Chapter VIII Footsteps of Truth
Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people; wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of Thine anointed. - PSALMS.
Practical preaching
201:1 THE best sermon ever preached is Truth practised
and demonstrated by the destruction of sin, sickness,
201:3 and death. Knowing this and knowing too
that one affection would be supreme in us and
take the lead in our lives, Jesus said, “No man can serve
201:6 two masters.”
We cannot build safely on false foundations. Truth
makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away
201:9 and “all things are become new.” Passions, selfishness,
false appetites, hatred, fear, all sensuality, yield to spirit-
uality, and the superabundance of being is on the side
201:12 of God, good.
The uses of truth
We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be
emptied. Let us disrobe error. Then, when
201:15 the winds of God blow, we shall not hug our
tatters close about us.
The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour
201:18 in truth through flood-tides of Love. Christian perfec-
tion is won on no other basis.
Grafting holiness upon unholiness, supposing that sin
202:1 can be forgiven when it is not forsaken, is as foolish as
straining out gnats and swallowing camels.
202:3 The scientific unity which exists between God and man
must be wrought out in life-practice, and God’s will must
be universally done.
Divine study
202:6 If men would bring to bear upon the study of the
Science of Mind half the faith they bestow upon the so-
called pains and pleasures of material sense,
202:9 they would not go on from bad to worse,
until disciplined by the prison and the scaffold; but
the whole human family would be redeemed through
202:12 the merits of Christ, - through the perception and ac-
ceptance of Truth. For this glorious result Christian
Science lights the torch of spiritual understanding.
Harmonious life-work
202:15 Outside of this Science all is mutable; but immortal
man, in accord with the divine Principle of His being,
God, neither sins, suffers, nor dies. The days
202:18 of our pilgrimage will multiply instead of di-
minish, when God’s kingdom comes on earth; for the
true way leads to life instead of to death, and earthly
202:21 experience discloses the finity of error and the infinite
capacities of Truth, in which God gives man dominion
over all the earth.
Belief and practice
202:24 Our beliefs about a Supreme Being contradict the practice growing out of them. Error abounds where Truth should “much more abound.” We
202:27 admit that God has almighty power, is “a very present help in trouble;” and yet we rely on a drug or hypnotism to heal disease, as if senseless matter or err- 202:30 ing mortal mind had more power than omnipotent Spirit.
Sure reward of righteousness
Common opinion admits that a man may take cold in
the act of doing good, and that this cold may produce
203:1 fatal pulmonary disease; as though evil could overbear
the law of Love, and check the reward for do-
203:3 ing good. In the Science of Christianity, Mind
- omnipotence - has all-power, assigns sure
rewards to righteousness, and shows that matter can
203:6 neither heal nor make sick, create nor destroy.
Our belief and understanding
If God were understood instead of being merely be-
lieved, this understanding would establish health. The
203:9 accusation of the rabbis, “He made himself
the Son of God,” was really the justification
of Jesus, for to the Christian the only true
203:12 spirit is Godlike. This thought incites to a more exalted
worship and self-abnegation. Spiritual perception brings
out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught
203:15 but God, and so makes man the image of his Maker in
deed and in truth.
Suicide and sin
We are prone to believe either in more than one Su-
203:18 preme Ruler or in some power less than God. We im-
agine that Mind can be imprisoned in a sensuous body.
When the material body has gone to ruin, when evil has
203:21 overtaxed the belief of life in matter and destroyed it,
then mortals believe that the deathless Principle, or
Soul, escapes from matter and lives on; but this is not
203:24 true. Death is not a stepping-stone to life, immortality,
and bliss. The so-called sinner is a suicide.
Sin kills the sinner and will continue to kill
203:27 him so long as he sins. The foam and fury of illegiti-
mate living and of fearful and doleful dying should
disappear on the shore of time; then the waves of sin,
203:30 sorrow, and death beat in vain.
God, divine good, does not kill a man in order to give
him eternal Life, for God alone is man’s life. God is at
204:1 once the centre and circumference of being. It is evil
that dies; good dies not.
Spirit the only intelligence and substance
204:3 All forms of error support the false conclusions that
there is more than one Life; that material history is as
real and living as spiritual history; that mortal
204:6 error is as conclusively mental as immortal
Truth; and that there are two separate, an-
tagonistic entities and beings, two powers, - namely,
204:9 Spirit and matter, - resulting in a third person (mortal
man) who carries out the delusions of sin, sickness, and
death.
204:12 The first power is admitted to be good, an intelligence or Mind called God. The so-called second power, evil, is the unlikeness of good. It cannot therefore be mind, though 204:15 so called. The third power, mortal man, is a supposed mixture of the first and second antagonistic powers, in- telligence and non-intelligence, of Spirit and matter.
Unscientific theories
204:18 Such theories are evidently erroneous. They can never
stand the test of Science. Judging them by their fruits,
they are corrupt. When will the ages under-
204:21 stand the Ego, and realize only one God, one
Mind or intelligence?
False and self-assertive theories have given sinners the
204:24 notion that they can create what God cannot, - namely,
sinful mortals in God’s image, thus usurping the name
without the nature of the image or reflection of divine
204:27 Mind; but in Science it can never be said that man
has a mind of his own, distinct from God, the /all/
Mind.
204:30 The belief that God lives in matter is pantheistic. The error, which says that Soul is in body, Mind is in matter, and good is in evil, must unsay it and cease from such 205:1 utterances; else God will continue to be hidden from hu- manity, and mortals will sin without knowing that they 205:3 are sinning, will lean on matter instead of Spirit, stumble with lameness, drop with drunkenness, consume with dis- case, - all because of their blindness, their false sense 205:6 concerning God and man.
Creation perfect
When will the error of believing that there is life in matter, and that sin, sickness, and death are creations of 205:9 God, be unmasked? When will it be under- stood that matter has neither intelligence, life, nor sensation, and that the opposite belief is the prolific 205:12 source of all suffering? God created all through Mind, and made all perfect and eternal. Where then is the necessity for recreation or procreation?
Perceiving the divine image
205:15 Befogged in error (the error of believing that matter can be intelligent for good or evil), we can catch clear glimpses of God only as the mists disperse, 205:18 or as they melt into such thinness that we per- ceive the divine image in some word or deed which indicates the true idea, - the supremacy and real- 205:21 ity of good, the nothingness and unreality of evil.
Redemption from selfishness
When we realize that there is one Mind, the divine law
of loving our neighbor as ourselves is unfolded;
205:24 whereas a belief in many ruling minds hinders
man’s normal drift towards the one Mind, one
God, and leads human thought into opposite channels
205:27 where selfishness reigns.
Selfishness tips the beam of human existence towards
the side of error, not towards Truth. Denial of the one-
205:30 ness of Mind throws our weight into the scale, not of
Spirit, God, good, but of matter.
When we fully understand our relation to the Divine,
206:1 we can have no other Mind but His, - no other Love,
wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no con-
206:3 sciousness of the existence of matter or error.
Will-power unrighteous
The power of the human will should be exercised only
in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judg-
206:6 ment and free the lower propensities. It is the
province of spiritual sense to govern man.
Material, erring, human thought acts injuriously both
206:9 upon the body and through it.
Will-power is capable of all evil. It can never heal the sick, for it is the prayer of the unrighteous; while 206:12 the exercise of the sentiments - hope, faith, love - is the prayer of the righteous. This prayer, governed by Science instead of the senses, heals the sick.
206:15 In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that
whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with
the loaves and the fishes, - Spirit, not matter, being the
206:18 source of supply.
Birth and death unreal
Does God send sickness, giving the mother her child
for the brief space of a few years and then taking it away
206:21 by death? Is God creating anew what He
has already created? The Scriptures are defi-
nite on this point, declaring that His work was/ finished/,
206:24 nothing is new to God, and that it was /good/.
Can there be any birth or death for man, the spiritual
image and likeness of God? Instead of God sending
206:27 sickness and death, He destroys them, and brings to light
immortality. Omnipotent and infinite Mind made all
and includes all. This Mind does not make mistakes
206:30 and subsequently correct them. God does not cause man
to sin, to be sick, or to die.
No evil in Spirit
There are evil beliefs, often called evil spirits; but
207:1 these evils are not Spirit, for there is no evil in Spirit.
Because God is Spirit, evil becomes more apparent and
207:3 obnoxious proportionately as we advance spir-
itually, until it disappears from our lives.
This fact proves our position, for every scientific state-
207:6 ment in Christianity has its proof. Error of statement
leads to error in action.
Subordination of evil
God is not the creator of an evil mind. Indeed, evil
207:9 is not Mind. We must learn that evil is the awful decep-
tion and unreality of existence. Evil is not
supreme; good is not helpless; nor are the
207:12 so-called laws of matter primary, and the law of Spirit
secondary. Without this lesson, we lose sight of the per-
fect Father, or the divine Principle of man.
Evident impossibilities
207:15 Body is not first and Soul last, nor is evil mightier than good. The Science of being repudiates self- evident impossibilities, such as the amalgama- 207:18 tion of Truth and error in cause or effect. Science sepa- rates the tares and wheat in time of harvest.
One primal cause
There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can
207:21 be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no
reality in aught which does not proceed from
this great and only cause. Sin, sickness, dis-
207:24 ease, and death belong not to the Science of being. They
are the errors, which presuppose the absence of Truth,
Life, or Love.
207:27 The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things.
The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the
whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth.
207:30 Spiritual facts are not inverted; the opposite discord,
which bears no resemblance to spirituality, is not real.
