PAGE 201
 
Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants; how I do bear in my
bosom the reproach of all the mighty people; wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of Thine anointed. - PSALMS.
 
Practical preaching
 
1 THE best sermon ever preached is Truth practised 
and demonstrated by the destruction of sin, sickness,
3 and death. Knowing this and knowing too 
that one affection would be supreme in us and 
take the lead in our lives, Jesus said, "No man can serve
6 two masters." 
We cannot build safely on false foundations. Truth
makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away
 
9 and "all things are become new." Passions, selfishness, 
false appetites, hatred, fear, all sensuality, yield to spirit-
uality, and the superabundance of being is on the side
12 of God, good.
The uses of truth
We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be
emptied. Let us disrobe error. Then, when
 
15 the winds of God blow, we shall not hug our 
tatters close about us.
The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour
 
18 in truth through flood-tides of Love. Christian perfec-
tion is won on no other basis.
Grafting holiness upon unholiness, supposing that sin
PAGE 202 
 
 
1 can be forgiven when it is not forsaken, is as foolish as
straining out gnats and swallowing camels.
3 The scientific unity which exists between God and man
must be wrought out in life-practice, and God's will must
be universally done.
Divine study
 
6 If men would bring to bear upon the study of the
Science of Mind half the faith they bestow upon the so-
called pains and pleasures of material sense,
9 they would not go on from bad to worse,
until disciplined by the prison and the scaffold; but
the whole human family would be redeemed through
12 the merits of Christ, - through the perception and ac-
ceptance of Truth. For this glorious result Christian 
Science lights the torch of spiritual understanding. 
Harmonious life-work
 
15 Outside of this Science all is mutable; but immortal
man, in accord with the divine Principle of His being,
God, neither sins, suffers, nor dies. The days
18 of our pilgrimage will multiply instead of di- 
minish, when God's kingdom comes on earth; for the 
true way leads to life instead of to death, and earthly
21 experience discloses the finity of error and the infinite
capacities of Truth, in which God gives man dominion 
over all the earth.
Belief and practice
 
24 Our beliefs about a Supreme Being contradict the
practice growing out of them. Error abounds where
Truth should "much more abound." We
27 admit that God has almighty power, is "a 
very present help in trouble;" and yet we rely on a drug
or hypnotism to heal disease, as if senseless matter or err-
30 ing mortal mind had more power than omnipotent Spirit.
Sure reward of righteousness
Common opinion admits that a man may take cold in
the act of doing good, and that this cold may produce 
PAGE 203
 
 
1 fatal pulmonary disease; as though evil could overbear 
the law of Love, and check the reward for do-
3 ing good. In the Science of Christianity, Mind 
- omnipotence - has all-power, assigns sure 
rewards to righteousness, and shows that matter can
6 neither heal nor make sick, create nor destroy. 
Our belief and understanding
If God were understood instead of being merely be-
lieved, this understanding would establish health. The
 
9 accusation of the rabbis, "He made himself 
the Son of God," was really the justification 
of Jesus, for to the Christian the only true
12 spirit is Godlike. This thought incites to a more exalted 
worship and self-abnegation. Spiritual perception brings
out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught
15 but God, and so makes man the image of his Maker in
deed and in truth.
Suicide and sin
We are prone to believe either in more than one Su-
 
18 preme Ruler or in some power less than God. We im-
agine that Mind can be imprisoned in a sensuous body.
When the material body has gone to ruin, when evil has
21 overtaxed the belief of life in matter and destroyed it,
then mortals believe that the deathless Principle, or
Soul, escapes from matter and lives on; but this is not
24 true. Death is not a stepping-stone to life, immortality,
and bliss. The so-called sinner is a suicide. 
Sin kills the sinner and will continue to kill
27 him so long as he sins. The foam and fury of illegiti-
mate living and of fearful and doleful dying should 
disappear on the shore of time; then the waves of sin,
30 sorrow, and death beat in vain. 
 
God, divine good, does not kill a man in order to give
him eternal Life, for God alone is man's life. God is at
PAGE 204
 
 
1 once the centre and circumference of being. It is evil
that dies; good dies not.
Spirit the only intelligence and substance
 
3 All forms of error support the false conclusions that
there is more than one Life; that material history is as
real and living as spiritual history; that mortal
6 error is as conclusively mental as immortal
Truth; and that there are two separate, an-
tagonistic entities and beings, two powers, - namely,
9 Spirit and matter, - resulting in a third person (mortal
man) who carries out the delusions of sin, sickness, and
death.
12 The first power is admitted to be good, an intelligence or 
Mind called God. The so-called second power, evil, is the
unlikeness of good. It cannot therefore be mind, though
15 so called. The third power, mortal man, is a supposed
mixture of the first and second antagonistic powers, in-
telligence and non-intelligence, of Spirit and matter. 
Unscientific theories
 
18 Such theories are evidently erroneous. They can never
stand the test of Science. Judging them by their fruits,
they are corrupt. When will the ages under-
21 stand the Ego, and realize only one God, one 
Mind or intelligence?
False and self-assertive theories have given sinners the
 
24 notion that they can create what God cannot, - namely,
sinful mortals in God's image, thus usurping the name
without the nature of the image or reflection of divine
27 Mind; but in Science it can never be said that man
has a mind of his own, distinct from God, the all 
Mind.
30 The belief that God lives in matter is pantheistic. The
error, which says that Soul is in body, Mind is in matter,
and good is in evil, must unsay it and cease from such
PAGE 205
 
 
 
1 utterances; else God will continue to be hidden from hu-
manity, and mortals will sin without knowing that they
3 are sinning, will lean on matter instead of Spirit, stumble 
with lameness, drop with drunkenness, consume with dis-
case, - all because of their blindness, their false sense
6 concerning God and man. 
Creation perfect 
When will the error of believing that there is life in
matter, and that sin, sickness, and death are creations of
 
9 God, be unmasked? When will it be under- 
stood that matter has neither intelligence, life, 
nor sensation, and that the opposite belief is the prolific
12 source of all suffering? God created all through Mind, 
and made all perfect and eternal. Where then is the
necessity for recreation or procreation?
Perceiving the divine image
 
15 Befogged in error (the error of believing that matter 
can be intelligent for good or evil), we can catch clear
glimpses of God only as the mists disperse,
18 or as they melt into such thinness that we per- 
ceive the divine image in some word or deed
which indicates the true idea, - the supremacy and real-
21 ity of good, the nothingness and unreality of evil. 
Redemption from selfishness
When we realize that there is one Mind, the divine law
of loving our neighbor as ourselves is unfolded;
 
24 whereas a belief in many ruling minds hinders 
man's normal drift towards the one Mind, one 
God, and leads human thought into opposite channels
27 where selfishness reigns. 
 
Selfishness tips the beam of human existence towards 
the side of error, not towards Truth. Denial of the one-
30 ness of Mind throws our weight into the scale, not of 
Spirit, God, good, but of matter.
When we fully understand our relation to the Divine,
PAGE 206
 
1 we can have no other Mind but His, - no other Love,
wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no con-
3 sciousness of the existence of matter or error. 
Will-power unrighteous
The power of the human will should be exercised only
in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judg-
 
6 ment and free the lower propensities. It is the 
province of spiritual sense to govern man.
Material, erring, human thought acts injuriously both
9 upon the body and through it.
Will-power is capable of all evil. It can never heal
the sick, for it is the prayer of the unrighteous; while
 
12 the exercise of the sentiments - hope, faith, love - is the
prayer of the righteous. This prayer, governed by Science
instead of the senses, heals the sick.
15 In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that
whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with
the loaves and the fishes, - Spirit, not matter, being the
18 source of supply.
Birth and death unreal
Does God send sickness, giving the mother her child
for the brief space of a few years and then taking it away
 
21 by death? Is God creating anew what He
has already created? The Scriptures are defi-
nite on this point, declaring that His work was finished,
24 nothing is new to God, and that it was good. 
Can there be any birth or death for man, the spiritual
image and likeness of God? Instead of God sending
 
27 sickness and death, He destroys them, and brings to light
immortality. Omnipotent and infinite Mind made all
and includes all. This Mind does not make mistakes
30 and subsequently correct them. God does not cause man
to sin, to be sick, or to die.
No evil in Spirit
There are evil beliefs, often called evil spirits; but
PAGE 207 
 
 
1 these evils are not Spirit, for there is no evil in Spirit. 
Because God is Spirit, evil becomes more apparent and
3 obnoxious proportionately as we advance spir- 
itually, until it disappears from our lives. 
This fact proves our position, for every scientific state-
6 ment in Christianity has its proof. Error of statement 
leads to error in action.
Subordination of evil
God is not the creator of an evil mind. Indeed, evil
 
9 is not Mind. We must learn that evil is the awful decep- 
tion and unreality of existence. Evil is not 
supreme; good is not helpless; nor are the
12 so-called laws of matter primary, and the law of Spirit 
secondary. Without this lesson, we lose sight of the per-
fect Father, or the divine Principle of man.
Evident impossibilities
 
15 Body is not first and Soul last, nor is evil mightier than 
good. The Science of being repudiates self- 
evident impossibilities, such as the amalgama-
18 tion of Truth and error in cause or effect. Science sepa- 
rates the tares and wheat in time of harvest.
One primal cause
There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can
 
21 be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no 
reality in aught which does not proceed from 
this great and only cause. Sin, sickness, dis-
24 ease, and death belong not to the Science of being. They 
are the errors, which presuppose the absence of Truth,
Life, or Love.
27 The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things. 
The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the
whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth.
30 Spiritual facts are not inverted; the opposite discord, 
which bears no resemblance to spirituality, is not real.
The only evidence of this inversion is obtained from
PAGE 208 
 
 
1 suppositional error, which affords no proof of God,
Spirit, or of the spiritual creation. Material sense de-
3 fines all things materially, and has a finite sense of the
infinite.
Seemingly independent authority
The Scriptures say, "In Him we live, and move, and
 
6 have our being." What then is this seeming power, in-
dependent of God, which causes disease and
cures it? What is it but an error of belief, -
9 a law of mortal mind, wrong in every sense,
embracing sin, sickness, and death? It is the very anti-
pode of immortal Mind, of Truth, and of spiritual law.
12 It is not in accordance with the goodness of God's char-
acter that He should make man sick, then leave man to
heal himself; it is absurd to suppose that matter can both
15 cause and cure disease, or that Spirit, God, produces
disease and leaves the remedy to matter.
John Young of Edinburgh writes: "God is the father
 
18 of mind, and of nothing else." Such an utterance is
"the voice of one crying in the wilderness" of human
beliefs and preparing the way of Science. Let us learn
21 of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of
Spirit, the kingdom of heaven, - the reign and rule of
universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain
24 forever unseen.
Sickness as only thought
Mind, not matter, is causation. A material body
only expresses a material and mortal mind. A mortal
 
27 man possesses this body, and he makes it
harmonious or discordant according to the
images of thought impressed upon it. You embrace
30 your body in your thought, and you should delineate 
upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness. You should
banish all thoughts of disease and sin and of other beliefs
PAGE 209
 
 
1 included in matter. Man, being immortal, has a perfect 
indestructible life. It is the mortal belief which makes
3 the body discordant and diseased in proportion as igno- 
rance, fear, or human will governs mortals. 
Allness of Truth
Mind, supreme over all its formations and governing
 
6 them all, is the central sun of its own systems of ideas, 
the life and light of all its own vast creation; 
and man is tributary to divine Mind. The
9 material and mortal body or mind is not the man. 
 
The world would collapse without Mind, without the in-
telligence which holds the winds in its grasp. Neither
12 philosophy nor skepticism can hinder the march of the 
Science which reveals the supremacy of Mind. The im-
manent sense of Mind-power enhances the glory of Mind.
15 Nearness, not distance, lends enchantment to this view. 
Spiritual translation
The compounded minerals or aggregated substances 
composing the earth, the relations which constituent
 
18 masses hold to each other, the magnitudes, 
distances, and revolutions of the celestial 
bodies, are of no real importance, when we remember
21 that they all must give place to the spiritual fact by the 
translation of man and the universe back into Spirit. In
proportion as this is done, man and the universe will be
24 found harmonious and eternal. 
 
Material substances or mundane formations, astro- 
nomical calculations, and all the paraphernalia of specu-
27 lative theories, based on the hypothesis of material law 
or life and intelligence resident in matter, will ulti-
mately vanish, swallowed up in the infinite calculus of
30 Spirit.
Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to un-
derstand God. It shows the superiority of faith by works
PAGE 210 
 
 
1 over faith in words. Its ideas are expressed only in "new 
tongues;" and these are interpreted by the translation of
3 the spiritual original into the language which human
thought can comprehend.
Jesus' disregard of matter
The Principle and proof of Christianity are discerned
 
6 by spiritual sense. They are set forth in Jesus' demon-
strations, which show - by his healing the
sick, casting out evils, and destroying death,
9 "the last enemy that shall be destroyed," -
his disregard of matter and its so-called laws. 
Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forever
manifested through man, the Master healed the sick, 
gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the
lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the
 
15 divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving 
a better understanding of Soul and salvation. Jesus 
healed sickness and sin by one and the same metaphysical
18 process.
Mind not mortal
The expression mortal mind is really a solecism, for
Mind is immortal, and Truth pierces the error of mortality
 
21 as a sunbeam penetrates the cloud. Because,
in obedience to the immutable law of Spirit,
this so-called mind is self-destructive, I name it mortal.
24 Error soweth the wind and reapeth the whirlwind. 
Matter mindless
What is termed matter, being unintelligent, cannot say,
"I suffer, I die, I am sick, or I am well." It is the so-
 
27 called mortal mind which voices this and ap- 
pears to itself to make good its claim. To
mortal sense, sin and suffering are real, but immortal
30 sense includes no evil nor pestilence. Because immortal
sense has no error of sense, it has no sense of error; there
fore it is without a destructive element.
PAGE 211
 
 
1 If brain, nerves, stomach, are intelligent, - if they talk 
to us, tell us their condition, and report how they feel, -
3 then Spirit and matter, Truth and error, commingle 
and produce sickness and health, good and evil, life and
death; and who shall say whether Truth or error is the
6 greater? 
Matter sensationless 
The sensations of the body must either be the sensa-
tions of a so-called mortal mind or of matter. Nerves
 
9 are not mind. Is it not provable that Mind is 
not mortal and that matter has no sensation? 
Is it not equally true that matter does not appear in the
12 spiritual understanding of being? 
 
The sensation of sickness and the impulse to sin seem
to obtain in mortal mind. When a tear starts, does not
15 this so-called mind produce the effect seen in the lachry- 
mal gland? Without mortal mind, the tear could not 
appear; and this action shows the nature of all so-called
18 material cause and effect. 
 
It should no longer be said in Israel that "the fathers
have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set
21 on edge." Sympathy with error should disappear. The 
transfer of the thoughts of one erring mind to another, 
Science renders impossible.
Nerves painless
 
24 If it is true that nerves have sensation, that matter has 
intelligence, that the material organism causes the eyes to
see and the ears to hear, then, when the body
27 is dematerialized, these faculties must be lost, 
for their immortality is not in Spirit; whereas the fact
is that only through dematerialization and spiritualiza-
30 tion of thought can these faculties be conceived of as 
immortal.
Nerves are not the source of pain or pleasure. We
PAGE 212 
 
1 suffer or enjoy in our dreams, but this pain or pleasure
is not communicated through a nerve. A tooth which has
3 been extracted sometimes aches again in belief, and the
pain seems to be in its old place. A limb which has been
amputated has continued in belief to pain the owner. If
6 the sensation of pain in the limb can return, can be pro-
longed, why cannot the limb reappear?
Why need pain, rather than pleasure, come to this mor-
 
9 tal sense? Because the memory of pain is more vivid 
than the memory of pleasure. I have seen an unwitting 
attempt to scratch the end of a finger which had been cut
12 off for months. When the nerve is gone, which we say
was the occasion of pain, and the pain still remains, it
proves sensation to be in the mortal mind, not in matter.
15 Reverse the process; take away this so-called mind instead
of a piece of the flesh, and the nerves have no sensation.
Human falsities
Mortals have a modus of their own, undirected and un-
 
18 sustained by God. They produce a rose through seed and
soil, and bring the rose into contact with the
olfactory nerves that they may smell it. In
21 legerdemain and credulous frenzy, mortals believe that
unseen spirits produce the flowers. God alone makes 
and clothes the lilies of the field, and this He does by
24 means of Mind, not matter.
No miracles in Mind-methods
Because all the methods of Mind are not understood, 
we say the lips or hands must move in order to convey
 
27 thought, that the undulations of the air convey 
sound, and possibly that other methods involve
so-called miracles. The realities of being, its
30 normal action, and the origin of all things are unseen to
mortal sense; whereas the unreal and imitative move- 
ments of mortal belief, which would reverse the immortal
PAGE 213
 
 
1 modus and action, are styled the real. Whoever con- 
tradicts this mortal mind supposition of reality is called
3 a deceiver, or is said to be deceived. Of a man it has 
been said, "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he;" hence
as a man spiritually understandeth, so is he in truth.
Good indefinable
 
6 Mortal mind conceives of something as either liquid 
or solid, and then classifies it materially. Immortal and
spiritual facts exist apart from this mortal and
9 material conception. God, good, is self-exist- 
ent and self-expressed, though indefinable as a whole.
Every step towards goodness is a departure from materi-
12 ality, and is a tendency towards God, Spirit. Material 
theories partially paralyze this attraction towards infinite
and eternal good by an opposite attraction towards the
15 finite, temporary, and discordant. 
 
Sound is a mental impression made on mortal belief. 
The ear does not really hear. Divine Science reveals
18 sound as communicated through the senses of Soul - 
through spiritual understanding.
Music, rhythm of head and heart
Mozart experienced more than he expressed. The
 
21 rapture of his grandest symphonies was never heard. He 
was a musician beyond what the world knew. 
This was even more strikingly true of Beet-
24 hoven, who was so long hopelessly deaf. Men- 
tal melodies and strains of sweetest music supersede con-
scious sound. Music is the rhythm of head and heart.
27 Mortal mind is the harp of many strings, discoursing 
either discord or harmony according as the hand, which
sweeps over it, is human or divine.
30 Before human knowledge dipped to its depths into a 
false sense of things, - into belief in material origins
which discard the one Mind and true source of being, -
PAGE 214 
 
 
1 it is possible that the impressions from Truth were as
distinct as sound, and that they came as sound to the
3 primitive prophets. If the medium of hearing is wholly
spiritual, it is normal and indestructible.
If Enoch's perception had been confined to the evidence
 
6 before his material senses, he could never have "walked
with God," nor been guided into the demonstration of
life eternal.
Adam and the senses
 
9 Adam, represented in the Scriptures as formed from
dust, is an object-lesson for the human mind. The mate-
rial senses, like Adam, originate in matter and
12 return to dust, - are proved non-intelligent. 
They go out as they came in, for they are still the error,
not the truth of being. When it is learned that the spirit-
15 ual sense, and not the material, conveys the impressions
of Mind to man, then being will be understood and found
to be harmonious.
Idolatrous illusions
 
18 We bow down to matter, and entertain finite thoughts
of God like the pagan idolater. Mortals are inclined to
fear and to obey what they consider a material
21 body more than they do a spiritual God. All
material knowledge, like the original "tree of knowledge,"
multiplies their pains, for mortal illusions would rob God,
24 slay man, and meanwhile would spread their table with
cannibal tidbits and give thanks.
The senses of Soul
How transient a sense is mortal sight, when a wound on
 
27 the retina may end the power of light and lens! But the
real sight or sense is not lost. Neither age nor 
accident can interfere with the senses of Soul,
30 and there are no other real senses. It is evident that the
body as matter has no sensation of its own, and there is no
oblivion for Soul and its faculties. Spirit's senses are with-
PAGE 215
 
 
1 out pain, and they are forever at peace. Nothing can hide 
from them the harmony of all things and the might and
3 permanence of Truth. 
Real being never lost 
If Spirit, Soul, could sin or be lost, then being and im-
mortality would be lost, together with all the faculties of
 
6 Mind; but being cannot be lost while God ex- 
ists. Soul and matter are at variance from the
very necessity of their opposite natures. Mortals are
9 unacquainted with the reality of existence, because matter 
and mortality do not reflect the facts of Spirit. 
Spiritual vision is not subordinate to geometric alti-
 
12 tudes. Whatever is governed by God, is never for an 
instant deprived of the light and might of intelligence 
and Life.
Light and darkness
 
15 We are sometimes led to believe that darkness is as real 
as light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal
sense of the absence of light, at the coming of
18 which darkness loses the appearance of reality. 
So sin and sorrow, disease and death, are the suppositional 
absence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of error before
21 truth and love. 
 
