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Science and
Health
with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Chapter 11
— Some Objections Answered
And because I tell you the
truth, ye believe me not. Which
of you convinceth me of sin? And
if I say the truth, why do ye not
believe me?
— JESUS.
But if the spirit of Him
that raised up Jesus from the
dead dwell in you, He that raised
up Christ from the dead shall
also quicken your mortal bodies
by His spirit that dwelleth in
you.
— PAUL.
The strictures on this volume
would condemn to oblivion the
truth, which is raising up
thousands from helplessness to
strength and elevating them from
a theoretical to a practical
Christianity. These criticisms
are generally based on detached
sentences or clauses separated
from their context. Even the
Scriptures, which grow in beauty
and consistency from one grand
root, appear contradictory when
subjected to such usage. Jesus
said, "Blessed are the pure in
heart: for they shall see God"
[Truth].
In Christian Science mere
opinion is valueless. Proof is
essential to a due estimate of
this subject. Sneers at the
application of the word
Science to Christianity
cannot prevent that from being
scientific which is based on
divine Principle, demonstrated
according to a divine given rule,
and subjected to proof. The facts
are so absolute and numerous in
support of Christian Science,
that misrepresentation and
denunciation cannot overthrow it.
Paul alludes to "doubtful
disputations." The hour has
struck when proof and
demonstration, instead of opinion
and dogma, are summoned to the
support of Christianity, "making
wise the simple."
In the result of some
unqualified condemnations of
scientific Mind-healing, one may
see with sorrow the sad effects
on the sick of denying Truth. He
that decries this Science does it
presumptuously, in the face of
Bible history and in defiance of
the direct command of Jesus, "Go
ye into all the world, and preach
the gospel," to which command was
added the promise that his
students should cast out evils
and heal the sick. He bade the
seventy disciples, as well as the
twelve, heal the sick in any town
where they should be hospitably
received.
If Christianity is not
scientific, and Science is not of
God, then there is no invariable
law, and truth becomes an
accident. Shall it be denied that
a system which works according to
the Scriptures has Scriptural
authority?
Christian Science awakens the
sinner, reclaims the infidel, and
raises from the couch of pain the
helpless invalid. It speaks to
the dumb the words of Truth, and
they answer with rejoicing. It
causes the deaf to hear, the lame
to walk, and the blind to see.
Who would be the first to disown
the Christliness of good works,
when our Master says, "By their
fruits ye shall know them"?
If Christian Scientists were
teaching or practising pharmacy
or obstetrics according to the
common theories, no denunciations
would follow them, even if their
treatment resulted in the death
of a patient. The people are
taught in such cases to say,
Amen. Shall I then be smitten for
healing and for teaching Truth as
the Principle of healing, and for
proving my word by my deed? James
said: "Show me thy faith without
thy works, and I will show thee
my faith by my works."
Is not finite mind ignorant of
God's method? This makes it
doubly unfair to impugn and
misrepresent the facts, although,
without this cross-bearing, one
might not be able to say with the
apostle, "None of these things
move me." The sick, the halt, and
the blind look up to Christian
Science with blessings, and Truth
will not be forever hidden by
unjust parody from the quickened
sense of the people.
Jesus strips all disguise from
error, when his teachings are
fully understood. By parable and
argument he explains the
impossibility of good producing
evil; and he also scientifically
demonstrates this great fact,
proving by what are wrongly
called miracles, that sin,
sickness, and death are beliefs
— illusive errors —
which he could and did
destroy.
It would sometimes seem as if
truth were rejected because
meekness and spirituality are the
conditions of its acceptance,
while Christendom generally
demands so much less.
Anciently those apostles who
were Jesus' students, as well as
Paul who was not one of his
students, healed the sick and
reformed the sinner by their
religion. Hence the mistake which
allows words, rather than works,
to follow such examples! Whoever
is the first meekly and
conscientiously to press along
the line of gospel-healing, is
often accounted a heretic.
