Science and Health

362:1It is related in the seventh chapter of Luke’s Gospel that Jesus was once the honored guest of a certain 3Pharisee, by name Simon, though he was quite unlike Simon the disciple. While they were at meat, an unusual A gospel narrativeincident occurred, as if to interrupt the scene 6of 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 9rules 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 12since 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. 15It was therefore easy for the Magdalen to come behind 363 363:1the couch and reach his feet. She bore an alabaster jar containing costly and fragrant oil, — sandal oil perhaps, 3which 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 6about her shoulders, as was customary with women of her grade.

    Did Jesus spurn the woman? Did he repel her adora‐9tion? No! He regarded her compassionately. Nor was Parable of the creditorthis all. Knowing what those around him were saying in their hearts, especially his host,  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 15them 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 18creditor. “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 21the answer, and so brought home the lesson to all, follow‐ing it with that remarkable declaration to the woman, “Thy sins are forgiven.”

24    Why did he thus summarize her debt to divine Love? Had she repented and reformed, and did his insight Divine insightdetect this unspoken moral uprising? She 27bathed 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 30expectation 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 364 364:1of undoubted goodness and purity, who has since been rightfully regarded as the best man that ever trod this 3planet. 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 6sinners, that through his word and works they might be redeemed from sensuality and sin.

    Which was the higher tribute to such ineffable affec‐9tion, the hospitality of the Pharisee or the contrition of Penitence or hospitalitythe Magdalen? This query Jesus answered by rebuking self-righteousness and declaring 12the 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 15sign of Oriental courtesy.

    Here is suggested a solemn question, a question indi‐cated by one of the needs of this age. Do Christian 18Scientists 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 21in 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 24 little.

    On the other hand, do they show their regard for Truth, or Christ, by their genuine repentance, by their 27Genuine repentancebroken 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 30unwelcome visitor, that they indeed love much, because much is forgiven them.

    Did the careless doctor, the nurse, the cook, and the 365 365:1brusque business visitor sympathetically know the thorns they plant in the pillow of the sick and the heavenly 3Compassion requisitehomesick looking away from earth, — Oh, did they know! — this knowledge would do much more towards healing the sick and preparing their helpers 6for 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 9the 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 12sense and common humanity are disregarded, what men‐tal quality remains, with which to evoke healing from the outstretched arm of righteousness?

15    If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one Speedy healingvisit, and the disease will vanish into its native 18nothingness 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‐21dalen 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 24intent.

    If hypocrisy, stolidity, inhumanity, or vice finds its way into the chambers of disease through the would-be 27Truth desecratedhealer, 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‐30self. 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, 366 366:1patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear Father’s loving-kindness.

3    In order to cure his patient, the metaphysician must first cast moral evils out of himself and thus Moral evils to be cast outattain the spiritual freedom which will en‐6able 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 9and hinders him from reaching his patient’s thought, — yea, while mental penury chills his faith and under‐standing.

12    The physician who lacks sympathy for his fellow-being is deficient in human affection, and we have the The true physicianapostolic warrant for asking: “He that loveth 15not 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 18Mind 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 21of bigoted pedantry.

    The physician must also watch, lest he be over‐whelmed by a sense of the odiousness of sin and by the 24Source of calmnessunveiling of sin in his own thoughts. The sick are terrified by their sick beliefs, and sinners should be affrighted by their sinful beliefs; but 27the 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.

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 367 367:1of spiritual healing under the napkin of its form, nor bury the morale of Christian Science in the grave-clothes 3Genuine healingof its letter. The tender word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience with his fears and the removal of them, are better than 6hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame 9with divine Love.

    This is what is meant by seeking Truth, Christ, not “for the loaves and fishes,” nor, like the Pharisee, with 12Gratitude and humilitythe 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 15the perfume of gratitude, with tears of repentance and with those hairs all numbered by the Father.

    A Christian Scientist occupies the place at this period 18of which Jesus spoke to his disciples, when he said: “Ye The salt of the earthare the salt of the earth.” “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill can‐21not 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.

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 27the beneficial effects of Christianity. I long to see the consummation of my hope, namely, the student’s higher attainments in this line of light.

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 368 368:1counterpoise of nothingness. The greatest wrong is but a supposititious opposite of the highest right. The 3Real and counterfeitconfidence 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 6time 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-9destroyed.

    Against the fatal beliefs that error is as real as Truth, that evil is equal in power to good if not superior, and that 12Results of faith in Truthdiscord 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 15come 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, 18then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error.

    That Life is not contingent on bodily conditions is 21proved, when we learn that life and man survive this Life independent of matterbody. Neither evil, disease, nor death can be spiritual, and the material belief in them dis‐24appears 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 27source 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 30matter, 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 369 369:1reality of matter, and he is liable to admit also the reality of all discordant conditions, and this hinders his de‐3stroying them. Thus he is unfitted for the successful treatment of disease.

    In proportion as matter loses to human sense all en‐6tity as man, in that proportion does man become its Man’s entitymaster. He enters into a diviner sense of the facts, and comprehends the theology of Jesus 9as 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, 12that it can be the arbiter of life or the constructor of any form of existence.

    We never read that Luke or Paul made a reality of 15disease in order to discover some means of healing it. The Christ treatmentJesus never asked if disease were acute or chronic, and he never recommended atten‐18tion to laws of health, never gave 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 21knew that man has not two lives, one to be destroyed and the other to be made indestructible.

    The prophylactic and therapeutic (that is, the prevent‐24ive and curative) arts belong emphatically to Christian Matter not medicineScience, as would be readily seen, if psychology, or the Science of Spirit, God, was understood. 27Unscientific methods are finding their dead level. Lim‐ited to matter by their own law, what have they of the advantages of Mind and immortality?

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 370 370:1every whit whole, man must be better spiritually as well as physically. To be immortal, we must forsake the 3No healing in sinmortal 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 6same 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 9of cause and effect, or like producing like.

    Homœopathy furnishes the evidence to the senses, that symptoms, which might be produced by a certain drug, 12Like curing likeare 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 15cure. The effect, which mortal mind produces through one belief, it removes through an opposite belief, but it uses the same medicine in both cases.

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‐21tal mind must be the cause of disease — tends to induce disease.

    According to both medical testimony and individual 24experience, a drug may eventually lose its supposed power Transient potency of drugsand do no more for the patient. Hygienic treatment also loses its efficacy. Quackery 27likewise 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 30change our basis from sensation to Christian Science, from error to Truth, from matter to Spirit.

    Physicians examine the pulse, tongue, lungs, to dis‐371371:1cover the condition of matter, when in fact all is Mind. The body is the substratum of mortal mind, 3Diagnosis of matterand this so-called mind must finally yield to the mandate of immortal Mind.

    Disquisitions on disease have a mental effect similar 6to that produced on children by telling ghost-stories in Ghost-stories inducing fearthe dark. By those uninstructed in Christian Science, nothing is really understood of material 9existence. 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 12for 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‐15age 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‐18ings which throng the gloaming. The way in divine Science is the only way out of this condition.

    I would not transform the infant at once into a 21man, nor would I keep the suckling a lifelong babe. Mind imparts purity, health, and beautyNo impossible thing do I ask when urging the claims of Christian Science; but because 24this teaching is in advance of the age, we should not deny our need of its spiritual unfoldment. Mankind will improve through Science and Christi‐27anity. 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‐30ness, and health instead of disease. Truth is an altera‐tive in the entire system, and can make it “every whit whole.”