The only evidence of this inversion is obtained from
208:1 suppositional error, which affords no proof of God,
Spirit, or of the spiritual creation. Material sense de-
208:3 fines all things materially, and has a finite sense of the
infinite.
Seemingly independent authority
The Scriptures say, “In Him we live, and move, and 208:6 have our being.” What then is this seeming power, in- dependent of God, which causes disease and cures it? What is it but an error of belief, - 208:9 a law of mortal mind, wrong in every sense, embracing sin, sickness, and death? It is the very anti- pode of immortal Mind, of Truth, and of spiritual law. 208:12 It is not in accordance with the goodness of God’s char- acter that He should make man sick, then leave man to heal himself; it is absurd to suppose that matter can both 208:15 cause and cure disease, or that Spirit, God, produces disease and leaves the remedy to matter.
John Young of Edinburgh writes: “God is the father
208:18 of mind, and of nothing else.” Such an utterance is
“the voice of one crying in the wilderness” of human
beliefs and preparing the way of Science. Let us learn
208:21 of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of
Spirit, the kingdom of heaven, - the reign and rule of
universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain
208:24 forever unseen.
Sickness as only thought
Mind, not matter, is causation. A material body only expresses a material and mortal mind. A mortal 208:27 man possesses this body, and he makes it harmonious or discordant according to the images of thought impressed upon it. You embrace 208:30 your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness. You should banish all thoughts of disease and sin and of other beliefs 209:1 included in matter. Man, being immortal, has a perfect indestructible life. It is the mortal belief which makes 209:3 the body discordant and diseased in proportion as igno- rance, /fear/, or human will governs mortals.
Allness of Truth
Mind, supreme over all its formations and governing
209:6 them all, is the central sun of its own systems of ideas,
the life and light of all its own vast creation;
and man is tributary to divine Mind. The
209:9 material and mortal body or mind is not the man.
The world would collapse without Mind, without the in-
telligence which holds the winds in its grasp. Neither
209:12 philosophy nor skepticism can hinder the march of the
Science which reveals the supremacy of Mind. The im-
manent sense of Mind-power enhances the glory of Mind.
209:15 Nearness, not distance, lends enchantment to this view.
Spiritual translation
The compounded minerals or aggregated substances
composing the earth, the relations which constituent
209:18 masses hold to each other, the magnitudes,
distances, and revolutions of the celestial
bodies, are of no real importance, when we remember
209:21 that they all must give place to the spiritual fact by the
translation of man and the universe back into Spirit. In
proportion as this is done, man and the universe will be
209:24 found harmonious and eternal.
Material substances or mundane formations, astro-
nomical calculations, and all the paraphernalia of specu-
209:27 lative theories, based on the hypothesis of material law
or life and intelligence resident in matter, will ulti-
mately vanish, swallowed up in the infinite calculus of
209:30 Spirit.
Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to un- derstand God. It shows the superiority of faith by works 210:1 over faith in words. Its ideas are expressed only in “new tongues;” and these are interpreted by the translation of 210:3 the spiritual original into the language which human thought can comprehend.
Jesus’ disregard of matter
The Principle and proof of Christianity are discerned
210:6 by spiritual sense. They are set forth in Jesus’ demon-
strations, which show - by his healing the
sick, casting out evils, and destroying death,
210:9 “the last enemy that shall be destroyed,” -
his disregard of matter and its so-called laws.
Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forever
manifested through man, the Master healed the sick,
gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the
lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the
210:15 divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving
a better understanding of Soul and salvation. Jesus
healed sickness and sin by one and the same metaphysical
210:18 process.
Mind not mortal
The expression /mortal mind/ is really a solecism, for
Mind is immortal, and Truth pierces the error of mortality
210:21 as a sunbeam penetrates the cloud. Because,
in obedience to the immutable law of Spirit,
this so-called mind is self-destructive, I name it mortal.
210:24 Error soweth the wind and reapeth the whirlwind.
Matter mindless
What is termed matter, being unintelligent, cannot say, “I suffer, I die, I am sick, or I am well.” It is the so- 210:27 called mortal mind which voices this and ap- pears to itself to make good its claim. To mortal sense, sin and suffering are real, but immortal 210:30 sense includes no evil nor pestilence. Because immortal sense has no error of sense, it has no sense of error; there fore it is without a destructive element.
211:1 If brain, nerves, stomach, are intelligent, - if they talk
to us, tell us their condition, and report how they feel, -
211:3 then Spirit and matter, Truth and error, commingle
and produce sickness and health, good and evil, life and
death; and who shall say whether Truth or error is the
211:6 greater?
Matter sensationless
The sensations of the body must either be the sensa-
tions of a so-called mortal mind or of matter. Nerves
211:9 are not mind. Is it not provable that Mind is
not /mortal/ and that matter has no sensation?
Is it not equally true that matter does not appear in the
211:12 spiritual understanding of being?
The sensation of sickness and the impulse to sin seem
to obtain in mortal mind. When a tear starts, does not
211:15 this so-called mind produce the effect seen in the lachry-
mal gland? Without mortal mind, the tear could not
appear; and this action shows the nature of all so-called
211:18 material cause and effect.
It should no longer be said in Israel that “the fathers
have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set
211:21 on edge.” Sympathy with error should disappear. The
transfer of the thoughts of one erring mind to another,
Science renders impossible.
Nerves painless
211:24 If it is true that nerves have sensation, that matter has
intelligence, that the material organism causes the eyes to
see and the ears to hear, then, when the body
211:27 is dematerialized, these faculties must be lost,
for their immortality is not in Spirit; whereas the fact
is that only through dematerialization and spiritualiza-
211:30 tion of thought can these faculties be conceived of as
immortal.
Nerves are not the source of pain or pleasure. We 212:1 suffer or enjoy in our dreams, but this pain or pleasure is not communicated through a nerve. A tooth which has 212:3 been extracted sometimes aches again in belief, and the pain seems to be in its old place. A limb which has been amputated has continued in belief to pain the owner. If 212:6 the sensation of pain in the limb can return, can be pro- longed, why cannot the limb reappear?
Why need pain, rather than pleasure, come to this mor- 212:9 tal sense? Because the memory of pain is more vivid than the memory of pleasure. I have seen an unwitting attempt to scratch the end of a finger which had been cut 212:12 off for months. When the nerve is gone, which we say was the occasion of pain, and the pain still remains, it proves sensation to be in the mortal mind, not in matter. 212:15 Reverse the process; take away this so-called mind instead of a piece of the flesh, and the nerves have no sensation.
Human falsities
Mortals have a modus of their own, undirected and un-
212:18 sustained by God. They produce a rose through seed and
soil, and bring the rose into contact with the
olfactory nerves that they may smell it. In
212:21 legerdemain and credulous frenzy, mortals believe that
unseen spirits produce the flowers. God alone makes
and clothes the lilies of the field, and this He does by
212:24 means of Mind, not matter.
No miracles in Mind-methods
Because all the methods of Mind are not understood, we say the lips or hands must move in order to convey 212:27 thought, that the undulations of the air convey sound, and possibly that other methods involve so-called miracles. The realities of being, its 212:30 normal action, and the origin of all things are unseen to mortal sense; whereas the unreal and imitative move- ments of mortal belief, which would reverse the immortal 213:1 modus and action, are styled the real. Whoever con- tradicts this mortal mind supposition of reality is called 213:3 a deceiver, or is said to be deceived. Of a man it has been said, “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he;” hence as a man spiritually /understandeth/, so is he in truth.
Good indefinable
213:6 Mortal mind conceives of something as either liquid or solid, and then classifies it materially. Immortal and spiritual facts exist apart from this mortal and 213:9 material conception. God, good, is self-exist- ent and self-expressed, though indefinable as a whole. Every step towards goodness is a departure from materi- 213:12 ality, and is a tendency towards God, Spirit. Material theories partially paralyze this attraction towards infinite and eternal good by an opposite attraction towards the 213:15 finite, temporary, and discordant.
Sound is a mental impression made on mortal belief.
The ear does not really hear. Divine Science reveals
213:18 sound as communicated through the senses of Soul -
through spiritual understanding.
Music, rhythm of head and heart
Mozart experienced more than he expressed. The
213:21 rapture of his grandest symphonies was never heard. He
was a musician beyond what the world knew.
This was even more strikingly true of Beet-
213:24 hoven, who was so long hopelessly deaf. Men-
tal melodies and strains of sweetest music supersede con-
scious sound. Music is the rhythm of head and heart.
213:27 Mortal mind is the harp of many strings, discoursing
either discord or harmony according as the hand, which
sweeps over it, is human or divine.
213:30 Before human knowledge dipped to its depths into a
false sense of things, - into belief in material origins
which discard the one Mind and true source of being, -
214:1 it is possible that the impressions from Truth were as
distinct as sound, and that they came as sound to the
214:3 primitive prophets. If the medium of hearing is wholly
spiritual, it is normal and indestructible.
If Enoch’s perception had been confined to the evidence
214:6 before his material senses, he could never have “walked
with God,” nor been guided into the demonstration of
life eternal.
Adam and the senses
214:9 Adam, represented in the Scriptures as formed from
dust, is an object-lesson for the human mind. The mate-
rial senses, like Adam, originate in matter and
214:12 return to dust, - are proved non-intelligent.
They go out as they came in, for they are still the error,
not the truth of being. When it is learned that the spirit-
214:15 ual sense, and not the material, conveys the impressions
of Mind to man, then being will be understood and found
to be harmonious.
Idolatrous illusions
214:18 We bow down to matter, and entertain finite thoughts of God like the pagan idolater. Mortals are inclined to fear and to obey what they consider a material 214:21 body more than they do a spiritual God. All material knowledge, like the original “tree of knowledge,” multiplies their pains, for mortal illusions would rob God, 214:24 slay man, and meanwhile would spread their table with cannibal tidbits and give thanks.
