Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 35

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. Superst.i.tion, like "the fowls of the air," s.n.a.t.c.hes 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 G.o.ds, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d's will or the demands of divine Science and 241:3 obeys them, incurs the hostility of envy; and he who refuses obedience to G.o.d, 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 h.o.r.eb height where G.o.d is re- vealed; and the corner-stone of all spiritual building is 241:27 purity. The baptism of Spirit, was.h.i.+ng the body of all the impurities of flesh, signifies that the pure in heart see G.o.d 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 [G.o.d], 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, G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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 superst.i.tion appropriates no part of the divine vesture, while inspiration restores every part of the Christly gar- ment of righteousness.