372

372:1    Remember, brain is not mind. Matter cannot be sick, and Mind is immortal. The mortal body is only an erro‐3Brain not intelligentneous mortal belief of mind in matter. What you call matter was originally error in solu‐tion, elementary mortal mind, — likened by Milton to 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 9all 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, 12bind himself with his own beliefs, and then call his bonds material and name them divine law.

    When man demonstrates Christian Science absolutely, 15he will be perfect. He can neither sin, suffer, be subject Veritable successto matter, nor disobey the law of God. There‐fore he will be as the angels in heaven. Chris‐18tian 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, 21Spirit 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 24falsely parading in the vestments of law.

    “Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” In Chris‐27Recognition of benefitstian 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‐30stition, 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.

373

373:1    If we are Christians on all moral questions, but are in darkness as to the physical exemption which Christian‐3Disease far more docile than iniquityity 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 6malignant 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 9vain, 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. 12Healing is easier than teaching, if the teaching is faithfully done.

    The fear of disease and the love of sin are the sources 15Love frees from fearof 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 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 21rise 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 24oppressed organ. The inflammation, decomposition, or deposit will abate, and the disabled organ will resume its healthy functions.

27    When the blood rushes madly through the veins or languidly creeps along its frozen channels, we call these Mind circulates bloodconditions disease. This is a misconception. 30Mortal 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 374 374:1which mortal mind has decided upon as essential for health. Anodynes, counter-irritants, and depletion never 3reduce inflammation scientifically, but the truth of being, whispered into the ear of mortal mind, will bring relief.

    Hatred and its effects on the body are removed by 6Love. Because mortal mind seems to be conscious, the Mind can destroy all illssick say: “How can my mind cause a disease I never thought of and knew nothing about, 9until 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 12on 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‐15physics. 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 18argument 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 21hinders 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 24are less firm because of your fear, and ignorance of mental cause and effect.

    Heat and cold are products of mortal mind. The body, 27when bereft of mortal mind, at first cools, and after‐Temperature is mentalwards it is resolved into its primitive mortal elements. Nothing that lives ever dies, and 30vice 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 375 375:1mortal mind, not matter, which says, “I die.” Heat would pass from the body as painlessly as gas dissipates 3into the air when it evaporates but for the belief that in‐flammation and pain must accompany the separation of heat from the body.

6    Chills and heat are often the form in which fever mani‐fests itself. Change the mental state, and the chills and Science versus hypnotismfever disappear. The old-school physician 9proves this when his patient says, “I am better,” but the patient believes that matter, not mind, has helped him. The Christian Scientist demonstrates 12that 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 15mental despotism or malpractice. All unscientific mental practice is erroneous and powerless, and should be under‐stood and so rendered fruitless. The genuine Christian 18Scientist is adding to his patient’s mental and moral power, and is increasing his patient’s spirituality while restoring him physically through divine Love.

21    Palsy is a belief that matter governs mortals, and can Cure for palsyparalyze the body, making certain portions of it motionless. Destroy the belief, show mortal 24mind that muscles have no power to be lost, for Mind is supreme, and you cure the palsy.

    Consumptive patients always show great hopeful‐27ness and courage, even when they are supposed to be in Latent fear diagnosedhopeless danger. This state of mind seems anomalous except to the expert in Christian 30Science. 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‐376376:1tal thought a hopeless state, an image more terrifying than that of most other diseases. The patient turns involun‐3tarily from the contemplation of it, but though unacknowl‐edged, the latent fear and the despair of recovery remain in thought.

6    Just so is it with the greatest sin. It is the most subtle, and does its work almost self-deceived. The diseases Insidious conceptsdeemed dangerous sometimes come from the 9most 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 12never 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 15flowed through mortal veins and simulated a corporeal sense of life.

    If the body is material, it cannot, for that very reason, 18suffer with a fever. Because the so-called material body Remedy for feveris a mental concept and governed by mortal mind, it manifests only what that so-called 21mind 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 24being, — 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, 27and 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‐30mitting that it must have its course. To fear and admit the power of disease, is to paralyze mental and scientific demonstration.

377

377:1    If your patient believes in taking cold, mentally con‐vince him that matter cannot take cold, and that thought 3governs 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.

6    Invalids flee to tropical climates in order to save their lives, but they come back no better than when they went Climate harmlessaway. Then is the time to cure them through 9Christian Science, and prove that they can be healthy in all climates, when their fear of climate is exterminated.

12    Through different states of mind, the body becomes suddenly weak or abnormally strong, showing mortal Mind governs bodymind to be the producer of strength or weak‐15ness. A sudden joy or grief has caused what is termed instantaneous death. Because a belief origi‐nates unseen, the mental state should be continually 18watched 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 21leading 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 24this way what are termed organic diseases as readily as functional difficulties.

    The cause of all so-called disease is mental, a mortal 27fear, 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‐30out 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‐378378:1ness with certain circumstances and causes the two to appear conjoined, even as poetry and music are repro‐3duced 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 6self-sentence, and meet every circumstance with truth. Disease is less than mind, and Mind can control it.

    Without the so-called human mind, there can be no 9inflammatory nor torpid action of the system. Remove Latent powerthe error, and you destroy its effects. By looking a tiger fearlessly in the eye, Sir Charles 12Napier 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 15fearlessly 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 18exercised over mortal beliefs to destroy them; whereas hypnotism and hygienic drilling and drugging, adopted to cure matter, is represented by two material erroneous 21bases.

    Disease is not an intelligence to dispute the empire of Mind or to dethrone Mind and take the government into 24Disease powerlessits own hands. Sickness is not a God-given, nor a self-constituted material power, which copes astutely with Mind and finally conquers it. God 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‐30ceivable; and if such a power could be divinely directed, it would manifest less wisdom than we usually find dis‐played in human governments.

379

379:1    If disease can attack and control the body without the consent of mortals, sin can do the same, for both 3Jurisdiction of Mindare errors, announced as partners in the be‐ginning. The Christian Scientist finds only effects, where the ordinary physician looks for causes. 6The real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind, controlling every effect and recognizing all causation as vested in divine Mind.

9    A felon, on whom certain English students experi‐mented, fancied himself bleeding to death, and died be‐Power of imaginationcause of that belief, when only a stream of 12warm 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‐15valid, 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 18blood 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 21her 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 24very results she dreads.

    Fevers are errors of various types. The quickened pulse, coated tongue, febrile heat, dry skin, pain in the 27Fevers the effect of fearhead and limbs, are pictures drawn on the body by a mortal mind. The images, held in this disturbed mind, frighten conscious thought. Unless 30the 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 380 380:1Science, it may rest at length on some receptive thought, and become a fever case, which ends in a belief called 3death, 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‐6stone of the corner, “but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.”

    Contending for the evidence or indulging the demands 9of sin, disease, or death, we virtually contend against Misdirected contentionthe control of Mind over body, and deny the power of Mind to heal. This false method 12is as though the defendant should argue for the plaintiff in favor of a decision which the defendant knows will be turned against himself.