It is objected to Christian
Science that it claims God as the
only absolute Life and Soul, and
man to be His idea, — that
is, His image. It should be added
that this is claimed to represent
the normal, healthful, and
sinless condition of man in
divine Science, and that this
claim is made because the
Scriptures say that God has
created man in His own image and
after His likeness. Is it
sacrilegious to assume that God's
likeness is not found in matter,
sin, sickness, and death?
Were it more fully understood
that Truth heals and that error
causes disease, the opponents of
a demonstrable Science would
perhaps mercifully withhold their
misrepresentations, which harm
the sick; and until the enemies
of Christian Science test its
efficacy according to the rules
which disclose its merits or
demerits, it would be just to
observe the Scriptural precept,
"Judge not."
There are various methods of
treating disease, which are not
included in the commonly accepted
systems; but there is only one
which should be presented to the
whole world, and that is the
Christian Science which Jesus
preached and practised and left
to us as his rich legacy.
Why should one refuse to
investigate this method of
treating disease? Why support the
popular systems of medicine, when
the physician may perchance be an
infidel and may lose
ninety-and-nine patients, while
Christian Science cures its
hundred? Is it because allopathy
and homoeopathy are more
fashionable and less
spiritual?
In the Bible the word
Spirit is so commonly
applied to Deity, that Spirit and
God are often regarded as
synonymous terms; and it is thus
they are uniformly used and
understood in Christian Science.
As it is evident that the
likeness of Spirit cannot be
material, does it not follow that
God cannot be in His unlikeness
and work through drugs to heal
the sick? When the omnipotence of
God is preached and His
absoluteness is set forth,
Christian sermons will heal the
sick.
It is sometimes said, in
criticising Christian Science,
that the mind which contradicts
itself neither knows itself nor
what it is saying. It is indeed
no small matter to know one's
self; but in this volume of mine
there are no contradictory
statements, — at least none
which are apparent to those who
understand its propositions well
enough to pass judgment upon
them. One who understands
Christian Science can heal the
sick on the divine Principle of
Christian Science, and this
practical proof is the only
feasible evidence that one does
understand this Science.
Anybody, who is able to
perceive the incongruity between
God's idea and poor humanity,
ought to be able to discern the
distinction (made by Christian
Science) between God's man, made
in His image, and the sinning
race of Adam.
The apostle says: "For if a
man think himself to be
something, when he is nothing, he
deceiveth himself." This thought
of human, material nothingness,
which Science inculcates, enrages
the carnal mind and is the main
cause of the carnal mind's
antagonism.
It is not the purpose of
Christian Science to "educate the
idea of God, or treat it for
disease," as is alleged by one
critic. I regret that such
criticism confounds man
with Adam. When man is spoken of
as made in God's image, it is not
sinful and sickly mortal man who
is referred to, but the ideal
man, reflecting God's
likeness.
It is sometimes said that
Christian Science teaches the
nothingness of sin, sickness, and
death, and then teaches how this
nothingness is to be saved and
healed. The nothingness of
nothing is plain; but we need to
understand that error is
nothing, and that its nothingness
is not saved, but must be
demonstrated in order to prove
the somethingness — yea, the
allness — of Truth. It is
self-evident that we are
harmonious only as we cease to
manifest evil or the belief that
we suffer from the sins of
others. Disbelief in error
destroys error, and leads to the
discernment of Truth. There are
no vacuums. How then can this
demonstration be "fraught with
falsities painful to behold"?
We treat error through the
understanding of Truth, because
Truth is error's antidote. If a
dream ceases, it is
self-destroyed, and the terror is
over. When a sufferer is
convinced that there is no
reality in his belief of pain,
— because matter has no
sensation, hence pain in matter
is a false belief, — how can
he suffer longer? Do you feel the
pain of tooth-pulling, when you
believe that nitrous-oxide gas
has made you unconscious? Yet, in
your concept, the tooth, the
operation, and the forceps are
unchanged.
Material beliefs must be
expelled to make room for
spiritual understanding. We
cannot serve both God and mammon
at the same time; but is not this
what frail mortals are trying to
do? Paul says: "The flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh." Who is
ready to admit this?
