonstration of this kind, as I was before
my baby came. Good help being scarce here, I did my housework up to the
time I was confined, and was in perfect health. I awoke my husband one
morning at five o'clock, and at half past five baby was born, no one
being present but my husband and myself. It was quite a surprise to the
rest of the family to see me sitting by the fire with a new baby on my
lap. My son got the breakfast, of which I ate heartily; at noon I joined
the family in the dining-room. I was out on the porch the second day,
around the yard the third day, and have been perfectly well ever since,
which has been now over three years. To one who had previously passed
through agony untold, with a physician in attendance, this seemed
wonderful. I hope this will interest some one who is seeking the truth,
and I wish to express my sincere love for our beloved Leader, who has
given us the " Key to the Scriptures." - E. C. C., Lewiston, Idaho.

A REMARKABLE CASE

Nine years ago my only child was hovering between life and death. Some
of the best physicians in Boston had pronounced his case incurable,
saying that if he lived he would always be an invalid and a cripple. One
of the diseases was gastric catarrh. He was allowed to eat but very few
things, and even after taking every precaution, he suffered to the
extent that he would lie in spasms for half a day. He also had rickets;
physicians saying that there was not a natural bone in his body.

It was while he was in what seemed to be his greatest agony, and when I
was in the darkest despair, that I first heard of Christian Science. The
bearer of the joyful tidings could only tell me to come and hear of the
wonderful things that Christian Science was doing. I accepted the
invitation, for I was willing to try anything to save my child, and the
following Friday evening I attended my first meeting, which was in The
Mother Church of Christ, Scientist. Long before the service began every
seat was filled, which was amazing to me, being an ordinary weekly
meeting, and that night I realized from the testimonies given that
Christian Science was the religion for which I had been searching for
years. The next day I went to find a practitioner, but was unable to get
the one who had been recommended, he being too busy. On my way home I
thought of some of the testimonies which I had heard the night before, -
of people being healed by simply reading Science and Health. I resolved at
once to borrow a copy, and not dreaming of the sacrifice that my friend
would make by conferring such a favor, I went and asked her for a loan of
Science and Health. I never saw any one part so reluctantly with a book
as my friend did with her copy of the textbook.

I read it silently and audibly, day and night, in my home, and although
I could not seem to understand it, yet the healing commenced to take
place at once. The little mouth which had been twisted by spasms grew
natural and the child was soon able to be up, playing and romping about
the house as any child should. About this time we decided to move to the
far West.

I was young in Science at the time, and my husband greatly feared that
the journey would cause a relapse for the child, but instead, he
continued to improve. I constantly read the Bible, Science and Health,
and Miscellaneous Writings, the two weeks we traveled, and we were the
only ones in our car who, throughout the journey, did not get train
sick. The child's limbs grew perfectly straight, he ate anything he
wanted, and for years he has been a natural, healthy child in every way.
He has passed through some of the worst forms of contagion untouched and
unharmed.

I had been reading Science and Health several months, before I gave any
thought to myself and my numerous complaints. I had never been very
strong, and some of my ailments were supposed to be hereditary and
chronic, hence I dragged through many tedious years with a belief in
medical laws and hereditary laws resting upon me.

Just before I commenced reading Science and Health I spent a half day in
having my eyes examined by one of the leading oculists in Boston. His
verdict was that my eyes were in a dreadful condition, and that I would
always need to wear glasses. In the meantime I commenced to read Science
and Health, and when I thought of my eyes, I had no need for glasses.
The years that I have been in Science I have used my eyes incessantly,
night as well as day, doing all kinds of trying work and without
requiring the aid of glasses. I was healed of all my complaints whilst
seeking the truth for my child, and many of them have never returned.
Those that appeared simply came to the surface to be destroyed. Teeth
have been restored and facial blemishes removed, unconsciously, simply
by reading Science and Health. All of this is, however, nothing to
compare with the spiritual uplifting which I have received, and I have
everything to be thankful for. - M. T. W., Los Angeles, Cal.

INTENSE SUFFERING OVERCOME

For about five years I was afflicted with sciatic rheumatism, in such a
severe form that my body was drawn out of shape. When able to be around,
I walked with the assistance of a cane. The attacks were periodical,
recurring every few months; any exposure to rain or dampness would bring
one. At one time I was in bed eleven weeks, suffering intensely all the
time except when relieved by hypodermic injections. When I had these
attacks, my regular physician was always in attendance. My daughter
consulted another physician, who said there would have to be an
operation which would include the exposing and scraping of the sciatic
nerve. There was also another physician who, knowing of the case,
examined my heart and claimed that it was weak and that I was liable to
pass on at any time from heart trouble.

After suffering three years I heard of Christian Science, but did not
avail myself of it for two years, when I decided to give up all other
means and rely wholly upon it. It was not convenient to call a
practitioner, so I took Science and Health and applied its teachings as
best I could. In three days the trouble completely left me and there has
never been the slightest return. My health has been good ever since, and
I am at present in perfect physical health. I have been benefited in
every way by Christian Science, physically, mentally, and spiritually,
and would not be without my understanding of it for anything. - Mrs. E.
A. K., Billings, Mont.

HEALED OF RHEUMATISM AND BRIGHT'S DISEASE

I am very thankful to God for what He has done for me. I was suddenly
left alone, with many troubles and trials, and I took up the study of
the Bible. I was trying to understand it, prior to joining some church,
as it seemed to me this would be expected. I had attended all sorts of
churches from my childhood up, but never could find any that met my
need. As time passed on, my condition became very alarming. Sciatic
rheumatism, that had troubled me for some years, became so severe I
could scarcely do anything.

Then there appeared some complications, so distressing that I was unable
to walk far, and had to sit down frequently by the way. I thought I had
Bright's disease, - such excruciating pains, no tongue could tell my
sufferings. With all these things upon me, death seemed very near. I had
never joined any church, and I thought it now too late, as I would have
to wait six months on probation, and I would be dead before that.

About this time I made some inquiries of my sister in reference to
Christian Science, as she had already turned to that faith, and I soon
found that it was just what I had been looking for. I saw at once that
it declared the truth and nothing but the truth. I commenced reading
Science and Health, also the New Testament. I wanted to find out what
Jesus said, as I did not expect then to live long. I did not go to the
meetings, nor did I read Science and Health to be cured, - not thinking
of that, - but to be saved from an everlasting hell hereafter. My sister
urged me to have a practitioner, but I kept on reading, and praying to
God in silence, and what happened? Where had the diseases gone? I
persisted in reading Science and Health, together with the Bible, with
the knowledge that God as revealed by Christ Jesus can do everything,
that He made everything that was made, that He can and does heal the
afflicted. He has healed me, thanks to His most holy name. - G. J. H.,
Charleston, Ill.

GRATEFUL FOR MANY BLESSINGS

In the year 1901, Christian Science found me a hopeless invalid. I had
suffered for seven years previous with a very painful back, the result
of an operation. I could get no rest or sleep at night, as I could not
lie down, but had to sit propped in a chair with pillows around me. Only
those who have suffered as I did can know the full misery of it. I had
come to the end of material means and never hoped to get well. One day,
however, while out walking, it was my good fortune to come to a
Christian Scientist's house, and there the teaching was explained to me.
I was advised to buy Science and Health, which I did, and the study of
this book has healed my back entirely. Christian Science has also cured
me of long-standing catarrh of the throat, and neuralgia with which I
had been afflicted from childhood. Before coming into Science I had
doctored with three of the best physicians in Seattle, but none could
give me relief.

I am no longer a sufferer, but rejoice exceedingly in Christian Science.
God's promise has been fulfilled to me, " But unto you that fear my name
shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings." - E.
O., Georgetown, Wash.

FREED FROM NEURASTHENIC AND OTHER TROUBLES

Christian Science found in me a minister's son who had failed to profit
by continuous teaching in the old thought. Some years ago I was
pronounced by a professor of /materia medica/, whose works are in
general use, a neurasthenic. I had been in this condition more or less
for eight years, and up to two years ago, when Christian Science was
first brought to my attention (thanks to Almighty God) through a kind
friend, I was almost constantly taking medicine and had in all eleven
physicians who undoubtedly did their best, but without avail, not-
withstanding almost all known drugs were prescribed, and further I had
tried very many patent medicines. I was also put through forms of
hygienic treatment and other things that offered inducements. At the
time of coming into Science I was taking three times daily forty minims
of cod-liver oil and three of creosote, also three drops of Fowler's
solution of arsenic, and on the month or so previous had bought eighteen
dollars' worth of patent medicine. I was restricted to the simplest
means of diet, - all stews, fries, sweets, berries, and tomatoes I had
not touched for two years.

I started to read Science and Health, and before I had half finished the
book once I was eating everything that any one does. I read the book
eleven times straight ahead and many times skipping about. The book has
done the work and I am a well man. - C. E. M., Philadelphia, Pa.

MANY ILLS OVERCOME

I have received much help, spiritually and physically, through Christian
Science. I had what the doctors diagnosed as muscular rheumatism,
dropsy, and constipation of thirty years' standing. A dear friend whom I
had known as an invalid had been healed by Christian Science and advised
me to read Science and Health. I did so, having a desire to know the
truth. One of my troubles was that I could not sleep. I began reading
the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, and troubles of every kind
disappeared before I had read Science and Health through. The thought
came, What about the old remedies? but truth prevailed, and I took all
the material remedies I had and threw them away. That was seven years
ago, and I have not had any use for them since. My husband was healed of
the tobacco habit of fifty years' standing, also of kidney trouble, by
reading Science and Health. I have not words to express the gratitude I
feel to-day for the many blessings that have come to our home. - Mrs. M.
K. O., Seattle, Wash.

A HELPFUL HEALING

I became interested in Christian Science about eleven years ago, and was
healed of neuralgia of the stomach, from which I had suffered from a
child. As I grew older, the spells became more frequent and more severe;
the only relief physicians could give me was by hypodermic injections of
morphine. Finally, after each spell, I would be prostrated for a day or
two with the after-effect of the morphine. I was entirely healed of this
trouble through the study of Science and Health. I think I never
realized what fear meant until I began to try and put into practice my
understanding of Christian Science for my children. I have proved,
however, many times, that fear can neither help nor hinder in our
demonstration of truth. The first time I realized this was in the
overcoming of a severe case of croup for my little boy. I was awakened
one night by the sound that seems to bring terror to every mother's
heart, and found the little fellow sitting up in bed, gasping for
breath. I got up, took him in my arms, and went into the next room. My
first thought was, "O if only there was another Christian Scientist in
town!" But there was not, and the work must be done and done quickly. I
tried to treat him, but was so frightened I could not think; so I picked
up Science and Health, which lay on the table beside me, and began
reading aloud. I had read but a few lines when these words came to me as
though a voice spoke, "The word of God is quick, and powerful, and
sharper than any two-edged sword." Almost immediately after, the little
one said, "Mamma, sing 'Shepherd,' " - our Leader's hymn, that both the
big and the little children love. I began singing, and commencing with
the second line, the little voice joined me. I shall never forget the
feeling of joy and peace that came over me, when I realized how quickly
God's word, through Science and Health and the beautiful hymn, had
accomplished the healing work. This is only one of many instances in
which the power of God's word to heal has been demonstrated in our home.
- A. J. G., Riverside, Cal.

RELIEF FROM MANY ILLS

Paul said, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." In my own
case deafness has been overcome by an enlarged understanding of God's
word, as explained by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health. Many times I have
been enabled to turn to God, to know it was His will to help in trouble,
and obtained the needed benefit. Catarrh has disappeared; tonsilitis,
which very frequently laid me aside from duties in the schoolroom and
home, is no longer manifest. When temptation comes (for Christian
Science is both preventive and curative), I turn to that wonderful book,
Science and Health, and my precious Bible, grown dearer since read in
the new light of spiritual understanding, until I know that my mind is
renewed, because the action is changed and the inflammation has abated.

Thus in my experience in Christian Science, I have seen the
transformation begun, and Truth is able to perfect that which is begun
in me so gloriously. - Mrs. C.A. McL., Brooklyn, Nova Scotia.

HEALTH AND PEACE ATTAINED

For fifteen years I was a great sufferer physically and mentally.
Eminent physicians treated me for hereditary consumption, torpid liver,
and many other diseases. I sought relief at famous springs, the ozone of
Florida, and the pure air of Colorado, but in vain. My life was one
ceaseless torture.

During all this time, however, I was an earnest seeker after Truth. I
examined every religious teaching with a calm and unprejudiced
attention. From an orthodox Protestant I became a skeptic, and a
follower of Voltaire, Tom Paine, and Ingersoll; yet all the while I
retained faith in a supreme intelligent Being who made all. Sick, weary,
doubting, and despairing, I accidentally went into a Christian Science
church in New York City, on a Wednesday evening, not knowing what kind
of a place it was. Seeing a large number of people going into the
building, I followed, supposing that a marriage ceremony had attracted
the crowd. Being informed it was their regular Wednesday evening
service, I inquired as to the denomination. I concluded that it was
another new fad, but after investigation I procured a copy of Science
and Health, promising I would read it carefully. I began reading the
book on Tuesday and finished on Friday of the same week. I was still in
the dark. I laid the book down, involuntarily closed my eyes, and
silently prayed to God.

I remained in that attitude a few moments, when I felt like the mariner
who had been tossed for days upon a boisterous sea, the clouds bending
low, the billows rolling high, all nature wrapped in darkness; in his
despair he kneels and commits his soul to God, when he suddenly beholds
the North Star breaking through the clouds, enabling him to guide his
ship to the shores of safety. Many things were made plain to me. I saw
that there is one Fatherhood of God and one brotherhood of man; that
though "once I was blind, now I see;" that there was no more pain, nor
aches, no fear, nor indigestion. I slept that night like a babe and
awoke next morning refreshed. There are now no traces whatever of my
former complaint and I feel like a new being. - L. P., New York, N. Y.

