Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 57

390:27 "Agree to disagree" with approaching symptoms of chronic or acute disease, whether it is cancer, consump- tion, or smallpox. Meet the incipient stages 390:30 of disease with as powerful mental opposi- tion as a legislator would employ to defeat the pa.s.sage of an inhuman law. Rise in the conscious strength of the 391:1 spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind, _alias_ matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit.

391:3 Blot out the images of mortal thought and its beliefs in sickness and sin. Then, when thou art delivered to the judgment of Truth, Christ, the judge will say, "Thou 391:6 art whole!"

Righteous rebellion

Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against 391:9 them. Banish the belief that you can possi- bly entertain a single intruding pain which can- not be ruled out by the might of Mind, and in this way 391:12 you can prevent the development of pain in the body.

No law of G.o.d hinders this result. It is error to suffer for aught but your own sins. Christ, or Truth, will de- 391:15 stroy all other supposed suffering, and real suffering for your own sins will cease in proportion as the sin ceases.

Contradict error

Justice is the moral signification of law. Injustice de- 391:18 clares the absence of law. When the body is supposed to say, "I am sick," never plead guilty. Since matter cannot talk, it must be mortal mind 391:21 which speaks; therefore meet the intimation with a pro- test. If you say, "I am sick," you plead guilty. Then your adversary will deliver you to the judge (mortal 391:24 mind), and the judge will sentence you. Disease has no intelligence to declare itself something and announce its name. Mortal mind alone sentences itself. Therefore 391:27 make your own terms with sickness, and be just to yourself and to others.

Sin to be overcome

Mentally contradict every complaint from the body, 391:30 and rise to the true consciousness of Life as Love, - as all that is pure, and bearing the fruits of Spirit. Fear is the fountain of sickness, 392:1 and you master fear and sin through divine Mind; hence it is through divine Mind that you overcome disease.

392:3 Only while fear or sin remains can it bring forth death.

To cure a bodily ailment, every broken moral law should be taken into account and the error be rebuked. Fear, 392:6 which is an element of all disease, must be cast out to readjust the balance for G.o.d. Casting out evil and fear enables truth to outweigh error. The only course is to 392:9 take antagonistic grounds against all that is opposed to the health, holiness, and harmony of man, G.o.d's image.

Illusions about nerves

The physical affirmation of disease should always be 392:12 met with the mental negation. Whatever benefit is pro- duced on the body, must be expressed men- tally, and thought should be held fast to this 392:15 ideal. If you believe in inflamed and weak nerves, you are liable to an attack from that source. You will call it neuralgia, but we call it a belief. If you think that con- 392:18 sumption is hereditary in your family, you are liable to the development of that thought in the form of what is termed pulmonary disease, unless Science shows you 392:21 otherwise. If you decide that climate or atmosphere is unhealthy, it will be so to you. Your decisions will mas- ter you, whichever direction they take.

Guarding the door

392:24 Reverse the case. Stand porter at the door of thought.

Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself har- 392:27 moniously. When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office 392:30 as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears.

Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them. The issues of pain or 393:1 pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forget- 393:3 ting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance.

The strength of Spirit

The body seems to be self-acting, only because mortal mind is ignorant of itself, of its own actions, and of their 393:6 results, - ignorant that the predisposing, re- mote, and exciting cause of all bad effects is a law of so-called mortal mind, not of matter. Mind is the 393:9 master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness, sin, and death. Exercise this G.o.d-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action.

393:12 Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. G.o.d has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on 393:15 man.

No pain in matter

Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs, and that in Science man reflects G.o.d's govern- 393:18 ment. Have no fear that matter can ache, swell, and be inflamed as the result of a law of any kind, when it is self-evident that matter can have 393:21 no pain nor inflammation. Your body would suffer no more from tension or wounds than the trunk of a tree which you gash or the electric wire which you stretch, 393:24 were it not for mortal mind.

When Jesus declares that "the light of the body is the eye," he certainly means that light depends upon Mind, 393:27 not upon the complex humors, lenses, muscles, the iris and pupil, const.i.tuting the visual organism.

No real disease

Man is never sick, for Mind is not sick and matter 393:30 cannot be. A false belief is both the tempter and the tempted, the sin and the sinner, the disease and its cause. It is well to be calm in sickness; 394:1 to be hopeful is still better; but to understand that sick- ness is not real and that Truth can destroy its seeming 394:3 reality, is best of all, for this understanding is the uni- versal and perfect remedy.

Recuperation mental

By conceding power to discord, a large majority of 394:6 doctors depress mental energy, which is the only real recuperative power. Knowledge that we can accomplish the good we hope for, stimu- 394:9 lates the system to act in the direction which Mind points out. The admission that any bodily condition is beyond the control of Mind disarms man, prevents him from 394:12 helping himself, and enthrones matter through error. To those struggling with sickness, such admissions are dis- couraging, - as much so as would be the advice to a man 394:15 who is down in the world, that he should not try to rise above his difficulties.

Experience has proved to the author the fallacy of 394:18 material systems in general, - that their theories are sometimes pernicious, and that their denials are better than their affirmations. Will you bid a man let evils 394:21 overcome him, a.s.suring him that all misfortunes are from G.o.d, against whom mortals should not contend? Will you tell the sick that their condition is hopeless, unless it 394:24 can be aided by a drug or climate? Are material means the only refuge from fatal chances? Is there no divine permission to conquer discord of every kind with harmony, 394:27 with Truth and Love?

Arguing wrongly

We should remember that Life is G.o.d, and that G.o.d is omnipotent. Not understanding Christian 394:30 Science, the sick usually have little faith in it till they feel its beneficent influence. This shows that faith is not the healer in such cases. The sick 395:1 unconsciously argue for suffering, instead of against it.

They admit its reality, whereas they should deny it.

395:3 They should plead in opposition to the testimony of the deceitful senses, and maintain man's immortality and eternal likeness to G.o.d.

Divine authority

395:6 Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak to disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to master the false evidences of the corporeal 395:9 senses and to a.s.sert its claims over mortal- ity and disease. The same Principle cures both sin and sickness. When divine Science overcomes faith in a car- 395:12 nal mind, and faith in G.o.d destroys all faith in sin and in material methods of healing, then sin, disease, and death will disappear.

Aids in sickness

395:15 Prayers, in which G.o.d is not asked to heal but is be- sought to take the patient to Himself, do not benefit the sick. An ill-tempered, complaining, or deceit- 395:18 ful person should not be a nurse. The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, - receptive to Truth and Love.

Mental quackery

395:21 It is mental quackery to make disease a reality - to hold it as something seen and felt - and then to attempt its cure through Mind. It is no less erroneous 395:24 to believe in the real existence of a tumor, a cancer, or decayed lungs, while you argue against their reality, than it is for your patient to feel these ills in 395:27 physical belief. Mental practice, which holds disease as a reality, fastens disease on the patient, and it may appear in a more alarming form.

Effacing images of disease

395:30 The knowledge that brain-lobes cannot kill a man nor affect the functions of mind would prevent the brain from becoming diseased, though a moral offence is indeed the 396:1 worst of diseases. One should never hold in mind the thought of disease, but should efface from 396:3 thought all forms and types of disease, both for one's own sake and for that of the patient.

Avoid talking disease

Avoid talking illness to the patient. Make no unne- 396:6 cessary inquiries relative to feelings or disease. Never startle with a discouraging remark about re- covery, nor draw attention to certain symp- 396:9 toms as unfavorable, avoid speaking aloud the name of the disease. Never say beforehand how much you have to contend with in a case, nor encourage in the patient's 396:12 thought the expectation of growing worse before a crisis is pa.s.sed.

False testimony refuted

The refutation of the testimony of material sense is 396:15 not a difficult task in view of the conceded falsity of this testimony. The refutation becomes arduous, not because the testimony of sin or disease is 396:18 true, but solely on account of the tenacity of belief in its truth, due to the force of education and the overwhelm- ing weight of opinions on the wrong side, - all teaching 396:21 that the body suffers, as if matter could have sensation.

Healthful explanation

At the right time explain to the sick the power which their beliefs exercise over their bodies. Give them divine 396:24 and wholesome understanding, with which to combat their erroneous sense, and so efface the images of sickness from mortal mind. Keep distinctly in 396:27 thought that man is the offspring of G.o.d, not of man; that man is spiritual, not material; that Soul is Spirit, outside of matter, never in it, never giving the body life 396:30 and sensation. It breaks the dream of disease to under- stand that sickness is formed by the human mind, not by matter nor by the divine Mind.

Misleading methods

397:1 By not perceiving vital metaphysical points, not seeing how mortal mind affects the body, - acting beneficially 397:3 or injuriously on the health, as well as on the morals and the happiness of mortals, - we are misled in our conclusions and methods. We throw the 397:6 mental influence on the wrong side, thereby actually in- juring those whom we mean to bless.

Remedy for accidents

Suffering is no less a mental condition than is enjoy- 397:9 ment. You cause bodily sufferings and increase them by admitting their reality and continuance, as directly as you enhance your joys by be- 397:12 lieving them to be real and continuous. When an ac- cident happens, you think or exclaim, "I am hurt!"

Your thought is more powerful than your words, more 397:15 powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury real.

Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt 397:18 and understand the reason why, and you will find the ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine meta- 397:21 physics, confidence in G.o.d as All, which the Scriptures declare Him to be.

Independent mentality

To heal the sick, one must be familiar with the great 397:24 verities of being. Mortals are no more material in their waking hours than when they act, walk, see, hear, enjoy, or suffer in dreams. We can 397:27 never treat mortal mind and matter separately, because they combine as one. Give up the belief that mind is, even temporarily, compressed within the skull, and 397:30 you will quickly become more manly or womanly. You will understand yourself and your Maker better than before.

Naming maladies