The senses of Soul
How transient a sense is mortal sight, when a wound on 214:27 the retina may end the power of light and lens! But the real sight or sense is not lost. Neither age nor accident can interfere with the senses of Soul, 214:30 and there are no other real senses. It is evident that the body as matter has no sensation of its own, and there is no oblivion for Soul and its faculties. Spirit’s senses are with- 215:1 out pain, and they are forever at peace. Nothing can hide from them the harmony of all things and the might and 215:3 permanence of Truth.
Real being never lost
If Spirit, Soul, could sin or be lost, then being and im- mortality would be lost, together with all the faculties of 215:6 Mind; but being cannot be lost while God ex- ists. Soul and matter are at variance from the very necessity of their opposite natures. Mortals are 215:9 unacquainted with the reality of existence, because matter and mortality do not reflect the facts of Spirit.
Spiritual vision is not subordinate to geometric alti-
215:12 tudes. Whatever is governed by God, is never for an
instant deprived of the light and might of intelligence
and Life.
Light and darkness
215:15 We are sometimes led to believe that darkness is as real
as light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal
sense of the absence of light, at the coming of
215:18 which darkness loses the appearance of reality.
So sin and sorrow, disease and death, are the suppositional
absence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of error before
215:21 truth and love.
With its divine proof, Science reverses the evidence of
material sense. Every quality and condition of mortality
215:24 is lost, swallowed up in immortality. Mortal man is the
antipode of immortal man in origin, in existence, and in his
relation to God.
Faith of Socrates
215:27 Because he understood the superiority and immor-
tality of good, Socrates feared not the hemlock poison.
Even the faith of his philosophy spurned phys-
215:30 ical timidity. Having sought man’s spiritual
state, he recognized the immortality of man. The igno-
rance and malice of the age would have killed the vener-
216:1 able philosopher because of his faith in Soul and his in-
difference to the body.
The serpent of error
216:3 Who shall say that man is alive to-day, but may be dead
to-morrow? What has touched Life, God, to such
strange issues? Here theories cease, and Sci-
216:6 ence unveils the mystery and solves the prob-
lem of man. Error bites the heel of truth, but cannot kill
truth. Truth bruises the head of error - destroys error.
216:9 Spirituality lays open siege to materialism. On which
side are we fighting?
Servants and masters
The understanding that the Ego is Mind, and that
216:12 there is but one Mind or intelligence, begins at once to
destroy the errors of mortal sense and to supply
the truth of immortal sense. This understand-
216:15 ing makes the body harmonious; it makes the nerves,
bones, brain, etc., servants, instead of masters. If man
is governed by the law of divine Mind, his body is in sub-
216:18 mission to everlasting Life and Truth and Love. The
great mistake of mortals is to suppose that man, God’s
image and likeness, is both matter and Spirit, both good
216:21 and evil.
If the decision were left to the corporeal senses, evil
would appear to be the master of good, and sickness to
216:24 be the rule of existence, while health would seem the
exception, death the inevitable, and life a paradox. Paul
asked: “What concord hath Christ with Belial?” (2 Cor-
216:27 inthians vi. 15.)
Personal identity
When you say, “Man’s body is material,” I say with
Paul: Be “willing rather to be absent from the body,
216:30 and to be present with the Lord.” Give up
your material belief of mind in matter, and
have but one Mind, even God; for this Mind forms its
217:1 own likeness. The loss of man’s identity through the
understanding which Science confers is impossible; and
217:3 the notion of such a possibility is more absurd than to
conclude that individual musical tones are lost in the
origin of harmony.
Paul’s experience
217:6 Medical schools may inform us that the healing work
of Christian Science and Paul’s peculiar Christian con-
version and experience, - which prove Mind
217:9 to be scientifically distinct from matter, - are
indications of unnatural mental and bodily conditions,
even of catalepsy and hysteria; yet if we turn to the Scrip-
217:12 tures, what do we read? Why, this: “If a man keep my
saying, he shall never see death!” and “Henceforth know
we no man after the flesh!”
Fatigue is mental
217:15 That scientific methods are superior to others, is
seen by their effects. When you have once conquered
a diseased condition of the body through
217:18 Mind, that condition never recurs, and you
have won a point in Science. When mentality gives
rest to the body, the next toil will fatigue you less, for
217:21 you are working out the problem of being in divine meta-
physics; and in proportion as you understand the con-
trol which Mind has over so-called matter, you will be
217:24 able to demonstrate this control. The scientific and
permanent remedy for fatigue is to learn the power of
Mind over the body or any illusion of physical weariness,
217:27 and so destroy this illusion, for matter cannot be weary
and heavy-laden.
You say, “Toil fatigues me.” But what is this /me/! 217:30 Is it muscle or mind? Which is tired and so speaks? Without mind, could the muscles be tired? Do the muscles talk, or do you talk for them? Matter is non- 218:1 intelligent. Mortal mind does the false talking, and that which affirms weariness, made that weariness.
Mind never weary
218:3 You do not say a wheel is fatigued; and yet the body
is as material as the wheel. If it were not for what the
human mind says of the body, the body, like
218:6 the inanimate wheel, would never be weary.
The consciousness of Truth rests us more than hours of
repose in unconsciousness.
Coalition of sin and sickness
218:9 The body is supposed to say, “I am ill.” The reports of sickness may form a coalition with the reports of sin, and say, “I am malice, lust, appetite, envy, 218:12 hate.” What renders both sin and sickness difficult of cure is, that the human mind is the sinner, disinclined to self-correction, and believing that 218:15 the body can be sick independently of mortal mind and that the divine Mind has no jurisdiction over the body.
Sickness akin to sin
Why pray for the recovery of the sick, if you are with-
218:18 out faith in God’s willingness and ability to heal them?
If you do believe in God, why do you sub-
stitute drugs for the Almighty’s power, and
218:21 employ means which lead only into material ways of
obtaining help, instead of turning in time of need to
God, divine Love, who is an ever-present help?
218:24 Treat a belief in sickness as you would sin, with sudden dismissal. Resist the temptation to believe in matter as intelligent, as having sensation or power.
218:27 The Scriptures say, “They that wait upon the Lord
... shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk,
and not faint.” The meaning of that passage is not
218:30 perverted by applying it literally to moments of fatigue,
for the moral and physical are as one in their results.
When we wake to the truth of being, all disease,
219:1 pain, weakness, weariness, sorrow, sin, death, will be
unknown, and the mortal dream will forever cease. My
219:3 method of treating fatigue applies to all bodily ailments,
since Mind should be, and is, supreme, absolute, and
final.
Affirmation and result
219:6 In mathematics, we do not multiply when we should
subtract, and then say the product is correct. No more
can we say in Science that muscles give strength,
219:9 that nerves give pain or pleasure, or that matter
governs, and then expect that the result will be harmony.
Not muscles, nerves, nor bones, but mortal mind makes
219:12 the whole body “sick, and the whole heart faint;” whereas
divine Mind heals.
When this is understood, we shall never affirm concern- 219:15 ing the body what we do not wish to have manifested. We shall not call the body weak, if we would have it strong; for the belief in feebleness must obtain in the human 219:18 mind before it can be made manifest on the body, and the destruction of the belief will be the removal of its effects. Science includes no rule of discord, but governs 219:21 harmoniously. “The wish,” says the poet, “is ever father to the thought.”
Scientific beginning
We may hear a sweet melody, and yet misunderstand
219:24 the science that governs it. Those who are healed
through metaphysical Science, not compre-
hending the Principle of the cure, may misun-
219:27 derstand it, and impute their recovery to change of air or
diet, not rendering to God the honor due to Him alone.
Entire immunity from the belief in sin, suffering, and
219:30 death may not be reached at this period, but we may look
for an abatement of these evils; and this scientific begin-
ning is in the right direction.
Hygiene ineffectual
220:1 We hear it said: “I exercise daily in the open air. I
take cold baths, in order to overcome a predisposition to
220:3 take cold; and yet I have continual colds,
catarrh, and cough.” Such admissions ought
to open people’s eyes to the inefficacy of material hygiene,
220:6 and induce sufferers to look in other directions for cause
and cure.
Instinct is better than misguided reason, as even na-
220:9 ture declares. The violet lifts her blue eye to greet the
early spring. The leaves clap their hands as nature’s
untired worshippers. The snowbird sings and soars
220:12 amid the blasts; he has no catarrh from wet feet, and
procures a summer residence with more ease than a na-
bob. The atmosphere of the earth, kinder than the at-
220:15 mosphere of mortal mind, leaves catarrh to the latter.
Colds, coughs, and contagion are engendered solely by
human theories.
The reflex phenomena
220:18 Mortal mind produces its own phenomena, and then
charges them to something else, - like a kitten
glancing into the mirror at itself and thinking
220:21 it sees another kitten.
A clergyman once adopted a diet of bread and water
to increase his spirituality. Finding his health failing,
220:24 he gave up his abstinence, and advised others never to
try dietetics for growth in grace.
Volition far-reaching
The belief that either fasting or feasting makes men 220:27 better morally or physically is one of the fruits of “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” con- cerning which God said, “Thou shalt not eat 220:30 of it.” Mortal mind forms all conditions of the mortal body, and controls the stomach, bones, lungs, heart, blood, etc., as directly as the volition or will moves the mind.