HEALTH AND PEACE GAINED

About nine years ago I was drawn to Christian Science by a relative
whose many afflictions had given place to health and harmony, and whose
loving gratitude was reflected in every word and deed. The thought came
to me, God indeed healeth all our diseases.

My first reading of Science and Health was without understanding. I was
full of darkness and gloom, and it was laid aside for a time. The good
seed had been sown, however, and erelong the reading was resumed,
and with such interest that my afflictions disappeared "like mist before
the morning sun." Asthma (thought to be hereditary), neuralgia in an
aggravated form, and besides these, the tobacco and liquor habit of many
years' standing left me. Bless the Lord, "He sent his word" and healed
me, - for the reading of Science and Health brought to my consciousness
the truth that makes free. - S., Shellman, Ga.

CONSUMPTION QUICKLY CURED

I became interested in Christian Science nearly five years ago through
the healing of my wife of what the doctors called consumption in its
last stages. I had tried everything that I could get in the way of
/materia medica/, and every doctor would tell me nearly the same story
about the case. At last they recommended for her only a higher, drier
climate, and when she would be at her worst to give her something to
quiet her.

I tried different climates, but she was no better, indeed worse. At last
she struggled along until the first of March, 1899. She had taken to her
bed again. For two days and nights she suffered, and I called a
physician. He came and diagnosed the case, and said that he could do
nothing for her but give her some morphine tablets to make her rest. I
gave her two of them according to direction, and just before the time to
give her the third, she called me to her bedside, and said, " Don't give
me any more of that stuff, for it does me more harm than good," so I
turned and placed them in the fire, though I did not then know anything
about Christian Science. We had heard of it, but that was all. I gave
her the last tablet at eight o'clock that night, and about nine o'clock
the next day a lady who had been healed in Christian Science visited
her, and introduced her to this great truth. She accepted it and thought
she would try it. The lady loaned her Science and Health. She got the
book about ten o'clock that day and read it until dinner was called. She
ate a hearty dinner, the first in about three days, and that same
evening she dressed herself, walked into the dining-room, ate a hearty
supper and enjoyed it. She slept well that night. She borrowed this
lady's copy of Science and Health two hours each day for eight days, and
was healed. The first day that she read Science and Health she weighed
about ninety-five pounds. Three months later she weighed one hundred and
thirty-five pounds. - A. J. D., Houston, Tex.

A PROFITABLE STUDY

It may help others to know that some one was really healed of severe
illness through Christian Science. It is over nine years since we first
became interested in the Science, and it would be hard to find a
healthier person than I am now. I can go all day, from morning till
night, upheld by the thought that "they that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength." I can truly say that I scarcely know what
physical weariness is any more. Before I came into Science the
physicians said that one lung was gone, and that the other was affected
with tuberculosis; so, from their standpoint, there was little left for
me to hope for. We had tried every remedy that they had suggested. I had
gone to the mountains, but could not stay there on account of the
altitude; and when they did not know what else to do, they said we would
better go to England - that the ocean air would be beneficial. So we
spent three months in the British Isles, and when I came back I seemed
much better, but this only lasted a short time. In little more than a
month I was worse than ever, and my mother was told that I had but a few
weeks, or at most months, to live.

At that time, a lady, a stranger to us, suggested that we try Christian
Science. There was no prejudice against it, as we did not even know what
it was. We knew of no Scientists in the Western town where we were
living, and when we were told that we could send to Kansas City for
absent treatment, we thought it was absurd. We were then told that many
people had been healed through the reading of the Christian Science
textbook, Science and Health, and to us this seemed a little worse than
the absent treatment, but as we had tried everything we had heard of up
to that time, my mother sent for the book.

It came in the middle of October and we began to read it together. It
seemed to me from the first that it was something I had always believed,
but did not know how to express - it seemed such a natural thing. My
improvement was very gradual, but I felt I was recovering. After the
Christmas holidays I started in at school and went the whole term
without missing a day, - something I had never done before. I finished
my school course without missing a day - in fact, I have not spent a day
in bed since that time. I feel absolutely certain that I have two sound,
healthy lungs now. The hollows in my chest have filled out, and I
breathe perfectly on both sides; rarely have a cold to meet, and have
not a sign of a cough.

People sometimes say, "Oh, well, maybe you never had consumption." Well,
I had all the symptoms, and they are every one gone through the reading
of Science and Health. - E. L. B., Chicago, Ill.

HEALED OF INFIDELITY AND MANY PHYSICAL ILLS

I feel compelled to write my testimony and hope that I may be accepted
as one more witness to the Truth as contained in Science and Health with
Key to the Scriptures.

In the year 1883 I first heard of Christian Science. I was sitting in a
saloon in Leadville, Col., reading a daily paper of that place. My eyes
lighted upon an article which spoke of some peculiar people in Boston
who claimed to have discovered how to heal as Jesus healed. I do not
remember much of the article, but those words stayed with me.

I had drifted out to Colorado from New York City (my home), where I had
been under the treatment of many leading physicians. The last one, who
was too honest to take my money knowing that he could not cure me,
advised me to keep away from doctors and quit taking medicine, as
nothing but death could cure me. My trouble was pronounced by some to be
Bright's disease, by others gravel on the kidneys with very acute
inflammation of the bladder and prostate gland.

In the spring of 1888 my wife and myself were spending the evening at
the house of a gentleman whose wife had been healed in the East by
Christian Science. The gentleman took a book from its bookcase saying,
"Here is a work on Christian Science." It proved to be Science and
Health. I knew as soon as I had read the title-page that this was the
very book we wanted. We immediately sent for the book, and when it
arrived we obeyed the angel and feasted on it. I was very much
prejudiced against the Bible, and my first demonstration over self was
to consent to read the four Gospels. My wife bought me a New Testament
and I began to read it. What a change came over me! All my prejudice was
gone in an instant! When I read the Master's words, I caught his meaning
and the lesson he tried to convey. It was not difficult for me to accept
the whole Bible, for I could not help myself, I was just captured. The
disease with which I had been troubled for years tormented me worse than
ever for about six months, as if trying to turn me aside; but I lost all
fear of it.

I kept up my study of Science and Health and the disease disappeared. I
can honestly say that Science and Health was my only healer, and it has
been my only teacher. - R. A. C., Los Angeles, Cal.

DISEASED EYES CURED

Christian Science came to me when I was a wreck, my body being
completely covered with sores. My eyes were very bad, so that I sat in a
darkened room for weeks together, most of the time in bed under opiates.
The home doctor and a specialist said the disease of the eyes could not
be cured, though they might help me for a while. I had one operation,
and the doctor said if I took cold I would become totally blind. My
suffering was beyond telling.

A clergyman called almost every day, and sat by my bed and wept, and my
good, kind doctor shed tears many times. Finally, after a year of this
terrible suffering, I was sent to Indiana, to a sister who had been
healed of lung trouble by Christian Science. The first day I was there
she read to me from the Bible and from "Science and Health with Key to
the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and I was healed. I knew that God was no
respecter of persons, and when I saw what had been done for my sister,
who was changed from being a mere frame to a strong, robust, healthy,
rosy-cheeked woman, the cough all gone, I said, "God has as much for me,
if I will accept it." I was healed instantaneously by Christian Science,
and am thankful to God for giving us this understanding through Mrs.
Eddy, our beloved Leader. I am now in perfect health. - Mrs. F. S.,
Laurel, Miss.

THE TEXTBOOK HEALED ME

For twelve years previous to the fall of 1897 I had been under the care
of a physician much of the time. Different opinions were given by them,
as to the nature of the trouble, some diagnosing it as an abnormal
growth, etc. I was healed through reading" Science and Health with Key
to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. It was a clear case of transformation
of the body by the renewal of the mind. I am perfectly well at the
present time. - J. M. H., Omaha, Neb.

OBSTINATE STOMACH TROUBLE HEALED

There is no doubt that by far the greater number come to Christian
Science by the way of physical healing, but there are those to whom
this does not particularly appeal. In the hope
that it may be of benefit to some such, and in gratitude for help
received, I submit my own experience. Three years ago I knew nothing of
Christian Science, aside from the knowledge gathered from the daily
papers and current literature. When I thought of the subject at all, it
was to class Christian Science with various human theories with which I
could not be in sympathy, for they seemed to rely upon both good and
evil. I had never known of a case of healing, had never read the
textbook or heard of the /Journal/ or /Sentinel/, but I would sometimes
see people going into the Christian Science church. I was tired of
trying to find anything satisfactory in religious belief, for it seemed
as if God either could not or would not bring into harmony the terrible
conditions existing in human society. I had quit using any form of
prayer except the Lord's Prayer, and even then omitted the words "lead
us not into temptation." How I longed to know just a little of the
"why?" and "wherefore?" of it all.

Here is where Christian Science found me. I was thrown in contact with a
dear friend of whom I had seen very little for a year or more, a
thoroughly educated woman and a thinker. She told me she had taken some
treatments in Christian Science for a physical trouble, and had become
very much interested in the study of "Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. She asked me if I would like to look at the
book, and I said I would be glad to do so. The first chapter, "Prayer,"
appealed to me from the first, and when I came to Mrs. Eddy's spiritual
sense of the Lord's Prayer (Science and Health, p. 17), my interest was
fully aroused. I knew that in a dim way I was learning what it means to
"pray without ceasing." Very soon I bought a book of my own, and with
the help of our Lesson-Sermons, as given in the /Quarterly/, I began in
earnest the study of Science and Health, in connection with the Bible.

I stood very much in need of physical healing at this time, having
suffered for several years from an obstinate form of stomach trouble. So
far as I know, I gave no thought to the benefits I might derive
physically from the study, but I did believe this Science held the truth
of things, and I was so absorbed in getting an understanding of the
Principle that I thought very little of myself. After about three or
four months' study I realized that the stomach trouble was gone, and
with it went other physical troubles, which have never returned. This
healing was brought about by the earnest, conscientious seeking for the
truth, as contained in the Bible and interpreted by our Leader in our
textbook, Science and Health. I have since learned more of the Science
of healing and have been able in a small way to help others in need. I
have also learned that in living and loving is healing realized, and in
reflecting divine Love I have the "signs following."

When we think of the pure, loving, unselfish life Mrs. Eddy must have
lived in order to become conscious of this truth and give it to us,
words are a poor medium through which to express the gratitude which her
followers feel for her. It is best expressed by obediently following
her, even as she is following Christ. - H. T., Omaha, Neb.

DYSPEPSIA QUICKLY HEALED

It has occurred to me that I have had ample time to meditate on the many
blessings which I have received through Christian Science, as it is now
more than six years since I was entirely healed of dyspepsia as well as
constipation in its worst form by the reading of Science and Health. So
aggravated were the conditions that for three years or more I was unable
to drink a glass of cold water. Everything that I drank had to be hot, and
my only means of relief from the bowel trouble was hot water injections,
for a period of more than three years.

I can truthfully say that I was permanently, and I might say instantly,
healed of those two ailments by reading Science and Health as before
stated, and in fact I do not think I had read more than thirty pages of
this book when I ignored entirely the most rigid kind of diet. I ate and
drank everything I wished without a single harmful effect from that time
to this date, and there has not been a drop of medicine in our home for
more than six years, in a family of five.

I have also seen the power of Truth manifested in our home by having our
youngest child relieved of the most excruciating pain, and changed to
his most playful mood, immediately upon notifying one of the faithful
practitioners of this city. For all this I am endeavoring to be thankful
to God and to our faithful Leader, Mrs. Eddy, whose pure and undefiled
life enabled her to discover this precious truth for the benefit of all
mankind. - M. C. McK., Denver, Col.

AFTER TWENTY YEARS' SUFFERING

From early girlhood I was considered an invalid, having been injured by
a hard fall while playing. The pain was intense for some time and for
several hours I was unable to walk or stand alone. Later, a growing
weakness of the back accompanied with sharp pains alarmed my parents,
who called a physician, and he pronounced it spinal trouble. Then
followed nearly twenty years of increased suffering, at times very
severe. As years went by and I became a wife and mother, my suffering
increased. Everything that medical skill could do was done, but finding
no lasting benefit from anything, I lost hope of recovery.

When Christian Science found me I was under the doctor's sentence that
if I lived the week through I would become entirely helpless, not able
to move hand or foot. My husband was a travelling man, and being
urgently called home, he met an old friend on the train who asked why we
did not try Christian Science. The reply, We know nothing of it, was
followed by a brief explanation of its healing power and the benefit his
family had received. This inspired my husband with new hope, and on his
arrival at home he called on a practitioner, who recommended our getting
Science and Health, which we did, but ignorance and the prejudice of old
education produced such fear that I hid the book under the covers of the
bed whenever the children came into the room, fearing that it was not of
God and would injure them. God's dear love was, however, more potent
than these foolish fears, and the first day I read from its sacred pages
I was convinced its teachings were the same truths as Jesus Christ had
taught centuries ago. When I had read a few pages, I reached out and
threw my medicine from the open window at the head of my bed. I then
turned back to the book and began reading again, when, lo, the
Christ-idea dawned upon me, and I was healed instantaneously.

I first noticed the spot in my back cooling, and soon I got out of bed.
I continued to read eagerly; I felt as if I wanted to devour the healing
truth, and drank it in as a thirsty plant does the gentle rain. When
dinner was prepared, I walked out and ate a hearty meal with the family,
to the amazement of all. We shall never forget what a joyful meal this
was. How we did thank God for Christian Science!

As year after year has gone by, till twenty years have passed and the
healing has remained perfect, I have grown to thank God with deeper
sincerity that one brave woman was found pure enough to bring forth this
Christ-healing again, to remain forever among men and to save suffering
humanity from all disease and sin. - Mrs. P. L. H., Fairmont, Minn.

