Science & Health - Key to the Scriptures - Mary Baker Eddy

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and systems. Truth, heeding not the pointed bayonet, marches on; and there is a little tumult and some rallying to its standard. How true the poet's prophecy: —

      Thou must walk on, however man upbraid thee,

       With him who trod the wine-press all alone;

       Thou wilt not find one human hand to aid thee,

       One human heart to comprehend thine own.

      You may know that Truth is leading, by the fewness and faithfulness of its followers. Their work is quiet, like the “little leaven which a woman hid in three measures of meal.”

      A higher and practical Christianity, capable of meeting the want of mortals in sickness and in health, stands at the door of the age, knocking for admission. Will you open or close the door upon this angel visitant, who cometh as of old to the patriarch at eventide?

      Truth hoists the standard of freedom. It bears the elements of liberty. On its banner is the motto, “Slavery is abolished.” No power can withstand Divine Wisdom. What is this supposed power that opposes itself to God? Whence cometh it? What is it that would bind man with iron shackles to sickness, sin, and death? The power of God bringeth deliverance to the captive. Whatsoever enslaveth man is opposed to the divine government.

      There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence is all-powerful; and to acknowledge any other power is to dishonor God. The humble Nazarene rebelled against the supposition that sin, sickness, and death have power. He proved them powerless. It should have humbled the pride of the priests to behold the demonstration of Christianity so excel the influence of their ceremonies and dead faith.

      If Mind is not the master of sin, sickness, and death, they are immortal; for it is proven already that matter has not destroyed them; that, on the contrary, it is their basis and support.

      I hope, dear reader, I am leading you into the understanding of your divine rights and heaven-bestowed harmony; that, as you read, you see there can be no power (outside of erring mortal mind and your own belief) able to make you sick or a sinner, and that you are conquering this error. Knowing the falsity of material sense, you will assert your prerogative to overcome the belief that you are sick.

      The body is inanimate, inert, mindless. If you are believing and doing wrong knowingly, you can at once change your course and do right. So if you believe yourself sick, you can in like manner alter this wrong belief and action. Be faithless as to any supposed necessity for sin, sickness, or death; knowing, as you ought to know, that God never made, or caused to be obeyed, a law of sin, of sickness, or of death. Each of those the law of God destroys, for it is the law of Life instead of death, of harmony instead of discord.

      It is vain to plead ignorance of this Divine Science that destroys all human discord, when you can readily acquire its understanding and demonstration. It is foolish to say that you doubt if there is a Divine Science in perfect harmony with God, its Principle (a Science which, understood and demonstrated, would destroy all discord), when you admit that God is omnipotent; for from this premise it follows that good, and its sweet concords, have all power.

      There is no place or opportunity in Science for error of any sort. Every day makes its demands upon us for higher proofs, rather than professions, of Christianity, for this is the part of progress; and progress is the law of God, and His law demands only what we can meet and fulfil.

      Mind is perpetual motion. Its symbol is the sphere. The rotations and revolutions of mortal mind are now going on, though often unconsciously. Mortals move onward towards good or evil, as time glides on. If not progressing, the past must be repeated until its poor work is effaced and rectified. If at present satisfied with wrong-doing, we must become dissatisfied with it. If at present content with idleness, we must loathe this leisure.

      In this undoing of the errors of sense, here or hereafter, one must pay the utmost farthing, in order to bring the body into subjection to Spirit. Unwinding one's snarls, learning from experience, dividing (through pangs unspeakable) between error and Truth — these are the divine methods of paying the wages of sin.

      “Those whom He loveth He chasteneth.” He who knows the demands of Divine Science, and yet refuses obedience thereto, shall be beaten with many stripes.

      Vegetarianism, homœopathy, and hydropathy have diminished drugging; but if drugs are an antidote to disease, why lessen the antidote? If drugs are good things, is it safe to say that the less you have of them the better? If drugs possess intrinsic curative qualities, those qualities must be mental. Who named them, and what made them good or bad, beneficial or injurious to mortals? Matter is not self-creative, being unintelligent; and mortal mind constitutes the only power a drug can possess.

      Christian Science is sunlight to the body. It invigorates and purifies. It acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions, expels humors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores carious bones to soundness. The effects of this Science are to stir the human mind to a change of base, whereby it may yield to the Divine Mind.

      Wrong and right will be at strife until victory rests on the side of immutable right. Mental chemicalization (to coin a word) follows the explanation of Truth, and a higher basis is won; but with some individuals the morbid moral and physical symptoms constantly reappear. I have never witnessed as decided effects from the use of material remedies as from the spiritual. There is a large class of thinkers whose bigotry and conceit twist every fact to suit themselves. Their central doctrine teaches belief in a mysterious and supernatural God, and in a supernatural all-powerful devil.

      Another class of people, still more unfortunate, are so depraved that they appear to be pictures of innocence, uttering a falsehood while looking you blandly in the face, and never failing to stab benefactors in the back.

      A third class of thinkers build with solid masonry, are generous, lofty, and open to the approach and recognition of Truth. To teach Christian Science to such as these is no task. They are not inclined longingly to error, or prone to whine over the demands of Truth.

      Society is a silly juror, listening only to one side of the case. Honesty often comes too late to a verdict. People with work to do have no time to gossip with law or testimony. To reconstruct timid justice, and place the fact above the falsehood, is the work of time.

      To talk rightly and live wrongly is foolish deceit, doing one's self the most harm. The best detective of individual character is the first impression made on a mind that is attracted or repelled according to personal merit or demerit.

      The impure are at peace with the impure. Only virtue is a rebuke to vice. A Christian Scientist dealing with the sick or the sinful, and not improving the health of the one or the morals of the other, is at fault, — a Scientist only in name.

      Some people yield more slowly than others to the touch of Truth. They seldom yield without a struggle, and often are reluctant to acknowledge that they have yielded; but unless this is done, the evil will boast itself above the good.

      Certain minds meet only to separate through simultaneous combustion. They are enemies without the preliminary offence.

      Walking in the light, we are accustomed to it and require it; we cannot see in darkness; but eyes accustomed to darkness are pained by the light.

      The floral apostles are hieroglyphics of Deity. Flowers and stars teach grand lessons. The stars make darkness beautiful, and the leaflet turns naturally towards the light.

      Outgrowing the old, fear not to put on the new. Your course may provoke envy, but will attract admiration also. When error confronts you, withhold not the rebuke or explanation that destroys it. Never breathe an immoral atmosphere, unless in the attempt to purify it.

      Right is radical. We soil our garments with conservatism, and have to scrub them clean. When the spiritual sense of being unfolds its harmonies to you, take no risks in the policies of error. Better is a frugal meal with contentment and virtue, than luxury with vice.

      Each individual has some influence. Let that weight be thrown into the right scale. The baneful effect of evil associates is less seen than felt. The inoculation of evil human thoughts ought to be understood and guarded against.

      The

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