15    The physical effects of fear illustrate its illusion. Gaz‐ing at a chained lion, crouched for a spring, should not Benefits of metaphysicsterrify a man. The body is affected only with 18the 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 21error, and prove man’s dominion over error.

    Many years ago the author made a spiritual discov‐ery, the scientific evidence of which has accumulated to 24A higher discoveryprove that the divine Mind produces in man health, harmony, and immortality. Gradu‐ally this evidence will gather momentum and clearness, 27until 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 30God endows this opposing power with strength to be used against Himself, against Life, health, harmony.

    Every law of matter or the body, supposed to govern 381 381:1man, is rendered null and void by the law of Life, God. Ignorant of our God-given rights, we submit to unjust 3Ignorance of our rightsdecrees, 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‐6ing in the system, than you are to yield to a sinful temp‐tation on the ground that sin has its necessities.

    When infringing some supposed law, you say that 9there is danger. This fear is the danger and induces the No laws of matterphysical effects. We cannot in reality suffer from breaking anything except a moral or 12spiritual 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, 15and 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 18death, and the Scriptures declare that we live, move, and have our being in the infinite God.

    Think less of the enactments of mortal mind, and you 21will sooner grasp man’s God-given dominion. You must God-given dominionunderstand your way out of human theories relating to health, or you will never believe 24that 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. 27Let 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 30inflicted by divine authority.

    Christ Jesus overruled the error which would impose penalties for transgressions of the physical laws of 382 382:1health; he annulled supposed laws of matter, opposed Begin rightlyto the harmonies of Spirit, lacking divine au‐3thority and having only human approval for their sanction.

    If half the attention given to hygiene were given to the 6study of Christian Science and to the spiritualization of Hygiene excessivethought, this alone would usher in the millen‐nium. Constant bathing and rubbing to alter 9the 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 12of making clean merely the outside of the platter.

    He, who is ignorant of what is termed hygienic law, is more receptive of spiritual power and of faith in one 15Blissful ignoranceGod, 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 18of 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 21one 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.”

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,  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 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, 383 383:1but mental, and I was cured when I learned my way in Christian Science.”

3    We need a clean body and a clean mind, — a body rendered pure by Mind as well as washed by water. A clean mind and bodyOne says: “I take good care of my body.” 6To 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 9it 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.”

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 15gives 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 18not 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.

21    The tobacco-user, eating or smoking poison for half a century, sometimes tells you that the weed preserves Beliefs illusivehis health, but does this make it so? Does his 24assertion 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 27belief, confirming the Scriptural conclusion concerning a man, “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

    The movement-cure — pinching and pounding the poor 30body, 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 384 384:1instead of on Mind. Can matter, or what is termed matter, either feel or act without mind?

3    We should relieve our minds from the depressing thought that we have transgressed a material law and must of Corporeal penaltiesnecessity pay the penalty. Let us reassure 6ourselves 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, 9cold, 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 12protest 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 15grand verities of Christian Science.

    If exposure to a draught of air while in a state of perspiration is followed by chills, dry cough, influenza, 18Not matter, but Mindcongestive symptoms in the lungs, or hints of inflammatory rheumatism, your Mind-remedy is safe and sure. If you are a Christian Scientist, such 21symptoms 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 24to 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 27disease 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.

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 385 385:1human system will be acknowledged. It is proverbial that Florence Nightingale and other philanthropists en‐3Benefit of philanthropygaged in humane labors have been able to undergo without sinking fatigues and expo‐sures which ordinary people could not endure. The ex‐6planation 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‐9durance 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, 12though it can never annul the law which makes sin its own executioner, exempts man from all penalties but those due for wrong-doing.

15    Constant toil, deprivations, exposures, and all untow‐ard conditions, if without sin, can be experienced with‐Honest toil has no penaltyout suffering. Whatever it is your duty to do, 18you 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 21flesh shall be discolored, painful, swollen, and inflamed.

    You say that you have not slept well or have overeaten. You are a law unto yourself. Saying this and believing 24Our sleep and foodit, 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 27mind 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‐30site belief would produce the opposite result.

    Any supposed information, coming from the body or from inert matter as if either were intelligent, is an illu‐386386:1sion of mortal mind, — one of its dreams. Realize that Doubtful evidencethe evidence of the senses is not to be accepted 3in the case of sickness, any more than it is in the case of sin.

    Expose the body to certain temperatures, and belief 6says that you may catch cold and have catarrh; but no Climate and beliefsuch result occurs without mind to demand it and produce it. So long as mortals declare 9that certain states of the atmosphere produce catarrh, fever, rheumatism, or consumption, those effects will follow, — not because of the climate, but on account of 12the 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, 15not to know that this is so.

    A blundering despatch, mistakenly announcing the death of a friend, occasions the same grief that the friend’s 18Erroneous despatchreal death would bring. You think that your anguish is occasioned by your loss. Another despatch, correcting the mistake, heals your grief, and 21you 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 24for grief, and divine wisdom will then be understood. Error, not Truth, produces all the suffering on earth.

    If a Christian Scientist had said, while you were labor‐27ing under the influence of the belief of grief, “Your sor‐Mourning causelessrow is without cause,” you would not have understood him, although the correctness of 30the 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 387 387:1perceive this to be true when we grow into the under‐standing of Life, and know that there is no death.

3    Because mortal mind is kept active, must it pay the penalty in a softened brain? Who dares to say that actual Mind heals brain-diseaseMind can be overworked? When we reach 6our limits of mental endurance, we conclude that intellectual labor has been carried sufficiently far; but when we realize that immortal Mind is ever active, 9and 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 12the assurances of immortality, opposed to mortality.

    Our thinkers do not die early because they faithfully perform the natural functions of being. If printers and 15Right never punishableauthors 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 18society. 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 21the 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 24love, but grows stronger because of it. It is a law of so-called mortal mind, misnamed matter, which causes all things discordant.

27    The history of Christianity furnishes sublime proofs of the supporting influence and protecting power bestowed Christian historyon man by his heavenly Father, omnipotent 30Mind, who gives man faith and understanding whereby to defend himself, not only from temptation, but from bodily suffering.

388

388:1    The Christian martyrs were prophets of Christian Science. Through the uplifting and consecrating power 3of 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 6less, 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 9body. Idolaters, believing in more than one mind, had “gods many,” and thought that they could kill the body with matter, independently of mind.

12    Admit the common hypothesis that food is the nutri‐ment of life, and there follows the necessity for another Sustenance spiritualadmission in the opposite direction, — that 15food 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 18health-theories. They are self-contradictory and self-de‐structive, constituting a “kingdom divided against itself,” which is “brought to desolation.” If food was prepared 21by Jesus for his disciples, it cannot destroy life.

    The fact is, food does not affect the absolute Life of man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that 24God sustains manGod 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 27our 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 30neither eat to live nor live to eat.

    If mortals think that food disturbs the harmonious functions of mind and body, either the food or this thought 389 389:1must be dispensed with, for the penalty is coupled with the belief. Which shall it be? If this decision be left 3Diet and digestionto 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 6know 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. 9Matter 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‐12site evidence.

    Our dietetic theories first admit that food sustains the life of man, and then discuss the certainty that food can 15Scripture rebukeskill 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‐18vided 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 21law that food shall be inimical to existence.

    Materialists contradict their own statements. Their belief in material laws and in penalties for their infrac‐24Ancient confusiontion 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 27battle-axe of Science.