FROM DESPAIR TO HOPE AND JOY

I have often had a desire to make public what Christian Science has done
for me, but I never could tell of all my blessings, they are so many.
>From childhood I was always sick, never knew one hour of rest, and was
under the doctor's care most of the time. I was living in the East at
that time, and was advised to try change of climate, which I did. I came
West with my family in the spring of the year, but instead of growing
better I grew steadily worse, until at last I was obliged to keep my bed
for nearly three years, - a great sufferer. My ailments were, it seemed,
all that flesh is heir to, and were called incurable by the doctors;
viz., Bright's disease, and many others, - in the last stages. My case
was known among physicians, many of whom were prominent specialists, as
a most extreme one. Many, upon looking at me, would turn away with a
wise shake of the head and say, "What keeps her alive?" My physicians,
who were exceedingly kind and did all that lay within their power for
me, gave me up and the death sentence was pronounced on me by all who
attended me.

It was then I realized that "man's extremity is God's opportunity." The
"little book" was handed me at this hour of great need. I read it, not
thinking it would heal me, but, like a drowning man, I grasped at it. I
read it, read it again, and soon found myself growing stronger; then I
kept on reading and was perfectly healed of all the supposedly incurable
diseases. - L. B., Austin, Minn.

TRUTH MAKES FREE

As the son of a physician, a graduate in pharmacy, and an ex-druggist, I
had a perfect contempt for what I thought Christian Science to be. About
six and a half years ago, however, having exhausted all material means
at my command, - /materia medica/, electricity, gymnastics, cycling, and
so on, - and being in a hopeless state, the study of Christian Science
was taken up. I had been a sufferer from catarrh and sore throat for
over thirty years, and in the last five were added several others,
including dyspepsia, and bronchitis, and a loss in flesh of sixty
pounds. I was completely healed, and regained health, strength, and
flesh through the spiritual understanding of Christian Science, the
result of about six weeks' study. This good and perfect gift came to me
through the careful and prayerful study of Christian Science, as
revealed to the world to-day through Science and Health. The promise of
Christ Jesus, "the truth shall make you free," was fulfilled, and the
past six years of health and harmony have been spent in striving to
"hold fast that which is good."

While most grateful for the physical
healing, my gratitude for the mental and spiritual regeneration is
beyond expression. When I learned that Jesus' mission of healing
sickness as well as sin did not end with his short stay upon earth, but
is practical in all ages, my joy was unbounded. Having spent thousands
in the old way, it seemed wonderful to be healed at such small cost as
the price of the "little book" and a few weeks' study. Every thought of
prejudice immediately vanished before the proofs that Christian Science
is indeed the elucidation and practical application of Jesus' teachings,
which are demonstrable truth, "The same yesterday, and to-day, and
forever." - C. N. C., Memphis, Tenn.

DEAF EARS UNSTOPPED

As a mother of a family my heart goes out in love and gratitude to that
good woman we are privileged to call our Leader, for all she has done
through her book for me and mine.

Ten years ago I was healed of hereditary deafness and catarrh of the
head, simply through reading the book, Science and Health. For years
previous I had consulted and taken treatment from some of the best
specialists for the ear and throat, both in England and America, but
grew worse all the time. I was then urged by a lady who had been healed
through Christian Science to buy this book and study it. I did so very
reluctantly, but had not read fifty pages before I felt I had indeed
found the truth which makes free, and can truly say, from that time I
have never had a return of the ailment.

That for which I am, however, most grateful, is the daily help it is to
me in my household of young children. I am sure if mothers only knew
what Christian Science truly means they would give all they possess to
know it. We have seen croup, measles, fever, and various other
children's complaints, so-called, disappear like dew before the morning
sun, through the application of Christian Science, - the understanding
of God as ever-present and omnipotent. It has been proven to me without
a doubt that God is a very present help in trouble, and what a blessed
help this wonderful truth is in the training of our children, and how
quickly the child grasps it.

Some time ago my little girl, then three years old, dislocated her
shoulder. I was alone in the house at the time. The pain was so intense
that she became faint. I treated her the best I knew how, but kept
holding the thought that just as soon as some one came I would run for
help. She seemed to grow worse and cried very much. I undressed her and
tried to twist the arm into place, but it caused such suffering that I
began to get afraid. Then like a flash came the thought, What would you
do if you were out of the reach of a practitioner? Now is your time to
prove God's power and presence. With these thoughts came such a sense of
calm and trustfulness that I lost all fear. I then asked the child if I
should read to her; she said "Yes, mamma, read the truth-book." I began
reading aloud to her from Science and Health. In about half an hour I
noticed she tried to lift the arm but screamed and became very pale. I
continued to read aloud and again she made an effort to put some candy
into her mouth. This time I noticed with joy that she almost reached her
mouth before she felt the pain. I kept reading aloud to her until my
sister and two boys came in, when she jumped off her bed, so delighted
to see her brothers that she forgot her arm. She then began to tell her
aunt that she had broken her arm and mamma treated it with the
truth-book. When this happened, it was about 10.30 A. M. and by 3 P. M.
she was playing out doors as though nothing had ever happened. - Mrs. M.
G., Winnipeg, Man.

SAVED FROM INSANITY AND SUICIDE

A few years ago, while under a sense of darkness and despair caused by
ill health and an unhappy home, Science and Health was loaned me with a
request that I should read it.

At that time my daughter was given up by /materia medica/ to die of
lingering consumption, supposed to have been inherited. My own condition
seemed even more alarming, as insanity was being manifested, and rather
than go to an insane asylum, it seemed to me the only thing to do was to
commit suicide. Heart trouble, kidney complaint, and continual headaches
caused from female trouble were some of the many ailments I had to
contend with. My doctor tried to persuade me to undergo an operation as
a means of relief, but I had submitted to a severe operation ten years
previous, and found only additional suffering as a result, so I would
not consent.

When I began with Science and Health, I read the chapter on "Prayer"
first, and at that time did not suppose it possible for me to remember
anything I read, but felt a sweet sense of God's protection and power,
and a hope that I should at last find Him to be what I so much needed, -
a present help in time of trouble. Before that chapter on "Prayer" was
finished, my daughter was downstairs eating three meals a day, and daily
growing stronger. Before I had finished reading the textbook she was
well, but never having heard that the reading of Science and Health
healed any one, it was several months before I gave God the glory.

One by one my many ailments left me, all but the headaches; they were
less frequent, until at the end of three years the fear of them was
entirely overcome.

Neither myself nor my daughter have ever received treatments, but the
study of the Bible and Science and Health, the Christian Science
textbook by Mrs. Eddy, has healed us and keeps us well.

While Christian Science was very new to me, I attended an experience
meeting in First Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago. A gentleman told
of an unhappy woman who was about to separate from her husband. This
gentleman had asked her if she did not love her husband. She replied,
"No; when I married him I did, but not now." He told her God made man in
His image and likeness, and that He is perfect. He said to her, "Go home
and see only God's perfect man; you don't need to love a sinful mortal
such as you have been looking upon." The lady followed his advice, as he
told her there is no separation in divine Mind. In a short time peace
and harmony were in her home, and both husband and wife became members
of a Christian Science church.

This testimony was like a message from heaven to me. I had received many
benefits from the study of Science and Health, but it had never dawned
upon my darkened consciousness till then how wonderful our God is. I
knew what had taken place in that home could take place in my unhappy
home where there was neither rest nor peace.

I hopefully took up my cross, and step by step my burden grew lighter,
as I journeyed along, realizing the presence of the Christ, Truth, that
indeed makes us free. Not all at once did any outward change appear, but
at the end of three years all was peace, all the members of the family
attending church together and realizing that there is but one Mind. - E.
J. B., Superior, Wis.

STOMACH TROUBLE HEALED

I was healed of stomach trouble of many years' standing by reading
Science and Health. My condition had reached the stage in which I had
periodical attacks, that came on with greater frequency. I was a
travelling salesman, and it was a common occurrence for me to have to
call a physician to my hotel to administer morphine for an acute form of
this disease. This became a regular thing at certain places, and these
attacks always left me worse than before. As a result of the last one I
lost a great deal in weight. I had tried many physicians and most of the
usual remedies during these years of suffering, without any good result.
Finally, as a last resort, I decided to try Christian Science, and I was
healed by reading "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by
Mrs. Eddy.

My health has been of the best since I was healed, now six years ago. In
the family we have depended entirely on Christian Science for our
healing, and have ever found it efficacious. We consider the physical
healing, however, only incidental to the understanding of God and His
goodness. This, together with our increased love for the Bible, is
proving most valuable to us. We are humbly trying to live the lives that
will prove our gratitude to God, and to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy. -
Charles E. Peck, St. Johnsbury, Vt.

FREED FROM MANY YEARS OF SUFFERING

In the spring of 1880 I was taken down with a severe attack of stomach
trouble, was bedfast for three months, and not able to drive out for
nearly six months. During this time I had three good doctors treating
me. I gained a little in strength, but had very little relief from the
stomach trouble. I was recommended to try mineral springs and did so,
but with the same disappointment. I went to a sanitarium, but yet the
stomach trouble prevailed. I had some friends who recommended patent
medicines, but no healing came.

I worried along in this way for several years. Finally I read medicine
nearly two years with a good doctor friend, especially for my own
benefit, and during this time I had a severe attack of bladder trouble,
and for fifteen years I suffered so severely at times that I thought
life was not really worth living. In connection with these
troubles I suffered every winter with rheumatism and the grip. I also
had a growth coming on both eyes called cataract, which caused my eyes
to be inflamed nearly all the time, and this growth had made such
progress that it was causing my vision to be very dim when reading.
Corns were not forgotten, as I was reminded of them very frequently, and
for all these troubles I had tried every remedy I heard of that I was
able to get, specialists included, without relief.

Thanks to a friend who took me in this hopeless, discouraged condition
and led me to the light that never knows darkness, I got a copy of
Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy and was healed in a short time by
reading this work. - D. W. L., Anderson, Ind.

RELIEF FROM INTENSE SUFFERING

I became interested in Christian Science in 1901. For four or five years
I had suffered with severe attacks which nothing but an opiate seemed to
relieve. After one which I think was the worst I ever had, I consulted
our family physician, who diagnosed my case as a dangerous kidney
disease and said that no medicine could help me but that I must undergo
a surgical operation. I continued to grow worse and went to see the
physician again, and he advised me to consult a doctor who was connected
with the city hospital of Augusta. This doctor made an examination and
diagnosed the difficulty as something different but quite as serious.
Meanwhile a friend offered me a copy of Science and Health. I said I did
not care to read the book, but she was so urgent that I finally promised
to do so. I received the book on Saturday, and on Sunday morning I sat
down to read it. When I reached the place where Mrs. Eddy says she found
this truth in the Bible, I began comparing the two books. I read
passages which looked very reasonable to me, and said to myself, This is
nearer to the truth than anything I have ever seen. I continued to read
all day, stopping only long enough to eat my dinner. As I read on,
everything became clearer to me, and I felt that I was healed. During
the evening a neighbor came in, and I said, "I am healed, and that book
has healed me." I read on and was certainly healed. Eight days after my
healing I did my own washing. This occurred in February, 1901. About six
weeks after, I was called to care for my mother, who was under the care
of my former physician. I again let him examine my side, as he wished to
see if the trouble was still there. He said, "It is certainly gone." I
said to him, "Doctor, you told me I would never be a well woman unless I
was operated upon; what has healed me?" He replied, "God has healed
you." - S. H. L., North Pittston, Me.

GRATEFUL FOR MANY BLESSINGS

It is with sincere gratitude for the many blessings Christian Science
has brought me, that I give this testimony. I first heard of Christian
Science about fifteen years ago. A friend of mine was taking treatment
for physical troubles, and was reading the textbook of Christian
Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. The title of the
book appealed to me very strongly. I said to my friend, "If that is a
Key to the Scriptures, I must have it."

I had long been a member of a Bible class in an orthodox Sabbath school,
but I never felt satisfied with that which was taught; there was
something lacking, I did not understand then what it was. I purchased a
copy of Science and Health and began to study it. I wish I could express
in words what that book brought me. It illumined the Bible with a
glorious light and I began to understand some of the Master's sayings,
and tried to apply them.

I had had a longing to live a better Christian life for many years, and
often wondered why I failed so utterly to understand the Bible. Now I
knew; it was lack of spiritual apprehension.

I did not know at first that people were healed of disease and sin by
simply reading Science and Health, but found after a while that such was
the case. At that time I had many physical troubles, and one after
another of these ills simply disappeared and I found that I had no
disease, - I was perfectly free. The spiritual uplifting was glorious,
too, and as I go on in the study of this blessed Science, I find I am
gaining surely an understanding that helps me to overcome both sin and
disease in myself and in others. My faith in good is increased and I
know I am losing my belief in evil as a power equal to good. The pathway
is not wearisome, because each victory over self gives stronger faith
and a more earnest desire to press on. - E. J. R., Toledo, Ohio.

GRATEFUL FOR MORAL AND SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

About four years ago, after I had tried different ways and means to be
relieved from bodily suffering, a faithful friend called my attention to
the teaching of Christian Science. After some opposition, I decided to
investigate it, with the thoughtthat if this teaching would be helpful,
it was meant for me as well as for others; if it did not afford any help, I
could put it aside again, but that I would find out and be convinced.

After I had read Mrs. Eddy's work, Science and Health, a few days, I
found that my ailments had disappeared, and a rest had come to me which
I had never before known. I had smoked almost incessantly, although I
had often determined to use my will power and never smoke again, but had
always failed. This desire as well as the desire for drink simply
disappeared, and I wish to say here, that I received all these benefits
before I had gained much understanding of what I was reading. Like a
prisoner, who had been in chains for years, I was suddenly set free. I
did not then know how the chain had been removed, but I had to
acknowledge that it came through the reading of this book. I then felt
an ardent desire to read more, and to know what this power was that had
freed me in a few days of that which I had been trying for years to
shake off and had failed. It then became clear to me that this was the
truth which Jesus Christ taught and preached to free humanity almost two
thousand years ago. It did not, however, occur to me to apply it in my
business affairs; on the contrary, I first thought that if I continued
in my study I would have to retire from business.