It is said by one critic, that
to verify this wonderful
philosophy Christian Science
declares that whatever is mortal
or discordant has no origin,
existence, nor realness. Nothing
really has Life but God, who is
infinite Life; hence all is Life,
and death has no dominion. This
writer infers that if anything
needs to be doctored, it must be
the one God, or Mind. Had he
stated his syllogism correctly,
the conclusion would be that
there is nothing left to be
doctored.
Critics should consider that
the so-called mortal man is not
the reality of man. Then they
would behold the signs of
Christ's coming. Christ, as the
spiritual or true idea of God,
comes now as of old, preaching
the gospel to the poor, healing
the sick, and casting out evils.
Is it error which is restoring an
essential element of
Christianity, — namely,
apostolic, divine healing? No; it
is the Science of Christianity
which is restoring it, and is the
light shining in darkness, which
the darkness comprehends not.
If Christian Science takes
away the popular gods, —
sin, sickness, and death, —
it is Christ, Truth, who destroys
these evils, and so proves their
nothingness.
The dream that matter and
error are something must yield to
reason and revelation. Then
mortals will behold the
nothingness of sickness and sin,
and sin and sickness will
disappear from consciousness. The
harmonious will appear real, and
the inharmonious unreal. These
critics will then see that error
is indeed the nothingness, which
they chide us for naming nothing
and which we desire neither to
honor nor to fear.
Medical theories virtually
admit the nothingness of
hallucinations, even while
treating them as disease; and who
objects to this? Ought we not,
then, to approve any cure, which
is effected by making the disease
appear to be — what it
really is — an illusion?
Here is the difficulty: it is
not generally understood how one
disease can be just as much a
delusion as another. It is a pity
that the medical faculty and
clergy have not learned this, for
Jesus established this
foundational fact, when devils,
delusions, were cast out and the
dumb spake.
Are we irreverent towards sin,
or imputing too much power to
God, when we ascribe to Him
almighty Life and Love? I deny
His cooperation with evil,
because I desire to have no faith
in evil or in any power but God,
good. Is it not well to eliminate
from so-called mortal mind that
which, so long as it remains in
mortal mind, will show itself in
forms of sin, sickness, and
death? Instead of tenaciously
defending the supposed rights of
disease, while complaining of the
suffering disease brings, would
it not be well to abandon the
defence, especially when by so
doing our own condition can be
improved and that of other
persons as well?
I have never supposed the
world would immediately witness
the full fruitage of Christian
Science, or that sin, disease,
and death would not be believed
for an indefinite time; but this
I do aver, that, as a result of
teaching Christian Science,
ethics and temperance have
received an impulse, health has
been restored, and longevity
increased. If such are the
present fruits, what will the
harvest be, when this Science is
more generally understood?
As Paul asked of the
unfaithful in ancient days, so
the rabbis of the present day ask
concerning our healing and
teaching, "Through breaking the
law, dishonorest thou God?" We
have the gospel, however, and our
Master annulled material law by
healing contrary to it. We
propose to follow the Master's
example. We should subordinate
material law to spiritual law.
Two essential points of Christian
Science are, that neither Life
nor man dies, and that God is not
the author of sickness.
The chief difficulty in
conveying the teachings of divine
Science accurately to human
thought lies in this, that like
all other languages, English is
inadequate to the expression of
spiritual conceptions and
propositions, because one is
obliged to use material terms in
dealing with spiritual ideas. The
elucidation of Christian Science
lies in its spiritual sense, and
this sense must be gained by its
disciples in order to grasp the
meaning of this Science. Out of
this condition grew the prophecy
concerning the Christian
apostles, "They shall speak with
new tongues."
Speaking of the things of
Spirit while dwelling on a
material plane, material terms
must be generally employed.
Mortal thought does not at once
catch the higher meaning, and can
do so only as thought is educated
up to spiritual apprehension. To
a certain extent this is equally
true of all learning, even that
which is wholly material.
In Christian Science,
substance is understood to be
Spirit, while the opponents of
Christian Science believe
substance to be matter. They
think of matter as something and
almost the only thing, and of the
things which pertain to Spirit as
next to nothing, or as very far
removed from daily experience.
Christian Science takes exactly
the opposite view.