With its divine proof, Science reverses the evidence of
material sense. Every quality and condition of mortality
24 is lost, swallowed up in immortality. Mortal man is the 
antipode of immortal man in origin, in existence, and in his
relation to God.
Faith of Socrates
 
27 Because he understood the superiority and immor- 
tality of good, Socrates feared not the hemlock poison.
Even the faith of his philosophy spurned phys-
30 ical timidity. Having sought man's spiritual 
state, he recognized the immortality of man. The igno-
rance and malice of the age would have killed the vener-
PAGE 216 
 
 
1 able philosopher because of his faith in Soul and his in-
difference to the body.
The serpent of error
 
3 Who shall say that man is alive to-day, but may be dead
to-morrow? What has touched Life, God, to such
strange issues? Here theories cease, and Sci-
6 ence unveils the mystery and solves the prob-
lem of man. Error bites the heel of truth, but cannot kill
truth. Truth bruises the head of error - destroys error.
9 Spirituality lays open siege to materialism. On which
side are we fighting?
Servants and masters
The understanding that the Ego is Mind, and that
 
12 there is but one Mind or intelligence, begins at once to
destroy the errors of mortal sense and to supply 
the truth of immortal sense. This understand-
15 ing makes the body harmonious; it makes the nerves, 
bones, brain, etc., servants, instead of masters. If man
is governed by the law of divine Mind, his body is in sub-
18 mission to everlasting Life and Truth and Love. The
great mistake of mortals is to suppose that man, God's
image and likeness, is both matter and Spirit, both good
21 and evil.
If the decision were left to the corporeal senses, evil
would appear to be the master of good, and sickness to
 
24 be the rule of existence, while health would seem the
exception, death the inevitable, and life a paradox. Paul
asked: "What concord hath Christ with Belial?" (2 Cor-
27 inthians vi. 15.)
Personal identity
When you say, "Man's body is material," I say with
Paul: Be "willing rather to be absent from the body,
 
30 and to be present with the Lord." Give up 
your material belief of mind in matter, and
have but one Mind, even God; for this Mind forms its
PAGE 217
 
 
1 own likeness. The loss of man's identity through the 
understanding which Science confers is impossible; and
3 the notion of such a possibility is more absurd than to 
conclude that individual musical tones are lost in the
origin of harmony.
Paul's experience
?
6 Medical schools may inform us that the healing work 
of Christian Science and Paul's peculiar Christian con-
version and experience, - which prove Mind
9 to be scientifically distinct from matter, - are 
indications of unnatural mental and bodily conditions, 
even of catalepsy and hysteria; yet if we turn to the Scrip-
12 tures, what do we read? Why, this: "If a man keep my 
saying, he shall never see death!" and "Henceforth know
we no man after the flesh!"
Fatigue is mental
 
15 That scientific methods are superior to others, is 
seen by their effects. When you have once conquered 
a diseased condition of the body through
18 Mind, that condition never recurs, and you 
have won a point in Science. When mentality gives 
rest to the body, the next toil will fatigue you less, for
21 you are working out the problem of being in divine meta- 
physics; and in proportion as you understand the con-
trol which Mind has over so-called matter, you will be
24 able to demonstrate this control. The scientific and 
permanent remedy for fatigue is to learn the power of
Mind over the body or any illusion of physical weariness,
27 and so destroy this illusion, for matter cannot be weary 
and heavy-laden.
You say, "Toil fatigues me." But what is this me!
 
30 Is it muscle or mind? Which is tired and so speaks? 
Without mind, could the muscles be tired? Do the 
muscles talk, or do you talk for them? Matter is non-
PAGE 218 
 
 
1 intelligent. Mortal mind does the false talking, and that
which affirms weariness, made that weariness.
Mind never weary
 
3 You do not say a wheel is fatigued; and yet the body
is as material as the wheel. If it were not for what the
human mind says of the body, the body, like
6 the inanimate wheel, would never be weary.
The consciousness of Truth rests us more than hours of
repose in unconsciousness.
Coalition of sin and sickness
 
9 The body is supposed to say, "I am ill." The reports
of sickness may form a coalition with the reports of sin,
and say, "I am malice, lust, appetite, envy,
12 hate." What renders both sin and sickness 
difficult of cure is, that the human mind is the 
sinner, disinclined to self-correction, and believing that
15 the body can be sick independently of mortal mind and
that the divine Mind has no jurisdiction over the body.
Sickness akin to sin
Why pray for the recovery of the sick, if you are with-
 
18 out faith in God's willingness and ability to heal them?
If you do believe in God, why do you sub-
stitute drugs for the Almighty's power, and
21 employ means which lead only into material ways of
obtaining help, instead of turning in time of need to
God, divine Love, who is an ever-present help?
24 Treat a belief in sickness as you would sin, with sudden
dismissal. Resist the temptation to believe in matter as
intelligent, as having sensation or power.
27 The Scriptures say, "They that wait upon the Lord
. . . shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk,
and not faint." The meaning of that passage is not
30 perverted by applying it literally to moments of fatigue,
for the moral and physical are as one in their results. 
When we wake to the truth of being, all disease, 
PAGE 219
 
 
1 pain, weakness, weariness, sorrow, sin, death, will be
unknown, and the mortal dream will forever cease. My
3 method of treating fatigue applies to all bodily ailments, 
since Mind should be, and is, supreme, absolute, and
final.
Affirmation and result
 
6 In mathematics, we do not multiply when we should 
subtract, and then say the product is correct. No more
can we say in Science that muscles give strength,
9 that nerves give pain or pleasure, or that matter 
governs, and then expect that the result will be harmony.
Not muscles, nerves, nor bones, but mortal mind makes
12 the whole body "sick, and the whole heart faint;" whereas 
divine Mind heals.
When this is understood, we shall never affirm concern-
 
15 ing the body what we do not wish to have manifested. We 
shall not call the body weak, if we would have it strong;
for the belief in feebleness must obtain in the human
18 mind before it can be made manifest on the body, and 
the destruction of the belief will be the removal of its
effects. Science includes no rule of discord, but governs
21 harmoniously. "The wish," says the poet, "is ever father 
to the thought."
Scientific beginning
We may hear a sweet melody, and yet misunderstand
 
24 the science that governs it. Those who are healed 
through metaphysical Science, not compre- 
hending the Principle of the cure, may misun-
27 derstand it, and impute their recovery to change of air or 
diet, not rendering to God the honor due to Him alone.
Entire immunity from the belief in sin, suffering, and
30 death may not be reached at this period, but we may look 
for an abatement of these evils; and this scientific begin-
ning is in the right direction.
PAGE 220 
 
 
Hygiene ineffectual
 
1 We hear it said: " I exercise daily in the open air. I
take cold baths, in order to overcome a predisposition to
3 take cold; and yet I have continual colds,
catarrh, and cough." Such admissions ought
to open people's eyes to the inefficacy of material hygiene,
6 and induce sufferers to look in other directions for cause
and cure.
Instinct is better than misguided reason, as even na-
 
9 ture declares. The violet lifts her blue eye to greet the
early spring. The leaves clap their hands as nature's 
untired worshippers. The snowbird sings and soars
12 amid the blasts; he has no catarrh from wet feet, and
procures a summer residence with more ease than a na-
bob. The atmosphere of the earth, kinder than the at-
15 mosphere of mortal mind, leaves catarrh to the latter.
Colds, coughs, and contagion are engendered solely by
human theories.
The reflex phenomena
 
18 Mortal mind produces its own phenomena, and then
charges them to something else, - like a kitten 
glancing into the mirror at itself and thinking
21 it sees another kitten.
A clergyman once adopted a diet of bread and water
to increase his spirituality. Finding his health failing,
 
24 he gave up his abstinence, and advised others never to
try dietetics for growth in grace.
Volition far-reaching
The belief that either fasting or feasting makes men
 
27 better morally or physically is one of the fruits of "the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil," con- 
cerning which God said, "Thou shalt not eat
30 of it." Mortal mind forms all conditions of the mortal
body, and controls the stomach, bones, lungs, heart, blood,
etc., as directly as the volition or will moves the mind.
PAGE 221
 
 
Starvation and dyspepsia
 
1 I knew a person who when quite a child adopted the 
Graham system to cure dyspepsia. For many years, he
3 ate only bread and vegetables, and drank noth- 
ing but water. His dyspepsia increasing, he 
decided that his diet should be more rigid, and
6 thereafter he partook of but one meal in twenty-four 
hours, this meal consisting of only a thin slice of bread
without water. His physician also recommended that
9 he should not wet his parched throat until three hours 
after eating. He passed many weary years in hunger 
and weakness, almost in starvation, and finally made up
12 his mind to die, having exhausted the skill of the doctors, 
who kindly informed him that death was indeed his only
alternative. At this point Christian Science saved him,
15 and he is now in perfect health without a vestige of the 
old complaint.
He learned that suffering and disease were the self-
 
18 imposed beliefs of mortals, and not the facts of being; 
that God never decreed disease, - never ordained a law
that fasting should be a means of health. Hence semi-
21 starvation is not acceptable to wisdom, and it is equally 
far from Science, in which being is sustained by God, Mind.
These truths, opening his eyes, relieved his stomach, and
24 he ate without suffering, "giving God thanks;" but he 
never enjoyed his food as he had imagined he would 
when, still the slave of matter, he thought of the flesh-
27 pots of Egypt, feeling childhood's hunger and undisci- 
plined by self-denial and divine Science.
Mind and stomach
This new-born understanding, that neither food nor
 
30 the stomach, without the consent of mortal 
mind, can make one suffer, brings with it an- 
other lesson, - that gluttony is a sensual illusion, and
PAGE 222 
 
 
1 that this phantasm of mortal mind disappears as we better
apprehend our spiritual existence and ascend the ladder
3 of life.
This person learned that food affects the body only
as mortal mind has its material methods of working, one
 
6 of which is to believe that proper food supplies nutriment
and strength to the human system. He learned also that
mortal mind makes a mortal body, whereas Truth re-
9 generates this fleshly mind and feeds thought with the
bread of Life.
Food had less power to help or to hurt him after he
 
12 had availed himself of the fact that Mind governs man,
and he also had less faith in the so-called pleasures and
pains of matter. Taking less thought about what he
15 should eat or drink, consulting the stomach less about
the economy of living and God more, he recovered 
strength and flesh rapidly. For many years he had
18 been kept alive, as was believed, only by the strictest ad-
herence to hygiene and drugs, and yet he continued ill
all the while. Now he dropped drugs and material
21 hygiene, and was well.
He learned that a dyspeptic was very far from being
the image and likeness of God, - far from having "do-
 
24 minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, and over the cattle," if eating a bit of animal flesh
could overpower him. He finally concluded that God
27 never made a dyspeptic, while fear, hygiene, physiology,
and physics had made him one, contrary to His commands. 
Life only in Spirit
In seeking a cure for dyspepsia consult matter not at
 
30 all, and eat what is set before you, "asking 
no question for conscience sake." We must 
destroy the false belief that life and intelligence are in
PAGE 223
 
 
1 matter, and plant ourselves upon what is pure and per-
fect. Paul said, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
3 fulfil the lust of the flesh." Sooner or later we shall learn 
that the fetters of man's finite capacity are forged by the
illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter
6 instead of in Spirit. 
Soul greater than body 
Matter does not express Spirit. God is infinite omni-
present Spirit. If Spirit is all and is everywhere, what
 
9 and where is matter? Remember that truth 
is greater than error, and we cannot put the 
greater into the less. Soul is Spirit, and Spirit is greater
12 than body. If Spirit were once within the body, Spirit 
would be finite, and therefore could not be Spirit. 
The question of the ages
The question, "What is Truth," convulses the world.
 
15 Many are ready to meet this inquiry with the assurance 
which comes of understanding; but more are 
blinded by their old illusions, and try to "give
18 it pause." "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into 
the ditch."
The efforts of error to answer this question by some
 
21 ology are vain. Spiritual rationality and free thought ac-
company approaching Science, and cannot be put down. 
They will emancipate humanity, and supplant unscientific
24 means and so-called laws. 
Heralds of Science 
Peals that should startle the slumbering thought from
its erroneous dream are partially unheeded; but the last
 
27 trump has not sounded, or this would not be 
so. Marvels, calamities, and sin will much 
more abound as truth urges upon mortals its resisted
30 claims; but the awful daring of sin destroys sin, and 
foreshadows the triumph of truth. God will over- 
turn, until "He come whose right it is." Longevity
PAGE 224 
 
 
1 is increasing and the power of sin diminishing, for the,
world feels the alterative effect of truth through every
3 pore.
As the crude footprints of the past disappear from the
dissolving paths of the present, we shall better understand
 
6 the Science which governs these changes, and shall plant
our feet on firmer ground. Every sensuous pleasure or
pain is self-destroyed through suffering. There should
9 be painless progress, attended by life and peace instead
of discord and death.
Sectarianism and opposition
In the record of nineteen centuries, there are sects
 
12 many but not enough Christianity. Centuries ago re-
ligionists were ready to hail an anthropomor-
phic God, and array His vicegerent with pomp
15 and splendor; but this was not the manner
of truth's appearing. Of old the cross was truth's cen-
tral sign, and it is to-day. The modern lash is less
18 material than the Roman scourge, but it is equally as
cutting. Cold disdain, stubborn resistance, opposition
from church, state laws, and the press, are still the har-
21 bingers of truth's full-orbed appearing.
A higher and more practical Christianity, demonstrat-
ing justice and meeting the needs of mortals in sickness
 
24 and in health, stands at the door of this age, knocking
for admission. Will you open or close the door upon this
angel visitant, who cometh in the quiet of meekness, as he
27 came of old to the patriarch at noonday?
Mental emancipation
Truth brings the elements of liberty. On its banner
is the Soul-inspired motto, "Slavery is abolished." The
 
30 power of God brings deliverance to the cap-
tive. No power can withstand divine Love. 
What is this supposed power, which opposes itself to God?
PAGE 225
 
 
1 Whence cometh it? What is it that binds man with iron 
shackles to sin, sickness, and death? Whatever enslaves
3 man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes
man free.
Truth's ordeal
You may know when first Truth leads by the few-
 
6 ness and faithfulness of its followers. Thus it is that
the march of time bears onward freedom's 
banner. The powers of this world will fight,
9 and will command their sentinels not to let truth pass
the guard until it subscribes to their systems; but Science,
heeding not the pointed bayonet, marches on. There is
12 always some tumult, but there is a rallying to truth's 
standard.
Immortal sentences
The history of our country, like all history, illustrates
 
15 the might of Mind, and shows human power to be propor- 
tionate to its embodiment of right thinking. A 
few immortal sentences, breathing the omnipo-
18 tence of divine justice, have been potent to break despotic 
fetters and abolish the whipping-post and slave market;
but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the
21 breath of freedom come from the cannon's mouth. Love 
is the liberator.
Slavery abolished
Legally to abolish unpaid servitude in the United
 
24 States was hard; but the abolition of mental slavery is 
a more difficult task. The despotic tenden- 
cies, inherent in mortal mind and always ger-
27 minating in new forms of tyranny, must be rooted out 
through the action of the divine Mind.
Men and women of all climes and races are still in
 
30 bondage to material sense, ignorant how to obtain their
freedom. The rights of man were vindicated in a single
section and on the lowest plane of human life, when Afri-
PAGE 226 
 
 
1 can slavery was abolished in our land. That was only
prophetic of further steps towards the banishment of a
3 world-wide slavery, found on higher planes of existence 
and under more subtle and depraving forms.
Liberty's crusade
The voice of God in behalf of the African slave was
 
6 still echoing in our land, when the voice of the herald of
this new crusade sounded the keynote of uni-
versal freedom, asking a fuller acknowledg-
9 ment of the rights of man as a Son of God, demanding 
that the fetters of sin, sickness, and death be stricken
from the human mind and that its freedom be won, not
12 through human warfare, not with bayonet and blood, but
through Christ's divine Science.
Cramping systems
God has built a higher platform of human rights, and
 
15 He has built it on diviner claims. These claims are not
made through code or creed, but in demonstra-
tion of "on earth peace, good-will toward men."
18 Human codes, scholastic theology, material medicine and
hygiene, fetter faith and spiritual understanding. Divine
Science rends asunder these fetters, and man's birthright
21 of sole allegiance to his Maker asserts itself. 
I saw before me the sick, wearing out years of servi-
tude to an unreal master in the belief that the body gov-
 
24 erned them, rather than Mind.
House of bondage
The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the sick, the
sensual, the sinner, I wished to save from the slavery of
 
27 their own beliefs and from the educational
systems of the Pharaohs, who to-day, as of
yore, hold the children of Israel in bondage. I saw be-
30 fore me the awful conflict, the Red Sea and the wilder-
ness; but I pressed on through faith in God, trusting 
Truth, the strong deliverer, to guide me into the land
PAGE 227
 
 
1 of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of
man are fully known and acknowledged.
Higher law ends bondage
 
3 I saw that the law of mortal belief included all error,
and that, even as oppressive laws are disputed and mor-
tals are taught their right to freedom, so the
6 claims of the enslaving senses must be de- 
nied and superseded. The law of the divine Mind must 
end human bondage, or mortals will continue unaware
9 of man's inalienable rights and in subjection to hope- 
less slavery, because some public teachers permit 
an ignorance of divine power, - an ignorance that
12 is the foundation of continued bondage and of human 
suffering.
Native freedom
Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail to fore-
 
15 see the doom of all oppression. Slavery is not the legiti- 
mate state of man. God made man free. 
Paul said, "I was free born." All men should
18 be free. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is lib- 
erty." Love and Truth make free, but evil and error
lead into captivity.
Standard of liberty
 
21 Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and 
cries: "Follow me! Escape from the bondage of sick-
ness, sin, and death!" Jesus marked out the
24 way. Citizens of the world, accept the "glori- 
ous liberty of the children of God," and be free! This
is your divine right. The illusion of material sense, not
27 divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs, 
crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and de-
faced the tablet of your being.
30 If God had instituted material laws to govern man, 
disobedience to which would have made man ill, Jesus 
would not have disregarded those laws by healing in
PAGE 228 
 
 
1 direct opposition to them and in defiance of all material
conditions.
No fleshly heredity
 
3 The transmission of disease or of certain idiosyncra- 
sies of mortal mind would be impossible if this great fact
of being were learned, - namely, that nothing
6 inharmonious can enter being, for Life is God.
Heredity is a prolific subject for mortal belief to pin the-
ories upon; but if we learn that nothing is real but the
9 right, we shall have no dangerous inheritances, and fleshly
ills will disappear.
God-given dominion
The enslavement of man is not legitimate. It will
 
12 cease when man enters into his heritage of freedom, his
God-given dominion over the material senses.
Mortals will some day assert their freedom in
15 the name of Almighty God. Then they will control their
own bodies through the understanding of divine Science. 
Dropping their present beliefs, they will recognize har-
18 mony as the spiritual reality and discord as the material
unreality.
If we follow the command of our Master, "Take no
 
21 thought for your life," we shall never depend on bodily
conditions, structure, or economy, but we shall be masters
of the body, dictate its terms, and form and control it with
24 Truth.
Priestly pride humbled
There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence has
all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dis-
 
27 honor God. The humble Nazarene overthrew
the supposition that sin, sickness, and death
have power. He proved them powerless. It should have
30 humbled the pride of the priests, when they saw the dem-
onstration of Christianity excel the influence of their dead
faith and ceremonies.
PAGE 229
 
 
1 If Mind is not the master of sin, sickness, and death,
they are immortal, for it is already proved that mat-
3 ter has not destroyed them, but is their basis and 
support.
No union of opposites
We should hesitate to say that Jehovah sins or suffers;
 
6 but if sin and suffering are realities of being, whence did 
they emanate? God made all that was made, 
and Mind signifies God, - infinity, not finity.
9 Not far removed from infidelity is the belief which 
unites such opposites as sickness and health, holiness 
and unholiness, calls both the offspring of spirit, and
12 at the same time admits that Spirit is God, - vir- 
tually declaring Him good in one instance and evil in
another.
Self-constituted law
 
15 By universal consent, mortal belief has constituted 
itself a law to bind mortals to sickness, sin, and death.
This customary belief is misnamed material
18 law, and the individual who upholds it is mis- 
taken in theory and in practice. The so-called law of
mortal mind, conjectural and speculative, is made void
21 by the law of immortal Mind, and false law should be 
trampled under foot.
Sickness from mortal mind
If God causes man to be sick, sickness must be good,
 
24 and its opposite, health, must be evil, for all that He 
makes is good and will stand forever. If the 
transgression of God's law produces sickness, it
27 is right to be sick; and we cannot if we would, and should 
not if we could, annul the decrees of wisdom. It is the
transgression of a belief of mortal mind, not of a law of
30 matter nor of divine Mind, which causes the belief of sick- 
ness. The remedy is Truth, not matter, - the truth that
disease is unreal.
PAGE 230 
 
 
1 If sickness is real, it belongs to immortality; if true,
it is a part of Truth. Would you attempt with drugs,
3 or without, to destroy a quality or condition of Truth?
But if sickness and sin are illusions, the awakening from
this mortal dream, or illusion, will bring us into health,
6 holiness, and immortality. This awakening is the for-
ever coming of Christ, the advanced appearing of Truth,
which casts out error and heals the sick. This is the sal-
9 vation which comes through God, the divine Principle, 
Love, as demonstrated by Jesus.
God never inconsistent
It would be contrary to our highest ideas of God to
 
12 suppose Him capable of first arranging law and causation
so as to bring about certain evil results, and
then punishing the helpless victims of His vo-
15 lition for doing what they could not avoid doing. Good
is not, cannot be, the author of experimental sins. God,
good, can no more produce sickness than goodness can
18 cause evil and health occasion disease.
Mental narcotics
Does wisdom make blunders which must afterwards 
be rectified by man? Does a law of God produce sick-
 
21 ness, and can man put that law under his feet 
by healing sickness? According to Holy Writ,
the sick are never really healed by drugs, hygiene, or any
24 material method. These merely evade the question.
They are soothing syrups to put children to sleep, satisfy
mortal belief, and quiet fear.
The true healing
 
27 We think that we are healed when a disease disap-
pears, though it is liable to reappear; but we are never
thoroughly healed until the liability to be
30 ill is removed. So-called mortal mind or the 
mind of mortals being the remote, predisposing, and
the exciting cause of all suffering, the cause of disease
PAGE 231
 
 
1 must be obliterated through Christ in divine Science, or 
the so-called physical senses will get the victory. 
Destruction of all evil
 
3 Unless an ill is rightly met and fairly overcome by 
Truth, the ill is never conquered. If God destroys not
sin, sickness, and death, they are not de-
6 stroyed in the mind of mortals, but seem to 
this so-called mind to be immortal. What God cannot 
do, man need not attempt. If God heals not the sick,
9 they are not healed, for no lesser power equals the infinite 
All-power; but God, Truth, Life, Love, does heal the
sick through the prayer of the righteous.
12 If God makes sin, if good produces evil, if truth results 
in error, then Science and Christianity are helpless; but
there are no antagonistic powers nor laws, spiritual or
15 material, creating and governing man through perpetual 
warfare. God is not the author of mortal discords. 
Therefore we accept the conclusion that discords have
18 only a fabulous existence, are mortal beliefs which divine 
Truth and Love destroy.
Superiority to sickness and sin
To hold yourself superior to sin, because God made
 
21 you superior to it and governs man, is true wisdom. To 
fear sin is to misunderstand the power of Love
and the divine Science of being in man's rela-
24 tion to God, - to doubt His government and 
distrust His omnipotent care. To hold yourself superior 
to sickness and death is equally wise, and is in accordance
27 with divine Science. To fear them is impossible, when
you fully apprehend God and know that they are no part
of His creation.
30 Man, governed by his Maker, having no other Mind, - 
planted on the Evangelist's statement that "all things
were made by Him [the Word of God]; and without 
PAGE 232 
 
 
1 Him was not anything made that was made," - can
triumph over sin, sickness, and death.
Denials of divine power
 
3 Many theories relative to God and man neither make
man harmonious nor God lovable. The beliefs we com- 
monly entertain about happiness and life
6 afford no scatheless and permanent evidence
of either. Security for the claims of harmonious and
eternal being is found only in divine Science.
9 Scripture informs us that "with God all things are
possible," - all good is possible to Spirit; but our prev-
alent theories practically deny this, and make healing
12 possible only through matter. These theories must be
untrue, for the Scripture is true. Christianity is not
false, but religions which contradict its Principle are
15 false.
 