Starvation and dyspepsia
221:1 I knew a person who when quite a child adopted the
Graham system to cure dyspepsia. For many years, he
221:3 ate only bread and vegetables, and drank noth-
ing but water. His dyspepsia increasing, he
decided that his diet should be more rigid, and
221:6 thereafter he partook of but one meal in twenty-four
hours, this meal consisting of only a thin slice of bread
without water. His physician also recommended that
221:9 he should not wet his parched throat until three hours
after eating. He passed many weary years in hunger
and weakness, almost in starvation, and finally made up
221:12 his mind to die, having exhausted the skill of the doctors,
who kindly informed him that death was indeed his only
alternative. At this point Christian Science saved him,
221:15 and he is now in perfect health without a vestige of the
old complaint.
He learned that suffering and disease were the self- 221:18 imposed beliefs of mortals, and not the facts of being; that God never decreed disease, - never ordained a law that fasting should be a means of health. Hence semi- 221:21 starvation is not acceptable to wisdom, and it is equally far from Science, in which being is sustained by God, Mind. These truths, opening his eyes, relieved his stomach, and 221:24 he ate without suffering, “giving God thanks;” but he never enjoyed his food as he had imagined he would when, still the slave of matter, he thought of the flesh- 221:27 pots of Egypt, feeling childhood’s hunger and undisci- plined by self-denial and divine Science.
Mind and stomach
This new-born understanding, that neither food nor
221:30 the stomach, without the consent of mortal
mind, can make one suffer, brings with it an-
other lesson, - that gluttony is a sensual illusion, and
222:1 that this phantasm of mortal mind disappears as we better
apprehend our spiritual existence and ascend the ladder
222:3 of life.
This person learned that food affects the body only
as mortal mind has its material methods of working, one
222:6 of which is to believe that proper food supplies nutriment
and strength to the human system. He learned also that
mortal mind makes a mortal body, whereas Truth re-
222:9 generates this fleshly mind and feeds thought with the
bread of Life.
Food had less power to help or to hurt him after he 222:12 had availed himself of the fact that Mind governs man, and he also had less faith in the so-called pleasures and pains of matter. Taking less thought about what he 222:15 should eat or drink, consulting the stomach less about the economy of living and God more, he recovered strength and flesh rapidly. For many years he had 222:18 been kept alive, as was believed, only by the strictest ad- herence to hygiene and drugs, and yet he continued ill all the while. Now he dropped drugs and material 222:21 hygiene, and was well.
He learned that a dyspeptic was very far from being the image and likeness of God, - far from having “do- 222:24 minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,” if eating a bit of animal flesh could overpower him. He finally concluded that God 222:27 never made a dyspeptic, while fear, hygiene, physiology, and physics had made him one, contrary to His commands.
Life only in Spirit
In seeking a cure for dyspepsia consult matter not at 222:30 all, and eat what is set before you, “asking no question for conscience sake.” We must destroy the false belief that life and intelligence are in 223:1 matter, and plant ourselves upon what is pure and per- fect. Paul said, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not 223:3 fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Sooner or later we shall learn that the fetters of man’s finite capacity are forged by the illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter 223:6 instead of in Spirit.
Soul greater than body
Matter does not express Spirit. God is infinite omni- present Spirit. If Spirit is /all/ and is everywhere, what 223:9 and where is matter? Remember that truth is greater than error, and we cannot put the greater into the less. Soul is Spirit, and Spirit is greater 223:12 than body. If Spirit were once within the body, Spirit would be finite, and therefore could not be Spirit.
The question of the ages
The question, “What is Truth,” convulses the world.
223:15 Many are ready to meet this inquiry with the assurance
which comes of understanding; but more are
blinded by their old illusions, and try to “give
223:18 it pause.” “If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into
the ditch.”
The efforts of error to answer this question by some
223:21 /ology/ are vain. Spiritual rationality and free thought ac-
company approaching Science, and cannot be put down.
They will emancipate humanity, and supplant unscientific
223:24 means and so-called laws.
Heralds of Science
Peals that should startle the slumbering thought from
its erroneous dream are partially unheeded; but the last
223:27 trump has not sounded, or this would not be
so. Marvels, calamities, and sin will much
more abound as truth urges upon mortals its resisted
223:30 claims; but the awful daring of sin destroys sin, and
foreshadows the triumph of truth. God will over-
turn, until “He come whose right it is.” Longevity
224:1 is increasing and the power of sin diminishing, for the,
world feels the alterative effect of truth through every
224:3 pore.
As the crude footprints of the past disappear from the dissolving paths of the present, we shall better understand 224:6 the Science which governs these changes, and shall plant our feet on firmer ground. Every sensuous pleasure or pain is self-destroyed through suffering. There should 224:9 be painless progress, attended by life and peace instead of discord and death.
Sectarianism and opposition
In the record of nineteen centuries, there are sects 224:12 many but not enough Christianity. Centuries ago re- ligionists were ready to hail an anthropomor- phic God, and array His vicegerent with pomp 224:15 and splendor; but this was not the manner of truth’s appearing. Of old the cross was truth’s cen- tral sign, and it is to-day. The modern lash is less 224:18 material than the Roman scourge, but it is equally as cutting. Cold disdain, stubborn resistance, opposition from church, state laws, and the press, are still the har- 224:21 bingers of truth’s full-orbed appearing.
A higher and more practical Christianity, demonstrat- ing justice and meeting the needs of mortals in sickness 224:24 and in health, stands at the door of this age, knocking for admission. Will you open or close the door upon this angel visitant, who cometh in the quiet of meekness, as he 224:27 came of old to the patriarch at noonday?
Mental emancipation
Truth brings the elements of liberty. On its banner
is the Soul-inspired motto, “Slavery is abolished.” The
224:30 power of God brings deliverance to the cap-
tive. No power can withstand divine Love.
What is this supposed power, which opposes itself to God?
225:1 Whence cometh it? What is it that binds man with iron
shackles to sin, sickness, and death? Whatever enslaves
225:3 man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes
man free.
Truth’s ordeal
You may know when first Truth leads by the few-
225:6 ness and faithfulness of its followers. Thus it is that
the march of time bears onward freedom’s
banner. The powers of this world will fight,
225:9 and will command their sentinels not to let truth pass
the guard until it subscribes to their systems; but Science,
heeding not the pointed bayonet, marches on. There is
225:12 always some tumult, but there is a rallying to truth’s
standard.
Immortal sentences
The history of our country, like all history, illustrates
225:15 the might of Mind, and shows human power to be propor-
tionate to its embodiment of right thinking. A
few immortal sentences, breathing the omnipo-
225:18 tence of divine justice, have been potent to break despotic
fetters and abolish the whipping-post and slave market;
but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the
225:21 breath of freedom come from the cannon’s mouth. Love
is the liberator.
Slavery abolished
Legally to abolish unpaid servitude in the United
225:24 States was hard; but the abolition of mental slavery is
a more difficult task. The despotic tenden-
cies, inherent in mortal mind and always ger-
225:27 minating in new forms of tyranny, must be rooted out
through the action of the divine Mind.
Men and women of all climes and races are still in 225:30 bondage to material sense, ignorant how to obtain their freedom. The rights of man were vindicated in a single section and on the lowest plane of human life, when Afri- 226:1 can slavery was abolished in our land. That was only prophetic of further steps towards the banishment of a 226:3 world-wide slavery, found on higher planes of existence and under more subtle and depraving forms.
Liberty’s crusade
The voice of God in behalf of the African slave was
226:6 still echoing in our land, when the voice of the herald of
this new crusade sounded the keynote of uni-
versal freedom, asking a fuller acknowledg-
226:9 ment of the rights of man as a Son of God, demanding
that the fetters of sin, sickness, and death be stricken
from the human mind and that its freedom be won, not
226:12 through human warfare, not with bayonet and blood, but
through Christ’s divine Science.
Cramping systems
God has built a higher platform of human rights, and 226:15 He has built it on diviner claims. These claims are not made through code or creed, but in demonstra- tion of “on earth peace, good-will toward men.” 226:18 Human codes, scholastic theology, material medicine and hygiene, fetter faith and spiritual understanding. Divine Science rends asunder these fetters, and man’s birthright 226:21 of sole allegiance to his Maker asserts itself.
I saw before me the sick, wearing out years of servi-
tude to an unreal master in the belief that the body gov-
226:24 erned them, rather than Mind.
House of bondage
The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the sick, the sensual, the sinner, I wished to save from the slavery of 226:27 their own beliefs and from the educational systems of the Pharaohs, who to-day, as of yore, hold the children of Israel in bondage. I saw be- 226:30 fore me the awful conflict, the Red Sea and the wilder- ness; but I pressed on through faith in God, trusting Truth, the strong deliverer, to guide me into the land 227:1 of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of man are fully known and acknowledged.
Higher law ends bondage
227:3 I saw that the law of mortal belief included all error,
and that, even as oppressive laws are disputed and mor-
tals are taught their right to freedom, so the
227:6 claims of the enslaving senses must be de-
nied and superseded. The law of the divine Mind must
end human bondage, or mortals will continue unaware
227:9 of man’s inalienable rights and in subjection to hope-
less slavery, because some public teachers permit
an ignorance of divine power, - an ignorance that
227:12 is the foundation of continued bondage and of human
suffering.
Native freedom
Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail to fore-
227:15 see the doom of all oppression. Slavery is not the legiti-
mate state of man. God made man free.
Paul said, “I was free born.” All men should
227:18 be free. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is lib-
erty.” Love and Truth make free, but evil and error
lead into captivity.
Standard of liberty
227:21 Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and
cries: “Follow me! Escape from the bondage of sick-
ness, sin, and death!” Jesus marked out the
227:24 way. Citizens of the world, accept the “glori-
ous liberty of the children of God,” and be free! This
is your divine right. The illusion of material sense, not
227:27 divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs,
crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and de-
faced the tablet of your being.