To understand all our Master's
sayings as recorded in the New
Testament, sayings infinitely
important, his followers must
grow into that stature of manhood
in Christ Jesus which enables
them to interpret his spiritual
meaning. Then they know how Truth
casts out error and heals the
sick. His words were the
offspring of his deeds, both of
which must be understood. Unless
the works are comprehended which
his words explained, the words
are blind.
The Master often refused to
explain his words, because it was
difficult in a material age to
apprehend spiritual Truth. He
said: "This people's heart is
waxed gross, and their ears are
dull of hearing, and their eyes
they have closed; lest at any
time they should see with their
eyes, and hear with their ears,
and should understand with their
heart, and should be converted,
and I should heal them."
"The Word was made flesh."
Divine Truth must be known by its
effects on the body as well as on
the mind, before the Science of
being can be demonstrated. Hence
its embodiment in the incarnate
Jesus, — that life-link
forming the connection through
which the real reaches the
unreal, Soul rebukes sense, and
Truth destroys error.
In Jewish worship the Word was
materially explained, and the
spiritual sense was scarcely
perceived. The religion which
sprang from half-hidden
Israelitish history was pedantic
and void of healing power. When
we lose faith in God's power to
heal, we distrust the divine
Principle which demonstrates
Christian Science, and then we
cannot heal the sick. Neither can
we heal through the help of
Spirit, if we plant ourselves on
a material basis.
The author became a member of
the orthodox Congregational
Church in early years. Later she
learned that her own prayers
failed to heal her as did the
prayers of her devout parents and
the church; but when the
spiritual sense of the creed was
discerned in the Science of
Christianity, this spiritual
sense was a present help.
It was the living, palpitating
presence of Christ, Truth, which
healed the sick.
We cannot bring out the
practical proof of Christianity,
which Jesus required, while error
seems as potent and real to us as
Truth, and while we make a
personal devil and an
anthropomorphic God our
starting-points, —
especially if we consider Satan
as a being coequal in power with
Deity, if not superior to Him.
Because such starting-points are
neither spiritual nor scientific,
they cannot work out the
Spirit-rule of Christian healing,
which proves the nothingness of
error, discord, by demonstrating
the all-inclusiveness of
harmonious Truth.
The Israelites centred their
thoughts on the material in their
attempted worship of the
spiritual. To them matter was
substance, and Spirit was shadow.
They thought to worship Spirit
from a material standpoint, but
this was impossible. They might
appeal to Jehovah, but their
prayer brought down no proof that
it was heard, because they did
not sufficiently understand God
to be able to demonstrate His
power to heal, — to make
harmony the reality and discord
the unreality.
Our Master declared that his
material body was not spirit,
evidently considering it a mortal
and material belief of flesh and
bones, whereas the Jews took a
diametrically opposite view. To
Jesus, not materiality, but
spirituality, was the reality of
man's existence, while to the
rabbis the spiritual was the
intangible and uncertain, if not
the unreal.
Would a mother say to her
child, who is frightened at
imaginary ghosts and sick in
consequence of the fear: "I know
that ghosts are real. They exist,
and are to be feared; but you
must not be afraid of them"?
Children, like adults,
ought to fear a reality
which can harm them and which
they do not understand, for at
any moment they may become its
helpless victims; but instead of
increasing children's fears by
declaring ghosts to be real,
merciless, and powerful, thus
watering the very roots of
childish timidity, children
should be assured that their
fears are groundless, that ghosts
are not realities, but
traditional beliefs, erroneous
and man-made.
In short, children should be
told not to believe in ghosts,
because there are no such things.
If belief in their reality is
destroyed, terror of ghosts will
depart and health be restored.
The objects of alarm will then
vanish into nothingness, no
longer seeming worthy of fear or
honor. To accomplish a good
result, it is certainly not
irrational to tell the truth
about ghosts.
The Christianly scientific
real is the sensuous unreal. Sin,
disease, whatever seems real to
material sense, is unreal in
divine Science. The physical
senses and Science have ever been
antagonistic, and they will so
continue, till the testimony of
the physical senses yields
entirely to Christian
Science.