In our age Christianity is again demonstrating the 
power of divine Principle, as it did over nineteen hun-
18 dred years ago, by healing the sick and triumphing over
death. Jesus never taught that drugs, food, air, and ex-
ercise could make a man healthy, or that they could de-
21 stroy human life; nor did he illustrate these errors by his
practice. He referred man's harmony to Mind, not to
matter, and never tried to make of none effect the sen-
24 tence of God, which sealed God's condemnation of sin,
sickness, and death.
Signs following
In the sacred sanctuary of Truth are voices of sol-
 
27 emn import, but we heed them not. It is only when the
so-called pleasures and pains of sense pass
away in our lives, that we find unquestion-
30 able signs of the burial of error and the resurrection to
spiritual life.
Profession and proof
There is neither place nor opportunity in Science for error
PAGE 233
 
 
1 of any sort. Every day makes its demands upon us for 
higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power.
3 These proofs consist solely in the destruction 
of sin, sickness, and death by the power of
Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of
6 progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law de- 
mands of us only what we can certainly fulfil.
Perfection gained slowly
In the midst of imperfection, perfection is seen and
 
9 acknowledged only by degrees. The ages must slowly 
work up to perfection. How long it must be 
before we arrive at the demonstration of scien-
12 tific being, no man knoweth, - not even "the 
Son but the Father;" but the false claim of error con-
tinues its delusions until the goal of goodness is assidu-
15 ously earned and won. 
Christ's mission
Already the shadow of His right hand rests upon the
hour. Ye who can discern the face of the sky, - the
 
18 sign material, - how much more should ye 
discern the sign mental, and compass the de- 
struction of sin and sickness by overcoming the thoughts
21 which produce them, and by understanding the spiritual 
idea which corrects and destroys them. To reveal this
truth was our Master's mission to all mankind, including
24 the hearts which rejected him. 
Efficacy of truth 
When numbers have been divided according to a fixed
rule, the quotient is not more unquestionable than the
 
27 scientific tests I have made of the effects of 
truth upon the sick. The counter fact rela- 
tive to any disease is required to cure it. The utterance
30 of truth is designed to rebuke and destroy error. Why 
should truth not be efficient in sickness, which is solely
the result of inharmony?
PAGE 234 
 
 
1 Spiritual draughts heal, while material lotions interfere
with truth, even as ritualism and creed hamper spirit-
3 uality. If we trust matter, we distrust Spirit. 
Crumbs of comfort
Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love - be
it song, sermon, or Science - blesses the human family
 
6 with crumbs of comfort from Christ's table
feeding the hungry and giving living waters to
the thirsty.
Hospitality to health and good
 
9 We should become more familiar with good than with
evil, and guard against false beliefs as watchfully as we
bar our doors against the approach of thieves
12 and murderers. We should love our enemies
and help them on the basis of the Golden
Rule; but avoid casting pearls before those who trample
15 them under foot, thereby robbing both themselves and
others.
 
Cleansing the mind
If mortals would keep proper ward over mortal mind,
18 the brood of evils which infest it would be cleared out.
We must begin with this so-called mind and
empty it of sin and sickness, or sin and sick-
21 ness will never cease. The present codes of human
systems disappoint the weary searcher after a divine
theology, adequate to the right education of human
24 thought.
Sin and disease must be thought before they can be
manifested. You must control evil thoughts in the first
 
27 instance, or they will control you in the second. Jesus
declared that to look with desire on forbidden objects was
to break a moral precept. He laid great stress on the
30 action of the human mind, unseen to the senses. 
Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more
harm than one's belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and
PAGE 235
 
 
1 malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, 
from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected
3 lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence. 
Better suffer a doctor infected with smallpox to attend
you than to be treated mentally by one who does not obey
6 the requirements of divine Science. 
Teachers' functions
The teachers of schools and the readers in churches 
should be selected with as direct reference to their
 
9 morals as to their learning or their correct 
reading. Nurseries of character should be 
strongly garrisoned with virtue. School-examinations are
12 one-sided; it is not so much academic education, as a 
moral and spiritual culture, which lifts one higher. The
pure and uplifting thoughts of the teacher, constantly
15 imparted to pupils, will reach higher than the heavens of 
astronomy; while the debased and unscrupulous mind, 
though adorned with gems of scholarly attainment, will
18 degrade the characters it should inform and elevate. 
Physicians' privilege
Physicians, whom the sick employ in their helplessness, 
should be models of virtue. They should be wise spir-
 
21 itual guides to health and hope. To the trem- 
blers on the brink of death, who understand 
not the divine Truth which is Life and perpetuates being,
24 physicians should be able to teach it. Then when the soul 
is willing and the flesh weak, the patient's feet may be
planted on the rock Christ Jesus, the true idea of spiritual
27 power. 
Clergymen's duty
Clergymen, occupying the watchtowers of the world,
should uplift the standard of Truth. They should so raise
 
30 their hearers spiritually, that their listeners 
will love to grapple with a new, right idea 
and broaden their concepts. Love of Christianity, rather
PAGE 236 
 
 
1 than love of popularity, should stimulate clerical labor
and progress. Truth should emanate from the pulpit,
3 but never be strangled there. A special privilege is vested
in the ministry. How shall it be used? Sacredly, in the
interests of humanity, not of sect.
6 Is it not professional reputation and emolument rather
than the dignity of God's laws, which many leaders seek?
Do not inferior motives induce the infuriated attacks on
9 individuals, who reiterate Christ's teachings in support
of his proof by example that the divine Mind heals sick-
ness as well as sin?
A mother's responsibility
 
12 A mother is the strongest educator, either for or
against crime. Her thoughts form the embryo of an- 
other mortal mind, and unconsciously mould
15 it, either after a model odious to herself or 
through divine influence, "according to the pattern
showed to thee in the mount." Hence the importance
18 of Christian Science, from which we learn of the one
Mind and of the availability of good as the remedy for
every woe.
Children's tractability
 
21 Children should obey their parents; insubordination 
is an evil, blighting the buddings of self-government. 
Parents should teach their children at the
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
27 make them happy and good.
Jesus loved little children because of their freedom
from wrong and their receptiveness of right. While
 
30 age is halting between two opinions or battling with
false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards
Truth.
PAGE 237
 
 
1 A little girl, who had occasionally listened to my ex- 
planations, badly wounded her finger. She seemed not
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,
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
 
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
12 themselves and their offspring. Superstition, like "the 
fowls of the air," snatches away the good seed before it
has sprouted.
Teaching children
 
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
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
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
 
24 hear about the fallacy of matter and its supposed laws. 
They devote themselves a little longer to their 
material gods, cling to a belief in the life and
27 intelligence of matter, and expect this error to do more 
for them than they are willing to admit the only living and
true God can do. Impatient at your explanation, unwill-
30 ing to investigate the Science of Mind which would rid 
them of their complaints, they hug false beliefs and suffer
the delusive consequences.
PAGE 238 
 
 
Patient waiting
 
1 Motives and acts are not rightly valued before they are
understood. It is well to wait till those whom you would
3 benefit are ready for the blessing, for Science 
is working changes in personal character as
well as in the material universe.
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
9 to be Christian. Losing her crucifix, the Roman Catholic
girl said, "I have nothing left but Christ." "If God be
for us, who can be against us?"
Unimproved opportunities
 
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-
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
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-
21 cause we suffer severely from error.
Attempts to conciliate society and so gain dominion over
mankind, arise from worldly weakness. He who leaves
 
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.
 
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
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
PAGE 239
 
 
1 demonstration by which sin and sickness are destroyed. 
The sects, which endured the lash of their predecessors,
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,
 
6 which weigh not one jot in the balance of God, and we 
get clearer views of Principle. Break up 
cliques, level wealth with honesty, let worth
9 be judged according to wisdom, and we get better views 
of humanity.
The wicked man is not the ruler of his upright
 
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
15 unrighteous man his thoughts." 
Standpoint revealed 
To ascertain our progress, we must learn where our
affections are placed and whom we acknowledge and
 
18 obey as God. If divine Love is becoming 
nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is 
then submitting to Spirit. The objects we pursue and
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-
 
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-
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
30 Mind sends forth perfection, for God is Mind. Imper-
fect mortal mind sends forth its own resemblances, of
which the wise man said, "All is vanity." 
PAGE 240 
 
 
Some lessons from nature
 
1 Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love,
but human belief misinterprets nature. Arctic regions,
3 sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds,
mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers,
and glorious heavens, - all point to Mind, the spiritual
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-
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
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
15 perpetual motion. Its symbol is the sphere. The rota-
tions and revolutions of the universe of Mind go on
eternally.
Progress demanded
 
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-
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
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.
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
30 of paying sin's wages involves unwinding one's snarls
and learning from experience how to divide between sense
and Soul.
PAGE 241
 
 
1 "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." He, who 
knows God's will or the demands of divine Science and
3 obeys them, incurs the hostility of envy; and he who 
refuses obedience to God, is chastened by Love.
The doom of sin
Sensual treasures are laid up "where moth and rust
 
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,
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
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
 
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
18 practice. 
 
The substance of all devotion is the reflection and
demonstration of divine Love, healing sickness and
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
 
24 footsteps of Truth, the way to health and holiness. We 
should strive to reach the Horeb height where God is re-
vealed; and the corner-stone of all spiritual building is
27 purity. The baptism of Spirit, washing the body of all 
the impurities of flesh, signifies that the pure in heart
see God and are approaching spiritual Life and its
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
PAGE 242 
 
 
1 heaven, eternal harmony. Through repentance, spiritual
baptism, and regeneration, mortals put off their material
3 beliefs and false individuality. It is only a
question of time when "they shall all know
Me [God], from the least of them unto the greatest."
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
 
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-
12 ness of life - than good, God and His reflec- 
tion, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure
of the senses.
15 Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In pa-
tient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dis-
solve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant
18 of error, - self-will, self-justification, and self-love, -
which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin
and death.
Divided vestments
 
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
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
27 superstition appropriates no part of the divine vesture,
while inspiration restores every part of the Christly gar-
ment of righteousness.
30 The finger-posts of divine Science show the way our
Master trod, and require of Christians the proof which
he gave, instead of mere profession. We may hide 
PAGE 243
 
 
1 spiritual ignorance from the world, but we can never 
succeed in the Science and demonstration of spiritual
3 good through ignorance or hypocrisy. 
Ancient and modern miracles
The divine Love, which made harmless the poisonous 
viper, which delivered men from the boiling oil, from
 
6 the fiery furnace, from the jaws of the lion, 
can heal the sick in every age and triumph 
over sin and death. It crowned the demon-
9 strations of Jesus with unsurpassed power and love. But 
the same "Mind . . . which was also in Christ Jesus"
must always accompany the letter of Science in order to
12 confirm and repeat the ancient demonstrations of prophets 
and apostles. That those wonders are not more com- 
monly repeated to-day, arises not so much from lack of
15 desire as from lack of spiritual growth. 
Mental telegraphy 
The clay cannot reply to the potter. The head, heart,
lungs, and limbs do not inform us that they are dizzy,
 
18 diseased, consumptive, or lame. If this in- 
formation is conveyed, mortal mind conveys 
it. Neither immortal and unerring Mind nor matter,
21 the inanimate substratum of mortal mind, can carry 
on such telegraphy; for God is "of purer eyes than
to behold evil," and matter has neither intelligence nor
24 sensation. 
Annihilation of error 
Truth has no consciousness of error. Love has no
sense of hatred. Life has no partnership
 
27 with death. Truth, Life, and Love are a law 
of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because
they declare nothing except God.
Deformity and perfection
 
30 Sickness, sin, and death are not the fruits of Life. 
They are inharmonies which Truth destroys. Perfection 
does not animate imperfection. Inasmuch as God is 
PAGE 244 
 
 
1 good and the fount of all being, He does not produce
moral or physical deformity; therefore such deformity is
3 not real, but is illusion, the mirage of error. 
Divine Science reveals these grand facts. On
their basis Jesus demonstrated Life, never
6 fearing nor obeying error in any form.
If we were to derive all our conceptions of man from
what is seen between the cradle and the grave, happi-
 
9 ness and goodness would have no abiding-place in man,
and the worms would rob him of the flesh; but Paul 
writes: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
12 made me free from the law of sin and death." 
Man never less than man
Man undergoing birth, maturity, and decay is like the
beasts and vegetables, - subject to laws of decay. If
 
15 man were dust in his earliest stage of exist- 
ence, we might admit the hypothesis that he
returns eventually to his primitive condition;
18 but man was never more nor less than man.
If man flickers out in death or springs from matter into
being, there must be an instant when God is without His
 
21 entire manifestation, - when there is no full reflection
of the infinite Mind.
Man not evolved
Man in Science is neither young nor old. He has
 
24 neither birth nor death. He is not a beast, a vegetable,
nor a migratory mind. He does not pass from
matter to Mind, from the mortal to the im-
27 mortal, from evil to good, or from good to evil. Such
admissions cast us headlong into darkness and dogma. 
Even Shakespeare's poetry pictures age as infancy, as
30 helplessness and decadence, instead of assigning to man
the everlasting grandeur and immortality of development, 
power, and prestige.
PAGE 245
 
 
1 The error of thinking that we are growing old, and the 
benefits of destroying that illusion, are illustrated in a
3 sketch from the history of an English woman, published 
in the London medical magazine called The Lancet. 
Perpetual youth
Disappointed in love in her early years, she became
 
6 insane and lost all account of time. Believing that she 
was still living in the same hour which parted 
her from her lover, taking no note of years,
9 she stood daily before the window watching for her 
lover's coming. In this mental state she remained young.
Having no consciousness of time, she literally grew no
12 older. Some American travellers saw her when she was 
seventy-four, and supposed her to be a young woman. 
She had no care-lined face, no wrinkles nor gray hair, but
15 youth sat gently on cheek and brow. Asked to guess her 
age, those unacquainted with her history conjectured that
she must be under twenty.
18 This instance of youth preserved furnishes a useful 
hint, upon which a Franklin might work with more cer-
tainty than when he coaxed the enamoured lightning
21 from the clouds. Years had not made her old, because 
she had taken no cognizance of passing time nor thought
of herself as growing old. The bodily results of her belief
24 that she was young manifested the influence of such a be- 
lief. She could not age while believing herself young, for
the mental state governed the physical.
27 Impossibilities never occur. One instance like the 
foregoing proves it possible to be young at seventy-four; 
and the primary of that illustration makes it plain that
30 decrepitude is not according to law, nor is it a necessity of 
nature, but an illusion.
Man reflects God
The infinite never began nor will it ever end. Mind
PAGE 246
 
 
1 and its formations can never be annihilated. Man is not
a pendulum, swinging between evil and good, joy and
3 sorrow, sickness and health, life and death.
Life and its faculties are not measured by
calendars. The perfect and immortal are the eternal
6 likeness of their Maker. Man is by no means a material 
germ rising from the imperfect and endeavoring to reach
Spirit above his origin. The stream rises no higher than
9 its source.
The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and
gives ugliness to age. The radiant sun of virtue and truth
 
12 coexists with being. Manhood is its eternal noon, un-
dimmed by a declining sun. As the physical and mate- 
rial, the transient sense of beauty fades, the radiance of
15 Spirit should dawn upon the enraptured sense with bright
and imperishable glories.
Undesirable records
Never record ages. Chronological data are no part
 
18 of the vast forever. Time-tables of birth and death are
so many conspiracies against manhood and
womanhood. Except for the error of meas-
21 uring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man
would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and 
still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man,
24 governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and
grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, 
and holiness.
True life eternal
 
27 Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the
demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal. 
Let us then shape our views of existence into
30 loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather 
than into age and blight.
Acute and chronic beliefs reproduce their own types.
PAGE 247
 
 
1 The acute belief of physical life comes on at a remote 
period, and is not so disastrous as the chronic belief. 
Eyes and teeth renewed
 
3 I have seen age regain two of the elements it had lost, 
sight and teeth. A woman of eighty-five, whom I knew, 
had a return of sight. Another woman at
6 ninety had new teeth, incisors, cuspids, bi- 
cuspids, and one molar. One man at sixty
had retained his full set of upper and lower teeth without
9 a decaying cavity. 
Eternal beauty 
Beauty, as well as truth, is eternal; but the beauty
of material things passes away, fading and fleeting as
 
12 mortal belief. Custom, education, and fashion 
form the transient standards of mortals. Im- 
mortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its
15 own, - the radiance of Soul. Immortal men and women
are models of spiritual sense, drawn by perfect Mind
and reflecting those higher conceptions of loveliness
18 which transcend all material sense. 
The divine loveliness 
Comeliness and grace are independent of matter. Be-
ing possesses its qualities before they are perceived hu-
 
21 manly. Beauty is a thing of life, which 
dwells forever in the eternal Mind and re- 
flects the charms of His goodness in expression, form,
24 outline, and color. It is Love which paints the petal
with myriad hues, glances in the warm sunbeam, arches 
the cloud with the bow of beauty, blazons the night with
27 starry gems, and covers earth with loveliness. 
 
The embellishments of the person are poor substitutes 
for the charms of being, shining resplendent and eternal
30 over age and decay. 
 
The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and 
more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure
PAGE 248
 
 
1 in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious free-
dom of spiritual harmony.
Love's endowment
 
3 Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon
its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less
than beautiful. Men and women of riper
6 years and larger lessons ought to ripen into
health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness 
or gloom. Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal
9 freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images
of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each
day brings to a nearer tomb.
Mental sculpture
 
12 The sculptor turns from the marble to his model in
order to perfect his conception. We are all sculptors, 
working at various forms, moulding and chisel-
15 ing thought. What is the model before mortal 
mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering? 
Have you accepted the mortal model? Are you repro-
18 ducing it? Then you are haunted in your work by vicious
sculptors and hideous forms. Do you not hear from all
mankind of the imperfect model? The world is holding
21 it before your gaze continually. The result is that you
are liable to follow those lower patterns, limit your life-
work, and adopt into your experience the angular outline
24 and deformity of matter models.
Perfect models
To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right
direction, and then walk that way. We must form perfect
 
27 models in thought and look at them continually, 
or we shall never carve them out in grand and
noble lives. Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice,
30 health, holiness, love - the kingdom of heaven - reign
within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until
they finally disappear.
PAGE 249
 
 
1 Let us accept Science, relinquish all theories based on
sense-testimony, give up imperfect models and illusive
3 ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that 
one perfect, producing His own models of excellence. 
Renewed selfhood
Let the "male and female" of God's creating appear.
 
6 Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into 
newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor 
material power as able to destroy. Let us re-
9 joice that we are subject to the divine "powers that be." 
Such is the true Science of being. Any other theory of
Life, or God, is delusive and mythological.
12 Mind is not the author of matter, and the creator of
ideas is not the creator of illusions. Either there is no
omnipotence, or omnipotence is the only power. God is
15 the infinite, and infinity never began, will never end, and 
includes nothing unlike God. Whence then is soulless 
matter?
Illusive dreams
 
18 Life is, like Christ, "the same yesterday, and to-day, 
and forever." Organization and time have nothing to do
with Life. You say, "I dreamed last night."
21 What a mistake is that! The I is Spirit. God 
never slumbers, and His likeness never dreams. Mortals 
are the Adam dreamers.
24 Sleep and apath are phases of the dream that life, sub- 
stance, and intelligence are material. The mortal night-
dream is sometimes nearer the fact of being than are the
27 thoughts of mortals when awake. The night-dream has
less matter as its accompaniment. It throws off some
material fetters. It falls short of the skies, but makes its
30 mundane flights quite ethereal. 
Philosophical blunders 
Man is the reflection of Soul. He is the direct oppo-
site of material sensation, and there is but one Ego. We
PAGE 250
 
 
1 run into error when we divide Soul into souls, multiply
Mind into minds and suppose error to be mind, then mind
3 to be in matter and matter to be a lawgiver,
unintelligence to act like intelligence, and mor- 
tality to be the matrix of immortality.
Spirit the one Ego
 
6 Mortal existence is a dream; mortal existence has no
real entity, but saith "It is I." Spirit is the Ego which
never dreams, but understands all things;
9 which never errs, and is ever conscious; which 
never believes, but knows; which is never born and 
never dies. Spiritual man is the likeness of this Ego.
12 Man is not God, but like a ray of light which comes from
the sun, man, the outcome of God, reflects God. 
Mortal existence a dream
Mortal body and mind are one, and that one is called
 
15 man; but a mortal is not man, for man is immortal. A
mortal may be weary or pained, enjoy or suffer, 
according to the dream he entertains in sleep.
18 When that dream vanishes, the mortal finds himself 
experiencing none of these dream-sensations. To the
observer, the body lies listless, undisturbed, and sensa-
21 tionless, and the mind seems to be absent.
Now I ask, Is there any more reality in the waking
dream of mortal existence than in the sleeping dream?
 