227:30 If God had instituted material laws to govern man,
disobedience to which would have made man ill, Jesus
would not have disregarded those laws by healing in
228:1 direct opposition to them and in defiance of all material
conditions.
No fleshly heredity
228:3 The transmission of disease or of certain idiosyncra- sies of mortal mind would be impossible if this great fact of being were learned, - namely, that nothing 228:6 inharmonious can enter being, for Life /is/ God. Heredity is a prolific subject for mortal belief to pin the- ories upon; but if we learn that nothing is real but the 228:9 right, we shall have no dangerous inheritances, and fleshly ills will disappear.
God-given dominion
The enslavement of man is not legitimate. It will
228:12 cease when man enters into his heritage of freedom, his
God-given dominion over the material senses.
Mortals will some day assert their freedom in
228:15 the name of Almighty God. Then they will control their
own bodies through the understanding of divine Science.
Dropping their present beliefs, they will recognize har-
228:18 mony as the spiritual reality and discord as the material
unreality.
If we follow the command of our Master, “Take no
228:21 thought for your life,” we shall never depend on bodily
conditions, structure, or economy, but we shall be masters
of the body, dictate its terms, and form and control it with
228:24 Truth.
Priestly pride humbled
There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence has
all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dis-
228:27 honor God. The humble Nazarene overthrew
the supposition that sin, sickness, and death
have power. He proved them powerless. It should have
228:30 humbled the pride of the priests, when they saw the dem-
onstration of Christianity excel the influence of their dead
faith and ceremonies.
229:1 If Mind is not the master of sin, sickness, and death,
they are immortal, for it is already proved that mat-
229:3 ter has not destroyed them, but is their basis and
support.
No union of opposites
We should hesitate to say that Jehovah sins or suffers;
229:6 but if sin and suffering are realities of being, whence did
they emanate? God made all that was made,
and Mind signifies God, - infinity, not finity.
229:9 Not far removed from infidelity is the belief which
unites such opposites as sickness and health, holiness
and unholiness, calls both the offspring of spirit, and
229:12 at the same time admits that Spirit is God, - vir-
tually declaring Him good in one instance and evil in
another.
Self-constituted law
229:15 By universal consent, mortal belief has constituted
itself a law to bind mortals to sickness, sin, and death.
This customary belief is misnamed material
229:18 law, and the individual who upholds it is mis-
taken in theory and in practice. The so-called law of
mortal mind, conjectural and speculative, is made void
229:21 by the law of immortal Mind, and false law should be
trampled under foot.
Sickness from mortal mind
If God causes man to be sick, sickness must be good, 229:24 and its opposite, health, must be evil, for all that He makes is good and will stand forever. If the transgression of God’s law produces sickness, it 229:27 is right to be sick; and we cannot if we would, and should not if we could, annul the decrees of wisdom. It is the transgression of a belief of mortal mind, not of a law of 229:30 matter nor of divine Mind, which causes the belief of sick- ness. The remedy is Truth, not matter, - the truth that disease is /unreal/.
230:1 If sickness is real, it belongs to immortality; if true,
it is a part of Truth. Would you attempt with drugs,
230:3 or without, to destroy a quality or condition of Truth?
But if sickness and sin are illusions, the awakening from
this mortal dream, or illusion, will bring us into health,
230:6 holiness, and immortality. This awakening is the for-
ever coming of Christ, the advanced appearing of Truth,
which casts out error and heals the sick. This is the sal-
230:9 vation which comes through God, the divine Principle,
Love, as demonstrated by Jesus.
God never inconsistent
It would be contrary to our highest ideas of God to 230:12 suppose Him capable of first arranging law and causation so as to bring about certain evil results, and then punishing the helpless victims of His vo- 230:15 lition for doing what they could not avoid doing. Good is not, cannot be, the author of experimental sins. God, good, can no more produce sickness than goodness can 230:18 cause evil and health occasion disease.
Mental narcotics
Does wisdom make blunders which must afterwards
be rectified by man? Does a law of God produce sick-
230:21 ness, and can man put that law under his feet
by healing sickness? According to Holy Writ,
the sick are never really healed by drugs, hygiene, or any
230:24 material method. These merely evade the question.
They are soothing syrups to put children to sleep, satisfy
mortal belief, and quiet fear.
The true healing
230:27 We think that we are healed when a disease disap- pears, though it is liable to reappear; but we are never thoroughly healed until the liability to be 230:30 ill is removed. So-called mortal mind or the mind of mortals being the remote, predisposing, and the exciting cause of all suffering, the cause of disease 231:1 must be obliterated through Christ in divine Science, or the so-called physical senses will get the victory.
Destruction of all evil
231:3 Unless an ill is rightly met and fairly overcome by
Truth, the ill is never conquered. If God destroys not
sin, sickness, and death, they are not de-
231:6 stroyed in the mind of mortals, but seem to
this so-called mind to be immortal. What God cannot
do, man need not attempt. If God heals not the sick,
231:9 they are not healed, for no lesser power equals the infinite
All-power; but God, Truth, Life, Love, does heal the
sick through the prayer of the righteous.
231:12 If God makes sin, if good produces evil, if truth results in error, then Science and Christianity are helpless; but there are no antagonistic powers nor laws, spiritual or 231:15 material, creating and governing man through perpetual warfare. God is not the author of mortal discords. Therefore we accept the conclusion that discords have 231:18 only a fabulous existence, are mortal beliefs which divine Truth and Love destroy.
Superiority to sickness and sin
To hold yourself superior to sin, because God made
231:21 you superior to it and governs man, is true wisdom. To
fear sin is to misunderstand the power of Love
and the divine Science of being in man’s rela-
231:24 tion to God, - to doubt His government and
distrust His omnipotent care. To hold yourself superior
to sickness and death is equally wise, and is in accordance
231:27 with divine Science. To fear them is impossible, when
you fully apprehend God and know that they are no part
of His creation.
231:30 Man, governed by his Maker, having no other Mind, -
planted on the Evangelist’s statement that “all things
were made by Him [the Word of God]; and without
232:1 Him was not anything made that was made,” - can
triumph over sin, sickness, and death.
Denials of divine power
232:3 Many theories relative to God and man neither make
man harmonious nor God lovable. The beliefs we com-
monly entertain about happiness and life
232:6 afford no scatheless and permanent evidence
of either. Security for the claims of harmonious and
eternal being is found only in divine Science.
232:9 Scripture informs us that “with God all things are
possible,” - all good is possible to Spirit; but our prev-
alent theories practically deny this, and make healing
232:12 possible only through matter. These theories must be
untrue, for the Scripture is true. Christianity is not
false, but religions which contradict its Principle are
232:15 false.
In our age Christianity is again demonstrating the power of divine Principle, as it did over nineteen hun- 232:18 dred years ago, by healing the sick and triumphing over death. Jesus never taught that drugs, food, air, and ex- ercise could make a man healthy, or that they could de- 232:21 stroy human life; nor did he illustrate these errors by his practice. He referred man’s harmony to Mind, not to matter, and never tried to make of none effect the sen- 232:24 tence of God, which sealed God’s condemnation of sin, sickness, and death.
Signs following
In the sacred sanctuary of Truth are voices of sol-
232:27 emn import, but we heed them not. It is only when the
so-called pleasures and pains of sense pass
away in our lives, that we find unquestion-
232:30 able signs of the burial of error and the resurrection to
spiritual life.
Profession and proof
There is neither place nor opportunity in Science for error 233:1 of any sort. Every day makes its demands upon us for higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power. 233:3 These proofs consist solely in the destruction of sin, sickness, and death by the power of Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of 233:6 progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law de- mands of us only what we can certainly fulfil.
Perfection gained slowly
In the midst of imperfection, perfection is seen and
233:9 acknowledged only by degrees. The ages must slowly
work up to perfection. How long it must be
before we arrive at the demonstration of scien-
233:12 tific being, no man knoweth, - not even “the
Son but the Father;” but the false claim of error con-
tinues its delusions until the goal of goodness is assidu-
233:15 ously earned and won.
Christ’s mission
Already the shadow of His right hand rests upon the
hour. Ye who can discern the face of the sky, - the
233:18 sign material, - how much more should ye
discern the sign mental, and compass the de-
struction of sin and sickness by overcoming the thoughts
233:21 which produce them, and by understanding the spiritual
idea which corrects and destroys them. To reveal this
truth was our Master’s mission to all mankind, including
233:24 the hearts which rejected him.
Efficacy of truth
When numbers have been divided according to a fixed
rule, the quotient is not more unquestionable than the
233:27 scientific tests I have made of the effects of
truth upon the sick. The counter fact rela-
tive to any disease is required to cure it. The utterance
233:30 of truth is designed to rebuke and destroy error. Why
should truth not be efficient in sickness, which is solely
the result of inharmony?
234:1 Spiritual draughts heal, while material lotions interfere with truth, even as ritualism and creed hamper spirit-234:3 uality. If we trust matter, we distrust Spirit.
Crumbs of comfort
Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love - be
it song, sermon, or Science - blesses the human family
234:6 with crumbs of comfort from Christ’s table
feeding the hungry and giving living waters to
the thirsty.
Hospitality to health and good
234:9 We should become more familiar with good than with
evil, and guard against false beliefs as watchfully as we
bar our doors against the approach of thieves
234:12 and murderers. We should love our enemies
and help them on the basis of the Golden
Rule; but avoid casting pearls before those who trample
234:15 them under foot, thereby robbing both themselves and
others.