How can a Christian, having
the stronger evidence of Truth
which contradicts the evidence of
error, think of the latter as
real or true, either in the form
of sickness or of sin? All must
admit that Christ is "the way,
the truth, and the life," and
that omnipotent Truth certainly
does destroy error.
The age has not wholly
outlived the sense of ghostly
beliefs. It still holds them more
or less. Time has not yet reached
eternity, immortality, complete
reality. All the real is eternal.
Perfection underlies reality.
Without perfection, nothing is
wholly real. All things will
continue to disappear, until
perfection appears and reality is
reached. We must give up the
spectral at all points. We must
not continue to admit the
somethingness of superstition,
but we must yield up all belief
in it and be wise. When we learn
that error is not real, we shall
be ready for progress,
"forgetting those things which
are behind."
The grave does not banish the
ghost of materiality. So long as
there are supposed limits to
Mind, and those limits are human,
so long will ghosts seem to
continue. Mind is limitless. It
never was material. The true idea
of being is spiritual and
immortal, and from this it
follows that whatever is laid off
is the ghost, some unreal belief.
Mortal beliefs can neither
demonstrate Christianity nor
apprehend the reality of
Life.
Are the protests of Christian
Science against the notion that
there can be material life,
substance, or mind "utter
falsities and absurdities," as
some aver? Why then do Christians
try to obey the Scriptures and
war against "the world, the
flesh, and the devil"? Why do
they invoke the divine aid to
enable them to leave all for
Christ, Truth? Why do they use
this phraseology, and yet deny
Christian Science, when it
teaches precisely this thought?
The words of divine Science find
their immortality in deeds, for
their Principle heals the sick
and spiritualizes humanity.
On the other hand, the
Christian opponents of Christian
Science neither give nor offer
any proofs that their Master's
religion can heal the sick.
Surely it is not enough to cleave
to barren and desultory dogmas,
derived from the traditions of
the elders who thereunto have set
their seals.
Consistency is seen in example
more than in precept.
Inconsistency is shown by words
without deeds, which are like
clouds without rain. If our words
fail to express our deeds, God
will redeem that weakness, and
out of the mouth of babes He will
perfect praise. The night of
materiality is far spent, and
with the dawn Truth will waken
men spiritually to hear and to
speak the new tongue.
Sin should become unreal to
every one. It is in itself
inconsistent, a divided kingdom.
Its supposed realism has no
divine authority, and I rejoice
in the apprehension of this grand
verity.
The opponents of divine
Science must be charitable, if
they would be Christian. If the
letter of Christian Science
appears inconsistent, they should
gain the spiritual meaning of
Christian Science, and then the
ambiguity will vanish.
The charge of inconsistency in
Christianly scientific methods of
dealing with sin and disease is
met by something practical,
— namely, the proof of the
utility of these methods; and
proofs are better than mere
verbal arguments or prayers which
evince no spiritual power to
heal.
As for sin and disease,
Christian Science says, in the
language of the Master, "Follow
me; and let the dead bury their
dead." Let discord of every name
and nature be heard no more, and
let the harmonious and true sense
of Life and being take possession
of human consciousness.
What is the relative value of
the two conflicting theories
regarding Christian healing? One,
according to the commands of our
Master, heals the sick. The
other, popular religion, declines
to admit that Christ's religion
has exercised any systematic
healing power since the first
century.
The statement that the
teachings of Christian Science in
this work are "absolutely false,
and the most egregious fallacies
ever offered for acceptance," is
an opinion wholly due to a
misapprehension both of the
divine Principle and practice of
Christian Science and to a
consequent inability to
demonstrate this Science. Without
this understanding, no one is
capable of impartial or correct
criticism, because demonstration
and spiritual understanding are
God's immortal keynotes, proved
to be such by our Master and
evidenced by the sick who are
cured and by the sinners who are
reformed.
Strangely enough, we ask for
material theories in support of
spiritual and eternal truths,
when the two are so antagonistic
that the material thought must
become spiritualized before the
spiritual fact is attained.
So-called material existence
affords no evidence of spiritual
existence and immortality. Sin,
sickness, and death do not prove
man's entity or immortality.
Discord can never establish the
facts of harmony. Matter is not
the vestibule of Spirit.