24 There cannot be, since whatever appears to be a mortal
man is a mortal dream. Take away the mortal mind, 
and matter has no more sense as a man than it has as
27 a tree. But the spiritual, real man is immortal. 
Upon this stage of existence goes on the dance of mortal
mind. Mortal thoughts chase one another like snowflakes,
 
30 and drift to the ground. Science reveals Life as not being
at the mercy of death, nor will Science admit that happi-
ness is ever the sport of circumstance.
PAGE 251
 
 
Error self-destroyed
 
1 Error is not real, hence it is not more imperative 
as it hastens towards self-destruction. The so-called
3 belief of mortal mind apparent as an abscess 
should not grow more painful before it suppu- 
rates neither should a fever become more severe before
6 it ends. 
Illusion of death 
Fright is so great at certain stages of mortal belief
as to drive belief into new paths. In the illusion of
 
9 death, mortals wake to the knowledge of two 
facts: (1) that they are not dead; (2) that 
they have but passed the portals of a new belief. Truth
12 works out the nothingness of error in just these ways.
Sickness, as well as sin, is an error that Christ, Truth,
alone can destroy.
Mortal mind's disappearance
 
15 We must learn how mankind govern the body, - 
whether through faith in hygiene, in drugs, or in will-
power. We should learn whether they govern
18 the body through a belief in the necessity of 
sickness and death, sin and pardon, or govern 
it from the higher understanding that the divine Mind
21 makes perfect, acts upon the so-called human mind 
through truth, leads the human mind to relinquish all
error, to find the divine Mind to be the only Mind,
24 and the healer of sin, disease, death. This process of 
higher spiritual understanding improves mankind until
error disappears, and nothing is left which deserves to
27 perish or to be punished. 
 
Spiritual ignorance 
Ignorance, like intentional wrong, is not Science. 
Ignorance must be seen and corrected before we can at-
30 tain harmony. Inharmonious beliefs, which 
rob Mind, calling it matter, and deify their 
own notions, imprison themselves in what they create. 
PAGE 252
 
 
1 They are at war with Science, and as our Master said,
"If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom
3 cannot stand."
Human ignorance of Mind and of the recuperative
energies of Truth occasions the only skepticism regard-
 
6 ing the pathology and theology of Christian Science. 
Eternal man recognized
When false human beliefs learn even a little of their
own falsity, they begin to disappear. A knowledge of
 
9 error and of its operations must precede that
understanding of Truth which destroys error,
until the entire mortal, material error finally disappears,
12 and the eternal verity, man created by and of Spirit,
is understood and recognized as the true likeness of his
Maker.
15 The false evidence of material sense contrasts strikingly
with the testimony of Spirit. Material sense lifts its voice
with the arrogance of reality and says:
Testimony of sense
 
18 I am wholly dishonest, and no man knoweth it. I can
cheat, lie, commit adultery, rob, murder, and I elude
detection by smooth-tongued villainy. Ani-
21 mal in propensity, deceitful in sentiment,
fraudulent in purpose, I mean to make my short span 
of life one gala day. What a nice thing is sin! How
24 sin succeeds, where the good purpose waits! The world
is my kingdom. I am enthroned in the gorgeousness 
of matter. But a touch, an accident, the law of God,
27 may at any moment annihilate my peace, for all my
fancied joys are fatal. Like bursting lava, I expand but
to my own despair, and shine with the resplendency of
30 consuming fire.
Spirit, bearing opposite testimony, saith:
Testimony of Soul
I am Spirit. Man, whose senses are spiritual, is my
PAGE 253
 
 
1 likeness. He reflects the infinite understanding, for I am 
Infinity. The beauty of holiness, the perfection of being,
3 imperishable glory, - all are Mine, for I am 
God. I give immortality to man, for I am 
Truth. I include and impart all bliss, for I am Love.
6 I give life, without beginning and without end, for I am 
Life. I am supreme and give all, for I am Mind. I am
the substance of all, because I AM THAT I AM.
Heaven-bestowed prerogative
 
9 I hope, dear reader, I am leading you into the under- 
standing of your divine rights, your heaven-bestowed har-
mony, - that, as you read, you see there is no
12 cause (outside of erring, mortal, material sense 
which is not power) able to make you sick or 
sinful; and I hope that you are conquering this false sense.
15 Knowing the falsity of so-called material sense, you can 
assert your prerogative to overcome the belief in sin, dis-
ease, or death.
Right endeavor possible
 
18 If you believe in and practise wrong knowingly, you 
can at once change your course and do right. Matter can
make no opposition to right endeavors against
21 sin or sickness, for matter is inert, mindless. 
Also, if you believe yourself diseased, you can 
alter this wrong belief and action without hindrance from
24 the body. 
 
Do not believe in any supposed necessity for sin, dis-
ease, or death, knowing (as you ought to know) that God
27 never requires obedience to a so-called material law, for 
no such law exists. The belief in sin and death is de-
stroyed by the law of God, which is the law of Life in-
30 stead of death, of harmony instead of discord, of Spirit 
instead of the flesh.
Patience and final perfection
The divine demand, "Be ye therefore perfect," is sci-
PAGE 254 
 
 
1 entific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are
indispensable. Individuals are consistent who, watching
3 and praying, can "run, and not be weary; . . .
walk, and not faint," who gain good rapidly 
and hold their position, or attain slowly and
6 yield not to discouragement. God requires perfection, 
but not until the battle between Spirit and flesh is fought
and the victory won. To stop eating, drinking, or being
9 clothed materially before the spiritual facts of existence
are gained step by step, is not legitimate. When we wait
patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs
12 our path. Imperfect mortals grasp the ultimate of spir-
itual perfection slowly; but to begin aright and to con-
tinue the strife of demonstrating the great problem of
15 being, is doing much.
During the sensual ages, absolute Christian Science
may not be achieved prior to the change called death,
 
18 for we have not the power to demonstrate what we do
not understand. But the human self must be evangel- 
ized. This task God demands us to accept lovingly
21 to-day, and to abandon so fast as practical the material,
and to work out the spiritual which determines the out-
ward and actual.
24 If you venture upon the quiet surface of error and are
in sympathy with error, what is there to disturb the waters?
What is there to strip off error's disguise?
The cross and crown
 
27 If you launch your bark upon the ever-agitated but
healthful waters of truth, you will encounter storms. 
Your good will be evil spoken of. This is the
30 cross. Take it up and bear it, for through it 
you win and wear the crown. Pilgrim on earth, thy home
is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God. 
 
PAGE 165
 
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall 
eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. 
Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? - JESUS.
 
He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their 
destructions. - PSALMS.
 
1 PHYSIOLOGY is one of the apples from "the tree 
of knowledge." Evil declared that eating this fruit
3 would open man's eyes and make him as a god. Instead 
of so doing, it closed the eyes of mortals to man's God-
given dominion over the earth.
Man not structural
 
6 To measure intellectual capacity by the size of the 
brain and strength by the exercise of muscle, is to
subjugate intelligence, to make mind mor-
9 tal, and to place this so-called mind at the
mercy of material organization and non-intelligent 
matter.
12 Obedience to the so-called physical laws of health has 
not checked sickness. Diseases have multiplied, since
man-made material theories took the place of spiritual
15 truth. 
Causes of sickness
You say that indigestion, fatigue, sleeplessness, cause
distressed stomachs and aching heads. Then
 
18 you consult your brain in order to remember 
what has hurt you, when your remedy lies in forgetting 
PAGE 166 
 
 
1 the whole thing; for matter has no sensation of its own, 
and the human mind is all that can produce pain.
3 As a man thinketh, so is he. Mind is all that feels, 
acts, or impedes action. Ignorant of this, or shrinking 
from its implied responsibility, the healing effort is made
6 on the wrong side, and thus the conscious control over the 
body is lost.
Delusions pagan and medical
The Mohammedan believes in a pilgrimage to Mecca
 
9 for the salvation of his soul. The popular doctor believes
in his prescription, and the pharmacist believes 
in the power of his drugs to save a man's
12 life. The Mohammedan's belief is a religious 
delusion; the doctor's and pharmacist's is a medical 
mistake.
Health from reliance on spirituality
 
15 The erring human mind is inharmonious in itself.
From it arises the inharmonious body. To ignore 
God as of little use in sickness is a mistake.
18 Instead of thrusting Him aside in times of
bodily trouble, and waiting for the hour of
strength in which to acknowledge Him, we should learn
21 that He can do all things for us in sickness as in
health.
Failing to recover health through adherence to physi-
 
24 ology and hygiene, the despairing invalid often drops 
them, and in his extremity and only as a last resort, turns 
to God. The invalid's faith in the divine Mind is less
27 than in drugs, air, and exercise, or he would have resorted 
to Mind first. The balance of power is conceded to be 
with matter by most of the medical systems; but when
30 Mind at last asserts its mastery over sin, disease, and 
death, then is man found to be harmonious and
immortal.
PAGE 167
 
 
1 Should we implore a corporeal God to heal the sick 
out of His personal volition, or should we understand the
3 infinite divine Principle which heals? If we rise no higher 
than blind faith, the Science of healing is not attained, and
Soul-existence, in the place of sense-existence, is not com-
6 prehended. We apprehend Life in divine Science only 
as we live above corporeal sense and correct it. Our pro-
portionate admission of the claims of good or of evil de-
9 termines the harmony of our existence, - our health, our 
longevity, and our Christianity.
The two masters
We cannot serve two masters nor perceive divine Sci-
 
12 ence with the material senses. Drugs and hygiene cannot
successfully usurp the place and power of the 
divine source of all health and perfection. If
15 God made man both good and evil, man must remain 
thus. What can improve God's work? Again, an error 
in the premise must appear in the conclusion. To have
18 one God and avail yourself of the power of Spirit, you
must love God supremely.
Half-way success 
The "flesh lusteth against the Spirit." The flesh and
 
21 Spirit can no more unite in action, than good can coin- 
cide with evil. It is not wise to take a halt- 
ing and half-way position or to expect to work
24 equally with Spirit and matter, Truth and error. There, 
is but one way - namely, God and His idea - which 
leads to spiritual being. The scientific government of the
27 body must be attained through the divine Mind. It is im-
possible to gain control over the body in any other way.
On this fundamental point, timid conservatism is abso-
30 lutely inadmissible. Only through radical reliance on
Truth can scientific healing power be realized. 
Substituting good words for a good life, fair seeming
PAGE 168 
 
 
1 for straightforward character, is a poor shift for the weak 
and worldly, who think the standard of Christian Science
3 too high for them.
Belief on the wrong side
If the scales are evenly adjusted, the removal of a single
weight from either scale gives preponderance to the oppo-
 
6 site. Whatever influence you cast on the side 
of matter, you take away from Mind, which 
would otherwise outweigh all else. Your belief militates
9 against your health, when it ought to be enlisted on the 
side of health. When sick (according to belief) you rush 
after drugs, search out the material so-called laws of
12 health, and depend upon them to heal you, though you 
have already brought yourself into the slough of disease 
through just this false belief.
The divine authority
 
15 Because man-made systems insist that man becomes 
sick and useless, suffers and dies, all in consonance with
the laws of God, are we to believe it? Are
18 we to believe an authority which denies God's 
spiritual command relating to perfection, - an authority 
which Jesus proved to be false? He did the will of the
21 Father. He healed sickness in defiance of what is called 
material law, but in accordance with God's law, the law
of Mind.
Disease foreseen
 
24 I have discerned disease in the human mind, and rec-
ognized the patient's fear of it, months before the so-called
disease made its appearance in the body. Dis-
27 ease being a belief, a latent illusion of mortal 
mind, the sensation would not appear if the error of belief
was met and destroyed by truth.
Changed mentality
 
30 Here let a word be noticed which will be 
better understood hereafter, - chemicalization. 
By chemicalization I mean the process which mortal 
PAGE 169
 
 
1 mind and body undergo in the change of belief from a 
material to a spiritual basis.
Scientific foresight
 
3 Whenever an aggravation of symptoms has occurred 
through mental chemicalization, I have seen the mental 
signs, assuring me that danger was over, before
6 the patient felt the change; and I have said 
to the patient, "You are healed," - sometimes to his dis-
comfiture, when he was incredulous. But it always came
9 about as I had foretold.
 
I name these facts to show that disease has a mental, 
mortal origin, - that faith in rules of health or in drugs
12 begets and fosters disease by attracting the mind to the 
subject of sickness, by exciting fear of disease, and by dos-
ing the body in order to avoid it. The faith reposed in
15 these things should find stronger supports and a higher
home. If we understood the control of Mind over body,
we should put no faith in material means.
Mind the only healer
 
18 Science not only reveals the origin of all disease as
mental, but it also declares that all disease is cured by
divine Mind. There can be no healing ex-
21 cept by this Mind, however much we trust 
a drug or any other means towards which human faith 
or endeavor is directed. It is mortal mind, not mat-
24 ter, which brings to the sick whatever good they may 
seem to receive from materiality. But the sick are never
really healed except by means of the divine power.
27 Only the action of Truth, Life, and Love can give 
harmony.
Modes of matter
Whatever teaches man to have other laws and to
 
30 acknowledge other powers than the divine 
Mind, is anti-Christian. The good that a 
poisonous drug seems to do is evil, for it robs man of
PAGE 170 
 
 
1 reliance on God, omnipotent Mind, and according to be-
lief, poisons the human system. Truth is not the basis of
3 theogony. Modes of matter form neither a moral nor a
spiritual system. The discord which calls for material 
methods is the result of the exercise of faith in material
6 modes, - faith in matter instead of in Spirit. 
Physiology unscientific
Did Jesus understand the economy of man less than
Graham or Cutter? Christian ideas certainly present
 
9 what human theories exclude - the Principle
of man's harmony. The text, "Whosoever 
liveth and believeth in me shall never die," not only con-
12 tradicts human systems, but points to the self-sustaining 
and eternal Truth.
The demands of Truth are spiritual, and reach the
 
15 body through Mind. The best interpreter of man's needs 
said: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, 
or what ye shall drink."
18 If there are material laws which prevent disease, what
then causes it? Not divine law, for Jesus healed the
sick and cast out error, always in opposition, never in
21 obedience, to physics.
Causation considered
Spiritual causation is the one question to be considered, 
for more than all others spiritual causation relates to
 
24 human progress. The age seems ready to 
approach this subject, to ponder somewhat 
the supremacy of Spirit, and at least to touch the hem
27 of Truth's garment.
The description of man as purely physical, or as both
material and spiritual, - but in either case dependent
 
30 upon his physical organization, - is the Pandora box,
from which all ills have gone forth, especially despair. 
Matter, which takes divine power into its own hands and
PAGE 171
 
 
1 claims to be a creator, is a fiction, in which paganism and 
lust are so sanctioned by society that mankind has caught
3 their moral contagion.
Paradise regained
Through discernment of the spiritual opposite of ma-
teriality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will
 
6 reopen with the key of divine Science the gates 
of Paradise which human beliefs have closed,
and will find himself unfallen, upright, pure, and free,
9 not needing to consult almanacs for the probabilities either
of his life or of the weather, not needing to study brain-
ology to learn how much of a man he is.
A closed question
 
12 Mind's control over the universe, including man, is
no longer an open question, but is demonstrable Science.
Jesus illustrated the divine Principle and the
15 power of immortal Mind by healing sickness 
and sin and destroying the foundations of death. 
Matter versus Spirit
Mistaking his origin and nature, man believes himself to
 
18 be combined matter and Spirit. He believes that Spirit
is sifted through matter, carried on a nerve, ex- 
posed to ejection by the operation of matter.
21 The intellectual, the moral, the spiritual, - yea, the image
of infinite Mind, - subject to non-intelligence! 
No more sympathy exists between the flesh and Spirit
 
24 than between Belial and Christ.
The so-called laws of matter are nothing but false be-
liefs that intelligence and life are present where Mind
 
27 is not. These false beliefs are the procuring cause of all
sin and disease. The opposite truth, that intelligence and
life are spiritual, never material, destroys sin, sickness,
30 and death.
The fundamental error lies in the supposition that man
is a material outgrowth and that the cognizance of good
PAGE 172
 
 
1 or evil, which he has through the bodily senses, con-
stitutes his happiness or misery.
Godless Evolution
 
3 Theorizing about man's development from mushrooms 
to monkeys and from monkeys into men
amounts to nothing in the right direction and
6 very much in the wrong.
Materialism grades the human species as rising from 
matter upward. How then is the material species main-
 
9 tained, if man passes through what we call death and 
death is the Rubicon of spirituality? Spirit can form 
no real link in this supposed chain of material being.
12 But divine Science reveals the eternal chain of existence 
as uninterrupted and wholly spiritual; yet this can be 
realized only as the false sense of being disappears. 
Degrees of development
 
15 If man was first a material being, he must have passed 
through all the forms of matter in order to become man. 
If the material body is man, he is a portion of
18 matter, or dust. On the contrary, man is the 
image and likeness of Spirit; and the belief that there is 
Soul in sense or Life in matter obtains in mortals, alias
21 mortal mind, to which the apostle refers when he says 
that we must "put off the old man."
Identity not lost
What is man? Brain, heart, blood, bones, etc., the
 
24 material structure? If the real man is in the material
body, you take away a portion of the man when
you amputate a limb; the surgeon destroys
27 manhood, and worms annihilate it. But the loss of a limb 
or injury to a tissue is sometimes the quickener of manli-
ness; and the unfortunate cripple may present more no-
30 bility than the statuesque athlete, - teaching us by his 
very deprivations, that "a man's a man, for a' that."
When man is man
When we admit that matter (heart, blood, brain, acting
PAGE 173
 
 
1 through the five physical senses) constitutes man, we fail
to see how anatomy can distinguish between
3 humanity and the brute, or determine when 
man is really man and has progressed farther than his
animal progenitors.
Individualization
 
6 When the supposition, that Spirit is within what it
creates and the potter is subject to the clay,
is individualized, Truth is reduced to the level
9 of error, and the sensible is required to be made manifest
through the insensible.
What is termed matter manifests nothing but a material
 
12 mentality. Neither the substance nor the manifestation 
of Spirit is obtainable through matter. Spirit is positive.
Matter is Spirit's contrary, the absence of Spirit. For
15 positive Spirit to pass through a negative condition 
would be Spirit's destruction.
Man not structural
Anatomy declares man to be structural. Physiology
 
18 continues this explanation, measuring human 
strength by bones and sinews, and human life 
by material law. Man is spiritual, individual, and eter-
21 nal; material structure is mortal.
Phrenology makes man knavish or honest according to
the development of the cranium; but anatomy, physiology,
24 phrenology, do not define the image of God, the real im-
mortal man.
Human reason and religion come slowly to the recogni-
 
27 tion of spiritual facts, and so continue to call upon
matter to remove the error which the human mind alone
has created.
30 The idols of civilization are far more fatal to health
and longevity than are the idols of barbarism. The idols
of civilization call into action less faith than Buddhism
PAGE 174 
 
 
1 in a supreme governing intelligence. The Esquimaux
restore health by incantations as consciously as do civi-
3 lized practitioners by their more studied methods. 
Is civilization only a higher form of idolatry, that
man should bow down to a flesh-brush, to flannels, to
 
6 baths, diet, exercise, and air? Nothing save divine 
power is capable of doing so much for man as he can 
do for himself.
Rise of thought
 
9 The footsteps of thought, rising above material stand-
points, are slow, and portend a long night to the traveller;
but the angels of His presence - the spiritual
12 intuitions that tell us when "the night is far
spent, the day is at hand" - are our guardians in the
gloom. Whoever opens the way in Christian Science is
15 a pilgrim and stranger, marking out the path for gen-
erations yet unborn.
The thunder of Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount
 
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
21 be practised.
Medical errors
Mortal belief is all that enables a drug to cure mortal
ailments. Anatomy admits that mind is somewhere in
 
24 man, though out of sight. Then, if an indi-
vidual is sick, why treat the body alone and 
administer a dose of despair to the mind? Why declare
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-
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
PAGE 175
 
 
1 images of disease from taking form in thought, and we
should efface the outlines of disease already formulated in
3 the minds of mortals.
Novel Diseases
When there are fewer prescriptions, and less thought is
given to sanitary subjects, there will be better
 
6 constitutions and less disease. In old times
who ever heard of dyspepsia, cerebro-spinal meningitis, 
hay-fever, and rose-cold?
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
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,
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
 
18 been routed by their independence and in- 
dustry. Then people had less time for self-
ishness, coddling, and sickly after-dinner talk. The ex-
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
24 upon the gastric juices. Beaumont's "Medical Experi-
ments" did not govern the digestion.
Pulmonary misbeliefs
Damp atmosphere and freezing snow empurpled the
 
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
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
PAGE 176 
 
 
1 the English poet, and there is truth in his sentiment. The 
action of mortal mind on the body was not so injurious
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-
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-
 
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
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-
15 ishness and sin, disease and death, will lose their 
foothold.
Human fear of miasma would load with disease the
 
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
 
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-
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
27 no farther than mortal mind maps out the way. The 
human mind, not matter, is supposed to feel, suffer, en-
joy. Hence decided types of acute disease are quite as
30 ready to yield to Truth as the less distinct type and chronic 
form of disease. Truth handles the most malignant con-
tagion with perfect assurance.
PAGE 177
?
 