Cleansing the mind
If mortals would keep proper ward over mortal mind,
234:18 the brood of evils which infest it would be cleared out.
We must begin with this so-called mind and
empty it of sin and sickness, or sin and sick-
234:21 ness will never cease. The present codes of human
systems disappoint the weary searcher after a divine
theology, adequate to the right education of human
234:24 thought.
Sin and disease must be thought before they can be manifested. You must control evil thoughts in the first 234:27 instance, or they will control you in the second. Jesus declared that to look with desire on forbidden objects was to break a moral precept. He laid great stress on the 234:30 action of the human mind, unseen to the senses.
Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more harm than one’s belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and 235:1 malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected 235:3 lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence. Better suffer a doctor infected with smallpox to attend you than to be treated mentally by one who does not obey 235:6 the requirements of divine Science.
Teachers’ functions
The teachers of schools and the readers in churches should be selected with as direct reference to their 235:9 morals as to their learning or their correct reading. Nurseries of character should be strongly garrisoned with virtue. School-examinations are 235:12 one-sided; it is not so much academic education, as a moral and spiritual culture, which lifts one higher. The pure and uplifting thoughts of the teacher, constantly 235:15 imparted to pupils, will reach higher than the heavens of astronomy; while the debased and unscrupulous mind, though adorned with gems of scholarly attainment, will 235:18 degrade the characters it should inform and elevate.
Physicians’ privilege
Physicians, whom the sick employ in their helplessness,
should be models of virtue. They should be wise spir-
235:21 itual guides to health and hope. To the trem-
blers on the brink of death, who understand
not the divine Truth which is Life and perpetuates being,
235:24 physicians should be able to teach it. Then when the soul
is willing and the flesh weak, the patient’s feet may be
planted on the rock Christ Jesus, the true idea of spiritual
235:27 power.
Clergymen’s duty
Clergymen, occupying the watchtowers of the world, should uplift the standard of Truth. They should so raise 235:30 their hearers spiritually, that their listeners will love to grapple with a new, right idea and broaden their concepts. Love of Christianity, rather 236:1 than love of popularity, should stimulate clerical labor and progress. Truth should emanate from the pulpit, 236:3 but never be strangled there. A special privilege is vested in the ministry. How shall it be used? Sacredly, in the interests of humanity, not of sect.
236:6 Is it not professional reputation and emolument rather
than the dignity of God’s laws, which many leaders seek?
Do not inferior motives induce the infuriated attacks on
236:9 individuals, who reiterate Christ’s teachings in support
of his proof by example that the divine Mind heals sick-
ness as well as sin?
A mother’s responsibility
236:12 A mother is the strongest educator, either for or
against crime. Her thoughts form the embryo of an-
other mortal mind, and unconsciously mould
236:15 it, either after a model odious to herself or
through divine influence, “according to the pattern
showed to thee in the mount.” Hence the importance
236:18 of Christian Science, from which we learn of the one
Mind and of the availability of good as the remedy for
every woe.
Children’s tractability
236:21 Children should obey their parents; insubordination
is an evil, blighting the buddings of self-government.
Parents should teach their children at the
236:24 earliest possible period the truths of health
and holiness. Children are more tractable than adults,
and learn more readily to love the simple verities that will
236:27 make them happy and good.
Jesus loved little children because of their freedom
from wrong and their receptiveness of right. While
236:30 age is halting between two opinions or battling with
false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards
Truth.
237:1 A little girl, who had occasionally listened to my ex- planations, badly wounded her finger. She seemed not 237:3 to notice it. On being questioned about it she answered ingenuously, “There is no sensation in matter.” Bound- ing off with laughing eyes, she presently added, “Mamma, 237:6 my finger is not a bit sore.”
Soil and seed
It might have been months or years before her parents
would have laid aside their drugs, or reached the mental
237:9 height their little daughter so naturally at-
tained. The more stubborn beliefs and theo-
ries of parents often choke the good seed in the minds of
237:12 themselves and their offspring. Superstition, like “the
fowls of the air,” snatches away the good seed before it
has sprouted.
Teaching children
237:15 Children should be taught the Truth-cure, Christian Science, among their first lessons, and kept from discuss- ing or entertaining theories or thoughts about 237:18 sickness. To prevent the experience of error and its sufferings, keep out of the minds of your children either sinful or diseased thoughts. The latter should 237:21 be excluded on the same principle as the former. This makes Christian Science early available.
Deluded invalids
Some invalids are unwilling to know the facts or to 237:24 hear about the fallacy of matter and its supposed laws. They devote themselves a little longer to their material gods, cling to a belief in the life and 237:27 intelligence of matter, and expect this error to do more for them than they are willing to admit the only living and true God can do. Impatient at your explanation, unwill- 237:30 ing to investigate the Science of Mind which would rid them of their complaints, they hug false beliefs and suffer the delusive consequences.
Patient waiting
238:1 Motives and acts are not rightly valued before they are
understood. It is well to wait till those whom you would
238:3 benefit are ready for the blessing, for Science
is working changes in personal character as
well as in the material universe.
238:6 To obey the Scriptural command, “Come out from
among them, and be ye separate,” is to incur society’s
frown; but this frown, more than flatteries, enables one
238:9 to be Christian. Losing her crucifix, the Roman Catholic
girl said, “I have nothing left but Christ.” “If God be
for us, who can be against us?”
Unimproved opportunities
238:12 To fall away from Truth in times of persecution, shows that we never understood Truth. From out the bridal chamber of wisdom there will come the warn- 238:15 ing, “I know you not.” Unimproved op- portunities will rebuke us when we attempt to claim the benefits of an experience we have not made our own, try 238:18 to reap the harvest we have not sown, and wish to enter unlawfully into the labors of others. Truth often remains unsought, until we seek this remedy for human woe be- 238:21 cause we suffer severely from error.
Attempts to conciliate society and so gain dominion over mankind, arise from worldly weakness. He who leaves 238:24 all for Christ forsakes popularity and gains Christianity.
Society and intolerance
Society is a foolish juror, listening only to one side of
the case. Justice often comes too late to secure a verdict.
238:27 People with mental work before them have
no time for gossip about false law or testimony.
To reconstruct timid justice and place the fact above the
238:30 falsehood, is the work of time.
The cross is the central emblem of history. It is the
lodestar in the demonstration of Christian healing, - the
239:1 demonstration by which sin and sickness are destroyed.
The sects, which endured the lash of their predecessors,
239:3 in their turn lay it upon those who are in advance of
creeds.
Right views of humanity
Take away wealth, fame, and social organizations,
239:6 which weigh not one jot in the balance of God, and we
get clearer views of Principle. Break up
cliques, level wealth with honesty, let worth
239:9 be judged according to wisdom, and we get better views
of humanity.
The wicked man is not the ruler of his upright
239:12 neighbor. Let it be understood that success in error is
defeat in Truth. The watchword of Christian Science
is Scriptural: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
239:15 unrighteous man his thoughts.”
Standpoint revealed
To ascertain our progress, we must learn where our
affections are placed and whom we acknowledge and
239:18 obey as God. If divine Love is becoming
nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is
then submitting to Spirit. The objects we pursue and
239:21 the spirit we manifest reveal our standpoint, and show
what we are winning.
Antagonistic sources
Mortal mind is the acknowledged seat of human mo- 239:24 tives. It forms material concepts and produces every discordant action of the body. If action pro- ceeds from the divine Mind, action is harmo- 239:27 nious. If it comes from erring mortal mind, it is discord- ant and ends in sin, sickness, death. Those two opposite sources never mingle in fount or stream. The perfect 239:30 Mind sends forth perfection, for God is Mind. Imper- fect mortal mind sends forth its own resemblances, of which the wise man said, “All is vanity.”
Some lessons from nature
240:1 Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love,
but human belief misinterprets nature. Arctic regions,
240:3 sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds,
mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers,
and glorious heavens, - all point to Mind, the spiritual
240:6 intelligence they reflect. The floral apostles are hiero-
glyphs of Deity. Suns and planets teach grand lessons.
The stars make night beautiful, and the leaflet turns nat-
240:9 urally towards the light.
Perpetual motions
In the order of Science, in which the Principle is above
what it reflects, all is one grand concord. Change this
240:12 statement, suppose Mind to be governed by
matter or Soul in body, and you lose the key-
note of being, and there is continual discord. Mind is
240:15 perpetual motion. Its symbol is the sphere. The rota-
tions and revolutions of the universe of Mind go on
eternally.
Progress demanded
240:18 Mortals move onward towards good or evil as time
glides on. If mortals are not progressive, past failures
will be repeated until all wrong work is ef-
240:21 faced or rectified. If at present satisfied with
wrong-doing, we must learn to loathe it. If at present
content with idleness, we must become dissatisfied with
240:24 it. Remember that mankind must sooner or later, either
by suffering or by Science, be convinced of the error that
is to be overcome.
240:27 In trying to undo the errors of sense one must pay fully
and fairly the utmost farthing, until all error is finally
brought into subjection to Truth. The divine method
240:30 of paying sin’s wages involves unwinding one’s snarls
and learning from experience how to divide between sense
and Soul.
241:1 “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.” He, who knows God’s will or the demands of divine Science and 241:3 obeys them, incurs the hostility of envy; and he who refuses obedience to God, is chastened by Love.
The doom of sin
Sensual treasures are laid up “where moth and rust
241:6 doth corrupt.” Mortality is their doom. Sin breaks in
upon them, and carries off their fleeting joys.