Jesus reasoned on this subject
practically, and controlled
sickness, sin, and death on the
basis of his spirituality.
Understanding the nothingness of
material things, he spoke of
flesh and Spirit as the two
opposites, — as error and
Truth, not contributing in any
way to each other's happiness and
existence. Jesus knew, "It is the
spirit that quickeneth; the flesh
profiteth nothing."
There is neither a present nor
an eternal copartnership between
error and Truth, between flesh
and Spirit. God is as incapable
of producing sin, sickness, and
death as He is of experiencing
these errors. How then is it
possible for Him to create man
subject to this triad of errors,
— man who is made in the
divine likeness?
Does God create a material man
out of Himself, Spirit? Does evil
proceed from good? Does divine
Love commit a fraud on humanity
by making man inclined to sin,
and then punishing him for it?
Would any one call it wise and
good to create the primitive, and
then punish its derivative?
Does subsequent follow its
antecedent? It does. Was there
original self-creative sin? Then
there must have been more than
one creator, more than one God.
In common justice, we must admit
that God will not punish man for
doing what He created man capable
of doing, and knew from the
outset that man would do. God is
"of purer eyes than to behold
evil." We sustain Truth, not by
accepting, but by rejecting a
lie.
Jesus said of personified
evil, that it was "a liar, and
the father of it." Truth creates
neither a lie, a capacity to lie,
nor a liar. If mankind would
relinquish the belief that God
makes sickness, sin, and death,
or makes man capable of suffering
on account of this malevolent
triad, the foundations of error
would be sapped and error's
destruction ensured; but if we
theoretically endow mortals with
the creativeness and authority of
Deity, how dare we attempt to
destroy what He hath made, or
even to deny that God made man
evil and made evil good?
History teaches that the
popular and false notions about
the Divine Being and character
have originated in the human
mind. As there is in reality but
one God, one Mind, wrong notions
about God must have originated in
a false supposition, not in
immortal Truth, and they are
fading out. They are false
claims, which will eventually
disappear, according to the
vision of St. John in the
Apocalypse.
If what opposes God is real,
there must be two powers, and God
is not supreme and infinite. Can
Deity be almighty, if another
mighty and self-creative cause
exists and sways mankind? Has the
Father "Life in Himself," as the
Scriptures say, and, if so, can
Life, or God, dwell in evil and
create it? Can matter drive Life,
Spirit, hence, and so defeat
omnipotence?
Is the woodman's axe, which
destroys a tree's so-called life,
superior to omnipotence? Can a
leaden bullet deprive a man of
Life, — that is, of God, who
is man's Life? If God is at the
mercy of matter, then matter is
omnipotent. Such doctrines are
"confusion worse confounded." If
two statements directly
contradict each other and one is
true, the other must be false. Is
Science thus contradictory?
Christian Science, understood,
coincides with the Scriptures,
and sustains logically and
demonstratively every point it
presents. Otherwise it would not
be Science, and could not present
its proofs. Christian Science is
neither made up of contradictory
aphorisms nor of the inventions
of those who scoff at God. It
presents the calm and clear
verdict of Truth against error,
uttered and illustrated by the
prophets, by Jesus, by his
apostles, as is recorded
throughout the Scriptures.
Why are the words of Jesus
more frequently cited for our
instruction than are his
remarkable works? Is it not
because there are few who have
gained a true knowledge of the
great import to Christianity of
those works?
Sometimes it is said: "Rest
assured that whatever effect
Christian Scientists may have on
the sick, comes through rousing
within the sick a belief that in
the removal of disease these
healers have wonderful power,
derived from the Holy Ghost." Is
it likely that church-members
have more faith in some Christian
Scientist, whom they have perhaps
never seen and against whom they
have been warned, than they have
in their own accredited and
orthodox pastors, whom they have
seen and have been taught to love
and to trust?
Let any clergyman try to cure
his friends by their faith in
him. Will that faith heal them?
Yet Scientists will take the same
cases, and cures will follow. Is
this because the patients have
more faith in the Scientist than
in their pastor? I have healed
infidels whose only objection to
this method was, that I as a
Christian Scientist believed in
the Holy Spirit, while they, the
patients, did not.