    A case of convulsions, produced by indigestion, came under my observation. In her belief the woman had 30chronic 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‐390390:1spairingly of herself. The next minute she said, “My food is all digested, and I should like something more 3to eat.”

    We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and we should never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, sim‐6Ultimate harmonyply because, to the mortal senses, there is seem‐ing discord. It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and 9the 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.

12    When the first symptoms of disease appear, dispute the testimony of the material senses with divine Science. Let Unnecessary prostrationyour higher sense of justice destroy the false 15process 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‐18thing, 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 21the 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 24law 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.

27    “Agree to disagree” with approaching symptoms of chronic or acute disease, whether it is cancer, consump‐Treatment of diseasetion, or smallpox. Meet the incipient stages 30of 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 391 391:1spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind, alias matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit. 3Blot 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 6art whole!”

    Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against 9Righteous rebellionthem. 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 12you 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‐15stroy all other supposed suffering, and real suffering for your own sins will cease in proportion as the sin ceases.

    Justice is the moral signification of law. Injustice de‐18clares the absence of law. When the body is supposed Contradict errorto say, “I am sick,” never plead guilty. Since matter cannot talk, it must be mortal mind 21which 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 24mind), and the judge will sentence you. Disease has no intelligence to declare itself something and announce its name. Mortal mind alone sentences itself. Therefore 27make your own terms with sickness, and be just to yourself and to others.

    Mentally contradict every complaint from the body, 30Sin to be overcomeand 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, 392 392:1and you master fear and sin through divine Mind; hence it is through divine Mind that you overcome disease. 3Only 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, 6which 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 9take antagonistic grounds against all that is opposed to the health, holiness, and harmony of man, God’s image.

    The physical affirmation of disease should always be 12met with the mental negation. Whatever benefit is pro‐Illusions about nervesduced on the body, must be expressed men‐tally, and thought should be held fast to this 15ideal. 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‐18sumption 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 21otherwise. 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.

24    Reverse the case. Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in Guarding the doorbodily results, you will control yourself har‐27moniously. When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office 30as 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 393 393:1pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forget‐3ting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance.

    The body seems to be self-acting, only because mortal mind is ignorant of itself, of its own actions, and of their 6The strength of Spiritresults, — 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 9master 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. 12Rise 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 15man.

    Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs, and that in Science man reflects God’s govern‐18No pain in matterment. 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 21no 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, 24were 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, 27not upon the complex humors, lenses, muscles, the iris and pupil, constituting the visual organism.

    Man is never sick, for Mind is not sick and matter 30No real diseasecannot 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; 394 394:1to be hopeful is still better; but to understand that sick‐ness is not real and that Truth can destroy its seeming 3reality, is best of all, for this understanding is the uni‐versal and perfect remedy.

    By conceding power to discord, a large majority of 6doctors depress mental energy, which is the only real Recuperation mentalrecuperative power. Knowledge that we can accomplish the good we hope for, stimu‐9lates 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 12helping 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 15who is down in the world, that he should not try to rise above his difficulties.

    Experience has proved to the author the fallacy of 18material 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 21overcome 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 24can 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, 27with Truth and Love?

    We should remember that Life is God, and that God Arguing wronglyis omnipotent. Not understanding Christian 30Science, 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 395 395:1unconsciously argue for suffering, instead of against it. They admit its reality, whereas they should deny it. 3They should plead in opposition to the testimony of the deceitful senses, and maintain man’s immortality and eternal likeness to God.

6    Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak to disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to Divine authoritymaster the false evidences of the corporeal 9senses 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‐12nal mind, and faith in God destroys all faith in sin and in material methods of healing, then sin, disease, and death will disappear.

15    Prayers, in which God is not asked to heal but is be‐sought to take the patient to Himself, do not benefit the Aids in sicknesssick. An ill-tempered, complaining, or deceit‐18ful person should not be a nurse. The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, — receptive to Truth and Love.

21    It is mental quackery to make disease a reality — to hold it as something seen and felt — and then to attempt Mental quackeryits cure through Mind. It is no less erroneous 24to 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 27physical belief. Mental practice, which holds disease as a reality, fastens disease on the patient, and it may appear in a more alarming form.

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 396 396:1worst of diseases. One should never hold in mind Effacing images of diseasethe thought of disease, but should efface from 3thought all forms and types of disease, both for one’s own sake and for that of the patient.

    Avoid talking illness to the patient. Make no unne‐6cessary inquiries relative to feelings or disease. Never Avoid talking diseasestartle with a discouraging remark about re‐covery, nor draw attention to certain symp‐9toms 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 12thought the expectation of growing worse before a crisis is passed.

    The refutation of the testimony of material sense is 15not a difficult task in view of the conceded falsity of this False testimony refutedtestimony. The refutation becomes arduous, not because the testimony of sin or disease is 18true, 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 21that the body suffers, as if matter could have sensation.

    At the right time explain to the sick the power which their beliefs exercise over their bodies. Give them divine 24Healthful explanationand wholesome understanding, with which to combat their erroneous sense, and so efface the images of sickness from mortal mind. Keep distinctly in 27thought 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 30and 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.

397

397:1    By not perceiving vital metaphysical points, not seeing how mortal mind affects the body, — acting beneficially 3Misleading methodsor 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 6mental influence on the wrong side, thereby actually in‐juring those whom we mean to bless.

    Suffering is no less a mental condition than is enjoy‐9ment. You cause bodily sufferings and increase them Remedy for accidentsby admitting their reality and continuance, as directly as you enhance your joys by be‐12lieving 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 15powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury real.

    Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt 18and 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‐21physics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures declare Him to be.

    To heal the sick, one must be familiar with the great 24verities of being. Mortals are no more material in their Independent mentalitywaking hours than when they act, walk, see, hear, enjoy, or suffer in dreams. We can 27never 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 30you will quickly become more manly or womanly. You will understand yourself and your Maker better than before.

398

398:1    Sometimes Jesus called a disease by name, as when he said to the epileptic boy, “Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I 3Naming maladies 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 6he 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 9of 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 12dead, 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 15whole, like as the other.”

    Homœopathic remedies, sometimes not containing a particle of medicine, are known to relieve the symptoms 18The action of faithof 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 21upon 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 24in matter.

    So also faith, cooperating with a belief in the healing effects of time and medication, will soothe fear and change 27the 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‐30ease. 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 399 399:1no power, no intelligence, for God is good, and therefore good is infinite, is All.

3    You say that certain material combinations produce disease; but if the material body causes disease, can Corporeal combinationsmatter cure what matter has caused? Mortal 6mind 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‐9cretion nor combination can operate, apart from the action of mortal thought, alias mortal mind.

    So-called mortal mind sends its despatches over its 12body, but this so-called mind is both the service and Automatic mechanismmessage of this telegraphy. Nerves are un‐able to talk, and matter can return no an‐15swer 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, 18and 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 21the body is devoid of action, and this deadness shows that so-called mortal life is mortal mind, not matter.

    Scientifically speaking, there is no mortal mind out of 24which to make material beliefs, springing from illusion. Mental strengthThis misnamed mind is not an entity. It is only a false sense of matter, since matter is not 27sensible. The one Mind, God, contains no mortal opin‐ions. All that is real is included in this immortal Mind.