One basis for all sickness
 
1 Human mind produces what is termed organic dis-
ease as certainly as it produces hysteria, and it must re-
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-
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
 
9 the other, and both must be destroyed by immortal Mind.
Matter, or body, is but a false concept of mor- 
tal mind. This so-called mind builds its own
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
 
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
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
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
24 Truth.
Poison defined mentally
If a dose of poison is swallowed through mistake, and
the patient dies even though physician and
 
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
30 taken.
In such cases a few persons believe the potion swal-
lowed by the patient to be harmless, but the vast ma-
PAGE 178
 
 
1 jority of mankind, though they know nothing of this par-
ticular case and this special person, believe the arsenic,
3 the strychnine, or whatever the drug used, to be poi-
sonous, for it is set down as a poison by mortal mind. 
Consequently, the result is controlled by the majority of
6 opinions, not by the infinitesimal minority of opinions in 
the sick-chamber.
Heredity is not a law. The remote cause or belief
 
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
12 mental.
Perhaps an adult has a deformity produced prior to his
birth by the fright of his mother. When wrested from
 
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
 
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,
21 and must finally yield to the eternal Truth, or
the divine Mind, expressed in Science. In pro-
portion to our understanding of Christian Science, we are
24 freed from the belief of heredity, of mind in matter or ani-
mal magnetism; and we disarm sin of its imaginary power 
in proportion to our spiritual understanding of the status
27 of immortal being.
Ignorant of the methods and the basis of metaphysical 
healing, you may attempt to unite with it hypnotism,
 
30 spiritualism, electricity; but none of these methods can 
be mingled with metaphysical healing.
Whoever reaches the understanding of Christian Science
PAGE 179
 
1 in its proper signification will perform the sudden cures
of which it is capable; but this can be done only by
3 taking up the cross and following Christ in the daily
life.
Absent patients
Science can heal the sick, who are absent from their
 
6 healers, as well as those present, since space is no ob- 
stacle to Mind. Immortal Mind heals what eye 
hath not seen; but the spiritual capacity to ap-
9 prehend thought and to heal by the Truth-power, is won 
only as man is found, not in self-righteousness, but re-
flecting the divine nature.
Horses mistaught
 
12 Every medical method has its advocates. The prefer-
ence of mortal mind for a certain method creates a demand
for that method, and the body then seems to re-
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
18 instincts, sniffs the wind with delight. The epizootic is 
a humanly evolved ailment, which a wild horse might 
never have.
Medical works objectionable
 
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
24 be proverbial, that so long as you read medical works you 
will be sick.
The sedulous matron - studying her Jahr with homoe-
 
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,
30 and her household may erelong reap the effect of this 
mistake.
Descriptions of disease given by physicians and adver-
PAGE 180 
 
 
1 tisements of quackery are both prolific sources of sickness. 
As mortal mind is the husbandman of error, it should be
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
 
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-
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
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
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
 
18 their patients, as they so frequently do, by declaring dis-
ease to be a fixed fact, even before they go to 
work to eradicate the disease through the ma-
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
24 which casteth out fear.
When man is governed by God, the ever-present
Mind who understands all things, man knows that with
 
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
30 Jesus.
The important decision
To reduce inflammation, dissolve a tumor, or cure or-
ganic disease, I have found divine Truth more potent than
PAGE 181 
 
1 all lower remedies. And why not, since Mind, God, is
the source and condition of all existence? Before decid-
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
6 it hold the issues of life?" Matter, which can neither 
suffer nor enjoy, has no partnership with pain and pleas-
ure, but mortal belief has such a partnership.
Manipulation unscientific
 
9 When you manipulate patients, you trust in electricity
and magnetism more than in Truth; and for 
that reason, you employ matter rather than
12 Mind. You weaken or destroy your power when you re- 
sort to any except spiritual means.
It is foolish to declare that you manipulate patients but
 
15 that you lay no stress on manipulation. If this be so, why 
manipulate? In reality you manipulate because you are
ignorant of the baneful effects of magnetism, or are not
18 sufficiently spiritual to depend on Spirit. In either case 
you must improve your mental condition till you finally
attain the understanding of Christian Science.
Not words but deeds
 
21 If you are too material to love the Science of Mind and 
are satisfied with good words instead of effects, if you
adhere to error and are afraid to trust Truth,
24 the question then recurs, "Adam, where art 
thou?" It is unnecessary to resort to aught besides
Mind in order to satisfy the sick that you are doing some-
27 thing for them, for if they are cured, they generally know
it and are satisfied.
"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
 
30 If you have more faith in drugs than in Truth, this faith 
will incline you to the side of matter and error. Any
hypnotic power you may exercise will diminish your 
PAGE 182 
 
 
1 ability to become a Scientist, and vice versa. The act 
of healing the sick through divine Mind alone, of casting
3 out error with Truth, shows your position as a Christian
Scientist.
 
Physiology or Spirit
The demands of God appeal to thought only; but the
 
6 claims of mortality, and what are termed laws of nature, 
appertain to matter. Which, then, are we to
accept as legitimate and capable of producing
9 the highest human good? We cannot obey both physi- 
ology and Spirit, for one absolutely destroys the other, 
and one or the other must be supreme in the affections.
12 It is impossible to work from two standpoints. If we 
attempt it, we shall presently "hold to the one,
and despise the other."
15 The hypotheses of mortals are antagonistic to Science 
and cannot mix with it. This is clear to those, who heal
the sick on the basis of Science.
No material law
 
18 Mind's government of the body must supersede the so-
called laws of matter. Obedience to material law pre-
vents full obedience to spiritual law, - the law
21 which overcomes material conditions and puts 
matter under the feet of Mind. Mortals entreat the di-
vine Mind to heal the sick, and forthwith shut out the aid
24 of Mind by using material means, thus working against 
themselves and their prayers and denying man's God- 
given ability to demonstrate Mind's sacred power. Pleas
27 for drugs and laws of health come from some sad incident,
or else from ignorance of Christian Science and its tran-
scendent power.
30 To admit that sickness is a condition over which God 
has no control, is to presuppose that omnipotent power 
is powerless on some occasions. The law of Christ, or
PAGE 183
 
 
1 Truth, makes all things possible to Spirit; but the so- 
called laws of matter would render Spirit of no avail, and
3 demand obedience to materialistic codes, thus departing 
from the basis of one God, one lawmaker. To suppose 
that God constitutes laws of inharmony is a mistake; dis-
6 cords have no support from nature or divine law, however 
much is said to the contrary.
Can the agriculturist, according to belief, produce a
 
9 crop without sowing the seed and awaiting its germina- 
tion according to the laws of nature? The answer is no,
and yet the Scriptures inform us that sin, or error, first
12 caused the condemnation of man to till the ground, and 
indicate that obedience to God will remove this necessity.
Truth never made error necessary, nor devised a law to
15 perpetuate error.
Laws of nature spiritual
The supposed laws which result in weariness and dis-
ease are not His laws, for the legitimate and only possible
 
18 action of Truth is the production of harmony. 
Laws of nature are laws of Spirit; but mortals 
commonly recognize as law that which hides the power of
21 Spirit. Divine Mind rightly demands man's entire obe-
dience, affection, and strength. No reservation is made
for any lesser loyalty. Obedience to Truth gives man
24 power and strength. Submission to error superinduces 
loss of power.
Belief and understanding
Truth casts out all evils and materialistic methods
 
27 with the actual spiritual law, - the law which gives 
sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, voice 
to the dumb, feet to the lame. If Christian
30 Science dishonors human belief, it honors spir- 
itual understanding; and the one Mind only is entitled to
honor.
PAGE 184 
 
 
1 The so-called laws of health are simply laws of mortal 
belief. The premises being erroneous, the conclusions
3 are wrong. Truth makes no laws to regulate sickness, 
sin, and death, for these are unknown to Truth and should 
not be recognized as reality.
6 Belief produces the results of belief, and the penal-
ties it affixes last so long as the belief and are insepara-
ble from it. The remedy consists in probing the trouble
9 to the bottom, in finding and casting out by denial the
error of belief which produces a mortal disorder, never 
honoring erroneous belief with the title of law nor yield-
12 ing obedience to it. Truth, Life, and Love are the only 
legitimate and eternal demands on man, and they are 
spiritual lawgivers, enforcing obedience through divine
15 statutes.
Laws of human belief
Controlled by the divine intelligence, man is harmoni-
ous and eternal. Whatever is governed by a false belief
 
18 is discordant and mortal. We say man suffers 
from the effects of cold, heat, fatigue. This
is human belief, not the truth of being, for matter cannot
21 suffer. Mortal mind alone suffers, - not because a law 
of matter has been transgressed, but because a law of this 
so-called mind has been disobeyed. I have demonstrated
24 this as a rule of divine Science by destroying the delusion 
of suffering from what is termed a fatally broken physical 
law.
27 A woman, whom I cured of consumption, always 
breathed with great difficulty when the wind was from
the east. I sat silently by her side a few moments. Her
30 breath came gently. The inspirations were deep and nat-
ural. I then requested her to look at the weather-vane. 
She looked and saw that it pointed due east. The wind
PAGE 185
 
 
1 had not changed, but her thought of it had and so her diffi- 
culty in breathing had gone. The wind had not produced
3 the difficulty. My metaphysical treatment changed the
action of her belief on the lungs, and she never suffered
again from east winds, but was restored to health. 
A so-called mind-cure
 
6 No system of hygiene but Christian Science is purely
mental. Before this book was published, other books 
were in circulation, which discussed "mental
9 medicine" and "mind-cure," operating through
the power of the earth's magnetic currents to regulate life
and health. Such theories and such systems of so-called
12 mind-cure, which have sprung up, are as material as the
prevailing systems of medicine. They have their birth
in mortal mind, which puts forth a human conception 
15 in the name of Science to match the divine Science of im-
mortal Mind, even as the necromancers of Egypt strove 
to emulate the wonders wrought by Moses. Such theories
18 have no relationship to Christian Science, which rests on
the conception of God as the only Life, substance, and
intelligence, and excludes the human mind as a spiritual
21 factor in the healing work.
Jesus and hypnotism
Jesus cast out evil and healed the sick, not only with-
out drugs, but without hypnotism, which is
 
24 the reverse of ethical and pathological Truth- 
power.
Erroneous mental practice may seem for a time to bene-
 
27 fit the sick, but the recovery is not permanent. This is
because erroneous methods act on and through the ma-
terial stratum of the human mind, called brain, which is
30 but a mortal consolidation of material mentality and its
suppositional activities.
False stimulus
A patient under the influence of mortal mind is healed
PAGE 186 
 
 
1 only by removing the influence on him of this mind, by
emptying his thought of the false stimulus
3 and reaction of will-power and filling it with 
the divine energies of Truth.
Christian Science destroys material beliefs through the
 
6 understanding of Spirit, and the thoroughness of this work 
determines health. Erring human mind-forces can work 
only evil under whatever name or pretence they are em-
9 ployed; for Spirit and matter, good and evil, light and 
darkness, cannot mingle.
Evil negative and self-destructive
Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth.
 
12 It is nothing, because it is the absence of something. It
is unreal, because it presupposes the absence 
of God, the omnipotent and omnipresent.
15 Every mortal must learn that there is neither 
power nor reality in evil.
Evil is self-assertive. It says: "I am a real entity, over-
 
18 mastering good." This falsehood should strip evil of all 
pretensions. The only power of evil is to destroy itself. It 
can never destroy one iota of good. Every attempt of evil
21 to destroy good is a failure, and only aids in peremptorily 
punishing the evil-doer. If we concede the same reality to 
discord as to harmony, discord has as lasting a claim upon
24 us as has harmony. If evil is as real as good, evil is also as 
immortal. If death is as real as Life, immortality is a myth.
If pain is as real as the absence of pain, both must be im-
27 mortal; and if so, harmony cannot be the law of being.
Ignorant idolatry
Mortal mind is ignorant of self, or it could never be 
self-deceived. If mortal mind knew how to be better, it
 
30 would be better. Since it must believe in some- 
thing besides itself, it enthrones matter as deity. 
The human mind has been an idolater from the beginning, 
PAGE 187
 
 
1 having other gods and believing in more than the one
Mind.
3 As mortals do not comprehend even mortal existence,
how ignorant must they be of the all-knowing Mind and
of His creations.
6 Here you may see how so-called material sense creates
its own forms of thought, gives them material names, and
then worships and fears them. With pagan blindness,
9 it attributes to some material god or medicine an ability
beyond itself. The beliefs of the human mind rob and
enslave it, and then impute this result to another illusive
12 personification, named Satan.
Action of mortal mind
The valves of the heart, opening and closing for the pas-
sage of the blood, obey the mandate of mor-
 
15 tal mind as directly as does the hand, ad- 
mittedly moved by the will. Anatomy allows the mental 
cause of the latter action, but not of the former. 
18 We say, "My hand hath done it." What is this my but
mortal mind, the cause of all materialistic action? All
voluntary, as well as miscalled involuntary, action of the
21 mortal body is governed by this so-called mind, not by
matter. There is no involuntary action. The divine Mind
includes all action and volition, and man in Science is gov-
24 erned by this Mind. The human mind tries to classify 
action as voluntary and involuntary, and suffers from the
attempt.
Death and the body
27 If you take away this erring mind, the mortal material
body loses all appearance of life or action, and this so-
called mind then calls itself dead; but the hu-
30 man mind still holds in belief a body, through 
which it acts and which appears to the human mind to
live, - a body like the one it had before death. This body
PAGE 188 
 
 
1 is put off only as the mortal, erring mind yields to God, 
immortal Mind, and man is found in His image.
Embryonic sinful thoughts
 
3 What is termed disease does not exist. It is neither
mind nor matter. The belief of sin, which has grown 
terrible in strength and influence, is an uncon-
6 scious error in the beginning, - an embryonic
thought without motive; but afterwards it
governs the so-called man. Passion, depraved appetites,
9 dishonesty, envy, hatred, revenge ripen into action, only to
pass from shame and woe to their final punishment. 
Disease a dream
Mortal existence is a dream of pain and pleasure in
 
12 matter, a dream of sin, sickness, and death; and it is like
the dream we have in sleep, in which every one
recognizes his condition to be wholly a state of
15 mind. In both the waking, and the sleeping dream, the
dreamer thinks that his body is material and the suffering
is in that body.
18 The smile of the sleeper indicates the sensation pro-
duced physically by the pleasure of a dream. In the
same way pain and pleasure, sickness and care, are
21 traced upon mortals by unmistakable signs.
Sickness is a growth of error, springing from mortal
ignorance or fear. Error rehearses error. What causes
 
24 disease cannot cure it. The soil of disease is mortal
mind, and you have an abundant or scanty crop of disease,
according to the seedlings of fear. Sin and the fear of
27 disease must be uprooted and cast out.
 
Sense yields to understanding
When darkness comes over the earth, the physical
senses have no immediate evidence of a sun.
30 The human eye knows not where the orb of
day is, nor if it exists. Astronomy gives the
desired information regarding the sun. The human or
PAGE 189
 
 
1 material senses yield to the authority of this science, and 
they are willing to leave with astronomy the explanation of
3 the sun's influence over the earth. If the eyes see no sun
for a week, we still believe that there is solar light and
heat. Science (in this instance named natural) raises
6 the human thought above the cruder theories of the
human mind, and casts out a fear.
In like manner mortals should no more deny the power
 
9 of Christian Science to establish harmony and to explain
the effect of mortal mind on the body, though the cause
be unseen, than they should deny the existence of the sun-
12 light when the orb of day disappears, or doubt that the sun
will reappear. The sins of others should not make good
men suffer.
Ascending the scale
 
15 We call the body material; but it is as truly mortal
mind, according to its degree, as is the material brain
which is supposed to furnish the evidence
18 of all mortal thought or things. The human 
mortal mind, by an inevitable perversion, makes all
things start from the lowest instead of from the highest
21 mortal thought. The reverse is the case with all the
formations of the immortal divine Mind. They proceed 
from the divine source; and so, in tracing them, we con-
24 stantly ascend in infinite being.
Human reproduction
From mortal mind comes the reproduction of the 
species, - first the belief of inanimate, and then of ani-
 
27 mate matter. According to mortal thought, 
the development of embryonic mortal mind
commences in the lower, basal portion of the brain, and
30 goes on in an ascending scale by evolution, keeping always
in the direct line of matter, for matter is the subjective
condition of mortal mind.
PAGE 190
 
 
1 Next we have the formation of so-called embryonic
mortal mind, afterwards mortal men or mortals, - all this
3 while matter is a belief, ignorant of itself, ignorant of what
it is supposed to produce. The mortal says that an inani-
mate unconscious seedling is producing mortals, both body
6 and mind; and yet neither a mortal mind nor the immortal
Mind is found in brain or elsewhere in matter or in mortals.
Human stature
This embryonic and materialistic human belief called
 
9 mortal man in turn fills itself with thoughts
of pain and pleasure, of life and death, and 
arranges itself into five so-called senses, which presently
12 measure mind by the size of a brain and the bulk of a 
body, called man.
Human frailty
Human birth, growth, maturity, and decay are as the
 
15 grass springing from the soil with beautiful green blades,
afterwards to wither and return to its native
nothingness. This mortal seeming is temporal;
18 it never merges into immortal being, but finally disap-
pears, and immortal man, spiritual and eternal, is found 
to be the real man.
21 The Hebrew bard, swayed by mortal thoughts, thus 
swept his lyre with saddening strains on human existence: 
     As for man, his days are as grass:
 
24      As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. 
     For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; 
     And the place thereof shall know it no more.
27 When hope rose higher in the human heart, he sang:
     As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness:
     I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness. 
.   .   .   .   .
 
30      For with Thee is the fountain of life;
     In Thy light shall we see light.
PAGE 191
 
 
1 The brain can give no idea of God's man. It can take
no cognizance of Mind. Matter is not the organ of infi-
3 nite Mind.
As mortals give up the delusion that there is more than
one Mind, more than one God, man in God's likeness will
 
6 appear, and this eternal man will include in that likeness
no material element.
The immortal birth
As a material, theoretical life-basis is found to be a
 
9 misapprehension of existence, the spiritual and divine
Principle of man dawns upon human thought,
and leads it to "where the young child was,"
12 - even to the birth of a new-old idea, to the spiritual
sense of being and of what Life includes. This the whole
earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light,
15 chasing away the darkness of error.
Spiritual freedom
The human thought must free itself from self-imposed 
materiality and bondage. It should no longer
 
18 ask of the head, heart, or lungs: What are 
man's prospects for life? Mind is not helpless. Intelli-
gence is not mute before non-intelligence.
21 By its own volition, not a blade of grass springs up, not
a spray buds within the vale, not a leaf unfolds its fair
outlines, not a flower starts from its cloistered cell.
24 The Science of being reveals man and immortality as
based on Spirit. Physical sense defines mortal man as
based on matter, and from this premise infers the mor-
27 tality of the body.
No physical affinity
The illusive senses may fancy affinities with their op-
posites; but in Christian Science, Truth never mingles
 
30 with error. Mind has no affinity with matter, 
and therefore Truth is able to cast out the ills 
of the flesh. Mind, God, sends forth the aroma of Spirit,
PAGE 192
 
 
1 the atmosphere of intelligence. The belief that a pulpy 
substance under the skull is mind is a mockery of intelli-
3 gence, a mimicry of Mind.
We are Christian Scientists, only as we quit our reliance 
upon that which is false and grasp the true. We are not
 
6 Christian Scientists until we leave all for Christ. Human 
opinions are not spiritual. They come from the hearing 
of the ear, from corporeality instead of from Principle,
9 and from the mortal instead of from the immortal. Spirit 
is not separate from God. Spirit is God. 
Human power a blind force
Erring power is a material belief, a blind miscalled force,
 
12 the offspring of will and not of wisdom, of the mortal mind 
and not of the immortal. It is the headlong 
cataract, the devouring flame, the tempest's
15 breath. It is lightning and hurricane, all that is selfish, 
wicked, dishonest, and impure.
The one real power
Moral and spiritual might belong to Spirit, who holds
 
18 the "wind in His fists;" and this teaching accords with
Science and harmony. In Science, you can
have no power opposed to God, and the physi-
21 cal senses must give up their false testimony. Your in-
fluence for good depends upon the weight you throw into 
the right scale. The good you do and embody gives you
24 the only power obtainable. Evil is not power. It is a 
mockery of strength, which erelong betrays its weakness 
and falls, never to rise.
27 We walk in the footsteps of Truth and Love by follow-
ing the example of our Master in the understanding of 
divine metaphysics. Christianity is the basis of true heal-
30 ing. Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed 
love, receives directly the divine power.
Mind cures hip-disease
I was called to visit Mr. Clark in Lynn, who had been
PAGE 193
 
 
1 confined to his bed six months with hip-disease, caused by
a fall upon a wooden spike when quite a boy. On enter-
3 ing the house I met his physician, who said that 
the patient was dying. The physician had just
probed the ulcer on the hip, and said the bone was carious
6 for several inches. He even showed me the probe, which
had on it the evidence of this condition of the bone. The
doctor went out. Mr. Clark lay with his eyes fixed and
9 sightless. The dew of death was on his brow. I went to
his bedside. In a few moments his face changed; its
death-pallor gave place to a natural hue. The eyelids
12 closed gently and the breathing became natural; he was
asleep. In about ten minutes he opened his eyes and
said: "I feel like a new man. My suffering is all gone."
15 It was between three and four o'clock in the afternoon
when this took place.
I told him to rise, dress himself, and take supper with
 
18 his family. He did so. The next day I saw him in the
yard. Since then I have not seen him, but am informed 
that he went to work in two weeks. The discharge from
21 the sore stopped, and the sore was healed. The diseased
condition had continued there ever since the injury was
received in boyhood.
24 Since his recovery I have been informed that his physi-
cian claims to have cured him, and that his mother has
been threatened with incarceration in an insane asylum
27 for saying: "It was none other than God and that woman
who healed him." I cannot attest the truth of that 
report, but what I saw and did for that man, and what
30 his physician said of the case, occurred just as I have
narrated.
It has been demonstrated to me that Life is God
PAGE 194
 
 
1 and that the might of omnipotent Spirit shares not its
strength with matter or with human will. Review-
3 ing this brief experience, I cannot fail to discern the 
coincidence of the spiritual idea of man with the divine
Mind.
Change of belief
 
6 A change in human belief changes all the physical symp-
toms, and determines a case for better or for
worse. When one's false belief is corrected
9 Truth sends a report of health over the body.
Destruction of the auditory nerve and paralysis of the
optic nerve are not necessary to ensure deafness and blind-
 
12 ness; for if mortal mind says, "I am deaf and blind," it 
will be so without an injured nerve. Every theory op-
posed to this fact (as I learned in metaphysics) would
15 presuppose man, who is immortal in spiritual under- 
standing, a mortal in material belief.
Power of habit
The authentic history of Kaspar Hauser is a useful hint
 