The sensualist’s affections are as imaginary,
241:9 whimsical, and unreal as his pleasures. Falsehood, envy,
hypocrisy, malice, hate, revenge, and so forth, steal away
the treasures of Truth. Stripped of its coverings, what
241:12 a mocking spectacle is sin!
Spirit transforms
The Bible teaches transformation of the body by the
renewal of Spirit. Take away the spiritual signification
241:15 of Scripture, and that compilation can do no
more for mortals than can moonbeams to melt
a river of ice. The error of the ages is preaching without
241:18 practice.
The substance of all devotion is the reflection and
demonstration of divine Love, healing sickness and
241:21 destroying sin. Our Master said, “If ye love me, keep
my commandments.”
One’s aim, a point beyond faith, should be to find the 241:24 footsteps of Truth, the way to health and holiness. We should strive to reach the Horeb height where God is re- vealed; and the corner-stone of all spiritual building is 241:27 purity. The baptism of Spirit, washing the body of all the impurities of flesh, signifies that the pure in heart see God and are approaching spiritual Life and its 241:30 demonstration.
Spiritual baptism
It is “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle,” than for sinful beliefs to enter the kingdom of
242:1 heaven, eternal harmony. Through repentance, spiritual
baptism, and regeneration, mortals put off their material
242:3 beliefs and false individuality. It is only a
question of time when “they shall all know
Me [God], from the least of them unto the greatest.”
242:6 Denial of the claims of matter is a great step towards
the joys of Spirit, towards human freedom and the final
triumph over the body.
The one only way
242:9 There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ
in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no
other reality - to have no other conscious-
242:12 ness of life - than good, God and His reflec-
tion, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure
of the senses.
242:15 Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In pa-
tient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dis-
solve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant
242:18 of error, - self-will, self-justification, and self-love, -
which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin
and death.
Divided vestments
242:21 The vesture of Life is Truth. According to the Bible,
the facts of being are commonly misconstrued, for it is
written: “They parted my raiment among
242:24 them, and for my vesture they did cast lots.”
The divine Science of man is woven into one web of
consistency without seam or rent. Mere speculation or
242:27 superstition appropriates no part of the divine vesture,
while inspiration restores every part of the Christly gar-
ment of righteousness.
242:30 The finger-posts of divine Science show the way our Master trod, and require of Christians the proof which he gave, instead of mere profession. We may hide 243:1 spiritual ignorance from the world, but we can never succeed in the Science and demonstration of spiritual 243:3 good through ignorance or hypocrisy.
Ancient and modern miracles
The divine Love, which made harmless the poisonous
viper, which delivered men from the boiling oil, from
243:6 the fiery furnace, from the jaws of the lion,
can heal the sick in every age and triumph
over sin and death. It crowned the demon-
243:9 strations of Jesus with unsurpassed power and love. But
the same “Mind... which was also in Christ Jesus”
must always accompany the letter of Science in order to
243:12 confirm and repeat the ancient demonstrations of prophets
and apostles. That those wonders are not more com-
monly repeated to-day, arises not so much from lack of
243:15 desire as from lack of spiritual growth.
Mental telegraphy
The clay cannot reply to the potter. The head, heart,
lungs, and limbs do not inform us that they are dizzy,
243:18 diseased, consumptive, or lame. If this in-
formation is conveyed, mortal mind conveys
it. Neither immortal and unerring Mind nor matter,
243:21 the inanimate substratum of mortal mind, can carry
on such telegraphy; for God is “of purer eyes than
to behold evil,” and matter has neither intelligence nor
243:24 sensation.
Annihilation of error
Truth has no consciousness of error. Love has no
sense of hatred. Life has no partnership
243:27 with death. Truth, Life, and Love are a law
of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because
they declare nothing except God.
Deformity and perfection
243:30 Sickness, sin, and death are not the fruits of Life.
They are inharmonies which Truth destroys. Perfection
does not animate imperfection. Inasmuch as God is
244:1 good and the fount of all being, He does not produce
moral or physical deformity; therefore such deformity is
244:3 not real, but is illusion, the mirage of error.
Divine Science reveals these grand facts. On
their basis Jesus demonstrated Life, never
244:6 fearing nor obeying error in any form.
If we were to derive all our conceptions of man from what is seen between the cradle and the grave, happi- 244:9 ness and goodness would have no abiding-place in man, and the worms would rob him of the flesh; but Paul writes: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath 244:12 made me free from the law of sin and death.”
Man never less than man
Man undergoing birth, maturity, and decay is like the
beasts and vegetables, - subject to laws of decay. If
244:15 man were dust in his earliest stage of exist-
ence, we might admit the hypothesis that he
returns eventually to his primitive condition;
244:18 but man was never more nor less than man.
If man flickers out in death or springs from matter into
being, there must be an instant when God is without His
244:21 entire manifestation, - when there is no full reflection
of the infinite Mind.
Man not evolved
Man in Science is neither young nor old. He has
244:24 neither birth nor death. He is not a beast, a vegetable,
nor a migratory mind. He does not pass from
matter to Mind, from the mortal to the im-
244:27 mortal, from evil to good, or from good to evil. Such
admissions cast us headlong into darkness and dogma.
Even Shakespeare’s poetry pictures age as infancy, as
244:30 helplessness and decadence, instead of assigning to man
the everlasting grandeur and immortality of development,
power, and prestige.
245:1 The error of thinking that we are growing old, and the benefits of destroying that illusion, are illustrated in a 245:3 sketch from the history of an English woman, published in the London medical magazine called The Lancet.
Perpetual youth
Disappointed in love in her early years, she became 245:6 insane and lost all account of time. Believing that she was still living in the same hour which parted her from her lover, taking no note of years, 245:9 she stood daily before the window watching for her lover’s coming. In this mental state she remained young. Having no consciousness of time, she literally grew no 245:12 older. Some American travellers saw her when she was seventy-four, and supposed her to be a young woman. She had no care-lined face, no wrinkles nor gray hair, but 245:15 youth sat gently on cheek and brow. Asked to guess her age, those unacquainted with her history conjectured that she must be under twenty.
245:18 This instance of youth preserved furnishes a useful hint, upon which a Franklin might work with more cer- tainty than when he coaxed the enamoured lightning 245:21 from the clouds. Years had not made her old, because she had taken no cognizance of passing time nor thought of herself as growing old. The bodily results of her belief 245:24 that she was young manifested the influence of such a be- lief. She could not age while believing herself young, for the mental state governed the physical.
245:27 Impossibilities never occur. One instance like the foregoing proves it possible to be young at seventy-four; and the primary of that illustration makes it plain that 245:30 decrepitude is not according to law, nor is it a necessity of nature, but an illusion.
Man reflects God
The infinite never began nor will it ever end. Mind
246:1 and its formations can never be annihilated. Man is not
a pendulum, swinging between evil and good, joy and
246:3 sorrow, sickness and health, life and death.
Life and its faculties are not measured by
calendars. The perfect and immortal are the eternal
246:6 likeness of their Maker. Man is by no means a material
germ rising from the imperfect and endeavoring to reach
Spirit above his origin. The stream rises no higher than
246:9 its source.
The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and gives ugliness to age. The radiant sun of virtue and truth 246:12 coexists with being. Manhood is its eternal noon, un- dimmed by a declining sun. As the physical and mate- rial, the transient sense of beauty fades, the radiance of 246:15 Spirit should dawn upon the enraptured sense with bright and imperishable glories.
Undesirable records
Never record ages. Chronological data are no part
246:18 of the vast forever. Time-tables of birth and death are
so many conspiracies against manhood and
womanhood. Except for the error of meas-
246:21 uring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man
would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and
still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man,
246:24 governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and
grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty,
and holiness.
True life eternal
246:27 Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the
demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal.
Let us then shape our views of existence into
246:30 loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather
than into age and blight.
Acute and chronic beliefs reproduce their own types. 247:1 The acute belief of physical life comes on at a remote period, and is not so disastrous as the chronic belief.
Eyes and teeth renewed
247:3 I have seen age regain two of the elements it had lost,
sight and teeth. A woman of eighty-five, whom I knew,
had a return of sight. Another woman at
247:6 ninety had new teeth, incisors, cuspids, bi-
cuspids, and one molar. One man at sixty
had retained his full set of upper and lower teeth without
247:9 a decaying cavity.
Eternal beauty
Beauty, as well as truth, is eternal; but the beauty
of material things passes away, fading and fleeting as
247:12 mortal belief. Custom, education, and fashion
form the transient standards of mortals. Im-
mortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its
247:15 own, - the radiance of Soul. Immortal men and women
are models of spiritual sense, drawn by perfect Mind
and reflecting those higher conceptions of loveliness
247:18 which transcend all material sense.
The divine loveliness
Comeliness and grace are independent of matter. Be- ing possesses its qualities before they are perceived hu- 247:21 manly. Beauty is a thing of life, which dwells forever in the eternal Mind and re- flects the charms of His goodness in expression, form, 247:24 outline, and color. It is Love which paints the petal with myriad hues, glances in the warm sunbeam, arches the cloud with the bow of beauty, blazons the night with 247:27 starry gems, and covers earth with loveliness.
The embellishments of the person are poor substitutes
for the charms of being, shining resplendent and eternal
247:30 over age and decay.
The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and
more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure
248:1 in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious free-
dom of spiritual harmony.
Love’s endowment
248:3 Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon
its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less
than beautiful. Men and women of riper
248:6 years and larger lessons ought to ripen into
health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness
or gloom. Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal
248:9 freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images
of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each
day brings to a nearer tomb.