    Our Master asked: “How can one enter into a strong 30Confirmation in a parableman’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 400 400:1mortal mind, which directly controls the body? When disease is once destroyed in this so-called mind, the fear 3of 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 6and morals can be removed. This error conquered, we can despoil “the strong man” of his goods, — namely, of sin and disease.

9    Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they forsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divine Eradicate error from thoughtMind, and abandon their material beliefs. 12Eradicate the image of disease from the per‐turbed thought before it has taken tangible shape in conscious thought, alias the body, and you pre‐15vent 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 18it. By lifting thought above error, or disease, and con‐tending persistently for truth, you destroy error.

    When we remove disease by addressing the disturbed 21mind, giving no heed to the body, we prove that thought Mortal mind controlledalone creates the suffering. Mortal mind rules all that is mortal. We see in the body 24the 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 27destroyed by the divine Mind to bring out the harmony of being. Without divine control there is discord, mani‐fest as sin, sickness, and death.

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 401 401:1mighty works “because of their unbelief” in Truth. Any human error is its own enemy, and works against itself; 3Mortal mind not a healerit 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, 6but it engenders disease and death.

    If faith in the truth of being, which you impart men‐tally while destroying error, causes chemicalization (as 9Effect of oppositeswhen 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. 12This 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 15materially.

    What I term chemicalization is the upheaval produced when immortal Truth is destroying erroneous mortal be‐18lief. Mental chemicalization brings sin and sickness to the surface, forcing impurities to pass away, as is the case with a fermenting fluid.

21    The only effect produced by medicine is dependent upon mental action. If the mind were parted from the body, Medicine and braincould you produce any effect upon the brain 24or body by applying the drug to either? Would the drug remove paralysis, affect organization, or restore will and action to cerebrum and cerebellum?

27    Until the advancing age admits the efficacy and suprem‐acy of Mind, it is better for Christian Scientists to leave Skilful surgerysurgery and the adjustment of broken bones 30and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon, while the mental healer confines himself chiefly to mental reconstruction and to the prevention of inflammation. 402 402:1Christian Science is always the most skilful surgeon, but surgery is the branch of its healing which will be last 3acknowledged. 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 6mental surgery alone, of broken bones, dislocated joints, and spinal vertebræ.

    The time approaches when mortal mind will forsake 9its corporeal, structural, and material basis, when im‐Indestructible life of manmortal Mind and its formations will be appre‐hended in Science, and material beliefs will 12not 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 15mortal 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 18Mind. The material body manifests only what mortal mind believes, whether it be a broken bone, disease, or sin.

    We say that one human mind can influence another and 21in this way affect the body, but we rarely remember that The evil of mesmerismwe govern our own bodies. The error, mes‐merism — or hypnotism, to use the recent term  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 27to 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 30both disorder and order. The involuntary pleasure or pain of the person under hypnotic control is proved to be a belief without a real cause.

403

403:1    So the sick through their beliefs have induced their own diseased conditions. The great difference between vol‐3Wrong-doer should sufferuntary and involuntary mesmerism is that vol‐untary mesmerism is induced consciously and should and does cause the perpetrator to suffer, while self-6mesmerism 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 9second 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‐12ity, both have their origin in the human mind, and can be healed only by the divine Mind.

    You command the situation if you understand that 15mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not the Error’s power imaginarytruth of being. Mortal mind is constantly producing on mortal body the results of false 18opinions; 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. 21The 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 24dark forebodings regarding disease and then acquaint your patient with it.

    The mortal so-called mind produces all that is unlike 27the immortal Mind. The human mind determines the Disease-production nature of a case, and the practitioner improves or injures the case in proportion to the truth 30or 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 404 404:1with mental action and its effect in order to judge the case according to Christian Science.

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 Appetites to be abandoneddestroy these errors with the truth of being, — 6by 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‐9tites. 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 12motives 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 15fulfilled and reformation cancels the crime. The healthy sinner is the hardened sinner.

    The temperance reform, felt all over our land, results 18from metaphysical healing, which cuts down every tree Temperance reformthat brings not forth good fruit. This con‐viction, that there is no real pleasure in sin, 21is 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, 24and this knowledge strengthens his moral courage and increases his ability to master evil and to love good.

    Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one and 27the same thing in Christian Science. Both cures require Sin or fear the root of sicknessthe same method and are inseparable in Truth. Hatred, envy, dishonesty, fear, and so forth, 30make 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 405 405:1from his destroyers. The basic error is mortal mind. Hatred inflames the brutal propensities. The indulgence 3of evil motives and aims makes any man, who is above the lowest type of manhood, a hopeless sufferer.

    Christian Science commands man to master the pro‐6pensities, — to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, Mental conspiratorsto conquer lust with chastity, revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with hon‐9esty. 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 12to 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 15body. 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 18reap.” 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, 21in which is no power to sin.

    It were better to be exposed to every plague on earth than to endure the cumulative effects of a guilty con‐24Cumulative repentancescience. 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 27hastening 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 30pleasures. 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.

406

406:1    The Bible contains the recipe for all healing. “The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” 3The leaves of healingSin 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 6full 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 9in the healing of mortals, both mind and body. “Per‐fect Love casteth out fear.”

    The Science of being unveils the errors of sense, and 12spiritual perception, aided by Science, reaches Truth. Sickness will abateThen error disappears. Sin and sickness will abate and seem less real as we approach the 15scientific 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 18should be as fearless on the question of disease.

    Resist evil — error of every sort — and it will flee from you. Error is opposed to Life. We can, and ultimately 21Resist to the endshall, 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 24on 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 27control over the body.

    The depraved appetite for alcoholic drinks, tobacco, tea, coffee, opium, is destroyed only by Mind’s mastery 30Morbid cravingsof the body. This normal control is gained through divine strength and understanding. There is no enjoyment in getting drunk, in becoming a 407 407:1fool or an object of loathing; but there is a very sharp remembrance of it, a suffering inconceivably terrible to 3man’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.

6    Man’s enslavement to the most relentless masters — passion, selfishness, envy, hatred, and revenge — is con‐Universal panaceaquered only by a mighty struggle. Every 9hour of delay makes the struggle more severe. If man is not victorious over the passions, they crush out happiness, health, and manhood. Here Christian 12Science is the sovereign panacea, giving strength to the weakness of mortal mind, — strength from the immortal and omnipotent Mind, — and lifting humanity above 15itself into purer desires, even into spiritual power and good-will to man.

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

21    If delusion says, “I have lost my memory,” contra‐dict it. No faculty of Mind is lost. In Science, all Immortal memorybeing is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmoni‐24ous 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, 27and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your consciousness.

    There are many species of insanity. All sin is insan‐30Sin a form of insanityity in different degrees. Sin is spared from this classification, only because its method of madness is in consonance with common mortal belief. 408 408:1Every sort of sickness is error, — that is, sickness is loss of harmony. This view is not altered by the fact 3that sin is worse than sickness, and sickness is not ac‐knowledged nor discovered to be error by many who are sick.

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‐9tific 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 12defined instances of the baneful effects of illusion on mor‐tal minds and bodies.

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

    The unconscious thought in the corporeal substra‐tum of brain produces no effect, and that condition of 30Matter and animate errorthe 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 409 409:1effects. Intelligent matter is an impossibility. You may say: “But if disease obtains in matter, why do 3you 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‐6ment, — animate error called nerves, brain, mind, — the more prolific it is likely to become in sin and disease-beliefs.