18 as to the frailty and inadequacy of mortal mind. It 
proves beyond a doubt that education consti-
tutes this so-called mind, and that, in turn,
21 mortal mind manifests itself in the body by the false 
sense it imparts. Incarcerated in a dungeon, where 
neither sight nor sound could reach him, at the age of
24 seventeen Kaspar was still a mental infant, crying and 
chattering with no more intelligence than a babe, and 
realizing Tennyson's description:
27      An infant crying in the night,
     An infant crying for the light, 
     And with no language but a cry.
30 His case proves material sense to be but a belief formed
by education alone. The light which affords us joy gave
PAGE 195
 
 
1 him a belief of intense pain. His eyes were inflamed by
the light. After the babbling boy had been taught to
3 speak a few words, he asked to be taken back to his dun-
geon, and said that he should never be happy elsewhere. 
Outside of dismal darkness and cold silence he found no
6 peace. Every sound convulsed him with anguish. All
that he ate, except his black crust, produced violent 
retchings. All that gives pleasure to our educated senses
9 gave him pain through those very senses, trained in an
opposite direction.
Useful knowledge
The point for each one to decide is, whether it is mortal
 
12 mind or immortal Mind that is causative. We 
should forsake the basis of matter for meta-
physical Science and its divine Principle.
15 Whatever furnishes the semblance of an idea governed
by its Principle, furnishes food for thought. Through as-
tronomy, natural history, chemistry, music, mathematics,
18 thought passes naturally from effect back to cause.
Academics of the right sort are requisite. Observa-
tion, invention, study, and original thought are expansive
 
21 and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of it-
self, out of all that is mortal.
It is the tangled barbarisms of learning which we
 
24 deplore, - the mere dogma, the speculative theory, the
nauseous fiction. Novels, remarkable only for their 
exaggerated pictures, impossible ideals, and specimens
27 of depravity, fill our young readers with wrong tastes
and sentiments. Literary commercialism is lowering the
intellectual standard to accommodate the purse and to
30 meet a frivolous demand for amusement instead of for
improvement. Incorrect views lower the standard of 
truth.
PAGE 196
 
 
1 If materialistic knowledge is power, it is not wisdom.
It is but a blind force. Man has "sought out many inven-
3 tions," but he has not yet found it true that knowledge can 
save him from the dire effects of knowledge. The power 
of mortal mind over its own body is little understood. 
Sin destroyed through suffering
 
6 Better the suffering which awakens mortal mind from
its fleshly dream, than the false pleasures
which tend to perpetuate this dream. Sin
9 alone brings death, for sin is the only element 
of destruction.
"Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body
 
12 in hell," said Jesus. A careful study of this text allows 
that here the word soul means a false sense or material 
consciousness. The command was a warning to beware,
15 not of Rome, Satan, nor of God, but of sin. Sickness, 
sin, and death are not concomitants of Life or Truth. 
No law supports them. They have no relation to God
18 wherewith to establish their power. Sin makes its own 
hell, and goodness its own heaven.
Dangerous shoals avoided
Such books as will rule disease out of mortal mind, -
 
21 and so efface the images and thoughts of dis- 
ease, instead of impressing them with forcible
descriptions and medical details, - will help
24 to abate sickness and to destroy it.
Many a hopeless case of disease is induced by a single
post mortem examination, - not from infection nor from
 
27 contact with material virus, but from the fear of the 
disease and from the image brought before the mind; it 
is a mental state, which is afterwards outlined on the
30 body.
Pangs caused by the press
The press unwittingly sends forth many sorrows and
diseases among the human family. It does this by giv-
PAGE 197
 
 
1 ing names to diseases and by printing long descriptions
which mirror images of disease distinctly in thought. A
3 new name for an ailment affects people like a 
Parisian name for a novel garment. Every one 
hastens to get it. A minutely described dis-
6 ease costs many a man his earthly days of comfort. What
a price for human knowledge! But the price does not ex-
ceed the original cost. God said of the tree of knowledge,
9 which bears the fruit of sin, disease, and death, "In the
day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." 
Higher standard for mortals
The less that is said of physical structure and laws, and
 
12 the more that is thought and said about moral 
and spiritual law, the higher will be the stand- 
ard of living and the farther mortals will be re-
15 moved from imbecility or disease.
We should master fear, instead of cultivating it. It
was the ignorance of our forefathers in the departments
 
18 of knowledge now broadcast in the earth, that made them
hardier than our trained physiologists, more honest than
our sleek politicians.
Diet and dyspepsia
 
21 We are told that the simple food our forefathers ate
helped to make them healthy, but that is a mistake. 
Their diet would not cure dyspepsia at this
24 period. With rules of health in the head 
and the most digestible food in the stomach, there would 
still be dyspeptics. Many of the effeminate constitutions
27 of our time will never grow robust until individual opin-
ions improve and immortal belief loses some portion of its 
error.
Harm done by physicians
 
30 The doctor's mind reaches that of his patient. The 
doctor should suppress his fear of disease, else his belief 
in its reality and fatality will harm his patients even more
PAGE 198
 
 
1 than his calomel and morphine, for the higher stratum of 
mortal mind has in belief more power to harm man than
3 the substratum, matter. A patient hears the
doctor's verdict as a criminal hears his death-
sentence. The patient may seem calm under it, but he is
6 not. His fortitude may sustain him, but his fear, which 
has already developed the disease that is gaining the 
mastery, is increased by the physician's words.
Disease depicted
 
9 The materialistic doctor, though humane, is an art-
ist who outlines his thought relative to disease, and then 
fills in his delineations with sketches from text-
12 books. It is better to prevent disease from 
forming in mortal mind afterwards to appear on the 
body; but to do this requires attention. The thought of
15 disease is formed before one sees a doctor and before 
the doctor undertakes to dispel it by a counter-irritant, 
- perhaps by a blister, by the application of caustic or
18 croton oil, or by a surgical operation. Again, giving an-
other direction to faith, the physician prescribes drugs, 
until the elasticity of mortal thought haply causes a
21 vigorous reaction upon itself, and reproduces a picture 
of healthy and harmonious formations.
A patient's belief is more or less moulded and formed
 
24 by his doctor's belief in the case, even though the doctor 
says nothing to support his theory. His thoughts and his 
patient's commingle, and the stronger thoughts rule the
27 weaker. Hence the importance that doctors be Christian 
Scientists.
Mind over matter
Because the muscles of the blacksmith's arm are
 
30 strongly developed, it does not follow that
exercise has produced this result or that a
less used arm must be weak. If matter were the cause 
PAGE 199
 
 
1 of action, and if muscles, without volition of mortal
mind, could lift the hammer and strike the anvil, it
3 might be thought true that hammering would enlarge 
the muscles. The trip-hammer is not increased in size
by exercise. Why not, since muscles are as material as
6 wood and iron? Because nobody believes that mind is
producing such a result on the hammer.
Muscles are not self-acting. If mind does not move
 
9 them, they are motionless. Hence the great fact that
Mind alone enlarges and empowers man through its 
mandate, - by reason of its demand for and supply of
12 power. Not because of muscular exercise, but by rea-
son of the blacksmith's faith in exercise, his arm becomes
stronger.
Latent fear subdued
 
15 Mortals develop their own bodies or make them sick,
according as they influence them through mortal mind.
To know whether this development is produced
18 consciously or unconsciously, is of less impor- 
tance than a knowledge of the fact. The feats of the gym-
nast prove that latent mental fears are subdued by him.
21 The devotion of thought to an honest achievement makes
the achievement possible. Exceptions only confirm this
rule, proving that failure is occasioned by a too feeble
24 faith.
Had Blondin believed it impossible to walk the rope
over Niagara's abyss of waters, he could never have
 
27 done it. His belief that he could do it gave his thought-
forces, called muscles, their flexibility and power which
the unscientific might attribute to a lubricating oil. His
30 fear must have disappeared before his power of putting
resolve into action could appear.
Homer and Moses
When Homer sang of the Grecian gods, Olympus was
PAGE 200
 
 
1 dark, but through his verse the gods became alive in a 
nation's belief. Pagan worship began with muscularity,
3 but the law of Sinai lifted thought into the 
song of David. Moses advanced a nation to 
the worship of God in Spirit instead of matter, and il-
6 lustrated the grand human capacities of being bestowed 
by immortal Mind.
A mortal not man
Whoever is incompetent to explain Soul would be wise
 
9 not to undertake the explanation of body. Life is, always
has been, and ever will be independent of
matter; for life is God, and man is the idea
12 of God, not formed materially but spiritually, and not 
subject to decay and dust. The Psalmist said: "Thou 
madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy
15 hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet." 
The great truth in the Science of being, that the real 
man was, is, and ever shall be perfect, is incontrovertible;
 
18 for if man is the image, reflection, of God, he is neither 
inverted nor subverted, but upright and Godlike. 
The suppositional antipode of divine infinite Spirit
 
21 is the so-called human soul or spirit, in other words 
the five senses, - the flesh that warreth against Spirit.
These so called material senses must yield to the infinite
24 Spirit, named God.
St. Paul said: "For I determined not to know any-
thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
 
27 (I Cor. ii. 2.) Christian Science says: I am determined 
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and 
him glorified.
 
PAGE 100
 
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, forni-
cations, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which
defile a man. - JESUS.
 
Earliest investigations
 
1 MESMERISM or animal magnetism was first brought 
into notice by Mesmer in Germany in 1775. Ac-
3 cording to the American Cyclopaedia, he regarded this
so-called force, which he said could be ex-
erted by one living organism over another, as
6 a means of alleviating disease. His propositions were
as follows :
"There exists a mutual influence between the celestial
 
9 bodies, the earth, and animated things. Animal bodies
are susceptible to the influence of this agent, disseminat-
ing itself through the substance of the nerves." 
12 In 1784, the French government ordered the medical
faculty of Paris to investigate Mesmer's theory and to
report upon it. Under this order a commission was
15 appointed, and Benjamin Franklin was one of the com-
missioners. This commission reported to the govern- 
ment as follows:
18 "In regard to the existence and utility of animal mag- 
netism, we have come to the unanimous conclusions that
there is no proof of the existence of the animal magnetic
PAGE 101
 
 
1 fluid; that the violent effects, which are observed in 
the public practice of magnetism, are due to manipula-
3 tions, or to the excitement of the imagination and the 
impressions made upon the senses; and that there is one
more fact to be recorded in the history of the errors of
6 the human mind, and an important experiment upon 
the power of the imagination."
Clairvoyance, magnetism
In 1837, a committee of nine persons was appointed,
 
9 among whom were Roux, Bouillaud, and Clo- 
quet, which tested during several sessions the 
phenomena exhibited by a reputed clairvoyant. Their
12 report stated the results as follows: 
"The facts which had been promised by Monsieur
Berna [the magnetizer] as conclusive, and as adapted to
 
15 throw light on physiological and therapeutical questions,
are certainly not conclusive in favor of the doctrine of
animal magnetism, and have nothing in common with
18 either physiology or therapeutics." 
This report was adopted by the Royal Academy of
Medicine in Paris.
Personal conclusions
 
21 The author's own observations of the workings of 
animal magnetism convince her that it is not 
a remedial agent, and that its effects upon
24 those who practise it, and upon their subjects who do 
not resist it, lead to moral and to physical death. 
If animal magnetism seems to alleviate or to cure dis-
 
27 ease, this appearance is deceptive, since error cannot 
remove the effects of error. Discomfort under error is
preferable to comfort. In no instance is the effect of
30 animal magnetism, recently called hypnotism, other 
than the effect of illusion. Any seeming benefit derived
from it is proportional to one's faith in esoteric magic.
PAGE 102
 
 
Mere negation
 
1 Animal magnetism has no scientific foundation, for
God governs all that is real, harmonious, and eternal, and
3 His power is neither animal nor human. Its
basis being a belief and this belief animal, in
Science animal magnetism, mesmerism, or hypnotism is
6 a mere negation, possessing neither intelligence, power,
nor reality, and in sense it is an unreal concept of the so-
called mortal mind.
9 There is but one real attraction, that of Spirit. The
pointing of the needle to the pole symbolizes this all-
embracing power or the attraction of God, divine Mind.
12 The planets have no more power over man than over
his Maker, since God governs the universe; but man,
reflecting God's power, has dominion over all the earth
15 and its hosts.
Hidden agents
The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappear- 
ing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front.
 
18 The looms of crime, hidden in the dark re-
cesses of mortal thought, are every hour weav-
ing webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are the
21 present methods of animal magnetism that they ensnare
the age into indolence, and produce the very apathy on
the subject which the criminal desires. The following
24 is an extract from the Boston Herald:
"Mesmerism is a problem not lending itself to an easy
explanation and development. It implies the exercise
 
27 of despotic control, and is much more likely to be abused
by its possessor, than otherwise employed, for the in-
dividual or society."
Mental despotism
 
30 Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so-
called despotism is but a phase of nothingness. Christian
Science despoils the kingdom of evil, and pre-eminently 
PAGE 103
 
 
1 promotes affection and virtue in families and therefore
in the community. The Apostle Paul refers to the
3 personification of evil as "the god of this 
world," and further defines it as dishonesty 
and craftiness. Sin was the Assyrian moon-god.
Liberation of mental powers
 
6 The destruction of the claims of mortal mind through
Science, by which man can escape from sin
and mortality, blesses the whole human fam-
9 ily. As in the beginning, however, this libera- 
tion does not scientifically show itself in a knowledge of
both good and evil, for the latter is unreal.
12 On the other hand, Mind-science is wholly separate
from any half-way impertinent knowledge, because Mind-
science is of God and demonstrates the divine Principle,
15 working out the purposes of good only. The maximum 
of good is the infinite God and His idea, the All-in-all. 
Evil is a suppositional lie.
The genus of error
 
18 As named in Christian Science, animal magnetism or 
hypnotism is the specific term for error, or mortal mind.
It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and
21 is both evil and good; that evil is as real as 
good and more powerful. This belief has not one qual-
ity of Truth. It is either ignorant or malicious. The
24 malicious form of hypnotism ultimates in moral idiocy.
The truths of immortal Mind sustain man, and they anni-
hilate the fables of mortal mind, whose flimsy and gaudy
27 pretensions, like silly moths, singe their own wings and
fall into dust.
Thought-transference
In reality there is no mortal mind, and conse-
 
30 quently no transference of mortal thought
and will-power. Life and being are of
God. In Christian Science, man can do no harm, for 
PAGE 104
 
 
1 scientific thoughts are true thoughts, passing from God
to man.
3 When Christian Science and animal magnetism are
both comprehended, as they will be at no distant date,
it will be seen why the author of this book has been
6 so unjustly persecuted and belied by wolves in sheep's
clothing.
Agassiz, the celebrated naturalist and author, has
 
9 wisely said: "Every great scientific truth goes through
three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible.
Next, they say it has been discovered before. Lastly,
12 they say they have always believed it." 
Perfection of divine government
Christian Science goes to the bottom of mental action,
and reveals the theodicy which indicates the rightness of
 
15 all divine action, as the emanation of divine 
Mind, and the consequent wrongness of the
opposite so-called action, - evil, occultism,
18 necromancy, mesmerism, animal magnetism, hypnotism. 
Adulteration of Truth
The medicine of Science is divine Mind; and dishonesty,
sensuality, falsehood, revenge, malice, are animal pro-
 
21 pensities and by no means the mental quali-
ties which heal the sick. The hypnotizer
employs one error to destroy another. If he heals sick-
24 ness through a belief, and a belief originally caused the
sickness, it is a case of the greater error overcoming the
lesser. This greater error thereafter occupies the ground,
27 leaving the case worse than before it was grasped by the
stronger error.
Motives considered
Our courts recognize evidence to prove the motive as
 
30 well as the commission of a crime. Is it not 
clear that the human mind must move the
body to a wicked act? Is not mortal mind the mur- 
PAGE 105
 
 
1 derer? The hands, without mortal mind to direct them,
could not commit a murder.
Mental crimes
 
3 Courts and juries judge and sentence mortals in order
to restrain crime, to prevent deeds of violence or to punish 
them. To say that these tribunals have no
6 jurisdiction over the carnal or mortal mind,
would be to contradict precedent and to admit that the
power of human law is restricted to matter, while mortal
9 mind, evil, which is the real outlaw, defies justice and is
recommended to mercy. Can matter commit a crime? 
Can matter be punished? Can you separate the men-
12 tality from the body over which courts hold jurisdiction? 
Mortal mind, not matter, is the criminal in every case;
and human law rightly estimates crime, and courts rea-
15 sonably pass sentence, according to the motive. 
Important decision
When our laws eventually take cognizance of mental
crime and no longer apply legal rulings wholly to physical
 
18 offences, these words of Judge Parmenter of
Boston will become historic: "I see no reason 
why metaphysics is not as important to medicine as to
21 mechanics or mathematics."
Evil let loose
Whoever uses his developed mental powers like an es-
caped felon to commit fresh atrocities as opportunity oc-
 
24 curs is never safe. God will arrest him. Di- 
vine justice will manacle him. His sins will
be millstones about his neck, weighing him down to the
27 depths of ignominy and death. The aggravation of er-
ror foretells its doom, and confirms the ancient axiom:
"Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."
The misuse of mental power
 
30 The distance from ordinary medical prac- 
tice to Christian Science is full many a league 
in the line of light; but to go in healing from the use of
PAGE 106
 
 
1 inanimate drugs to the criminal misuse of human will-
power, is to drop from the platform of common manhood
3 into the very mire of iniquity, to work against the free
course of honesty and justice, and to push vainly against
the current running heavenward.
Proper self-government
 
6 Like our nation, Christian Science has its Declaration
of Independence. God has endowed man with inalien- 
able rights, among which are self-government,
9 reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-
governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by
his Maker, divine Truth and Love.
12 Man's rights are invaded when the divine order is in-
terfered with, and the mental trespasser incurs the divine
penalty due this crime.
Right methods
 
15 Let this age, which sits in judgment on Christian 
Science, sanction only such methods as are demonstrable 
in Truth and known by their fruit, and classify
18 all others as did St. Paul in his great epistle 
to the Galatians, when he wrote as follows:
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are
 
21 these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
24 revellings and such like: of the which I tell you before,
as I have also told you in time past, that they which do
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But
27 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against
such there is no law."
 
PAGE 107
 
But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me
is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught
it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. - PAUL.
 
The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and
hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. - JESUS.
 
Christian Science discovered
 
1 In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or
divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and
3 named my discovery Christian Science. God
had been graciously preparing me during many
years for the reception of this final revelation of the ab-
6 solute divine Principle of scientific mental healing. 
Mission of Christian Science
This apodictical Principle points to the revelation of
Immanuel, "God with us," - the sovereign ever-pres-
 
9 ence, delivering the children of men from
every ill "that flesh is heir to." Through 
Christian Science, religion and medicine are
12 inspired with a diviner nature and essence; fresh pinions
are given to faith and understanding, and thoughts ac-
quaint themselves intelligently with God.
Discontent with life
 
15 Feeling so perpetually the false consciousness that life
inheres in the body, yet remembering that in
reality God is our Life, we may well tremble
18 in the prospect of those days in which we must say, "I
have no pleasure in them."
PAGE 108
 
 
1 Whence came to me this heavenly conviction, - a con-
viction antagonistic to the testimony of the physical senses?
3 According to St. Paul, it was "the gift of the grace of
God given unto me by the effectual working of His power."
It was the divine law of Life and Love, unfolding to me
6 the demonstrable fact that matter possesses neither sen-
sation nor life; that human experiences show the falsity
of all material things; and that immortal cravings, "the
9 price of learning love," establish the truism that the
only sufferer is mortal mind, for the divine Mind cannot
suffer.
Demonstrable evidence
 
12 My conclusions were reached by allowing the evidence
of this revelation to multiply with mathematical certainty
and the lesser demonstration to prove the
15 greater, as the product of three multiplied by 
three, equalling nine, proves conclusively that three times
three duodecillions must be nine duodecillions, - not
18 a fraction more, not a unit less.
Light shining in darkness
When apparently near the confines of mortal existence,
standing already within the shadow of the death-valley,
 
21 I learned these truths in divine Science: that 
all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and
that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-
24 present; that the opposite of Truth, - called error, sin,
sickness, disease, death, - is the false testimony of false
material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense
27 evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which
this same so-called mind names matter thereby shutting
out the true sense of Spirit.
New lines of thought
 
30 My discovery, that erring, mortal, misnamed 
mind produces all the organism and action of
the mortal body, set my thoughts to work in new channels,
PAGE 109
 
 
1 and led up to my demonstration of the proposition that
Mind is All and matter is naught as the leading factor in
3 Mind-science.
Scientific evidence
Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that Mind
is All-in-all, that the only realities are the divine Mind
 
6 and idea. This great fact is not, however, seen 
to be supported by sensible evidence, until its
divine Principle is demonstrated by healing the sick and
9 thus proved absolute and divine. This proof once seen,
no other conclusion can be reached.
Solitary research
For three years after my discovery, I sought the solu-
 
12 tion of this problem of Mind-healing, searched the Scrip-
tures and read little else, kept aloof from so- 
ciety, and devoted time and energies to dis-
15 covering a positive rule. The search was sweet, calm, and
buoyant with hope, not selfish nor depressing. I knew
the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God,
18 and that cures were produced in primitive Christian 
healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the
Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute
21 conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and dem-
onstration. The revelation of Truth in the understand- 
ing came to me gradually and apparently through divine
24 power. When a new spiritual idea is borne to earth, the
prophetic Scripture of Isaiah is renewedly fulfilled: 
"Unto us a child is born, . . . and his name shall be
27 called Wonderful."
Jesus once said of his lessons: "My doctrine is not
mine, but His that sent me. If any man will do His will,
 
30 he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or
whether I speak of myself." (John vii. 16,17.)
God's allness learned
The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omni-
PAGE 110
 