Mental sculpture
248:12 The sculptor turns from the marble to his model in order to perfect his conception. We are all sculptors, working at various forms, moulding and chisel- 248:15 ing thought. What is the model before mortal mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering? Have you accepted the mortal model? Are you repro- 248:18 ducing it? Then you are haunted in your work by vicious sculptors and hideous forms. Do you not hear from all mankind of the imperfect model? The world is holding 248:21 it before your gaze continually. The result is that you are liable to follow those lower patterns, limit your life- work, and adopt into your experience the angular outline 248:24 and deformity of matter models.
Perfect models
To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right
direction, and then walk that way. We must form perfect
248:27 models in thought and look at them continually,
or we shall never carve them out in grand and
noble lives. Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice,
248:30 health, holiness, love - the kingdom of heaven - reign
within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until
they finally disappear.
249:1 Let us accept Science, relinquish all theories based on sense-testimony, give up imperfect models and illusive 249:3 ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that one perfect, producing His own models of excellence.
Renewed selfhood
Let the “male and female” of God’s creating appear.
249:6 Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into
newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor
material power as able to destroy. Let us re-
249:9 joice that we are subject to the divine “powers that be.”
Such is the true Science of being. Any other theory of
Life, or God, is delusive and mythological.
249:12 Mind is not the author of matter, and the creator of
ideas is not the creator of illusions. Either there is no
omnipotence, or omnipotence is the only power. God is
249:15 the infinite, and infinity never began, will never end, and
includes nothing unlike God. Whence then is soulless
matter?
Illusive dreams
249:18 Life is, like Christ, “the same yesterday, and to-day,
and forever.” Organization and time have nothing to do
with Life. You say, “I dreamed last night.”
249:21 What a mistake is that! The I is Spirit. God
never slumbers, and His likeness never dreams. Mortals
are the Adam dreamers.
249:24 Sleep and apath are phases of the dream that life, sub- stance, and intelligence are material. The mortal night- dream is sometimes nearer the fact of being than are the 249:27 thoughts of mortals when awake. The night-dream has less matter as its accompaniment. It throws off some material fetters. It falls short of the skies, but makes its 249:30 mundane flights quite ethereal.
Philosophical blunders
Man is the reflection of Soul. He is the direct oppo-
site of material sensation, and there is but one Ego. We
250:1 run into error when we divide Soul into souls, multiply
Mind into minds and suppose error to be mind, then mind
250:3 to be in matter and matter to be a lawgiver,
unintelligence to act like intelligence, and mor-
tality to be the matrix of immortality.
Spirit the one Ego
250:6 Mortal existence is a dream; mortal existence has no real entity, but saith “It is I.” Spirit is the Ego which never dreams, but understands all things; 250:9 which never errs, and is ever conscious; which never believes, but knows; which is never born and never dies. Spiritual man is the likeness of this Ego. 250:12 Man is not God, but like a ray of light which comes from the sun, man, the outcome of God, reflects God.
Mortal existence a dream
Mortal body and mind are one, and that one is called 250:15 man; but a mortal is not man, for man is immortal. A mortal may be weary or pained, enjoy or suffer, according to the dream he entertains in sleep. 250:18 When that dream vanishes, the mortal finds himself experiencing none of these dream-sensations. To the observer, the body lies listless, undisturbed, and sensa- 250:21 tionless, and the mind seems to be absent.
Now I ask, Is there any more reality in the waking dream of mortal existence than in the sleeping dream? 250:24 There cannot be, since whatever appears to be a mortal man is a mortal dream. Take away the mortal mind, and matter has no more sense as a man than it has as 250:27 a tree. But the spiritual, real man is immortal.
Upon this stage of existence goes on the dance of mortal mind. Mortal thoughts chase one another like snowflakes, 250:30 and drift to the ground. Science reveals Life as not being at the mercy of death, nor will Science admit that happi- ness is ever the sport of circumstance.
Error self-destroyed
251:1 Error is not real, hence it is not more imperative
as it hastens towards self-destruction. The so-called
251:3 belief of mortal mind apparent as an abscess
should not grow more painful before it suppu-
rates neither should a fever become more severe before
251:6 it ends.
Illusion of death
Fright is so great at certain stages of mortal belief
as to drive belief into new paths. In the illusion of
251:9 death, mortals wake to the knowledge of two
facts: (1) that they are not dead; (2) that
they have but passed the portals of a new belief. Truth
251:12 works out the nothingness of error in just these ways.
Sickness, as well as sin, is an error that Christ, Truth,
alone can destroy.
Mortal mind’s disappearance
251:15 We must learn how mankind govern the body, -
whether through faith in hygiene, in drugs, or in will-
power. We should learn whether they govern
251:18 the body through a belief in the necessity of
sickness and death, sin and pardon, or govern
it from the higher understanding that the divine Mind
251:21 makes perfect, acts upon the so-called human mind
through truth, leads the human mind to relinquish all
error, to find the divine Mind to be the only Mind,
251:24 and the healer of sin, disease, death. This process of
higher spiritual understanding improves mankind until
error disappears, and nothing is left which deserves to
251:27 perish or to be punished.
Spiritual ignorance
Ignorance, like intentional wrong, is not Science.
Ignorance must be seen and corrected before we can at-
251:30 tain harmony. Inharmonious beliefs, which
rob Mind, calling it matter, and deify their
own notions, imprison themselves in what they create.
252:1 They are at war with Science, and as our Master said,
“If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom
252:3 cannot stand.”
Human ignorance of Mind and of the recuperative energies of Truth occasions the only skepticism regard- 252:6 ing the pathology and theology of Christian Science.
Eternal man recognized
When false human beliefs learn even a little of their
own falsity, they begin to disappear. A knowledge of
252:9 error and of its operations must precede that
understanding of Truth which destroys error,
until the entire mortal, material error finally disappears,
252:12 and the eternal verity, man created by and of Spirit,
is understood and recognized as the true likeness of his
Maker.
252:15 The false evidence of material sense contrasts strikingly with the testimony of Spirit. Material sense lifts its voice with the arrogance of reality and says:
Testimony of sense
252:18 I am wholly dishonest, and no man knoweth it. I can
cheat, lie, commit adultery, rob, murder, and I elude
detection by smooth-tongued villainy. Ani-
252:21 mal in propensity, deceitful in sentiment,
fraudulent in purpose, I mean to make my short span
of life one gala day. What a nice thing is sin! How
252:24 sin succeeds, where the good purpose waits! The world
is my kingdom. I am enthroned in the gorgeousness
of matter. But a touch, an accident, the law of God,
252:27 may at any moment annihilate my peace, for all my
fancied joys are fatal. Like bursting lava, I expand but
to my own despair, and shine with the resplendency of
252:30 consuming fire.
Testimony of Soul
Spirit, bearing opposite testimony, saith:
I am Spirit. Man, whose senses are spiritual, is my
253:1 likeness. He reflects the infinite understanding, for I am
Infinity. The beauty of holiness, the perfection of being,
253:3 imperishable glory, - all are Mine, for I am
God. I give immortality to man, for I am
Truth. I include and impart all bliss, for I am Love.
253:6 I give life, without beginning and without end, for I am
Life. I am supreme and give all, for I am Mind. I am
the substance of all, because I AM THAT I AM.
Heaven-bestowed prerogative
253:9 I hope, dear reader, I am leading you into the under-
standing of your divine rights, your heaven-bestowed har-
mony, - that, as you read, you see there is no
253:12 cause (outside of erring, mortal, material sense
which is not power) able to make you sick or
sinful; and I hope that you are conquering this false sense.
253:15 Knowing the falsity of so-called material sense, you can
assert your prerogative to overcome the belief in sin, dis-
ease, or death.
Right endeavor possible
253:18 If you believe in and practise wrong knowingly, you
can at once change your course and do right. Matter can
make no opposition to right endeavors against
253:21 sin or sickness, for matter is inert, mindless.
Also, if you believe yourself diseased, you can
alter this wrong belief and action without hindrance from
253:24 the body.
Do not believe in any supposed necessity for sin, dis- ease, or death, knowing (as you ought to know) that God 253:27 never requires obedience to a so-called material law, for no such law exists. The belief in sin and death is de- stroyed by the law of God, which is the law of Life in- 253:30 stead of death, of harmony instead of discord, of Spirit instead of the flesh.
Patience and final perfection
The divine demand, “Be ye therefore perfect,” is sci- 254:1 entific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are indispensable. Individuals are consistent who, watching 254:3 and praying, can “run, and not be weary;... walk, and not faint,” who gain good rapidly and hold their position, or attain slowly and 254:6 yield not to discouragement. God requires perfection, but not until the battle between Spirit and flesh is fought and the victory won. To stop eating, drinking, or being 254:9 clothed materially before the spiritual facts of existence are gained step by step, is not legitimate. When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs 254:12 our path. Imperfect mortals grasp the ultimate of spir- itual perfection slowly; but to /begin/ aright and to con- tinue the strife of demonstrating the great problem of 254:15 being, is doing much.
During the sensual ages, absolute Christian Science
may not be achieved prior to the change called death,
254:18 for we have not the power to demonstrate what we do
not understand. But the human self must be evangel-
ized. This task God demands us to accept lovingly
254:21 to-day, and to abandon so fast as practical the material,
and to work out the spiritual which determines the out-
ward and actual.
254:24 If you venture upon the quiet surface of error and are in sympathy with error, what is there to disturb the waters? What is there to strip off error’s disguise?
The cross and crown
254:27 If you launch your bark upon the ever-agitated but
healthful waters of truth, you will encounter storms.
Your good will be evil spoken of. This is the
254:30 cross. Take it up and bear it, for through it
you win and wear the crown. Pilgrim on earth, thy home
is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God.