9    Unconscious mortal mind — alias matter, brain — can‐not dictate terms to consciousness nor say, “I am sick.” Dictation of errorThe belief, that the unconscious substratum 12of mortal mind, termed the body, suffers and reports disease independently of this so-called conscious mind, is the error which prevents mortals from knowing 15how to govern their bodies.

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

27    We have no right to say that life depends on matter now, but will not depend on it after death. We cannot Death no benefactorspend our days here in ignorance of the Science 30of 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. 410 410:1If here we give no heed to Christian Science, which is spiritual and eternal, we shall not be ready for spiritual 3Life hereafter.

    “This is life eternal,” says Jesus, — is, not shall be; and then he defines everlasting life as a present knowledge 6Life eternal and presentof 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 9Jesus 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‐12ing that Truth is the actual life of man; but mankind objects to making this teaching practical.

    Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger. 15The more difficult seems the material condition to be Love casteth out fearovercome by Spirit, the stronger should be our faith and the purer our love. The Apostle 18John 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‐21tion of Christian Science.

    The Science of mental practice is susceptible of no 24misuse. Selfishness does not appear in the practice of Be not afraidTruth or Christian Science. If mental prac‐tice is abused or is used in any way except to 27promote right thinking and doing, the power to heal mentally will diminish, until the practitioner’s healing ability is wholly lost. Christian scientific practice be‐30gins with Christ’s keynote of harmony, “Be not afraid!” 411 411:1Said Job: “The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me.”

3    My first discovery in the student’s practice was this: If the student silently called the disease by name, when Naming diseaseshe argued against it, as a general rule the body 6would 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 9divine 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 12way, and the healing is instantaneous.

    It is recorded that once Jesus asked the name of a dis‐ease, — a disease which moderns would call dementia. 15Evils cast outThe demon, or evil, replied that his name was Legion. Thereupon Jesus cast out the evil, and the insane man was changed and straightway be‐18came whole. The Scripture seems to import that Jesus caused the evil to be self-seen and so destroyed.

    The procuring cause and foundation of all sickness is 21fear, ignorance, or sin. Disease is always induced by a Fear as the foundationfalse sense mentally entertained, not destroyed. Disease is an image of thought externalized. 24The mental state is called a material state. Whatever is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is imaged forth on the body.

27    Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear of patients. Silently reassure them as to their exemp‐Unspoken pleadingtion from disease and danger. Watch the re‐30sult 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, 412 412:1your patient is healed. The great fact that God lovingly governs all, never punishing aught but sin, is your stand‐3point, 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 6the 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 9the victor.

    You may call the disease by name when you mentally deny it; but by naming it audibly, you are liable under 12Eloquent silencesome circumstances to impress it upon the thought. The power of Christian Science and divine Love is omnipotent. It is indeed adequate to un‐15clasp the hold and to destroy disease, sin, and death.

    To prevent disease or to cure it, the power of Truth, of divine Spirit, must break the dream of the material 18Insistence requisitesenses. 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‐21tally, 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 24that 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 27and harmony.

    If the case is that of a young child or an infant, it needs to be met mainly through the parent’s thought, silently 30The cure of infantsor audibly on the aforesaid basis of Christian Science. The Scientist knows that there can be no hereditary disease, since matter is not intelligent 413 413:1and cannot transmit good or evil intelligence to man, and God, the only Mind, does not produce pain in matter. 3The 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‐6sary 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 9does not. The wise or unwise views of parents and other persons on these subjects produce good or bad effects on the health of children.

12    The daily ablutions of an infant are no more natural nor necessary than would be the process of taking a fish Ablutions for cleanlinessout of water every day and covering it with dirt 15in 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 18body 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‐21out. 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.

24    Giving drugs to infants, noticing every symptom of flatulency, and constantly directing the mind to such Juvenile ailmentssigns, — that mind being laden with illusions 27about disease, health-laws, and death, — these actions convey mental images to children’s budding thoughts, and often stamp them there, making it probable 30at 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‐414414:1cerning his body. Thus are laid the foundations of the belief in disease and death, and thus are children educated 3into discord.

    The treatment of insanity is especially interesting. However obstinate the case, it yields more readily than 6Cure of insanitydo 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 9other 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 12a 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.

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, — 18lest 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 21being. 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‐24clares 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 27the 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 30blameworthy, unreal, and is not brought about by divine Love.

    Matter cannot be inflamed. Inflammation is fear, an 415 415:1excited state of mortals which is not normal. Immor‐tal Mind is the only cause; therefore disease is neither a 3Matter is not inflamedcause nor an effect. Mind in every case is the eternal God, good. Sin, disease, and death have no foundations in Truth. Inflammation as a mor‐6tal 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‐9dividual 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. 12They 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‐15der mortal mind temporarily less fearful, till it can master an erroneous belief.

    Note how thought makes the face pallid. It either re‐18tards the circulation or quickens it, causing a pale or Truth calms the thoughtflushed cheek. In the same way thought in‐creases or diminishes the secretions, the action 21of 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‐24man system, including brain and viscera. To remove the error producing disorder, you must calm and instruct mortal mind with immortal Truth.

27    Etherization will apparently cause the body to dis‐appear. Before the thoughts are fully at rest, the limbs Effects of etherizationwill vanish from consciousness. Indeed, the 30whole 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 416 416:1bodily member. At last the agony also vanishes. This process shows the pain to be in the mind, for the inflam‐3mation 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.

6    A hypodermic injection of morphine is administered to a patient, and in twenty minutes the sufferer is qui‐Sedatives valuelessetly asleep. To him there is no longer any 9pain. Yet any physician — allopathic, homœ‐opathic, botanic, eclectic — will tell you that the trouble‐some material cause is unremoved, and that when the 12soporific 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. 15Where is the pain while the patient sleeps?

    The material body, which you call me, is mortal mind, and this mind is material in sensation, even as the body, 18The so-called physical egowhich has originated from this material sense and been developed according to it, is mate‐rial. This materialism of parent and child is only in 21mortal 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.

24    The sick know nothing of the mental process by which they are depleted, and next to nothing of the Evil thought depletesmetaphysical method by which they can be 27healed. 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 30have 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 417 417:1Spirit, not by matter, and that they find health, peace, and harmony in God, divine Love.

3    Give sick people credit for sometimes knowing more than their doctors. Always support their trust in the Helpful encouragementpower of Mind to sustain the body. Never 6tell 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 9realize 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 12therefore 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 15the 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‐18pears. The evidence before the corporeal senses is not the Science of immortal man.

    To the Christian Science healer, sickness is a dream 21from which the patient needs to be awakened. Dis‐Disease to be made unrealease should not appear real to the physician, since it is demonstrable that the way to 24cure the patient is to make disease unreal to him. To do this, the physician must understand the unreality of disease in Science.

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 30disease by certain fears and false conclusions, and how divine Mind can cure by opposite thoughts. Give your patients an underlying understanding to support them 418 418:1and to shield them from the baneful effects of their own conclusions. Show them that the conquest over sickness, 3as well as over sin, depends on mentally destroying all belief in material pleasure or pain.