This did not happen, however, for I gradually found that the little
understanding of this wonderful teaching which I had acquired became a
great help to me in my business. I became more friendly, more honest,
more loving to my fellow-men; and I also acquired better judgment and
was able to do the right thing at the right time. As a natural result my
business improved. Before I knew anything of Christian Science my
business had often been a burden to me, fear and worry deprived me of my
rest. How different it is now! Through the study of the Bible, which now
possesses unmeasurable treasures for me, and for our textbook, Science
and Health, and the other works of our Leader, I receive peace and
confidence in God and that insight into character which is necessary for
the correct management of any business. - W. H. H., Bloomfield, Neb.

HEREDITARY DISEASE OF THE LUNGS CURED

For a long time I have been impelled to contribute a testimony of the
healing power of Truth. As I read other testimonies and rejoice in them,
some one may rejoice in mine. I was healed by reading Science and
Health. By applying it, I found it to be the truth that Jesus taught, -
the truth that sets free.

From childhood I had never known a well day. I was healed of lung
trouble of long standing. Consumption was hereditary in our family, my
mother and three brothers having passed on with it. The law of/ materia
medica /said that in a short time I must follow them. I also had severe
stomach trouble of over eight years' standing, during which time I
always retired without supper, as the fear of suffering from my food was
so great that I denied myself food when hungry. For over twenty years I
had ovarian trouble, which was almost unbearable at times. It dated from
the birth of my first child, and at one time necessitated an operation.
I suffered with about all the ills that flesh is heir to: I had trouble
with my eyes from a child; wore glasses for fourteen years, several
oculists saying I would go blind, one declaring I would be blind in less
than a year if I did not submit to an operation, which I refused to do.

But thanks be to God whose Truth reached me through the study of our
textbook. Words fail to express what Christian Science has done for me
in various ways, for my children, my home, my all. The physical healing
is but a small part; the spiritual unfolding and uplifting is the "pearl
of great price," the half that has never been told. - Mrs. J. P. M.,
Kansas City, Mo.

TEXTBOOK APPRECIATED

It has been my privilege to have interviews with representatives of more
than sixty per cent of the nations of this earth, under their own vine
and fig-tree. I had never heard a principle understandingly advanced
that would enable mankind to obey the apostolic command, "prove all
things," until Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was placed
in my hands. I believe that the honest study of this book in connection
with the Bible will enable one to "prove all things."

I make this unqualified statement because of what my eyes have seen and
my ears heard from my fellow-men of unquestioned integrity, and the
positive proofs I have gained by the study of these books. Many supposed
material laws that had been rooted and grounded in my mentality from
youth have been overcome. It required some time for me to wake up to our
Leader's words in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 206: "The advancing stages
of Christian Science are gained through growth, not accretion." I had
many disappointments and falls before I was willing to do the scientific
work required to prove this statement; yet notwithstanding the cost to
ourselves, I am convinced that we cannot do much credit to the cause we
profess to love until we place ourselves in a position to prove God as
He really is to us individually, and our relation to Him, by scientific
work.

I wish to express loving gratitude to our Leader for the new edition of
Science and Health. In studying this new edition one cannot help seeing
the wisdom, love, and careful and prayerful thought expressed in the
revision. Often the changing of a single word in a sentence makes the
scientific thought not only more lucid to him who is familiar with the
book, but also to those just coming into the blessed light. All honor to
that God-loving, God-fearing woman, Mary Baker G. Eddy, whose only work
is the work of love in the helping of mankind to help themselves; who
has placed before her fellow-men understandingly, what man's divine
rights are, and what God really is. - H. W. B., Hartford, Conn.

RUPTURE AND OTHER SERIOUS ILLS HEALED

When I took up the study of Christian Science nearly three years ago, I
was suffering from a very bad rupture of thirty-two years' standing.
Sometimes the pain was so severe that it seemed as if I could not endure
it. These spells would last four or five hours, and while everything was
done for me that could be done, no permanent relief came to me until I
commenced reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. After I
had once looked into it I wanted to read all the time. I was so absorbed
in the study of the "little book" that I hardly realized when the
healing came, but I was healed, not only of the rupture, but also of
other troubles, - inflammatory rheumatism, catarrh, corns, and bunions.

I would never part with the book if I could not get another. I am
seventy-seven years old, and am enjoying very good health. - Mrs. M. E.
P., St. Johnsbury, Vt.

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER HEALED

When Christian Science came to me, I had been taking medicine every day
for twenty years, on account of constipation. I had been treated by
doctors and specialists; had taken magnetic treatments and osteopathy;
had tried change of climate; had an operation in a hospital, and when I
came out was worse than before. I was so discouraged, after I had tried
everything I ever heard of, and was no better but rather grew worse,
that it seemed as though I must give up trying to get well, when a
friend suggested that I try Christian Science. I had heard that
Christian Scientists healed by prayer, and I thought this must be the
way Jesus had healed. I felt that this was all there was left for me to
try. I sent for the book, Science and Health, and commenced to read it
out of curiosity, not thinking or knowing that I could be helped by the
reading, but thinking I must still take medicine and that I must also
have treatment by a Scientist. I, however, dropped my medicine and read
for three days; then a light began to shine in the darkness. I was
healed of the trouble and have never had to take medicine since. I have
studied Science and Health faithfully ever since, and other ailments
have disappeared. My little daughter has also been healed and has
learned to use this knowledge in her school work. - Mrs. O. R.,
Leadville, Col.

LIVER COMPLAINT HEALED

As my thoughts go back to the time when I believed I had nothing to live
for, and when each morning's awaking from sleep brought a sense of
disappointment to find myself still among the living (for I had hoped
each night that I closed my eyes in sleep that it would be the last
time), my heart overflows with love and gratitude to God for our dear
Leader who discovered this blessed truth and to the dear ones who have
helped me so lovingly and patiently over many rough places.

Twelve years ago, I consulted a physician because I had noticed some
odd-looking spots on one of my arms. He said they were liver spots, but
that it was not worth while prescribing for those few, that I should
wait until I was covered with them. About three months later, with the
exception of my face and hands, I was covered with them. Then I became
alarmed and called on another physician who prescribed for me, but be
finally said he could do no more for me. Other physicians were consulted
with no better results. Six years ago, friends advised me to see their
family physician, and when I called on him he said he was positive he
could cure me, so I asked him to prescribe for me. At the end of two
years, after prescribing steadily, he said I was so full of medicine
that he was afraid to have me take any more, and advised a rest. After
having paid out a small fortune, I was no better, and very much
discouraged.

Two years ago, having failed in business, I applied to one of my patrons
for a furnished room where I could meet the few I still had left. This
lady, who is a Christian Scientist, loaned me Science and Health, and
because she asked me so often how I was getting on with the book, I
began reading it. I also attended the Wednesday evening meetings which I
found very interesting. After hearing the testimonies at the meetings, I
decided to speak to some practitioner about these spots, but not until I
had at least a hundred dollars on hand, because I thought I would
require that amount for treatments, as I had been accustomed to paying
high prices. I had not inquired about prices, and in fact did not speak
to any one about my intentions, because I felt sensitive on this
subject. When I had read about half of Science and Health, I missed the
spots, and upon searching could find no trace of them. They had entirely
disappeared without treatment. In a few weeks the reading of that book
had accomplished what /materia medica/ had failed to accomplish in ten
years. It is impossible to express the feeling of relief and happiness
which came over me then. - C. K., Astoria, N. Y.

A CONVINCING INVESTIGATION

While I have testified to those around me and in many localities, of my
healing in Christian Science, I feel that it is high time I put the
candle in the candlestick where all who will may see. My earliest
recollection was a day of suffering, - a physical inheritance from my
mother, which gave simple interest for a time until years advanced and
compound interest was added. My father was a physician, and material
remedies were used for my mother without avail, consequently his
confidence in them for me was shaken, - in fact he often told me it was
better to suffer without medicine than become a chronic doser, without
pain.

I began teaching in early life and continued for more than twenty years,
and during that time not a day passed without pain, or fear of pain, and
only for my innate love of life it would have become an intolerable
burden. For five years oatmeal was my chief food and I became almost as
attached to it as Kaspar Hauser to his crust. I was early taught to have
faith in God, and many times was relieved of pain only to have it appear
again in an aggravated form.

At last my heart cried out for the living God, and the answer came by
one of His messengers, who told me of Christian Science. I replied that
I believed God could heal, but that I had no faith in the healing of
Christian Science, but would like to investigate its theology, as it
might aid in giving me some clue to the meaning of life. For three years
I had searched the works of the most scientific writers to find the
origin of life; many times I would think I had traced it to the
beginning, but it would elude my grasp every time. One day in talking
with my friend, she said she would like to loan me the textbook, Science
and Health, which I very willingly accepted. Not long afterward I felt a
severe attack of suffering. I opened the book for the first time and
found a paragraph near the middle which attracted my attention. I read
the same paragraph over and over for nearly two hours. When the tea bell
rang I closed the book and I shall never forget my perception of the new
heaven and the new earth, - everything in nature that I could see seemed
to have been washed and made clean. The flowers that I have always loved
so much, and that from childhood had told me such sweet stories, now
spoke to me of the All-in-all, the hearts of my friends seemed kinder, -
I had touched the hem of the garment of healing.

I ate my supper that evening forgetful of the preparations I had made
for suffering, and when the next day began I was more zealous of good
work than ever before. Since closing Science and Health at my first
reading I have never been able to find the paragraph which I had read so
many times over, the words seemed to have slipped away from me, but my
joy knew no bounds at having found the pearl of great price. By the
continued reading of the book I was entirely healed, and for fourteen
years I have not seen a day of physical suffering. - Miss L. M., Rome,
N. Y.

DEAFNESS AND DROPSY HEALED

I had been deaf from childhood. I suffered intensely after eating, and
dropsy was another of my complaints. This, with consumption, caused one
doctor to say, " It puzzles me; I have never seen such a case before as
yours."

I met a friend who had been cured in Christian
Science, and she said, "Try Christian Science." I got a copy of Science
and Health and in three weeks I was entirely cured. I felt uplifted. It
seemed as if God's arms were around and about me. I felt as if heaven
had come down to earth for me. After five years of suffering can any one
wonder at my unspeakable gratitude? - A. B., Pittsburg, Pa.

GRATEFUL FOR MANY BLESSINGS

In 1894 I began the study of Christian Science. At that time I was
greatly in need of its healing truth. For a number of years previous I
had been a semi-invalid with no hope of ever being well and strong
again. Several years before this time I had undergone an operation which
resulted in peritonitis. For three years previous to my study of Science
and Health by Mrs. Eddy, I was scarcely ever free from headache caused
by the weakened and diseased condition of the internal organs. At the
time I began the study of Christian Science I was taking five kinds of
medicine.

I began to read Science and Health, and did not take treatment, for I
thought, "If this is truth, I shall be healed; if it is not, I shall be
able to detect it, and will have nothing to do with it." I became a
devoted student and gradually my bodily diseases left me, - I was free,
and since that time, nearly ten years ago, neither my two children nor
myself have taken any medicine; and our understanding of truth has been
able to meet and overcome any suggestion of illness.

I was a devoted member of an orthodox church, but as I grew older I
began to question my beliefs, and to my questions I could find no
satisfactory answer. I became dissatisfied and finally ceased attending
church. I could not accept the idea of God taught there, and at last my
friends looked sadly upon me as an atheist. There I stood until I
learned to know God as revealed in Science and Health, and then all my
questionings were answered. In my girlhood I had always prayed to the
God I held in mind, and when the shadows of sickness pain, and death
came to my family, I prayed as only those can who know that if He helps
not, there is none; but my prayers were unanswered. Then I closed my
Bible, saying, "There is a mistake somewhere, perhaps some time I may
know."

Only those who know the attitude of mind that I was in can understand
the joy that came to me as I began to learn of God in Christian Science,
and of my relation to Him.

Many proofs of the healing power of Truth and of His protecting care
throng my thoughts. Seven years ago, when we were in a far distant
country, where Christian Science was then unknown, my little daughter
came in one morning from her school, saying, "Mother, I have measles;
twenty of the girls are sick in bed and I am afraid they will put me
there also." Her face, hands, and chest were covered with a deep red
rash, throat sore, and eyes inflamed. We began immediately to do our
work in Science and at night, when I left her at the door of the
college, her face was clear, her eyes bright, and all fear destroyed.
That was the end of the disease. - F. M. P., Boston, Mass.

A JOYFUL EXPERIENCE

In love and gratitude to God, and to Mrs. Eddy, the interpreter of
Jesus' beautiful teachings, I wish to tell of some of the benefits which
I have received from Christian Science. It is a little over a year since
Science found me in a deplorable condition, physically as well as
mentally. I had ailments of many years' standing, - chronic stomach
trouble, severe eye trouble, made almost unbearable from the constant
fear of losing any sight (a fate which had befallen my mother), also a
painful rupture of twenty-five years' standing. These ailments, combined
with unhappy conditions in my home, made me very despondent. I had
entirely lost my belief in an all-merciful God, and I did not know where
to turn for help. At that time Christian Science was brought to my
notice, and I shall never forget the sublime moment when I perceived
that an all-loving Father is always with me. Forgotten was all sorrow
and worry, and after four weeks' reading in Science and Health all my
ailments had disappeared. I am today a healthy, contented woman.

All this has come to pass in one short year, and my earnest desire is to
be more and more worthy to be called a child of God. This is in loving
gratitude for an understanding of this glorious truth. - Mrs. R. J.,
Chicago, Ill.

AN EVER-PRESENT HELP

It is a year since I began to read Science and Health, and I will now
try to outline what a knowledge of its teachings has done for me.

