Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 30

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, a.s.signs sure rewards to righteousness, and shows that matter can 203:6 neither heal nor make sick, create nor destroy.

Our belief and understanding

If G.o.d 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 G.o.d," was really the justification of Jesus, for to the Christian the only true 203:12 spirit is G.o.dlike. This thought incites to a more exalted wors.h.i.+p and self-abnegation. Spiritual perception brings out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught 203:15 but G.o.d, and so makes man the image of his Maker in deed and in truth.

Suicide and sin

We are p.r.o.ne to believe either in more than one Su- 203:18 preme Ruler or in some power less than G.o.d. 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 sh.o.r.e of time; then the waves of sin, 203:30 sorrow, and death beat in vain.

G.o.d, divine good, does not kill a man in order to give him eternal Life, for G.o.d alone is man's life. G.o.d is at 204:1 once the centre and circ.u.mference 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 ent.i.ties 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d, one Mind or intelligence?

False and self-a.s.sertive theories have given sinners the 204:24 notion that they can create what G.o.d cannot, - namely, sinful mortals in G.o.d'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 G.o.d, the _all_ Mind.

204:30 The belief that G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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? G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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, G.o.d, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d send sickness, giving the mother her child for the brief s.p.a.ce of a few years and then taking it away 206:21 by death? Is G.o.d 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 G.o.d, and that it was _good_.

Can there be any birth or death for man, the spiritual image and likeness of G.o.d? Instead of G.o.d 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. G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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

G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d'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, G.o.d, produces disease and leaves the remedy to matter.

John Young of Edinburgh writes: "G.o.d 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