    Stick to the truth of being in contradistinction to the 6error that life, substance, or intelligence can be in matter. Christian pleadingPlead with an honest conviction of truth and a clear perception of the unchanging, unerr‐9ing, and certain effect of divine Science. Then, if your fidelity is half equal to the truth of your plea, you will heal the sick.

12    It must be clear to you that sickness is no more the reality of being than is sin. This mortal dream Truthful argumentsof sickness, sin, and death should cease 15through 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, 18the 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 21harmony. 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 24spirit of Truth and Love which you entertain, you will heal the sick.

    Include moral as well as physical belief in your efforts 27to destroy error. Cast out all manner of evil. “Preach Morality requiredthe gospel to every creature.” Speak the truth to every form of error. Tumors, ulcers, 30tubercles, inflammation, pain, deformed joints, are wak‐ing dream-shadows, dark images of mortal thought, which flee before the light of Truth.

419

419:1    A moral question may hinder the recovery of the sick. Lurking error, lust, envy, revenge, malice, or hate will 3perpetuate 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, 6and Love, remembering that God and His ideas alone are real and harmonious.

    If your patient from any cause suffers a relapse, meet 9the cause mentally and courageously, knowing that Relapse unnecessarythere can be no reaction in Truth. Neither disease itself, sin, nor fear has the power to 12cause 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‐15ter, 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‐18ment enter thought. Think less of material conditions and more of spiritual.

    Mind produces all action. If the action proceeds from 21Truth, from immortal Mind, there is harmony; but mor‐Conquer beliefs and fearstal mind is liable to any phase of belief. A relapse cannot in reality occur in mortals or 24so-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, 27tramples 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 30rise into higher and holier consciousness.

    If it is found necessary to treat against relapse, know that disease or its symptoms cannot change forms, nor 420 420:1go from one part to another, for Truth destroys disease. There is no metastasis, no stoppage of harmonious 3True government of manaction, no paralysis. Truth not error, Love not hate, Spirit not matter, governs man. If students do not readily heal themselves, they should 6early 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 9unnatural reluctance.

    Instruct the sick that they are not helpless victims, for if they will only accept Truth, they can resist disease 12Positive reassuranceand 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 15fit 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 18and 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, 21better than any drug, alterative, or tonic.

    Mind is the natural stimulus of the body, but erro‐neous belief, taken at its best, is not promotive of health 24Proper stimulusor happiness. Tell the sick that they can meet disease fearlessly, if they only realize that divine Love gives them all power over every physical 27action and condition.

    If it becomes necessary to startle mortal mind to break its dream of suffering, vehemently tell your patient that 30Awaken the patienthe 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 421 421:1only as the insane suffer, from false beliefs. The only difference is, that insanity implies belief in a diseased 3brain, 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 6the 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 9to the patient your motive for this shock, showing him that it was to facilitate recovery.

    If a crisis occurs in your treatment, you must treat 12the patient less for the disease and more for the mental How to treat a crisisdisturbance or fermentation, and subdue the symptoms by removing the belief that this 15chemicalization 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 18Him. 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‐21side. Calm the excitement sometimes induced by chemi‐calization, which is the alterative effect produced by Truth upon error, and sometimes explain the symptoms 24and their cause to the patient.

    It is no more Christianly scientific to see disease than it is to experience it. If you would destroy the sense 27No perversion of Mind-scienceof disease, you should not build it up by wishing to see the forms it assumes or by employing a single material application for 30its 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 422 422:1sum is fifty, and then calling the process mathematics. Wiser than his persecutors, Jesus said: “If I by Beelze‐3bub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?”

    If the reader of this book observes a great stir through‐6out his whole system, and certain moral and physical Effect of this booksymptoms seem aggravated, these indications are favorable. Continue to read, and the book 9will become the physician, allaying the tremor which Truth often brings to error when destroying it.

    Patients, unfamiliar with the cause of this commotion 12and ignorant that it is a favorable omen, may be alarmed. Disease neutralizedIf such be the case, explain to them the law of this action. As when an acid and alkali 15meet 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 18less 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 21and death.

    Let us suppose two parallel cases of bone-disease, both similarly produced and attended by the same symptoms. 24Bone-healing by surgeryA surgeon is employed in one case, and a Christian Scientist in the other. The sur‐geon, holding that matter forms its own conditions and 27renders 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 30believes that something stronger than Mind — namely, matter — governs the case. His treatment is therefore tentative. This mental state invites defeat. The belief 423 423:1that he has met his master in matter and may not be able to mend the bone, increases his fear; yet this belief 3should 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 6unexpressed belief oftentimes affects a sensitive patient more strongly than the expressed thought.

    The Christian Scientist, understanding scientifically 9that all is Mind, commences with mental causation, the Scientific correctivetruth of being, to destroy the error. This cor‐rective is an alterative, reaching to every part 12of the human system. According to Scripture, it searches “the joints and marrow,” and it restores the harmony of man.

15    The matter-physician deals with matter as both his foe and his remedy. He regards the ailment as weakened or Coping with difficultiesstrengthened according to the evidence which 18matter presents. The metaphysician, making Mind his basis of operation irrespective of matter and regarding the truth and harmony of being as superior to 21error 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 24conscious 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.

27    Ossification or any abnormal condition or derange‐ment of the body is as directly the action of mortal Formation from thoughtmind as is dementia or insanity. Bones have 30only 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 424 424:1by the parent’s mind, through self-division. Soon the child becomes a separate, individualized mortal mind, 3which takes possession of itself and its own thoughts of bones.

    Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, 6Accidents unknown to Godand 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 9of God’s unerring direction and thus bring out harmony.

    Under divine Providence there can be no accidents, since there is no room for imperfection in perfection.

12    In medical practice objections would be raised if one doctor should administer a drug to counteract the work‐Opposing mentalitying of a remedy prescribed by another doctor. 15It is equally important in metaphysical prac‐tice that the minds which surround your patient should not act against your influence by continually expressing 18such 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 21divine 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 24patients 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 27when treating disease.

    To prevent or to cure scrofula and other so-called he‐reditary diseases, you must destroy the belief in these ills 30Mind removes scrofulaand 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 425 425:1parents or some of his progenitors farther back have so believed. Mortal mind, not matter, induces this con‐3clusion and its results. You will have humors, just so long as you believe them to be safety-valves or to be ineradicable.

6    If the case to be mentally treated is consumption, take up the leading points included (according to belief) in Nothing to consumethis disease. Show that it is not inherited; 9that inflammation, tubercles, hemorrhage, and decomposition are beliefs, images of mortal thought su‐perimposed upon the body; that they are not the truth 12of man; that they should be treated as error and put out of thought. Then these ills will disappear.

    If the body is diseased, this is but one of the beliefs of 15mortal mind. Mortal man will be less mortal, when he The lungs re-formedlearns that matter never sustained existence and can never destroy God, who is man’s Life. 18When 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? 21God 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 24faith 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 27God, and you will never believe that heart or any por‐tion of the body can destroy you.

    If you have sound and capacious lungs and want 30Soundness maintainedthem to remain so, be always ready with the mental protest against the opposite belief in heredity. Discard all notions about lungs, tubercles, in‐426426:1herited consumption, or disease arising from any cir‐cumstance, and you will find that mortal mind, when 3instructed by Truth, yields to divine power, which steers the body into health.