 
1 presence, omniscience, - Spirit possessing all power,
filling all space, constituting all Science, - contradict
3 forever the belief that matter can be actual.
These eternal verities reveal primeval exist-
ence as the radiant reality of God's creation,
6 in which all that He has made is pronounced by His wis-
dom good.
Thus it was that I beheld, as never before, the awful
 
9 unreality called evil. The equipollence of God brought
to light another glorious proposition, - man's perfecti- 
bility and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on
12 earth.
Scriptural foundations
In following these leadings of scientific revelation, 
the Bible was my only textbook. The Scriptures were
 
15 illumined; reason and revelation were recon- 
ciled, and afterwards the truth of Christian
Science was demonstrated. No human pen nor tongue
18 taught me the Science contained in this book, SCIENCE
AND HEALTH; and neither tongue nor pen can over- 
throw it. This book may be distorted by shallow criti-
21 cism or by careless or malicious students, and its ideas
may be temporarily abused and misrepresented; but the
Science and truth therein will forever remain to be dis-
24 cerned and demonstrated.
The demonstration lost and found
Jesus demonstrated the power of Christian Science to
heal mortal minds and bodies. But this power was lost
 
27 sight of, and must again be spiritually dis- 
cerned, taught, and demonstrated according
to Christ's command, with "signs following."
30 Its Science must be apprehended by as many as believe
on Christ and spiritually understand Truth.
Mystical antagonists
No analogy exists between the vague hypotheses of
PAGE 111
 
 
1 agnosticism, pantheism, theosophy, spiritualism, or
millenarianism and the demonstrable truths of Chris-
3 tian Science; and I find the will, or sensuous 
reason of the human mind, to be opposed to
the divine Mind as expressed through divine Science. 
Optical illustration of Science
 
6 Christian Science is natural, but not physical. The
Science of God and man is no more supernatural than 
is the science of numbers, though departing
9 from the realm of the physical, as the Science 
of God, Spirit, must, some may deny its right to 
the name of Science. The Principle of divine metaphysics
12 is God; the practice of divine metaphysics is the utiliza-
tion of the power of Truth over error; its rules demon-
strate its Science. Divine metaphysics reverses perverted
15 and physical hypotheses as to Deity, even as the ex-
planation of optics rejects the incidental or inverted 
image and shows what this inverted image is meant to
18 represent.
Pertinent proposal
A prize of one hundred pounds, offered in Oxford Uni-
versity, England, for the best essay on Natural Science,
 
21 - an essay calculated to offset the tendency of
the age to attribute physical effects to physical 
causes rather than to a final spiritual cause, - is one of
24 many incidents which show that Christian Science meets
a yearning of the human race for spirituality.
Confirmatory tests
After a lengthy examination of my discovery and its
 
27 demonstration in healing the sick, this fact became evi-
dent to me, - that Mind governs the body,
not partially but wholly. I submitted my
30 metaphysical system of treating disease to the broad-
est practical tests. Since then this system has gradually
gained ground, and has proved itself, whenever scien- 
PAGE 112
 
 
1 tifically employed, to be the most effective curative agent 
in medical practice.
One school of Truth
 
3 Is there more than one school of Christian Science?
Christian Science is demonstrable. There can, there- 
fore, be but one method in its teaching. Those who de-
6 part from this method forfeit their claims to
belong to its school, and they become adher-
ents of the Socratic, the Platonic, the Spencerian, or some
9 other school. By this is meant that they adopt and ad-
here to some particular system of human opinions. Al-
though these opinions may have occasional gleams of
12 divinity, borrowed from that truly divine Science which
eschews man-made systems, they nevertheless remain 
wholly human in their origin and tendency and are not
15 scientifically Christian.
Unchanging Principle
From the infinite One in Christian Science comes one
Principle and its infinite idea, and with this infinitude
 
18 come spiritual rules, laws, and their demon- 
stration, which, like the great Giver, are "the 
same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;" for thus are
21 the divine Principle of healing and the Christ-idea charac-
terized in the epistle to the Hebrews.
On sandy foundations
Any theory of Christian Science, which departs from
 
24 what has already been stated and proved to be true, af-
fords no foundation upon which to establish
a genuine school of this Science. Also, if any
27 so-called new school claims to be Christian Science, and
yet uses another author's discoveries without giving that
author proper credit, such a school is erroneous, for it
30 inculcates a breach of that divine commandment in the
Hebrew Decalogue, "Thou shalt not steal." 
Principle and practice
God is the Principle of divine metaphysics. As there
PAGE 113
 
 
1 is but one God, there can be but one divine Principle of
all Science; and there must be fixed rules for the demon-
3 stration of this divine Principle. The letter
of Science plentifully reaches humanity to-day,
but its spirit comes only in small degrees. The vital part,
6 the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love. With-
out this, the letter is but the dead body of Science, -
pulseless, cold, inanimate.
Reversible propositions
 
9 The fundamental propositions of divine metaphysics 
are summarized in the four following, to me, self-evident 
propositions. Even if reversed, these proposi-
12 tions will be found to agree in statement and 
proof, showing mathematically their exact relation to
Truth. De Quincey says mathematics has not a foot to
15 stand upon which is not purely metaphysical.
       1. God is All-in-all.
       2. God is good. Good is Mind.
18        3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter. 
       4. Life, God, omnipotent good, deny death, evil, sin,
           disease. - Disease, sin, evil, death, deny good, omnipo-
21            tent God, Life.
Which of the denials in proposition four is true? Both
are not, cannot be, true. According to the Scripture,
 
24 I find that God is true, "but every [mortal] man a
liar."
Metaphysical inversions
The divine metaphysics of Christian Science, like the
 
27 method in mathematics, proves the rule by inversion. 
For example: There is no pain in Truth, and
no truth in pain; no nerve in Mind, and no
30 mind in nerve; no matter in Mind, and no mind in mat-
ter; no matter in Life, and no life in matter; no matter
in good, and no good in matter.
PAGE 114
 
 
Definition of mortal mind
 
1 Usage classes both evil and good together as mind;
therefore, to be understood, the author calls sick and sin-
3 ful humanity mortal mind, - meaning by this 
term the flesh opposed to Spirit, the human
mind and evil in contradistinction to the divine Mind, or
6 Truth and good. The spiritually unscientific definition 
of mind is based on the evidence of the physical senses,
which makes minds many and calls mind both human and
9 divine.
In Science, Mind is one, including noumenon and phe-
nomena, God and His thoughts.
Imperfect terminology
 
12 Mortal mind is a solecism in language, and involves an
improper use of the word mind. As Mind is immortal,
the phrase mortal mind implies something un-
15 true and therefore unreal; and as the phrase 
is used in teaching Christian Science, it is meant to
designate that which has no real existence. Indeed, if
18 a better word or phrase could be suggested, it would
be used; but in expressing the new tongue we must 
sometimes recur to the old and imperfect, and the new
21 wine of the Spirit has to be poured into the old bottles of
the letter.
Causation mental
Christian Science explains all cause and effect as men-
 
24 tal, not physical. It lifts the veil of mystery from Soul and
body. It shows the scientific relation of man
to God, disentangles the interlaced ambiguities
27 of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought. In divine
Science, the universe, including man, is spiritual, harmoni-
ous, and eternal. Science shows that what is termed mat-
30 ter is but the subjective state of what is termed by the
author mortal mind.
Philological inadequacy
Apart from the usual opposition to everything new,
PAGE 115
 
 
1 the one great obstacle to the reception of that spiritual-
ity, through which the understanding of Mind-science
3 comes, is the inadequacy of material terms for 
metaphysical statements, and the consequent
difficulty of so expressing metaphysical ideas as to make
6 them comprehensible to any reader, who has not person-
ally demonstrated Christian Science as brought forth in
my discovery. Job says: "The ear trieth words, as the
9 mouth tasteth meat." The great difficulty is to give the
right impression, when translating material terms back
into the original spiritual tongue.
12 SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF IMMORTAL MIND
Divine synonyms
GOD: Divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love,
Soul, Spirit, Mind.
Divine image
 
15 MAN: God's spiritual idea, individual, per- 
fect, eternal.
Divine reflection
IDEA: An image in Mind; the immediate
 
18 object of understanding. - Webster.
SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF MORTAL MIND
First Degree: Depravity.
Unreality
 
21 PHYSICAL. Evil beliefs, passions and appetites, fear,
depraved will, self-justification, pride, envy, de-
ceit, hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, disease,
24 death.
Second Degree: Evil beliefs disappearing. 
Transitional qualities
MORAL. Humanity, honesty, affection, com-
passion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance.
PAGE 116
 
 
1 Third Degree: Understanding.
Reality
SPIRITUAL. Wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding,
 
3 spiritual power, love, health, holiness.
Spiritual universe
In the third degree mortal mind disappears, and man as
God's image appears. Science so reverses the evidence
 
6 before the corporeal human senses, as to make
this Scriptural testimony true in our hearts,
"The last shall be first, and the first last," so that God
9 and His idea may be to us what divinity really is and
must of necessity be, - all-inclusive.
Aim of Science
A correct view of Christian Science and of its adapta-
 
12 tion to healing includes vastly more than is at first seen.
Works on metaphysics leave the grand point
untouched. They never crown the power of
15 Mind as the Messiah, nor do they carry the day against
physical enemies, - even to the extinction of all belief in
matter, evil, disease, and death, - nor insist upon the fact
18 that God is all, therefore that matter is nothing beyond an
image in mortal mind.
Divine personality
Christian Science strongly emphasizes the thought that
 
21 God is not corporeal, but incorporeal, - that is,
bodiless. Mortals are corporeal, but God is
incorporeal.
24 As the words person and personal are commonly and
ignorantly employed, they often lead, when applied to
Deity, to confused and erroneous conceptions of divinity
27 and its distinction from humanity. If the term personality,
as applied to God, means infinite personality, then God is
infinite Person, - in the sense of infinite personality, but
30 not in the lower sense. An infinite Mind in a finite form
is an absolute impossibility.
PAGE 117
 
 
1 The term individuality is also open to objections, be- 
cause an individual may be one of a series, one of many,
3 as an individual man, an individual horse; whereas God
is One, - not one of a series, but one alone and without
an equal.
Spiritual language
 
6 God is Spirit; therefore the language of Spirit must
be, and is, spiritual. Christian Science attaches no physi-
cal nature and significance to the Supreme
9 Being or His manifestation; mortals alone do
this. God's essential language is spoken of in the last
chapter of Mark's Gospel as the new tongue, the spir-
12 itual meaning of which is attained through "signs 
following."
The miracles of Jesus
Ear hath not heard, nor hath lip spoken, the pure lan-
 
15 guage of Spirit. Our Master taught spirituality by simili-
tudes and parables. As a divine student he
unfolded God to man, illustrating and demon-
18 strating Life and Truth in himself and by his power over
the sick and sinning. Human theories are inadequate to
interpret the divine Principle involved in the miracles
21 (marvels) wrought by Jesus and especially in his mighty,
crowning, unparalleled, and triumphant exit from the
flesh.
Opacity of the senses
 
24 Evidence drawn from the five physical senses relates
solely to human reason; and because of opaci-
ty to the true light, human reason dimly re-
27 flects and feebly transmits Jesus' works and words. Truth
is a revelation.
Leaven of Truth
Jesus bade his disciples beware of the leaven of the
 
30 Pharisees and of the Sadducees, which he de- 
fined as human doctrines. His parable of the
"leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures
PAGE 118
 
 
1 of meal, till the whole was leavened," impels the infer- 
ence that the spiritual leaven signifies the Science of Christ
3 and its spiritual interpretation, - an inference far above
the merely ecclesiastical and formal applications of the
illustration.
6 Did not this parable point a moral with a prophecy,
foretelling the second appearing in the flesh of the
Christ, Truth, hidden in sacred secrecy from the visi-
9 ble world?
Ages pass, but this leaven of Truth is ever at work. It
must destroy the entire mass of error, and so be eternally
 
12 glorified in man's spiritual freedom.
The divine and human contrasted
In their spiritual significance, Science, Theology, and
Medicine are means of divine thought, which include spirit-
 
15 ual laws emanating from the invisible and in- 
finite power and grace. The parable may
import that these spiritual laws, perverted by
18 a perverse material sense of law, are metaphysically pre-
sented as three measures of meal, - that is, three modes
of mortal thought. In all mortal forms of thought, dust
21 is dignified as the natural status of men and things, and
modes of material motion are honored with the name of
laws. This continues until the leaven of Spirit changes
24 the whole of mortal thought, as yeast changes the chemical
properties of meal.
Certain contradictions
The definitions of material law, as given by natural
 
27 science, represent a kingdom necessarily divided against
itself, because these definitions portray law as 
physical, not spiritual. Therefore they con-
30 tradict the divine decrees and violate the law of Love, in
which nature and God are one and the natural order of
heaven comes down to earth.
PAGE 119
 
 
Unescapable dilemma
 
1 When we endow matter with vague spiritual power,
that is, when we do so in our theories, for of course we
3 cannot really endow matter with what it does
not and cannot possess, - we disown the Al-
mighty, for such theories lead to one of two things. They
6 either presuppose the self-evolution and self-government 
of matter, or else they assume that matter is the product
of Spirit. To seize the first horn of this dilemma and con-
9 sider matter as a power in and of itself, is to leave the cre-
ator out of His own universe; while to grasp the other
horn of the dilemma and regard God as the creator of
12 matter, is not only to make Him responsible for all disas-
ters, physical and moral, but to announce Him as their
source, thereby making Him guilty of maintaining perpet-
15 ual misrule in the form and under the name of natural
law.
God and nature
In one sense God is identical with nature, but this na-
 
18 ture is spiritual and is not expressed in matter. The law-
giver, whose lightning palsies or prostrates in 
death the child at prayer, is not the divine ideal
21 of omnipresent Love. God is natural good, and is repre-
sented only by the idea of goodness; while evil should be
regarded as unnatural, because it is opposed to the nature
24 of Spirit, God.
The sun and Soul
In viewing the sunrise, one finds that it contradicts 
the evidence before the senses to believe that the earth
 
27 is in motion and the sun at rest. As astron- 
omy reverses the human perception of the
movement of the solar system, so Christian Science re-
30 verses the seeming relation of Soul and body and makes
body tributary to Mind. Thus it is with man, who 
is but the humble servant of the restful Mind, though it
PAGE 120
 
 
1 seems otherwise to finite sense. But we shall never under-
stand this while we admit that soul is in body or mind in
3 matter, and that man is included in non-intelligence. 
Soul, or Spirit, is God, unchangeable and eternal; and
man coexists with and reflects Soul, God, for man is God's
6 image.
Reversal of testimony
Science reverses the false testimony of the physical 
senses, and by this reversal mortals arrive at the funda-
 
9 mental facts of being. Then the question in-
evitably arises: Is a man sick if the material
senses indicate that he is in good health? No! for matter
12 can make no conditions for man. And is he well if the
senses say he is sick? Yes, he is well in Science in which
health is normal and disease is abnormal.
Health and the senses
 
15 Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor
can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the sub-
ject of health. The Science of Mind-healing
18 shows it to be impossible for aught but Mind 
to testify truly or to exhibit the real status of man. There-
fore the divine Principle of Science, reversing the testi-
21 mony of the physical senses, reveals man as harmoniously 
existent in Truth, which is the only basis of health; and
thus Science denies all disease, heals the sick, overthrows
24 false evidence, and refutes materialistic logic. 
Any conclusion pro or con, deduced from supposed sen-
sation in matter or from matter's supposed consciousness
 
27 of health or disease, instead of reversing the testimony of
the physical senses, confirms that testimony as legitimate
and so leads to disease.
Historic illustrations
 
30 When Columbus gave freer breath to the
globe, ignorance and superstition chained the
limbs of the brave old navigator, and disgrace and star-
PAGE 121
 
 
1 vation stared him in the face; but sterner still would have 
been his fate, if his discovery had undermined the favor-
3 ite inclinations of a sensuous philosophy.
Copernicus mapped out the stellar system, and before
he spake, astrography was chaotic, and the heavenly fields
 
6 were incorrectly explored.
Perennial beauty
The Chaldean Wisemen read in the stars the fate of
empires and the fortunes of men. Though no higher
 
9 revelation than the horoscope was to them dis- 
played upon the empyrean, earth and heaven
were bright, and bird and blossom were glad in God's
12 perennial and happy sunshine, golden with Truth. So
we have goodness and beauty to gladden the heart; but
man, left to the hypotheses of material sense unexplained
15 by Science, is as the wandering comet or the desolate
star - "a weary searcher for a viewless home." 
Astronomic unfoldings
The earth's diurnal rotation is invisible to the physical
 
18 eye, and the sun seems to move from east to west, instead
of the earth from west to east. Until rebuked
by clearer views of the everlasting facts, this
21 false testimony of the eye deluded the judgment and in-
duced false conclusions. Science shows appearances often
to be erroneous, and corrects these errors by the simple
24 rule that the greater controls the lesser. The sun is the
central stillness, so far as our solar system is concerned,
and the earth revolves about the sun once a year, besides
27 turning daily on its own axis.
As thus indicated, astronomical order imitates the
action of divine Principle; and the universe, the reflec-
 
30 tion of God, is thus brought nearer the spiritual fact, and
is allied to divine Science as displayed in the everlasting
government of the universe.
PAGE 122
 
 
Opposing testimony
 
1 The evidence of the physical senses often reverses the
real Science of being, and so creates a reign of discord, -
3 assigning seeming power to sin, sickness, and
death; but the great facts of Life, rightly un-
derstood, defeat this triad of errors, contradict their false
6 witnesses, and reveal the kingdom of heaven, - the actual
reign of harmony on earth. The material senses' re- 
versal of the Science of Soul was practically exposed nine-
9 teen hundred years ago by the demonstrations of Jesus;
yet these so-called senses still make mortal mind tributary
to mortal body, and ordain certain sections of matter, such
12 as brain and nerves, as the seats of pain and pleasure,
from which matter reports to this so-called mind its status
of happiness or misery.
Testimony of the senses
 
15 The optical focus is another proof of the illusion of
material sense. On the eye's retina, sky and tree-tops 
apparently join hands, clouds and ocean meet
18 and mingle. The barometer, - that little
prophet of storm and sunshine, denying the testimony of
the senses, - points to fair weather in the midst of murky
21 clouds and drenching rain. Experience is full of instances
of similar illusions, which every thinker can recall for
himself.
Spiritual sense of life
 
24 To material sense, the severance of the jugular vein
takes away life; but to spiritual sense and
in Science, Life goes on unchanged and
27 being is eternal. Temporal life is a false sense of
existence.
Ptolemaic and psychical error
Our theories make the same mistake regarding Soul
 
30 and body that Ptolemy made regarding the solar system.
They insist that soul is in body and mind therefore tribu-
tary to matter. Astronomical science has destroyed the
PAGE 123
 
 
1 false theory as to the relations of the celestial bodies, and 
Christian Science will surely destroy the greater error as
3 to our terrestrial bodies. The true idea and
Principle of man will then appear. The Ptole-
maic blunder could not affect the harmony of
6 being as does the error relating to soul and body, which
reverses the order of Science and assigns to matter the
power and prerogative of Spirit, so that man becomes
9 the most absolutely weak and inharmonious creature in
the universe.
Seeming and being
The verity of Mind shows conclusively how it is that
 
12 matter seems to be, but is not. Divine Science, 
rising above physical theories, excludes matter, 
resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of
15 material sense with spiritual ideas.
The term CHRISTIAN SCIENCE was introduced by
the author to designate the scientific system of divine
 
18 healing.
The revelation consists of two parts:
 
        1. The discovery of this divine Science of Mind-
21               healing, through a spiritual sense of the Scriptures and
              through the teachings of the Comforter, as promised by
              the Master.
24        2. The proof, by present demonstration, that the so-
              called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a
              dispensation now ended, but that they illustrated an
27               ever-operative divine Principle. The operation of this
              Principle indicates the eternality of the scientific order
              and continuity of being.
Scientific basis
 
30 Christian Science differs from material sci- 
ence, but not on that account is it less scien- 
tific. On the contrary, Christian Science is pre-emi- 
PAGE 124
 
 
1 mently scientific, being based on Truth, the Principle of
all science.
Physical science a blind belief
 
3 Physical science (so-called) is human knowledge, - a
law of mortal mind, a blind belief, a Samson shorn of his
strength. When this human belief lacks organ-
6 izations to support it, its foundations are gone. 
Having neither moral might, spiritual basis,
nor holy Principle of its own, this belief mistakes effect
9 for cause and seeks to find life and intelligence in matter,
thus limiting Life and holding fast to discord and death.
In a word, human belief is a blind conclusion from material
12 reasoning. This is a mortal, finite sense of things, which
immortal Spirit silences forever.
Right interpretation
The universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science
 
15 from its divine Principle, God, and then it can be under-
stood; but when explained on the basis of
physical sense and represented as subject to
18 growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is,
and must continue to be, an enigma.
All force mental
Adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of
 
21 Mind. They belong to divine Principle, and support
the equipoise of that thought-force, which
launched the earth in its orbit and said to the
24 proud wave, "Thus far and no farther." 
Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all
things. We tread on forces. Withdraw them, and
 
27 creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them
forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they
belong wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this
30 Mind, and so restores them to their rightful home and
classification.
Corporeal changes
The elements and functions of the physical body and
PAGE 125
 
 
1 of the physical world will change as mortal mind changes
its beliefs. What is now considered the best condition
3 for organic and functional health in the human 
body may no longer be found indispensable
to health. Moral conditions will be found always har-
6 monious and health-giving. Neither organic inaction 
nor overaction is beyond God's control; and man will 
be found normal and natural to changed mortal thought,
9 and therefore more harmonious in his manifestations than
he was in the prior states which human belief created and
sanctioned.
12 As human thought changes from one stage to an-
other of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and
joy, - from fear to hope and from faith to understand-
15 ing, - the visible manifestation will at last be man gov-
erned by Soul, not by material sense. Reflecting God's
government, man is self-governed. When subordinate
18 to the divine Spirit, man cannot be controlled by sin or
death, thus proving our material theories about laws of
health to be valueless.
The time and tide
 
21 The seasons will come and go with changes of time and
tide, cold and heat, latitude and longitude. The agri-
culturist will find that these changes cannot
24 affect his crops. "As a vesture shalt Thou 
change them and they shall be changed." The mariner
will have dominion over the atmosphere and the great
27 deep, over the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air.
The astronomer will no longer look up to the stars, -
he will look out from them upon the universe; and the
30 florist will find his flower before its seed. 
Mortal nothingness
Thus matter will finally be proved nothing more 
than a mortal belief, wholly inadequate to affect a man
PAGE 126
 
 
1 through its supposed organic action or supposed exist-
ence. Error will be no longer used in stating truth. The
3 problem of nothingness, or "dust to dust," will
be solved, and mortal mind will be without
form and void, for mortality will cease when man beholds
6 himself God's reflection, even as man sees his reflection
in a glass.
A lack of originality
All Science is divine. Human thought never pro-
 
9 jected the least portion of true being. Human belief 
has sought and interpreted in its own way
the echo of Spirit, and so seems to have
12 reversed it and repeated it materially; but the human
mind never produced a real tone nor sent forth a positive
sound.
Antagonistic questions
 
15 The point at issue between Christian Science on the
one hand and popular theology on the other is this: Shall
Science explain cause and effect as being
18 both natural and spiritual? Or shall all that 
is beyond the cognizance of the material senses be called
supernatural, and be left to the mercy of speculative
21 hypotheses?
Biblical basis
I have set forth Christian Science and its application 
to the treatment of disease just as I have discovered them.
 