My condition was then very trying; my eyes, which had caused me much
trouble since childhood, were very painful. For these I had been treated
by some of the best specialists in my native land, and after coming to
the United States I had been doctored much and had worn glasses for four
years. I also had catarrh, for which I had taken much medicine without
being relieved. In addition to this I was an excessive smoker, using
tobacco in some form almost constantly. I had contracted a smoker's
heart, and used liquors freely.

The one who brought to me that which I now prize so highly, was a book
agent. I told him that I should be forced to leave my trade on account
of my eyes. He then told me of having been healed of a cancer, through
Christian Science treatment. He showed me a copy of Science and Health,
which had the signs of much use, and after being assured that if I did
my part I would be healed of all my diseases, I sent for a copy of the
book.

My recovery was very rapid, for after reading the book only three weeks
I was completely healed of the tobacco habit. I will say, in regard to
this healing, that it did not require even as much as a resolution on my
part. I was smoking a cigar, while reading Science and Health, when all
the desire to continue smoking left me, and I have never had a desire to
use tobacco in any form since then. My eyes were the next to manifest
the influence of the new knowledge gained, and had soon so far recovered
that I could go about my work with ease, and I have had no more use for
glasses. To-day my heart is normal, the catarrh has totally disappeared,
and I am not addicted to the use of liquor.

Christian Science has proved to be an ever-present help, not only in
overcoming physical ailments, but in business and daily life. It has
also overcome a great sense of fear. The Bible, which I regarded with
suspicion, has become my guide, and Christianity has become a sweet
reality, because the Christian Science textbook has indeed been a "Key
to the Scriptures" and has breathed through the Gospel pages a sweet
sense of harmony. - A. F., Sioux City, Iowa.

SEVERE EYE TROUBLE OVERCOME

After hearing Christian Science lightly spoken of, from a Christian
pulpit, I decided to go to one of the services and hear for myself. From
infancy I had been devoted to my church, and as soon as I was old enough
I was ever active in the work. Feeling it to be my duty to attend every
service held in my own church, I took advantage of the Wednesday evening
meetings. My first visit was not my last, I am thankful to say, for I
saw immediately that these people not only preached Christianity, but
practised and lived it. At that time I was wearing glasses and had worn
them for sixteen years. At times I suffered the most intense pain, and
for this phase of the trouble, one specialist after another had been
consulted. All gave me very much the same advice; each one urged extreme
carefulness and gave me glasses that seemed to relieve for a time. None
of them held out any hope that my sight would ever be restored, saying
that the defect had existed since infancy, and that in time I should be
blind.

The thought of blindness was very distressing to me, but I tried to bear
it with Christian resignation, since I thought that God had seen fit to
afflict me; but since I have learned that He is a loving Father, who
gives only good, I regret that I ever charged Him with my affliction. I
had no treatment, but I read Science and Health, and my eyes were healed
and glasses laid aside. I can never find words to express my thanks to
our dear Leader, through whose teachings my sight has been regained. I
can truthfully say that "whereas I was blind, now I see" - through an
understanding of Truth I have found my sight perfect as God gave it. -
Miss B. S., Wilmington, N. C.

A TESTIMONY FROM IRELAND

It is with a heart full of love and gratitude to God, and to our dear
Leader, that I send this testimony to the Field. I had never been a
strong girl; had always been subject to colds and chills, and suffered
all my life from a delicate throat. Seven years ago I had a very severe
attack of rheumatic fever and subsequently two less severe ones. These
left all sorts of evils behind them, - debility, chronic constipation,
and several others, so that with these ills my life was often a burden
to me and I used to think I never should receive relief or health. I had
also lost all love for God and faith in Him. I could not accept a God
who, as I then believed, visited sickness and sorrow upon His children
as a means for drawing them to Him.

I was in this state of mind and body when Christian Science found me. A
dear friend, seeing my suffering, presented the truth to me, and though
at first I did not believe that there could be healing for me, the
Christian Scientists' God seemed to be the one I had been looking for
all my life. I began to read Science and Health, and shall never forget
my joy at finding that I could love and trust God. I took to studying
the Bible, and read nothing but Science and Health and other Christian
Science literature for a year. After studying the "little book" for
about six weeks, I one day realized that I was a well woman, that I had
taken no medicine for three weeks, and that my body was perfectly
harmonious. The reading of Science and Health had healed me. The
wonderful joy and spiritual uplifting which came to me then no words of
mine can describe. I had also suffered from astigmatism and had for
several years been obliged to use special glasses when reading or
working, and could never use my eyes for more than half an hour; but
from the first reading of Science and Health I found that I could read
in any light and for any length of time without the slightest
discomfort. I am not only grateful for the physical healing but for the
mental regeneration. I rejoice that I am now able to help others who are
sick and sorrowing. - E. E. L., Curragh Camp, County Kildare, Ireland.

THE TEXTBOOK MAKES OPERATION UNNECESSARY

In the early part of the year 1895 my physician said I must undergo a
surgical operation in order ever to be well.

While in great fear, and dreading the operation, a kind neighbor called,
and after telling me of Christian Science gave me a copy of Science and
Health. She said I must put aside all medicine, and by reading
faithfully she knew I could be healed. The book became my constant
companion, and in a short time I was healed. Besides the relief from an
operation, I was completely healed of severe headaches and stomach
trouble. Physicians could give me no help for either of these ailments.
For ten years I have not used medicine of any kind, and have not missed
a Christian Science service on account of sickness during this period. I
am perfectly well. To say that I am grateful to God for all this does
not express my feelings. The physical healing was wonderful, but the
understanding given me of God, and the ability to help others outweigh
all else. I also love our dear Leader. - Mrs. V. I. B., Concord, N. H.

KIDNEY DISEASE AND EYE TROUBLE HEALED

Early in 1904 I was teaching in a private boarding-school. I was a very
unhappy, discontented woman; I had kidney disease, besides sore eyes,
and my general health was very bad. The doctor said that the climate did
not suit me, and that I certainly should have a change. The best thing,
he said, was to go back to France (my own country); but I did not like
to leave the school, so I struggled on until July, when we went
travelling for a month, but I came home worse than ever. I had a lot of
worry, one disappointment after another, and I often thought that life
was not worth living. In September, 1904, we heard for the first time of
Christian Science through a girl who was attending our boarding-school,
and who was healed through Christian Science treatment. We bought the
textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy,
and what a revelation it was and is to us; it is indeed the fountain of
Truth. I had read Science and Health but a very short time when I took
off my glasses, began to sleep well, and soon found myself well in mind
and body. Besides this, it has brought harmony into our school, where
there had been discord, and everything is changed for the better. I
cannot describe the happiness that has come to me through Christian
Science; I can only exclaim with the psalmist: "Bless the Lord, O my
soul;" and may God bless Mrs. Eddy.

My one aim now is to live Christian Science, not in words only, but in
deeds; loving God more and my neighbor as myself, and following meekly
and obediently all our Leader's teachings. Words cannot express my
gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for Christian Science. - S. A. K., Vancouver, B.
C.

DISEASE OF BOWELS HEALED

When I first heard of Christian Science I had been afflicted for nine
years with a very painful disease of the bowels, which four physicians
failed even to diagnose, all giving different causes for the dreadful
sufferings I endured. The last physician advised me to take no more
medicine for these attacks, as drugs would not reach the cause, or do
any good. About this time I heard of Christian Science, and had the
opportunity of reading "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"
by Mrs. Eddy, a few minutes every day for about a week, and I
was thereby healed. In looking back I found I had not suffered in the
least from the time I began reading this book. It has been nearly
seventeen years since this wonderful healing, and I have had no return
of the disease. My gratitude is endless and can be best expressed by
striving mightily to walk in the path our Leader has so lovingly shown
us in Science and Health. - Mrs. J. W. C., Scranton, Pa.

HEALED BY READING THE TEXTBOOK

After doctoring about a year, I was obliged to give up school and was
under medical care for two years; but grew worse instead of better. I
was then taken to specialists, who pronounced my case incurable, saying
I was in the last stages of kidney disease and could live only a short
time. Shortly afterward my uncle gave me a copy of "Science and Health
with Key to the Scriptures," and asked me to study it. After studying a
short time I was able to walk a distance of several miles, which I had
not been able to do for three years. I also laid aside glasses which I
had worn seven years, having been told I would become blind if my eyes
did not receive proper care. It is over a year since I received God's
blessing, and I am now enjoying perfect health and happiness. I have
never had my glasses on since I first began reading Science and Health,
and I have not used any medicine. - L. R., Spring Valley, Minn.

A TESTIMONY FROM SCOTLAND

I came to Christian Science purely for physical healing. I was very ill
and unhappy; very cynical and disbelieving in regard to what I heard of
God and religion.

I tried to live my life in my own way and put religion aside. I was a
great believer in fate and in will-power, and thought to put them in the
place of God, with the consequence that I was led to do many rash and
foolish things. I am now thankful to say that my outlook on life is
entirely changed; I have proved God's wisdom and goodness so often that
I am willing and thankful to know my future is in His hands and that all
things must work out for the best. I have found a God whom I can love
and worship with my whole heart, and I now read my Bible with interest
and understanding.

I was healed of very bad rheumatism simply by reading Science and
Health. I had tried many medicines, also massage, with no result, and
the doctors told me that I would always suffer from this disease, as it
was inherited, and also because I had rheumatic fever when a child. I
suffered day and night, and nothing relieved me until Science proved to
me the falseness of this belief by removing it. I gave up all the
medicines I was taking and have never touched any since, and that is
more than two years ago. Before this I had often tried to do without a
medicine that I had taken every day for ten years, but was always ill
and had to return to it, until I found out that one Mind is the only
medicine, and then I was freed from the suffering.

I had also suffered constantly from bilious attacks, colds, and a weak
chest, and had been warned not to be out in wet weather, etc., but now,
I am glad to say, I am quite free from all those material laws and go
out in all sorts of weather. - R. D. F., Edinburgh, Scotland.

CURING BETTER THAN ENDURING

For eight years I was a great sufferer from weak lungs and after being
treated by ten different physicians, in the States of Illinois,
Missouri, and Colorado, I was told there was no hope of my recovery from
what they pronounced tuberculosis, which was hereditary, my father
having been afflicted with it. I was greatly emaciated and hardly able
to be about. My general condition was aggravated by what the doctors
said was paralysis of the bowels. Three physicians so diagnosed it at
different times, and assured my husband that I could never get more than
temporary relief. This indeed I found difficult to obtain, in spite of
my almost frantic efforts. At times I was nearly insane from suffering,
and after eight years of doctoring I found myself steadily growing
worse. For four years I did not have a normal action of the bowels, and
it was only by extreme effort and by resort to powerful drugs or
mechanical means, with resultant suffering, that any action whatever
could be brought about.

I had heard nothing of the curative power of Christian Science, and only
to oblige a friend I went one night, about three years ago, to one of
their mid-week testimonial meetings, in Boulder, Colorado. I was much
impressed by what I heard there, and determined at once to investigate
this strange religion, in the hope that it might have something good for
me. I bought the textbook, Science and Health, and from the first I
found myself growing stronger and better, both physically and mentally,
as I acquired a better understanding and endeavored to put into practice
what I learned. In one week I was able to get along better without drugs
than I had for years with them, and before three months had passed I was
better than I had been any time in my life, for I had always suffered
more or less from bowel trouble. Since that time I have taken no
medicine whatever, and rely wholly upon Christian Science. My lungs are
now sound, my bowels normally active, my general health excellent, and I
am able to endure without fatigue tasks that before would have
prostrated me. The study of our textbook was the sole means of my
healing. - L. M. St. C., Matachin, Canal Zone, Panama.

SEVERE ECZEMA DESTROYED

It is only two years since I came from darkness into the light of
Christian Science, and to me the spiritual uplifting has been wonderful,
to say nothing of the physical healing. Words cannot express my
gratitude for benefits I have received in that time. For five years I
suffered with that dreaded disease, eczema, all over my body. Five
doctors said there was no help for me. The suffering seemed as terrible
as the hell fire that I had been taught to believe in. When Christian
Science came to me two years ago through a dear friend, she gave me a
copy of Science and Health and asked me to read it. I told her that I
would, for I was like a drowning man grasping at a straw. I had been a
Bible student for twenty-eight years, but when I commenced reading
Science and Health with the Bible I was healed in less than a week. I
never had a treatment. A case of measles was also destroyed in
twenty-four hours after it appeared. - Mrs. M. B. G., Vermilion, Ohio.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH A PRICELESS BOON

I am a willing witness to the healing power of Christian Science, having
had a lifetime's battle with disease and medical experiments. Various
doctors finally admitted that they had exhausted their resources, and
could only offer me palliatives, saying that a cure was impossible. I
had paralysis of the bowels, frequent sick headaches with unutterable
agony, and my mortal career was nearly brought to an end by a malignant
type of yellow fever. Many were the attending evils of this physical
inharmony, but God confounds the wisdom of men, for while studying
Science and Health two years ago, the veil of ignorance was lifted and
perfect health was shown to me to be my real condition, and to such
there is no relapse. The constant use of glasses, which were apparently
a necessity to me for years, was proven needless, and they were laid
aside. Mrs. Eddy has made Scripture reading a never-failing well of
comfort to me. By her interpretation "the way of the Lord" is made
straight to me and mine. It aids us in our daily overcoming of the
tyranny of the flesh and its rebellion against the blessed leading of
Christ, Truth. The daily study of the Bible and our textbook is bringing
more and more into our consciousness the power of God unto salvation. -
J. C., Manatee, Fla.

A CRITIC CONVINCED

With gratitude to God I acknowledge my lifelong debt to Christian
Science. In 1895 I attended my first Christian Science meeting, and was
deeply impressed with the earnestness of the people and the love
reflected, but as for the spiritual healing of the physical body, I did
not believe such a thing to be possible. I bought Science and Health and
studied it to be able to dispute intelligently with the supposedly
deluded followers of Christian Science. I pursued the study carefully
and thoroughly, and I have had abundant reason since to be glad that I
did, for through this study, and the resultant understanding of my
relation to God, I was healed of a disease with which I had been
afflicted since childhood and for which there was no known remedy.
Surely my experience has been the fulfilling in part of the Scripture:
"He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their
destructions." I believe that Science and Health reveals the Word
referred to by David. - C. A. B. B., Kansas City, Mo.

BORN AGAIN

It was in April, 1904, that I first heard the "still, small voice" of
the Christ and received healing through Christian Science; and the
blessings have been so many since, that it would take too much space to
name them. Reared from childhood in an intellectual atmosphere, my
paternal grandfather having been an orthodox minister of the old school
for forty years, and my father a deep student, ever seeking for the
truth of all things, I began early to ponder and to study into the
meaning of life, and came to the conclusion before I was twenty that
though God probably existed in some remote place, still it was
impossible to connect Him with my present living. My highest creed,
therefore, became, "Do right because it /is/ right and not for fear of
being punished." Then began the suffering. Sorrow after sorrow followed
each other in rapid succession; for ten long years there was no rest,
the road was indeed long and hard and had no turning, until finally the
one thing that had stood by me all through the trials, namely, my
health, gave way, and with that went my last hope. But the last hour of
the night had come, the dawn of day was at hand; a dear friend left
Science and Health upon my piano one day, saying that I would gain much
good by reading it.

Glad to get away from my own poor thoughts, I opened the "little book"
and began to read. I had read only a short time when such a wonderful
transformation took place! I was renewed; born again. Mere words cannot
tell the story of the mighty up-lifting that carried me to the very
gates of heaven. When I began to read the book, life was a burden, but
before I had finished reading it the first time, I was doing all my
housework and doing it easily; and since that glorious day I have been a
well woman. My health is splendid, and I am striving to let my light so
shine that others may be led to the truth. There have been some mighty
struggles with error, and I have learned that we cannot reach heaven
with one long stride or easily drift inside the gate, but that the
"asking" and the "seeking" and the "knocking" must be earnest and
persistent.

For a long time I was always looking back to see if
the error had gone, until one day when I realized that to catch a
glimpse of what spiritual sense means I must put corporeal sense behind
me. I then set to work in earnest to find the true way. I opened Science
and Health and these words were before me, "If God were understood,
instead of being merely believed, this understanding would establish
health" (p. 203). I saw that I must get the right understanding of God!
I closed the book and with head bowed in prayer I waited with longing
intensity for some answer. How long I waited I do not know, but
suddenly, like a wonderful burst of sunlight after a storm, came clearly
this thought, "Be still, and know that I am God." I held my breath -
deep into my hungering thought sank the infinite meaning of that "I."
All self-conceit, egotism, selfishness, everything that constitutes the
mortal "I," sank abashed out of sight. I trod, as it were, on holy
ground. Words are inadequate to convey the fullness of that spiritual
uplifting, but others who have had similar experiences will understand.

From that hour I have had an intelligent consciousness of the
ever-presence of an infinite God who is only good. - C. B. G., Hudson,
Mass.

A RESTLESS SENSE OF EXISTENCE DESTROYED

Through reading Science and Health and the illumination which followed,
I was healed of ulceration of the stomach and kindred troubles, a
restless sense of existence, agnosticism, etc. The torture I endured
with the stomach trouble I will not attempt to describe. The attending
physician declared that I could live but a short time, and I felt there
would be a limit to my endurance of the torture, but the disease was
dissipated into nothingness through Christian Science, which brought me
peace.

Like many others I had been seemingly lost in the sea of error, without
a compass, yet earnestly and honestly seeking a haven. I had
investigated all kinds of religions and philosophies that came under my
notice, with the exception of Christian Science, which was not then
deemed worthy of inquiry, and yet it held the very truth I was searching
for - the light which "shineth in the darkness; and the darkness
comprehended it not." Three years of stubborn resistance to Truth, with
increasing suffering, followed - then the light came, and with it a new
experience. Now, after nine years of Christian Science experience, under
severe tests, it can be truthfully said that it has not failed me in any
hour of need. - J. F. J., Cincinnati, Ohio.

MORALLY AND PHYSICALLY HEALED

I did not accept Christian Science on account of any healing of my own,
but after seeing my mother, who was fast drifting toward helplessness
with rheumatism, restored to perfect health with only a few treatments
in Christian Science, I thought surely this must be the truth as Jesus
taught and practised it, and if so it was what I had been longing for.

This was about ten years ago and was the first I had ever heard of
Christian Science. We soon got a copy of Science and Health and I began
in the right way to see if Christian Science were the truth. I had no
thought of studying it for bodily healing; in fact, I did not think I
needed it for that, but my soul cried out for something I had not yet
found. This book was indeed a key to the Scriptures.

It was not long after I began reading before I discovered that my eyes
were good and strong, I could read as much as I wished, and at any time,
which was something I could not do before, as my eyes had always been
weak. The doctors said they never would be very strong, and that if I
did not wear glasses, I might lose my sight altogether. I never gave up
to wearing glasses, and now, thanks to Christian Science, I do not need
them, my work for the past two years as a railway mail clerk being a
good test. At the same time my eyes were healed, I also noticed that I
was entirely healed of another ailment which had been with me all my
life, and which was believed to be inherited. Since that time my growth
has seemed to me slow, yet when I look back and view myself as I was
before Christian Science found me, and compare it with my life as it now
is, I can only close my eyes to the picture and rejoice that I have been
"born again" and that I have daily been putting off "the old man with
his deeds," and putting on "the new man."

Some of the many things that have been overcome through the study of
Science and Health, and through realizing and practising the truth it
teaches, are profanity, the use of tobacco, a very quick temper, which
made both myself and those around me at times very miserable, and such
thoughts as malice, revenge, etc. - O. L. R., Fort Worth, Tex.

HEALTH AND UNDERSTANDING GAINED

Most of my boyhood days were spent in the hands of physicians. From
birth I was considered a very weakly child, but my mother was brave, and
being much devoted to me did everything within her knowledge and power
for my comfort. Sickness and medicine were continually before me, and by
the time I reached my teens I thought I knew a material remedy for every
ill. I continued in my delusion, because I was never told the real cause
of my trouble. Besides being under a leading specialist for two years, I
was also an outdoor patient at a noted hospital, but I was not healed.
It is wonderful how the "little ones" are cared for in the face of all
these seeming difficulties. I always used the prayers that I had been
taught, and as I grew older I began to ask for wisdom. Little by little
I gained a desire for freedom, and my prayers finally led me to the
truth. The first week that I heard of Christian Science, I visited the
home of dear Christian Science friends, and was at once refreshed by
their purity of thought and example. I bought a copy of Science and
Health, and, after studying it a little while with the Bible, I saw that
if the Bible was true, Science and Health must also be true. I began to
demonstrate over my physical and mental condition, and as soon as the
fear and pain began to leave me I felt encouraged to go on. I was
healed, and stopped complaining. I kept on studying our textbook, and
when I got an understanding in a small degree of the Science of Mind, my
first thought was to help others. I was guided where I could pro-
gress in Science, and was no longer "carried about with every wind of
doctrine," but held to Principle as closely as possible. From the time
the healing came into my consciousness, the desire for material remedies
left me, because Christian Science at once pointed out the way to get at
the cause of discord and disease. All that I had to give up were the
false beliefs of mortal mind. Christian Science then taught me to love
the church, and to appreciate what it had already done for mankind. I
often thought of the old adage, "Charity begins at home," and after
three years' preparation I felt able to take Christian Science to my
home, where it found, in due time, ready acceptance and willing
disciples. This gave me even greater joy than my own healing. The more
good I saw accomplished, the more love I had for the truth. Christian
Science changed my course from the first, and gave me a nobler aim and
purpose in life. I was not so easily influenced by other people's
shortcomings, when I learned that evil has neither personality nor
place. I was not so ready to take offence, when I found out the way to
work unselfishly for the upbuilding of the Cause. - A. E. J., Toledo,
Ohio.

AN EVER-PRESENT HELP FOUND

On the 23rd of March, 1900, I received from one of my daughters a copy
of Science and Health on my seventy-first birthday. Although a constant
reader of all kinds of papers and books, I had never heard anything of
Christian Science, except a short notice that spring in a San Francisco
newspaper, from an orthodox clergyman, referring to the Christian
Science people in not very complimentary style.

In Mrs. Eddy's book I came across a great deal of thought that was not
readily understood at the first reading, but by continued and careful
study, and a good deal of help from my knowledge of chemistry and
natural philosophy, I soon shook off the belief of sensation in matter,
- the so-called elementary substance. One afternoon I put the belt on my
circular saw to cut blocks of firewood and also to split a small stick
of frame timber. In doing this the stick closed and pinched the saw. I
picked up a small wooden wedge and tried to drive it into the saw kerf,
but a bit of ice let the stick on to the back of the saw and instantly
it flew, with heavy force, into my face, and bouncing off my left cheek
fell about twenty feet off on the snow. The blood spattered on the snow
next the saw table, and on feeling with my hand there were two wounds,
one on the lock of the jaw and another forward, as big as a dollar, on
the cheek bone. "Now," I thought to myself, "there is a case of surgery
for you," and without further ceremony, I began to treat the case to the
best of my knowledge, with the result that the bleeding stopped almost
instantly, and so did a thumping pain, which had commenced. I paid no
more attention to the matter, but finished my work, and then went to
supper. When I washed my face, I felt a big lump on the jawbone where
the block of wood struck, but after my usual reading I went to bed and
slept all night until near daylight, when a pain on the right side awoke
me. On feeling with my hand there was another big lump on the right
side, but I treated it and went to sleep again. I never lost an hour
from the hurt, although I found out that my jaw was broken. There is no
scar, only a little red spot on the cheek, and the lumps on the bone
have long since disappeared.

In summing up the benefits I have received from the reading of Science
and Health, I can but refer to a condition of sickness dating back to
the war (1862), when chronic and malignant diarrhea came near making an
end of my material existence. My hearing, also, was seriously impaired
from the effect of cannon firing at Shiloh, but it has come back to me,
and where I formerly dared not eat an orange, or grapes, I can now eat
anything without being hurt. My peace of mind is giving me a rest which
I never experienced before during my life, and I have ceased to look
away off for the divine presence that was always near, though I did not
know it. - L. B., Baldy, N. M.

MANY PHYSICAL AND MENTAL TROUBLES OVERCOME

Less than a year ago, when nothing but trouble seemed to encompass me, I
was led to Christian Science. My mother's copy of Science and Health was
always lying on the table, but I scarcely ever read it. One day,
however, the mental conflict was so great I commenced reading in the
hope of obtaining peace. Every day since then my companions have been
the Bible and Science and Health. At that time I had a very serious
eruption on my face, which had been there two years. We had consulted
several physicians, and used every remedy suggested to eradicate it, but
they proved useless. I had given up all hopes of its ever being healed,
as the physician we last consulted pronounced it tuberculosis of the
skin and incurable. A few weeks after I commenced reading, I was amazed
to see it almost healed over, and to-day my cheek is perfectly smooth,
while the scar is disappearing.

In April my baby was born with only the practitioner and a woman friend
present. I suffered little pain, and the third day I went down-stairs. I
am able to nurse him, - a privilege of which I was deprived with my
first child. He is a picture of health, having never been sick a day
since he was born. - K. E. W. L., Mt. Dora, Fla.

A NEW LIFE GAINED

Leaving home when a young man, I carried with me a protection against
the temptation of a great city, - a mother's prayers and a small Bible.
For a time I read the Bible and prayed, but without understanding. This
did not suffice, and evil seemed to gain the victory. I soon omitted to
read my Bible; forgot to go to God in prayer for guidance and help, and
looked to the world for that which it never has and never can give, -
health, peace, and joy.

Thus, years later, when Christian Science came into my home, it found me
prayerless, churchless, godless; a home discordant, and with no thought
or knowledge of spiritual things. Up to this time, my wife had for years
been seeking health through the physicians, but without success, and as
a last resort had been sent to Christian Science. The help received was
so wonderful that I commenced the study of Science and Health. The first
effect which I realized from the reading of our textbook, was a great
love for the Bible and a desire to read it, something which I had not
done for years. I went in silent prayer to God, that I might see the
light and truth which would enable me to be-come a better man. "Ye must
be born again." Thus again, and as a child, was I taught to pray "the
effectual fervent prayer" which "availeth much." In a few weeks' study
of Science and Health together with the Bible, and without other help, I
was healed of a desire for liquor, of years' standing, and of the use of
tobacco. Ten years have passed and these appetites have never returned.
I have never used either liquor or tobacco in any form from that time to
the present. Surely this Scripture is fulfilled in our home: "Old things
are passed away; behold, all things are become new." How can we estimate
the value of a book, the study of which brings such transformation and
regeneration? Only as we endeavor to live, and strive to practise what
it teaches, can we begin to pay our debt to God, and to her whom He has
sent to make plain to human understanding the life and teaching of
Christ Jesus. - W. H. P., Boston, Mass.

A VOICE FROM ENGLAND

For a number of years I was a weary woman, not ill enough in health to,
be called an invalid, but suffering more than could be told with fatigue
and weakness. Feeling that this was God's will, I did not ask to be
healed, although I was constantly doctoring. I suffered with dyspepsia,
congestion of the liver, and many other things, including weak eyesight.
With all the medicine, and with different changes for rest, I never
regained health, and thought I never should, so I prayed for grace to
bear my cross patiently for others' sake. One day, while lying on my
couch exhausted, which had become a frequent experience, the words came
to me, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
I rose, knelt down and said, O God, make me well. I was telling a friend
this and she kindly gave me a /Sentinel. /Imagine my joy when I saw the
testimonies of healing! I believed them, remembering our Lord's words,
"Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." I obtained
a copy of Science and Health and before a week had passed I realized
that if God was my all I needed no glasses. My eyes were healed in a few
days, and since then I have never thought of glasses. I was also cured
of dyspepsia, and nothing that I have eaten has hurt me since then. The
belief in health laws was next destroyed, by knowing that our heavenly
Father did not make them, and from this has come the beautiful
experience of the overcoming of fatigue.

For this alone I can never be thankful enough. True indeed are the
words, "They shall run, and not be weary." This was more than a year
ago, and I can say that not once have I felt inclined to lie on the
couch, nor have I had a headache, although I am doing more work than
ever before. Fear has also been overcome in many ways. - A. L.,
Chelmsford, England.

DEPRAVED APPETITES OVERCOME

When Christian Science first came to me, or rather, when I first came to
Christian Science, I did not have a very bad opinion of myself. I
thought I was a pretty good fellow. I had no religious views. I seemed
to be getting along as well as, if not better than, some who
professed Christianity. So I drifted along until I was led to
investigate Christian Science.

As I progressed in the understanding as gained from the study of both
Science and Health and the Bible, and commenced to know myself, I found
that a great change had been wrought in me. For fifteen years I had used
tobacco, both chewing and smoking; for ten years I had been a victim of
the drink habit, sometimes to excess; I was also addicted to profanity.
Christian Science removed these appetites. A stomach trouble and other
lesser ills, such as headache, a bad temper, an inordinate love of
money, etc., disappeared under the same benign influence. Those things
that seemed to be pleasure do not give me pleasure now. They were not
real pleasure. I have lost nothing, I have sacrificed nothing; but I
have gained everything, and not yet the whole, for I can see plenty yet
to be done.

The condition of mind before investigating and after is as different as
black and white. As Mrs. Eddy says, "Not matter, but Mind, satisfieth." -
G. B. P., Henry, S. D.

CATARRH OF THE STOMACH HEALED

I should like to express my gratitude for the many benefits I have
received through Christian Science, and to mention the great joy brought
to me in the thought that man is not the helpless victim of sin,
disease, and death. Through its teachings I have been able to overcome
many errors.

When Christian Science found me, one year ago last April, in Chicago, I
was suffering from catarrh of the stomach, which had been very
persistent, and I had been a slave to the cigarette habit for eighteen
years. Pain and weakness had robbed me of all that one holds dear. The
first symptoms of the disease appeared about five years ago in the form
of severe cramps of the stomach, which finally developed into other
symptoms of that painful disease. I doctored continually, my diet daily
becoming more rigid, until three slices of toast became my daily
allowance of food.

In this condition I left the East for my home in Chicago, hoping that a
change of climate might benefit me. After spending six weeks there and
finding no relief, I concluded to return East. The Sunday morning before
leaving I picked up a Sunday paper, and glancing through the religious
items my eyes fell on the notices of Christian Science church services.
Curiosity led me to a service and I shall never forget that morning or
the surprise and joy it gave me to find that beautiful church, and to
know that so great a number actually believed that God does heal the
sick to-day. This brought a first ray of hope. The evening service found
me there again. Among the notices read was that of a reading room,
giving the location and time of opening. Monday morning found me there
promptly, and the first book I picked up was Science and Health which
opened a new world to me.

I had dieted so long and suffered so much that I had a morbid fear of
food. When I had reached and read of "neither food nor the stomach,
without the consent of mortal mind, can make one suffer" (Science and
Health, p. 221), I left the reading room for something to eat. I found a
bakery near by, and bought a bag of cakes which I ate, and shortly after
I had a hearty dinner without the least complaint from my stomach.

>From that time until now I have eaten anything that I wished, and the
craving for cigarettes, which I had for many years, has entirely
vanished. The understanding of Truth, which entirely relieved the
diseased stomach, healed also the morbid appetite for smoking. After
coming back East, I bought a copy of Science and Health, which I have
read daily, and find it a continual help in all the affairs of life.

In my home and at work I find this Science a comfort and source of
strength. I have had many difficulties in the way, but it has helped me
out of them all. - W. E. B., New Britain, Conn.

SPINAL DISEASE HEALED

When I first heard of Christian Science, seven years ago, I supposed
that it was some old fad under a new name. In the little Texas town
where we then lived there were two or three Christian Scientists who met
at the home of one of their number to read the Lesson-Sermon. Meeting
one of them one day, I asked if unbelievers could come to their
meetings. She said that they could if they wanted to. I went, expecting
them to do something that I could laugh at when telling my friends about
it. How surprised I was to find out that they didn't do anything but
read the Bible and another book which they called Science and Health. I
still thought it all foolishness, but resolved to go to their meetings
until I found out all they believed. I continued to go until I began to
understand a little of what they knew, not what they believed; and
instead of spending my time telling others what a silly thing Christian
Science is, I am now trying to find words to tell what a great and
wonderful thing it is. I have been healed of so-called incurable spinal
disease of ten years' standing by studying the Bible and Science and
Health. Science and Health has been my only teacher, and I wish to send
my thanks to our dear Leader.

There are no other Scientists near where we now live, but I have the
/Quarterly /and study the lessons by myself. I have five small children,
and Christian Science is invaluable to me in controlling them, and in
overcoming their common ills. They often help themselves and each other
to destroy their little hurts and fears. - Mrs. M. H., Oleta, Okla.

MANY TROUBLES OVERCOME

In the second chapter of First Peter, ninth verse, I read "that ye
should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvellous light." The periodicals so wisely established by our
Leader give us one means of showing forth the praises of Truth.

>From the darkness of physical pain and weariness into the light of
wholeness and joyousness in work and living, - from the darkness of a
clouded sight into the light of clearer vision, - from the darkness of
doubt and discord into the marvellous light of the reality of good, -
this is what a reading of the Christian Science textbook has done for
me.

At the time the book was lent to me, I was teach-
ing in the public schools of Chicago, and absences from my work on
account of illness were of frequent occurrence. For five weeks I had
been under the care of a specialist for an organic trouble, and he said
I would have to come as many more months before a cure could be
effected. At this time, Science and Health was brought to my notice. I
never thought of such a thing as being healed by the reading of the
book, but my thought was so changed that I was healed, not only of the
organic trouble, but of blurred eyesight, fatigue, and a train of other
discordant manifestations. I did not go back to the physician until four
months later to pay my bill (which, by the way, was more than five times
the price of the Science and Health I had purchased). From the time I
read the book I taught steadily without losing time from my work. I was
helped, too, with my work in many other ways.

Through reading the textbook I learned that God has given us strength to
do all we have to do, and that it is the things we do not have to do
(the envying, strife, emulating, vainglorying, and so on) that leave in
their wake fatigue and discord.

Gratitude to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, and to her faithful
students, with whom I afterwards became associated, can be expressed
only by daily efforts to put into practice what has been taught. - T. H.
A., Madison, Wis.

PREJUDICE OVERCOME

I became interested in Christian Science somewhat over three years ago
when in much need of help. I had never been strong, and as I grew older
I grew weaker and at last became so ill that life was a burden to me.
Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy was sent to me, in answer to prayer, as
I thought. I was a little afraid of all these new fads, as I thought
them, but I had not read far before I felt that I had found the truth
which makes us free. I was healed of stomach trouble, inward weakness,
and bilious attacks.

One physician said I might have to undergo an operation before I could
get well, but, thanks to this Truth, I have found that the only
operation needed was the regeneration of this so-called human mind by
learning to know God. In many cases I have been able to help myself and
others.

Words cannot express my thanks to Mrs. Eddy, and to all who are bringing
these great truths to the help of the whole world. - E. E. M.,
Huntington, W. Va.

A CONVINCING TESTIMONY

I became interested in Christian Science some five years ago, the
practical nature of its statements appealing to me, and I must say, at
the outset, that with my little experience I have found it all and more
than I ever dreamt of realizing on this plane of existence. I am
satisfied that I have found Truth. God is indeed to me an ever-present
help.

My little girl, some ten months old, was afflicted with constipation. It
was so severe I dreaded to go out anywhere with her, as I knew not when
she would be taken with a convulsion. I had tried all the usual remedies
in such cases, but it seemed to grow more obstinate. There was a
Christian Scientist living in the same house with us, a Scientist who
let her light shine, and while she said little, I felt the reflection of
Love. I had no knowledge of the teachings of Christian Science, save
that God was the physician at all times. In my own way I believed He was
all-powerful, and I said to my husband one day, "I am through with
medicine for baby. I am just going to leave her in God's care and see
what He will do. I have done all I can." I did as I said, laid my burden
at God's feet, and did not pick it up again. In two days the child was
perfectly natural, and has since been free from the trouble. She is now
six years of age. Some months later a second test came. She woke up at
nine o'clock at night crying and holding her ear. There was to sense a
gathering. I was alone. I took up my Science and Health and Bible, but
the more I worked the louder she screamed. Error kept suggesting
material remedies, but I said firmly: "No; I shall not go back to error.
God will help me." Just then I thought of my own fear, how excessive it
was, and a conversation I had with the Scientist who first voiced the
truth to me, came to mind. She said she always found it helpful to treat
herself and cast out her own fear before treating a patient. I put baby
down and again took up my Science and Health, and these were the words I
read: -

"Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger. 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 John says:
'There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love casteth out fear' " (Science
and Health, p. 410). I looked up, the crying had ceased, the child was
smiling, and in a few minutes asked to be put to bed. There has been no
further trouble of that kind.

I have since seen the power of Truth overcome error of many forms,
including croup, whooping-cough, tonsilitis, etc. I am thankful for all
these proofs, but far more grateful am I for the spiritual teaching to
love, to forgive, to curb my tongue, and cease my criticism. - M. A. H.,
Brockton, Mass.

HEALED PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY

I had been taking medicine continually for many years. Finally I was
taken suddenly ill and could not leave my room for about two months,
then I went away for three months, thinking that I should come back and
be able to continue my work. I improved very much, but the fear of quick
consumption was with my doctor and my family and friends, and I was
warned about the coming winter. Only too soon the fear manifested
itself. I had worked just three weeks when all the pains and aches
returned, and I had to go to bed as soon as I got home, so there was no
pleasure in living. My employer advised me to see my physician, and said
perhaps I should not work that winter. I then and there turned to
Christian Science. I could not afford to give up work and live away from
home, neither did I want to depend on doctors and medicine any longer. I
took the book and read it on my way to work, and at noon I lay down on a
couch instead of going out for luncheon and fell asleep. When I awoke I
was a different person, all pains and aches had gone, and I was free. I
was so happy I could hardly contain myself; to material sense it was
wonderful. As I walked I kept saying, "Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful,"
and tried to understand "the scientific statement of being" by repeating
portions at a time, then pondering over them. I read the book four times
in succession, and every time I found more and more to aid in the
understanding.

This healing was in October, l901, with no other help than Science and
Health, and soon I was relieved of other chronic ailments. In February I
was able to put away eyeglasses, which I had worn ten years and a half
for astigmatism. Oculists told me I would always have to wear them. A
month later my father asked me to help him, as he was suffering so much
from constipation, dyspepsia, and neuralgia. He had been subsisting on
bran, nearly starving himself until be was most miserable, and his limbs
seemed so cold that they were kept wrapped in blankets. I felt very
humble as he asked me, and told him I would have a practitioner help
him, as I had never treated any one; but he would not consent to have
any one but myself, and I finally told him I would try, but that he must
not hold Science responsible if he were not benefited, for my lack of
understanding, and not Science, would be at fault. At my request he read
Science and Health, ate whatever he wanted, and used no medicine in any
form. After two treatments I received word from him that he was healed
of that bondage of thirty years' standing. In view of all these signs
which followed my acceptance of Christian Science, I knew it must be
true. - R. L. A., Chicago, Ill.

A VOICE FROM THE SOUTH

I was delicate from childhood, and my parents did not think it was
possible for me to live more than a few years. I lived, however,
although there was not much improvement in my health. Travel and change
of climate brought only temporary relief, and the physicians gave me no
hope that I would ever be well.

As a last resort I began the study of Science and Health, and before I
had finished reading the book I realized that its author was divinely
commissioned to bring this spiritual message to a waiting world. Through
this reading my health was restored, and I was healed of one disease
that has been called incurable by all physicians.

For this, together with the greater and higher blessing of having the
spiritual fact of being unfolded to me, I am most grateful.

What shall be rendered for such benefits received and made possible by
the consecrated life of our revered Leader? Only by following the
teachings of our textbook, and by loving obedience to her gentle and
timely admonitions can we show our true sense of gratitude. - F. H. D.,
De Funiak Springs, Fla.

HEALED AFTER MUCH SUFFERING

A testimony given in the Journal led me to investigate Christian
Science, and I hope in return to be the means of leading some one else
to see the beauty of this saving truth, and to learn to know God aright
and man's relationship to Him. I know from experience that it is
prejudice and misapprehension of what Christian Science is, that keeps
many from enjoying the blessings it bestows.

I had been taking patent medicines for several years, and had been to
one of the best sanitariums in this country, but was not healed,
although I received some benefit, for which I shall always feel
grateful, for I know the physicians did all they could for me. I
sometimes thought I had exhausted all remedies, but did not give up, for
I felt there must be something to heal me if I could find it.

When in this state of mind Christian Science came to my notice, and
after reading several /Journals, /I purchased a copy of Science and
Health. I read for several days at odd times. I commenced to improve,
and in about a week I was healed of most of my ills, among which were
dyspepsia and nervous debility.

Although I had heard about Christian Science before, I had never heard
that the reading of the Christian Science textbook had ever effected the
healing of anybody. I commenced reading to find out what Christian
Science was, but was surprised to find myself improving, and was soon
assured that it was the theology of Science and Health that healed me,
just as it was the theology of Jesus that healed the sick.

It has also proved to me that there can be no Christian Science Church
that does not heal the sick and sinful, for healing follows as the
natural result of the teaching of Christian Science. The Bible has
become a new revelation to me, and I can read it much more
understandingly by the light received through the reading of Science and
Health. - A. F. M., Fairmont, Minn.