Even though you aver that the
material senses are indispensable
to man's existence or entity, you
must change the human concept of
life, and must at length know
yourself spiritually and
scientifically. The evidence of
the existence of Spirit, Soul, is
palpable only to spiritual sense,
and is not apparent to the
material senses, which cognize
only that which is the opposite
of Spirit.
True Christianity is to be
honored wherever found, but when
shall we arrive at the goal which
that word implies? From Puritan
parents, the discoverer of
Christian Science early received
her religious education. In
childhood, she often listened
with joy to these words, falling
from the lips of her saintly
mother, "God is able to raise you
up from sickness;" and she
pondered the meaning of that
Scripture she so often quotes:
"And these signs shall follow
them that believe; . . . they
shall lay hands on the sick, and
they shall recover."
A Christian Scientist and an
opponent are like two artists.
One says: "I have spiritual
ideals, indestructible and
glorious. When others see them as
I do, in their true light and
loveliness, — and know that
these ideals are real and eternal
because drawn from Truth, —
they will find that nothing is
lost, and all is won, by a right
estimate of what is real."
The other artist replies: "You
wrong my experience. I have no
mind-ideals except those which
are both mental and material. It
is true that materiality renders
these ideals imperfect and
destructible; yet I would not
exchange mine for thine, for mine
give me such personal pleasure,
and they are not so shockingly
transcendental. They require less
self-abnegation, and keep Soul
well out of sight. Moreover, I
have no notion of losing my old
doctrines or human opinions."
Dear reader, which
mind-picture or externalized
thought shall be real to you,
— the material or the
spiritual? Both you cannot have.
You are bringing out your own
ideal. This ideal is either
temporal or eternal. Either
Spirit or matter is your model.
If you try to have two models,
then you practically have none.
Like a pendulum in a clock, you
will be thrown back and forth,
striking the ribs of matter and
swinging between the real and the
unreal.
Hear the wisdom of Job, as
given in the excellent
translation of the late Rev.
George R. Noyes, D.D.: —
Shall mortal man be more just
than God? Shall man be more pure
than his Maker? Behold, He
putteth no trust in His
ministering spirits, And His
angels He chargeth with
frailty.
Of old, the Jews put to death
the Galilean Prophet, the best
Christian on earth, for the truth
he spoke and demonstrated, while
to-day, Jew and Christian can
unite in doctrine and
denomination on the very basis of
Jesus' words and works. The Jew
believes that the Messiah or
Christ has not yet come; the
Christian believes that Christ is
God. Here Christian Science
intervenes, explains these
doctrinal points, cancels the
disagreement, and settles the
question. Christ, as the true
spiritual idea, is the ideal of
God now and forever, here and
everywhere. The Jew who believes
in the First Commandment is a
monotheist; he has one
omnipresent God. Thus the Jew
unites with the Christian's
doctrine that God is come and is
present now and forever. The
Christian who believes in the
First Commandment is a
monotheist. Thus he virtually
unites with the Jew's belief in
one God, and recognizes that
Jesus Christ is not God, as Jesus
himself declared, but is the Son
of God. This declaration of
Jesus, understood, conflicts not
at all with another of his
sayings: "I and my Father are
one," — that is, one in
quality, not in quantity. As a
drop of water is one with the
ocean, a ray of light one with
the sun, even so God and man,
Father and son, are one in being.
The Scripture reads: "For in Him
we live, and move, and have our
being."
I have revised SCIENCE AND
HEALTH only to give a clearer and
fuller expression of its original
meaning. Spiritual ideas unfold
as we advance. A human perception
of divine Science, however
limited, must be correct in order
to be Science and subject to
demonstration. A germ of infinite
Truth, though least in the
kingdom of heaven, is the higher
hope on earth, but it will be
rejected and reviled until God
prepares the soil for the seed.
That which when sown bears
immortal fruit, enriches mankind
only when it is understood,
— hence the many readings
given the Scriptures, and the
requisite revisions of SCIENCE
AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE
SCRIPTURES.
Go
to Chapter 12: Christian Science
Practice
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