    The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less 6difficult when she has the high goal always before her Our footsteps heavenwardthoughts, than when she counts her footsteps in endeavoring to reach it. When the desti‐9nation 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 12were 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‐15deavors, 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 18mortals 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, 21and thus destroy the great fear that besets mortal existence.

    The relinquishment of all faith in death and also of 24the fear of its sting would raise the standard of health Christian standardand morals far beyond its present elevation, and would enable us to hold the banner of 27Christianity 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 30the 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.

427

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 3Life not contingent on matterthe 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 6die 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 9in 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 12and harmony obtained.

    Death is but another phase of the dream that exist‐ence can be material. Nothing can interfere with the 15Mortality vanquishedharmony 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 18is 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 21over 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, 24governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual.

    Called to the bed of death, what material remedy has 27man when all such remedies have failed? Spirit is his No death nor inactionlast resort, but it should have been his first and only resort. The dream of death must 30be 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 428 428:1is no death, no inaction, diseased action, overaction, nor reaction.”

3    Life is real, and death is the illusion. A demonstra‐tion of the facts of Soul in Jesus’ way resolves the dark Vision openingvisions of material sense into harmony and 6immortality. 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 9thought 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 12away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may establish in truth the temple, or body, “whose builder and maker is God.”

15    We should consecrate existence, not “to the unknown God” whom we “ignorantly worship,” but to the eternal Intelligent consecrationbuilder, the everlasting Father, to the Life 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 21with the life which is spiritual, not material.

    The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man is, not shall be, perfect and immortal. We must hold 24The present immortalityforever the consciousness of existence, and sooner or later, through Christ and Christian Science, we must master sin and death. The evidence 27of man’s immortality will become more apparent, as ma‐terial beliefs are given up and the immortal facts of being are admitted.

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 429 429:1that aught can overpower omnipotent and eternal Life, and this Life must be brought to light by the understand‐3Careful guidanceing 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 6the 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 9we are wise, we look beyond a single step in the line of spiritual advancement.

    The corpse, deserted by thought, is cold and decays, 12but it never suffers. Science declares that man is sub‐Clay replying to the potterject to Mind. Mortal mind affirms that mind is subordinate to the body, that the body is 15dying, 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‐18seen by those who think that they bury the body.

    If man did not exist before the material organization began, he could not exist after the body is disintegrated. 21Continuity of existenceIf 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‐24cording 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 27the 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‐30ally by our ethical instructors.

    Jesus said (John viii. 51), “If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” That statement is not con‐430430:1fined to spiritual life, but includes all the phenomena of existence. Jesus demonstrated this, healing the dying 3Life all-inclusiveand raising the dead. Mortal mind must part with error, must put off itself with its deeds, and immortal manhood, the Christ ideal, will appear. 6Faith 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 9towards 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 12to this great fact in Science?

    Suppose a mental case to be on trial, as cases are tried 18in court. A man is charged with having committed liver-A mental court casecomplaint. The patient feels ill, ruminates, and the trial commences. Personal Sense is 21the plaintiff. Mortal Man is the defendant. False Belief is the attorney for Personal Sense. Mortal Minds, Ma‐teria Medica, Anatomy, Physiology, Hypnotism, Envy, 24Greed and Ingratitude, constitute the jury. The court-room is filled with interested spectators, and Judge Medicine is on the bench.

27    The evidence for the prosecution being called for, a witness testifies thus: — 

    The next witness is called: — 

    Another witness takes the stand and testifies: — 

432

432:1    The next witness testifies: — 

9    Another witness is called for by the Court of Error and says: — 

    The Judge asks if by doing good to his neighbor, it is possible for man to become diseased, transgress the laws, 18and merit punishment, and Governor Mortality replies in the affirmative.

    Another witness takes the stand and testifies: — 

433

433:1    The testimony for the plaintiff, Personal Sense, being closed, Judge Medicine arises, and with great solemnity 3Judge Medicine charges the juryaddresses the jury of Mortal Minds. He an‐alyzes the offence, reviews the testimony, and explains the law relating to liver-complaint. 6His 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‐9ment 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 12Man.

    As the Judge proceeds, the prisoner grows restless. His sallow face blanches with fear, and a look of despair and 15death 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.”

18    Judge Medicine then proceeds to pronounce the solemn sentence of death upon the prisoner. Because he has Mortal Man sentencedloved his neighbor as himself, Mortal Man has 21been 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 24homicide. 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.

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,  30— for death.

    Ah! but Christ, Truth, the spirit of Life and the friend of Mortal Man, can open wide those prison doors 434 434:1and set the captive free. Swift on the wings of divine Love, there comes a despatch: “Delay the execution; 3Appeal to a higher tribunalthe prisoner is not guilty.” Consternation fills the prison-yard. Some exclaim, “It is con‐trary to law and justice.” Others say, 6“The law of Christ supersedes our laws; let us follow Christ.”

    After much debate and opposition, permission is ob‐9tained for a trial in the Court of Spirit, where Christian Counsel for defenceScience is allowed to appear as counsel for the unfortunate prisoner. Witnesses, judges, 12and jurors, who were at the previous Court of Error, are now summoned to appear before the bar of Justice and eternal Truth.

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, 18solemn eyes, kindling with hope and triumph, look up‐ward. Then Christian Science turns suddenly to the supreme tribunal, and opens the argument for the 21defence: — 

    Here the opposing counsel, False Belief, called Chris‐21tian Science to order for contempt of court. Various notables — Materia Medica, Anatomy, Physiology, Scho‐lastic Theology, and Jurisprudence — rose to the ques‐24tion 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‐27larly constituted court.

    But Judge Justice of the Supreme Court of Spirit over‐ruled their motions on the ground that unjust usages 30were not allowed at the bar of Truth, which ranks above the lower Court of Error.

    The attorney, Christian Science, then read from the 33supreme statute-book, the Bible, certain extracts on the 438 438:1Rights of Man, remarking that the Bible was better au‐thority than Blackstone: — 

    Then Christian Science proved the witness, Nerve, to 9be 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 12claims to office and bearing false witness against Man. Turning suddenly to Personal Sense, by this time silent, Christian Science continued: — 

18    Then Christian Science continued: — 

15    Christian Science turned from the abashed witnesses, his words flashing as lightning in the perturbed faces of these worthies, Scholastic Theology, Materia Medica, 18Physiology, the blind Hypnotism, and the masked Per‐sonal Sense, and said: — 

33    Here the counsel for the defence closed, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, with benign and imposing 441 441:1presence, comprehending and defining all law and evi‐Charge of the Chief Justicedence, explained from his statute-book, the 3Bible, 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 6not 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 9concluded his charge thus: — 

    The Jury of Spiritual Senses agreed at once upon a 6verdict, and there resounded throughout the vast audience-Divine verdictchamber of Spirit the cry, Not guilty. Then the prisoner rose up regenerated, strong, free. 9We 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 12countenance 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 15mountains,” as of one “that bringeth good tidings.”

    Neither animal magnetism nor hypnotism enters into the practice of Christian Science, in which truth cannot 18Christ the great physicianbe reversed, but the reverse of error is true. An improved belief cannot retrograde. When Christ changes a belief of sin or of sickness into 21a 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‐24terial, 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 27said, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” This truth is Christian Science.

30    Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake.