Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures - Mary Baker Eddy (golden son ebook txt) 📗

marking out the path for generations yet unborn.

 

The thunder of Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount 174:18 are pursuing and will overtake the ages, rebuking in

their course all error and proclaiming the kingdom of

heaven on earth. Truth is revealed. It needs only to 174:21 be practised.

 

Medical errors

 

Mortal belief is all that enables a drug to cure mortal

ailments. Anatomy admits that mind is somewhere in 174:24 man, though out of sight. Then, if an individual is sick, why treat the body alone and

administer a dose of despair to the mind? Why declare 174:27 that the body is diseased, and picture this disease to the

mind, rolling it under the tongue as a sweet morsel and

holding it before the thought of both physician and pa-174:30 tient? We should understand that the cause of disease

obtains in the mortal human mind, and its cure comes

from the immortal divine Mind. We should prevent the 175:1 images of disease from taking form in thought, and we

should efface the outlines of disease already formulated in 175:3 the minds of mortals.

 

Novel Diseases

 

When there are fewer prescriptions, and less thought is

given to sanitary subjects, there will be better 175:6 constitutions and less disease. In old times

who ever heard of dyspepsia, cerebro-spinal meningitis,

hay-fever, and rose-cold?

175:9 What an abuse of natural beauty to say that a rose,

the smile of God, can produce suffering! The joy of its

presence, its beauty and fragrance, should uplift the 175:12 thought, and dissuade any sense of fear or fever. It is

profane to fancy that the perfume of clover and the breath

of new-mown hay can cause glandular inflammation, 175:15 sneezing, and nasal pangs.

 

No ancestral dyspepsia

 

If a random thought, calling itself dyspepsia, had

tried to tyrannize over our forefathers, it would have 175:18 been routed by their independence and in—

dustry. Then people had less time for selfishness, coddling, and sickly after-dinner talk. The ex-175:21 act amount of food the stomach could digest was not

discussed according to Cutter nor referred to sanitary

laws. A man’s belief in those days was not so severe 175:24 upon the gastric juices. Beaumont’s “Medical Experiments” did not govern the digestion.

 

Pulmonary misbeliefs

 

Damp atmosphere and freezing snow empurpled the 175:27 plump cheeks of our ancestors, but they never indulged

in the refinement of inflamed bronchial tubes.

They were as innocent as Adam, before he ate 175:30 the fruit of false knowledge, of the existence of tubercles

and troches, lungs and lozenges.

 

Our modern Eves

 

“Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise,” says 176:1 the English poet, and there is truth in his sentiment. The

action of mortal mind on the body was not so injurious 176:3 before inquisitive modern Eves took up the

study of medical works and unmanly Adams

attributed their own downfall and the fate of their off-176:6 spring to the weakness of their wives.

 

The primitive custom of taking no thought about

food left the stomach and bowels free to act in obedi-176:9 ence to nature, and gave the gospel a chance to be seen

in its glorious effects upon the body. A ghastly array of

diseases was not paraded before the imagination. There 176:12 were fewer books on digestion and more “sermons in

stones, and good in everything.” When the mechanism

of the human mind gives place to the divine Mind, self-176:15 ishness and sin, disease and death, will lose their

foothold.

 

Human fear of miasma would load with disease the 176:18 air of Eden, and weigh down mankind with superimposed

and conjectural evils. Mortal mind is the worst foe of

the body, while divine Mind is its best friend.

 

Diseases not to be classified

176:21 Should all cases of organic disease be treated by a

regular practitioner, and the Christian Scientist try

truth only in cases of hysteria, hypochon-176:24 dria, and hallucination? One disease is no

more real than another. All disease is the

result of education, and disease can carry its ill-effects 176:27 no farther than mortal mind maps out the way. The

human mind, not matter, is supposed to feel, suffer, enjoy. Hence decided types of acute disease are quite as 176:30 ready to yield to Truth as the less distinct type and chronic

form of disease. Truth handles the most malignant contagion with perfect assurance.

 

One basis for all sickness

177:1 Human mind produces what is termed organic disease as certainly as it produces hysteria, and it must re-177:3 linquish all its errors, sicknesses, and sins.

I have demonstrated this beyond all cavil.

The evidence of divine Mind’s healing power and abso-177:6 lute control is to me as certain as the evidence of my own

existence.

 

Mental and physical oneness

 

Mortal mind and body are one. Neither exists without 177:9 the other, and both must be destroyed by immortal Mind.

Matter, or body, is but a false concept of mortal mind. This so-called mind builds its own 177:12 superstructure, of which the material body is

the grosser portion; but from first to last, the body is a

sensuous, human concept.

 

The effect of names

177:15 In the Scriptural allegory of the material creation,

Adam or error, which represents the erroneous theory

of life and intelligence in matter, had the 177:18 naming of all that was material. These names

indicated matter’s properties, qualities, and forms. But

a lie, the opposite of Truth, cannot name the qualities and 177:21 effects of what is termed matter, and create the so-called

laws of the flesh, nor can a lie hold the preponderance

of power in any direction against God, Spirit and 177:24 Truth.

 

Poison defined mentally

 

If a dose of poison is swallowed through mistake, and

the patient dies even though physician and 177:27 patient are expecting favorable results, does

human belief, you ask, cause this death? Even

so, and as directly as if the poison had been intentionally 177:30 taken.