THROUGH GREAT TRIBULATIONS

When I attempt to make plain what Christian Science has done for me,
words fail me. For twenty years I was a constant sufferer, my spine
having been injured when I was very young. As a little child I suffered
so much that I would look up to the stars and beg God, who I thought
might be up there somewhere, to take me away from the earth, - I was so
tired. A great wall of pain seemed to separate me from the pleasures
enjoyed by others, and I could not explain how I felt, because no one
could understand. Years passed, and I saw my earthly happiness swept
away; my heart was broken and I did not know what to do. I cried for
help, day after day and night after night, although I was not sure what
God was, nor where He was. I only knew that I suffered, and was in need
of help, and that there was no earthly help for either mind or body. I
loved purity, truth, and right always, and this made evil seem a most
terrible reality. I was unable to cope with it, and so found myself in
despair. This was my condition when I commenced reading Science and
Health. I was ready for its message, and in about ten days there came a
wonderful insight into the truth which heals the sick and binds up the
broken-hearted. All pain left me, I had a glimpse of the new heavens and
the new earth, and was beginning to be fed by Love divine.

I had suffered for years with insomnia. That night I rested like a
child, and awoke the next morning well and happy. A flood of light daily
illumined the pages of the "little book," and the revelation it holds
for all came to my waiting heart. "The peace which passeth all
understanding" rested upon me, and joy too deep for words transformed
my life. My prayers were answered, for I had found God in Christian
Science.

The Bible, which I knew very little about, became my constant study, my
joy, and my guide. The copy which I bought at the time of my healing is
marked from Genesis to Revelation. It was so constantly in my hands for
three years that the cover became worn and the leaves loose, so it has
been laid away for a new one. Two and three o'clock in the morning often
found me poring over its pages, which grew more and more sacred to me
every day, and the help I received therefrom was wonderful, for which I
can find no words to express iny gratitude. - I. L., Los Angeles, Cal.

A HELPFUL TESTIMONY

Words cannot express my gratitude to God for Christian Science. When I
first read Science and Health, I had tried every remedy I had ever heard
of. I felt no change in mind or body that I was conscious of until I
read page 16 of the chapter on " Prayer," in Science and Health. The
first words of the "spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer," telling of
our Father-Mother God, gave me a glimpse of heavenly light. I stopped
and reasoned, and remembered the teachings of Jesus. The truth of man's
spiritual being dawned on my consciousness. I realized I was not subject
to mortal laws, as I had been taught all my life. I could not explain
how I knew this, but I knew it. Through Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy had
given me what I had longed for all my life, - a Mother, a perfect
"Father-Mother God." I had known there was a great lack, and at that
time I believe the orthodox world had but half of the truth which Jesus
came to establish. When I read, "Give us this day our daily bread," and
its spiritual interpretation, my tears began to flow; all the years of
bitterness, hate, and fear melted away. I knew then, as I know now, that
nothing satisfies but Love. That day began the outward and inward
conscious healing, - mental and physical. There never came a doubt! I
absolutely knew that Christian Science was and is the truth. Money,
friends, materiality, are nothing beside the conscious knowledge of God,
man, and the universe.

I did not need treatment from any one, - Science and Health was so clear
and beautiful. I could not understand the Bible before, but I found it
illumined now that I had a little understanding of Christian Science.
For ten years I have not had to lie down in the daytime from any
sickness. I am now, and have been all these years, the picture of
perfect health. When I first read Science and Health I weighed one
hundred and four pounds; I now weigh over one hundred and sixty. This
physical health is not to be compared to my happiness, - my harmony that
nothing can take away, - because it is the gift of God. Nothing has
shown me the perversity of the human mind more than in its conclusions
in regard to my healing. Even when I felt and knew that I was healed,
people constantly said, because I was thin and delicate looking, " You
are not well, any one could look at you and know it." Now that I am
fleshy, they say, "You don't look as if you ever had a pain in all your
life. You could not have had consumption."

When I think what my life was before I had Christian Science, of the six
years of colds, suffering, and coughing, not to mention the unhappiness,
I want to "work, watch, and pray " for the Mind of Christ, that I may
work rightly in God's vineyard, and to know that in truth, what belongs
to one belongs to all, - that one God, one Life, Truth, and Love is all.
- A. C. L., Kansas City, Kans.

DESIRE FOR LIQUOR AND TOBACCO DISAPPEARED

I first heard of Christian Science four years ago. At that time drinking
and smoking were my comforters. I had no other companionship. I had
lived almost constantly from childhood in an evil atmosphere. Though I
was far from being satisfied with my condition, I failed to see how to
better it until I read Science and Health. I used occasionally to listen
to a sermon, but sermons did not give me any more comfort than I derived
from my pipe, hence I concluded that church-going could not satisfy me
and I preferred drinking and smoking. When I began to read Science and
Health, I saw it offered something substantial. After a few months'
study all desire for drinking and smoking disappeared. I did not give
them up; I made no sacrifices, I simply found something better. I might
mention that I had smoked ever since I can remember. I used to smoke
years before I left school, and, like most Englishmen, loved my pipe,
and would almost prefer to miss a meal rather than to go without my
smoke. I used to think it gave me comfort.

During my four years' study of Christian Science I have not spent a cent
for doctors or medicine, neither have I lost a day from my work on
account of sickness, which compares wonderfully with the previous four
years. I take a great interest and pleasure in reading the Bible and
studying the lessons in the /Quarterly/. The Bible used to be a most
mysterious book to me, but Science and Health makes it a most precious
book, making its meaning clearer, plainer, and simpler.

I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Mrs. Eddy and to the
friend who invited me to attend the service held in the Auditorium years
ago. I also wish to acknowledge the benefit I have had from the /Journal/
and the /Sentinel. /They have helped me wonderfully. If the value of
Science and Health and these publications were measured as business men
value things, by the results or benefits they bring, they certainly
would be priceless to me. It would be impossible to measure their value,
as I have got something from Science and Health that all the money in
the world could not buy. - H. P. H., Chicago, Ill.

AN EXPRESSION OF LOVING GRATITUDE

In the spring of 1893, while studying for the ministry, Science and
Health was placed in my hands, and the truth contained therein at once
became to me the pearl of great price. I literally devoured the book,
reading it about eighteen hours a day. Its originality was startling,
upsetting my preconceived opinions of God, man, and creation. Two
sentences especially appealed to me: "The foundation of mortal discord
is a false sense of man's origin" (p. 262), and, "For right
reasoning, there should be but one fact before the thought, namely,
spiritual existence " (p. 492). I had found the keynote to the Science
of being as taught in this marvellous book, and persevered until a
glimpse of the new heavens and new earth came, for the old were passing
away. With this spiritual uplifting came also physical health.

All my life had been spent in semi-invalidism, and I seemed destined to
a life of suffering. In three weeks after beginning Science and Health,
to my joyful surprise I found myself a well man, sound physically, and
uplifted spiritually. Life was being lived from a new basis, the old
things of personal sense were passing away and all things becoming new.
I learned that the infinite good is the one Friend upon whom we can call
at all times, an all-powerful, ever-present help in every time of
trouble; that His children are really governed in peace and harmony by
spiritual law, and as the right understanding of it is gained, the other
things soon follow, bringing a peace the human concept can never know.

For the last twelve years my whole time has been devoted to Christian
Science practice, and I have seen nearly every so-called incurable
disease healed by its beneficent influence. God bless our dear Leader!
She has set before us an open door, which no man can shut, and it is but
a question of time when the world will know her better and love her
more. - E. E. N., Washington, D. C.

HEALED OF BRIGHT'S DISEASE

August 18, 1902, I was taken down with what three doctors pronounced
Bright's disease, and they stated that I would not live a year, or if I
did succeed in living longer, I would be mentally unbalanced. On
December 6, 1902, my wife presented me with Science and Health as a
birthday gift, and it was indeed the best present I ever received. Since
that time I have been reading it and attending the Second Church here. I
have not used any medicine since, nor has any one in our home. I am in
the finest of health and have lost all my bad habits. This truth has
brought a great spiritual uplifting to all of us, and words cannot
express my gratitude to Mrs. Eddy and to all who have helped me to the
same. - T. V., Chicago, Ill.

FIBROID TUMOR DESTROYED

When quite young I was impressed that the Bible was not properly
interpreted by the preachers, for I could not conceive of a God of wrath
who was unjust enough to allow His little ones to suffer pain, misery,
and death. I had hope, however, that some day the truth would be
revealed to an awakening world, but little did I dream that even then
there was one of God's noble women who reflected sufficient purity and
holiness to entertain the "angel of his presence," and commune with the
true God.

I was believed to be predisposed to scrofula, so that I was not a strong
or attractive child, and my girlhood and womanhood were scarcely ever
free from dread of the laws of matter and lack of strength. The climax
was reached when a physician informed me, after weeks of treatment, that
I had a fibroid tumor, which required an operation. The conditions were
most trying and I was heartsick and discouraged when, in January, 1893, I
heard of Christian Science through a letter from a dear sister who had been
greatly benefited thereby, and I resolved to go at once to a
practitioner, for I believed it to be the long-lost truth that would
make me free. It meant a great effort and sacrifice for me to go to
Chicago at that time, but divine Love opened the way and I reached there
in March. I had been in my sister's home but a few days, reading Science
and Health almost constantly, when I asked her if I had not better have
treatment for the tumor, which had given me so much trouble. She said to
me, "You feel well, do you not?" I assured her that I never had felt so
well as I had since reaching there. "Well," she said with decision,
"your tumor is gone, for God never made it," and her statements were
true, for it has never been heard of from that day. Since then I have
been healed of chronic sore throat, hay fever, and other troubles, and I
know that Christian Science is the truth. - B. W. S., Coldwater, Mich.

LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS

I have received so much benefit from the testimonies in the /Sentinel
/and /Journal /that I send mine, hoping it may cheer some struggling
heart. I was reared by kind and loving Christian parents and was a
member of an orthodox church for over twenty years, but I was never
satisfied. I was filled with fear and bound down by the false gods of
this world, - sin, disease, and poverty; consequently every way I
turned, and in everything I attempted to do, I was met with
disappointment and failure; but God was leading me into a different
life.

My interest was first awakened to Christian Science about thirteen years
ago, and I have been a willing disciple ever since. Through the reading
of Science and Health I was healed of chronic catarrh and laryngitis,
and it also enabled me to lay off my glasses. Christian Science has not
only helped me mentally, morally, and physically, but the greatest
blessing of all is the spiritual uplifting which enabled me to know that
God is both able and willing to care for His children, if we are but
willing to do our part and bear the cross which, though it seems heavy
at times, always brings a sure reward. Christian Science has not only
helped me, but it has enabled me to help others.

The Bible is a new book to me. I now see what Jesus meant when he said,
"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest."

My heart goes out in gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for the work she has done
and is still doing for the world, and to God I am most grateful that He
has guided me into the truth, that I may have life, and have it more
abundantly. - Mrs. M. M., Chicago, Ill.

A PRICELESS BOON

I have long desired to express my gratitude for what Christian Science
has done, through reading Science and Health, for me and my family. I
was healed of profanity, the tobacco habit, and a bad temper, through
the understanding that man is the image and likeness of God. I was also
healed of kidney disease and rheumatism. What surprised me most,
however, was this; I had had one finger thrown out of place some fifteen
years before. It was crooked, but it became straight and useful. A bone
in my foot had also been broken, leaving a bunch, which disappeared
after I studied Christian Science and received class instruction. I am
an entirely well man and for this I am very grateful. I am also glad
that I have learned enough of Truth and love to be able to heal others.
I wish to express my thankful appreciation of our Leader, also of the
/Sentinel/ and the /Journal. /- N. R. F., Salina, Kans.

HEALED OF CONSUMPTION AND ASTHMA

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the great benefits which have come to me
through Christian Science. It is nearly ten years since I began the
investigation of the subject by borrowing a copy of Science and Health.
I had become a hopeless sufferer from asthma, - the disease being so
aggravated at times as to make breathing almost impossible. I was also a
victim of that dread disease, consumption. It was hereditary, nearly all
my family on both sides having passed away with it. I took up Christian
Science very much as a drowning man catches at a straw. However, I was
much interested as soon as I began to understand it, and having read the
book nearly all my waking hours for a few weeks, I became so much better
and so convinced of its truth, that myself and wife destroyed all the
medicines in the home, and have never since used any remedy except
Christian Science. I continued to study and to put into practice the
teaching as best I knew, and was restored to health in a few months.

Prior to my investigation of Christian Science I had been from boyhood
an outspoken infidel, had read that class of literature extensively, and
had no desire for anything of a religious nature, - the orthodox
teaching never having appealed to me as a rational exposition of an
all-wise God. I now have no more doubt of the truth of the teaching of
the great Way-shower, Jesus of Nazareth, than I doubt the correctness of
the basic law of mathematics or music. I have no doubt whatever that
Christian Science saved me from the grave, and thus proved a most
practicable and efficient help in time of greatest need. However great
my physical suffering has been, I can but feel glad that through it the
door of consciousness was opened to let in the light of Truth. Thus I
have progressed a little way in the knowledge of God, good, as revealed
in Christian Science. - C. B., Webb City, Mo.

A GRATEFUL TESTIMONY

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. "

This has been proven to me in every way. When Christian Science came to
me, I was a wreck, physically, mentally, and financially; but since the
reading of Science and Health turned my thought toward the light, I have
found that, as far as I am willing to receive the word and live it, all
comforts are supplied me. I am especially grateful for the spiritual
help. I know that things which I did and thought last year I would not
do or think this year, and am satisfied. Through the careful and
prayerful study of Science and Health I have been lifted from sickness
to health, from sorrow to peace, from lack to plenty, and, the most
beautiful of all, from darkness to light. - Mrs. H. S. C., Seattle, Wash.