 

In such cases a few persons believe the potion swallowed by the patient to be harmless, but the vast ma-178:1 jority of mankind, though they know nothing of this particular case and this special person, believe the arsenic, 178:3 the strychnine, or whatever the drug used, to be poisonous, for it is set down as a poison by mortal mind.

Consequently, the result is controlled by the majority of 178:6 opinions, not by the infinitesimal minority of opinions in

the sick-chamber.

 

Heredity is not a law. The remote cause or belief 178:9 of disease is not dangerous because of its priority and

the connection of past mortal thoughts with present.

The predisposing cause and the exciting cause are 178:12 mental.

 

Perhaps an adult has a deformity produced prior to his

birth by the fright of his mother. When wrested from 178:15 human belief and based on Science or the divine Mind, to

which all things are possible, that chronic case is not

difficult to cure.

 

Animal magnetism destroyed

178:18 Mortal mind, acting from the basis of sensation in

matter, is animal magnetism; but this so-called mind,

from which comes all evil, contradicts itself, 178:21 and must finally yield to the eternal Truth, or

the divine Mind, expressed in Science. In proportion to our understanding of Christian Science, we are 178:24 freed from the belief of heredity, of mind in matter or animal magnetism; and we disarm sin of its imaginary power

in proportion to our spiritual understanding of the status 178:27 of immortal being.

 

Ignorant of the methods and the basis of metaphysical

healing, you may attempt to unite with it hypnotism, 178:30 spiritualism, electricity; but none of these methods can

be mingled with metaphysical healing.

 

Whoever reaches the understanding of Christian Science 179:1 in its proper signification will perform the sudden cures

of which it is capable; but this can be done only by 179:3 taking up the cross and following Christ in the daily

life.

 

Absent patients

 

Science can heal the sick, who are absent from their 179:6 healers, as well as those present, since space is no obstacle to Mind. Immortal Mind heals what eye

hath not seen; but the spiritual capacity to ap-179:9 prehend thought and to heal by the Truth-power, is won

only as man is found, not in self-righteousness, but reflecting the divine nature.

 

Horses mistaught

179:12 Every medical method has its advocates. The preference of mortal mind for a certain method creates a demand

for that method, and the body then seems to re-179:15 quire such treatment. You can even educate a

healthy horse so far in physiology that he will take cold

without his blanket, whereas the wild animal, left to his 179:18 instincts, sniffs the wind with delight. The epizootic is

a humanly evolved ailment, which a wild horse might

never have.

 

Medical works objectionable

179:21 Treatises on anatomy, physiology, and health, sustained

by what is termed material law, are the pro—

moters of sickness and disease. It should not 179:24 be proverbial, that so long as you read medical works you

will be sick.

 

The sedulous matron - studying her Jahr with homoe-179:27 opathic pellet and powder in hand, ready to put you

into a sweat, to move the bowels, or to produce sleep -

is unwittingly sowing the seeds of reliance on matter, 179:30 and her household may erelong reap the effect of this

mistake.

 

Descriptions of disease given by physicians and adver-180:1 tisements of quackery are both prolific sources of sickness.

As mortal mind is the husbandman of error, it should be 180:3 taught to do the body no harm and to uproot its false

sowing.

 

The invalid’s outlook

 

The patient sufferer tries to be satisfied when he sees 180:6 his would-be healers busy, and his faith in their efforts is

somewhat helpful to them and to himself; but

in Science one must understand the resusci-180:9 tating law of Life. This is the seed within itself bearing

fruit after its kind, spoken of in Genesis.

 

Physicians should not deport themselves as if Mind 180:12 were non-existent, nor take the ground that all causation

is matter, instead of Mind. Ignorant that the human

mind governs the body, its phenomenon, the invalid may 180:15 unwittingly add more fear to the mental reservoir already

overflowing with that emotion.

 

Wrong and right way

 

Doctors should not implant disease in the thoughts of 180:18 their patients, as they so frequently do, by declaring disease to be a fixed fact, even before they go to

work to eradicate the disease through the ma-180:21 terial faith which they inspire. Instead of furnishing

thought with fear, they should try to correct this turbulent

element of mortal mind by the influence of divine Love 180:24 which casteth out fear.

 

When man is governed by God, the ever-present

Mind who understands all things, man knows that with 180:27 God all things are possible. The only way to this

living Truth, which heals the sick, is found in the Science

of divine Mind as taught and demonstrated by Christ 180:30 Jesus.

The important decision

 

To reduce inflammation, dissolve a tumor, or cure organic disease, I have found divine Truth more potent than 181:1 all lower remedies. And why not, since Mind, God, is

the source and condition of all existence? Before decid-181:3 ing that the body, matter, is disordered, one

should ask, “Who art thou that repliest to

Spirit? Can matter speak for itself, or does 181:6 it hold the issues of life?” Matter, which can neither

suffer nor enjoy, has no partnership with pain and pleasure, but mortal belief has such a partnership.

 

Manipulation unscientific

181:9 When you manipulate patients, you trust in electricity

and magnetism more than in Truth; and for

that reason, you employ matter rather than 181:12 Mind. You weaken or destroy your power when