24 I have demonstrated through Mind the effects 
of Truth on the health, longevity, and morals
of men; and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern
27 systems on which to found my own, except the teachings
and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of
prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only au-
30 thority. I have had no other guide in "the straight and
narrow way" of Truth.
Science and Christianity
If Christendom resists the author's application of the
PAGE 127
 
 
1 word Science to Christianity, or questions her use of the
word Science, she will not therefore lose faith in Chris-
3 tianity, nor will Christianity lose its hold upon 
her. If God, the All-in-all, be the creator of
the spiritual universe, including man, then everything
6 entitled to a classification as truth, or Science, must be
comprised in a knowledge or understanding of God, for
there can be nothing beyond illimitable divinity. 
Scientific terms
 
9 The terms Divine Science, Spiritual Science, Christ
Science or Christian Science, or Science alone, she em-
ploys interchangeably, according to the re-
12 quirements of the context. These synony-
mous terms stand for everything relating to God, the in-
finite, supreme, eternal Mind. It may be said, however,
15 that the term Christian Science relates especially to
Science as applied to humanity. Christian Science re-
veals God, not as the author of sin, sickness, and death,
18 but as divine Principle, Supreme Being, Mind, exempt
from all evil. It teaches that matter is the falsity, not
the fact, of existence; that nerves, brain, stomach, lungs,
21 and so forth, have - as matter - no intelligence, life, nor
sensation.
No physical science
There is no physical science, inasmuch as all truth
 
24 proceeds from the divine Mind. Therefore truth is not
human, and is not a law of matter, for matter
is not a lawgiver. Science is an emanation of
27 divine Mind, and is alone able to interpret God aright.
It has a spiritual, and not a material origin. It is a divine
utterance, - the Comforter which leadeth into all truth.
30 Christian Science eschews what is called natural science,
in so far as this is built on the false hypotheses that matter
is its own lawgiver, that law is founded on material con-
PAGE 128
 
 
1 ditions, and that these are final and overrule the might of 
divine Mind. Good is natural and primitive. It is not
3 miraculous to itself.
Practical Science
The term Science, properly understood, refers only to
the laws of God and to His government of the universe,
 
6 inclusive of man. From this it follows that
business men and cultured scholars have found
that Christian Science enhances their endurance and
9 mental powers, enlarges their perception of character, 
gives them acuteness and comprehensiveness and an 
ability to exceed their ordinary capacity. The human
12 mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding, becomes
more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes 
somewhat from itself, and requires less repose. A knowl-
15 edge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities
and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of
thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher
18 realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight
and perspicacity.
An odor becomes beneficent and agreeable only in pro-
 
21 portion to its escape into the surrounding atmosphere. 
So it is with our knowledge of Truth. If one would 
not quarrel with his fellow-man for waking him from
24 a cataleptic nightmare, he should not resist Truth, which
banishes - yea, forever destroys with the higher testi-
mony of Spirit - the so-called evidence of matter. 
Mathematics and scientific logic
 
27 Science relates to Mind, not matter. It rests on fixed
Principle and not upon the judgment of false sensation. 
The addition of two sums in mathematics must
30 always bring the same result. So is it with
logic. If both the major and the minor propo-
sitions of a syllogism are correct, the conclusion, if properly
PAGE 129
 
 
1 drawn, cannot be false. So in Christian Science there
are no discords nor contradictions, because its logic is as
3 harmonious as the reasoning of an accurately stated syl-
logism or of a properly computed sum in arithmetic. 
Truth is ever truthful, and can tolerate no error in
6 premise or conclusion.
Truth by inversion
If you wish to know the spiritual fact, you can dis-
cover it by reversing the material fable, be the
 
9 fable pro or con, - be it in accord with your
preconceptions or utterly contrary to them.
Antagonistic theories
Pantheism may be defined as a belief in the intelli-
 
12 gence of matter, - a belief which Science overthrows. 
In those days there will be "great tribulation 
such as was not since the beginning of the
15 world;" and earth will echo the cry, "Art thou [Truth]
come hither to torment us before the time?" Animal
magnetism, hypnotism, spiritualism, theosophy, agnos-
18 ticism, pantheism, and infidelity are antagonistic to true
being and fatal to its demonstration; and so are some
other systems.
Ontology needed
 
21 We must abandon pharmaceutics, and take up ontol-
ogy, - "the science of real being." We must look deep
into realism instead of accepting only the out-
24 ward sense of things. Can we gather peaches
from a pine-tree, or learn from discord the concord of
being? Yet quite as rational are some of the leading
27 illusions along the path which Science must tread in its
reformatory mission among mortals. The very name, 
illusion, points to nothingness.
Reluctant guests
 
30 The generous liver may object to the author's small
estimate of the pleasures of the table. The sinner sees,
in the system taught in this book, that the demands of
PAGE 130
 
 
1 God must be met. The petty intellect is alarmed by con-
stant appeals to Mind. The licentious disposition is dis-
3 couraged over its slight spiritual prospects.
When all men are bidden to the feast, the ex-
cuses come. One has a farm, another has merchandise,
6 and therefore they cannot accept.
Excuses for ignorance
It is vain to speak dishonestly of divine Science, which
destroys all discord, when you can demonstrate
 
9 the actuality of Science. It is unwise to doubt 
if reality is in perfect harmony with God, divine Principle,
- if Science, when understood and demonstrated, will
12 destroy all discord, - since you admit that God is om-
nipotent; for from this premise it follows that good and
its sweet concords have all-power.
Children and adults
 
15 Christian Science, properly understood, would dis-
abuse the human mind of material beliefs which war 
against spiritual facts; and these material
18 beliefs must be denied and cast out to make
place for truth. You cannot add to the contents of a
vessel already full. Laboring long to shake the adult's
21 faith in matter and to inculcate a grain of faith in God, - 
an inkling of the ability of Spirit to make the body har-
monious, - the author has often remembered our Master's
24 love for little children, and understood how truly such as
they belong to the heavenly kingdom.
All evil unnatural
If thought is startled at the strong claim of Science
 
27 for the supremacy of God, or Truth, and doubts the su-
premacy of good, ought we not, contrari-
wise, to be astounded at the vigorous claims
30 of evil and doubt them, and no longer think it natural to
love sin and unnatural to forsake it, - no longer imagine
evil to be ever-present and good absent? Truth should
PAGE 131
 
 
1 not seem so surprising and unnatural as error, and error
should not seem so real as truth. Sickness should not seem
3 so real as health. There is no error in Science, and our
lives must be governed by reality in order to be in har-
mony with God, the divine Principle of all being. 
The error of carnality
 
6 When once destroyed by divine Science, the false evi-
dence before the corporeal senses disappears. Hence the
opposition of sensuous man to the Science of
9 Soul and the significance of the Scripture, "The 
carnal mind is enmity against God." The central fact of
the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power.
12 THEOLOGY
Churchly neglect
Must Christian Science come through the Christian 
churches as some persons insist? This Science has come
 
15 already, after the manner of God's appoint-
ing, but the churches seem not ready to re-
ceive it, according to the Scriptural saying, "He came
18 unto his own, and his own received him not." Jesus once
said: "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise
21 and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." As afore-
time, the spirit of the Christ, which taketh away the cere-
24 monies and doctrines of men, is not accepted until the
hearts of men are made ready for it.
John the Baptist, and the Messiah
The mission of Jesus confirmed prophecy, and ex-
 
27 plained the so-called miracles of olden time as natural
demonstrations of the divine power, demonstra- , 
tions which were not understood. Jesus' works
30 established his claim to the Messiahship. In 
reply to John's inquiry, "Art thou he that should come,"
PAGE 132
 
 
1 Jesus returned an affirmative reply, recounting his works
instead of referring to his doctrine, confident that this
3 exhibition of the divine power to heal would fully an-
swer the question. Hence his reply: "Go and show
John again those things which ye do hear and see: the
6 blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up,
and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And
9 blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." In
other words, he gave his benediction to any one who
should not deny that such effects, coming from divine
12 Mind, prove the unity of God, - the divine principle 
which brings out all harmony.
Christ rejected
The Pharisees of old thrust the spiritual idea and the
 
15 man who lived it out of their synagogues, and retained
their materialistic beliefs about God. Jesus'
system of healing received no aid nor approval
18 from other sanitary or religious systems, from doctrines
of physics or of divinity; and it has not yet been gener-
ally accepted. To-day, as of yore, unconscious of the
21 reappearing of the spiritual idea, blind belief shuts the
door upon it, and condemns the cure of the sick and sin-
ning if it is wrought on any but a material and a doctrinal
24 theory. Anticipating this rejection of idealism, of the
true idea of God, - this salvation from all error, physi-
cal and mental, - Jesus asked, "When the Son of man
27 cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" 
John's misgivings
Did the doctrines of John the Baptist confer healing
power upon him, or endow him with the truest concep-
 
30 tion of the Christ? This righteous preacher
once pointed his disciples to Jesus as "the 
Lamb of God;" yet afterwards he seriously questioned 
PAGE 133
 
 
1 the signs of the Messianic appearing, and sent the inquiry
to Jesus, "Art thou he that should come?" 
Faith according to works
 
3 Was John's faith greater than that of the Samaritan 
woman, who said, "Is not this the Christ?" 
There was also a certain centurion of whose
6 faith Jesus himself declared, "I have not found so great
faith, no, not in Israel."
In Egypt, it was Mind which saved the Israelites from
 
9 belief in the plagues. In the wilderness, streams flowed
from the rock, and manna fell from the sky. The Israelites
looked upon the brazen serpent, and straightway believed
12 that they were healed of the poisonous stings of vipers.
In national prosperity, miracles attended the successes of
the Hebrews; but when they departed from the true
15 idea, their demoralization began. Even in captivity 
among foreign nations, the divine Principle wrought 
wonders for the people of God in the fiery furnace and
18 in kings' palaces.
Judaism antipathetic
Judaism was the antithesis of Christianity, because
Judaism engendered the limited form of a national or
 
21 tribal religion. It was a finite and material 
system, carried out in special theories concern- 
ing God, man, sanitary methods, and a religious cultus.
24 That he made "himself equal with God," was one of the
Jewish accusations against him who planted Christianity 
on the foundation of Spirit, who taught as he was in-
27 spired by the Father and would recognize no life, intelli-
gence, nor substance outside of God.
Priestly learning
The Jewish conception of God, as Yawah, Jehovah,
 
30 or only a mighty hero and king, has not quite 
given place to the true knowledge of God.
Creeds and rituals have not cleansed their hands of
PAGE 134
 
 
1 rabbinical lore. To-day the cry of bygone ages is re-
peated, "Crucify him!" At every advancing step, truth
3 is still opposed with sword and spear.
Testimony of martyrs
The word martyr, from the Greek, means witness; but
those who testified for Truth were so often persecuted
 
6 unto death, that at length the word martyr
was narrowed in its significance and so has
come always to mean one who suffers for his convictions.
9 The new faith in the Christ, Truth, so roused the hatred
of the opponents of Christianity, that the followers of
Christ were burned, crucified, and otherwise persecuted;
12 and so it came about that human rights were hallowed 
by the gallows and the cross.
Absence of Christ-power
Man-made doctrines are waning. They have not waxed
 
15 strong in times of trouble. Devoid of the Christ-power, 
how can they illustrate the doctrines of Christ 
or the miracles of grace? Denial of the possi-
18 bility of Christian healing robs Christianity of the very
element, which gave it divine force and its astonishing and
unequalled success in the first century.
Basis of miracles
 
21 The true Logos is demonstrably Christian Science, the
natural law of harmony which overcomes discord, - not
because this Science is supernatural or pre-
24 ternatural, nor because it is an infraction of 
divine law, but because it is the immutable law of God,
good. Jesus said: "I knew that Thou hearest me al-
27 ways;" and he raised Lazarus from the dead, stilled the
tempest, healed the sick, walked on the water. There 
is divine authority for believing in the superiority of
30 spiritual power over material resistance.
Lawful wonders
A miracle fulfils God's law, but does not violate that
law. This fact at present seems more mysterious than
PAGE 135
 
 
1 the miracle itself. The Psalmist sang: "What ailed
thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan,
3 that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains,
that ye skipped like rams, and ye little hills,
like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the
6 Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob." The miracle
introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, 
establishing the Science of God's unchangeable law.
9 Spiritual evolution alone is worthy of the exercise of
divine power.
Fear and sickness identical
The same power which heals sin heals also sickness.
 
12 This is "the beauty of holiness," that when Truth heals
the sick it casts out evils, and when Truth
casts out the evil called disease, it heals the
15 sick. When Christ cast out the devil of
dumbness, "it came to pass, when the devil was gone out,
the dumb spake." There is to-day danger of repeating
18 the offence of the Jews by limiting the Holy One of Israel
and asking: "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?"
What cannot God do?
The unity of Science and Christianity
 
21 It has been said, and truly, that Christianity must be
Science, and Science must be Christianity, else one or the
other is false and useless; but neither is unim-
24 portant or untrue, and they are alike in demon- 
stration. This proves the one to be identical
with the other. Christianity as Jesus taught it was not
27 a creed, nor a system of ceremonies, nor a special gift
from a ritualistic Jehovah; but it was the demonstration 
of divine Love casting out error and healing the sick,
30 not merely in the name of Christ, or Truth, but in demon-
stration of Truth, as must be the case in the cycles of
divine light.
PAGE 136
 
 
The Christ-mission
 
1 Jesus established his church and maintained his mission
on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing. He taught
3 his followers that his religion had a divine
Principle, which would cast out error and heal
both the sick and the sinning. He claimed no intelli-
6 gence, action, nor life separate from God. Despite the
persecution this brought upon him, he used his divine 
power to save men both bodily and spiritually.
Ancient spiritualism
 
9 The question then as now was, How did Jesus heal the
sick? His answer to this question the world rejected. 
He appealed to his students: "Whom do
12 men say that I, the Son of man, am?" That 
is: Who or what is it that is thus identified with casting
out evils and healing the sick? They replied, "Some
15 say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and
others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets." These prophets
were considered dead, and this reply may indicate that
18 some of the people believed that Jesus was a medium,
controlled by the spirit of John or of Elias.
This ghostly fancy was repeated by Herod himself.
 
21 That a wicked king and debauched husband should have
no high appreciation of divine Science and the great work
of the Master, was not surprising; for how could such
24 a sinner comprehend what the disciples did not fully
understand? But even Herod doubted if Jesus was con-
trolled by the sainted preacher. Hence Herod's asser-
27 tion: "John have I beheaded: but who is this?" No
wonder Herod desired to see the new Teacher.
Doubting disciples
The disciples apprehended their Master better than
 
30 did others; but they did not comprehend all
that he said and did, or they would not have
questioned him so often. Jesus patiently persisted in
PAGE 137
 
 
1 teaching and demonstrating the truth of being. His stu-
dents saw this power of Truth heal the sick, cast out evil,
3 raise the dead; but the ultimate of this wonderful work
was not spiritually discerned, even by them, until after the
crucifixion, when their immaculate Teacher stood before
6 them, the victor over sickness, sin, disease, death, and
the grave.
Yearning to be understood, the Master repeated,
 
9 "But whom say ye that I am?" This renewed inquiry
meant: Who or what is it that is able to do the work, so
mysterious to the popular mind? In his rejection of the
12 answer already given and his renewal of the question, 
it is plain that Jesus completely eschewed the narrow 
opinion implied in their citation of the common report
15 about him.
A divine response
With his usual impetuosity, Simon replied for his
brethren, and his reply set forth a great fact: "Thou
 
18 art the Christ, the Son of the living God!" 
That is: The Messiah is what thou hast de-
clared, - Christ, the spirit of God, of Truth, Life, and
21 Love, which heals mentally. This assertion elicited from
Jesus the benediction, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-
jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,
24 but my Father which is in heaven;" that is, Love hath
shown thee the way of Life!
The true and living rock
Before this the impetuous disciple had been called
 
27 only by his common names, Simon Bar-jona, or son of
Jona; but now the Master gave him a spir-
itual name in these words: "And I say also
30 unto thee, That thou art Peter; and upon this rock [the
meaning of the Greek word petros, or stone] I will build
my church; and the gates of hell [hades, the under-
PAGE 138
 
 
1 world, or the grave] shall not prevail against it." In
other words, Jesus purposed founding his society, not
3 on the personal Peter as a mortal, but on the God- 
power which lay behind Peter's confession of the true
Messiah.
Sublime summary
 
6 It was now evident to Peter that divine Life, Truth, and
Love, and not a human personality, was the healer of the
sick and a rock, a firm foundation in the realm
9 of harmony. On this spiritually scientific basis 
Jesus explained his cures, which appeared miraculous to
outsiders. He showed that diseases were cast out neither
12 by corporeality, by materia medica, nor by hygiene, but by
the divine Spirit, casting out the errors of mortal mind.
The supremacy of Spirit was the foundation on which
15 Jesus built. His sublime summary points to the religion
of Love.
New era in Jesus
Jesus established in the Christian era the precedent for
 
18 all Christianity, theology, and healing. Christians are
under as direct orders now, as they were then,
to be Christlike, to possess the Christ-spirit, to
21 follow the Christ-example, and to heal the sick as well as
the sinning. It is easier for Christianity to cast out sick-
ness than sin, for the sick are more willing to part with
24 pain than are sinners to give up the sinful, so-called pleas-
ure of the senses. The Christian can prove this to-day as
readily is it was proved centuries ago.
Healthful theology
 
27 Our Master said to every follower: "Go ye into all the
world, and preach the gospel to every creature! . . .
Heal the sick! . . . Love thy neighbor as
30 thyself!" It was this theology of Jesus which
healed the sick and the sinning. It is his theology in this
book and the spiritual meaning of this theology, which
PAGE 139
 
 
1 heals the sick and causes the wicked to "forsake his way, 
and the unrighteous man his thoughts." It was our Mas-
3 ter's theology which the impious sought to destroy. 
Marvels and reformations
From beginning to end, the Scriptures are full of
accounts of the triumph of Spirit, Mind, over matter.
 
6 Moses proved the power of Mind by what men
called miracles ; so did Joshua, Elijah, and
Elisha. The Christian era was ushered in with signs and
9 wonders. Reforms have commonly been attended with 
bloodshed and persecution, even when the end has been
brightness and peace; but the present new, yet old, re-
12 form in religious faith will teach men patiently and wisely
to stem the tide of sectarian bitterness, whenever it flows
inward.
Science obscured
 
15 The decisions by vote of Church Councils as to what
should and should not be considered Holy Writ; the man-
ifest mistakes in the ancient versions; the
18 thirty thousand different readings in the Old 
Testament, and the three hundred thousand in the New,
- these facts show how a mortal and material sense stole
21 into the divine record, with its own hue darkening to some
extent the inspired pages. But mistakes could neither 
wholly obscure the divine Science of the Scriptures seen
24 from Genesis to Revelation, mar the demonstration of
Jesus, nor annul the healing by the prophets, who foresaw
that "the stone which the builders rejected" would be-
27 come "the head of the corner."
Opponents benefited
Atheism, pantheism, theosophy, and agnosticism are
opposed to Christian Science, as they are to ordinary re-
 
30 ligion; but it does not follow that the profane 
or atheistic invalid cannot be healed by Chris- 
tian Science. The moral condition of such a man de-
PAGE 140
 
 
1 mands the remedy of Truth more than it is needed in most
cases; and Science is more than usually effectual in the
3 treatment of moral ailments.
God invisible to the senses
That God is a corporeal being, nobody can truly affirm.
The Bible represents Him as saying: "Thou canst not
 
6 see My face; for there shall no man see Me
and live." Not materially but spiritually we 
know Him as divine Mind, as Life, Truth, and Love. We
9 shall obey and adore in proportion as we apprehend the
divine nature and love Him understandingly, warring no
more over the corporeality, but rejoicing in the affluence
12 of our God. Religion will then be of the heart and not of
the head. Mankind will no longer be tyrannical and pro-
scriptive from lack of love, - straining out gnats and
15 swallowing camels.
The true worship
We worship spiritually, only as we cease to worship
materially. Spiritual devoutness is the soul of Chris-
 
18 tianity. Worshipping through the medium of 
matter is paganism. Judaic and other rituals
are but types and shadows of true worship. "The true
21 worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in
truth."
Anthropomorphism
The Jewish tribal Jehovah was a man-projected God,
 
24 liable to wrath, repentance, and human changeableness. 
The Christian Science God is universal, eter-
nal, divine love, which changeth not and caus-
27 eth no evil, disease, nor death. It is indeed mournfully
true that the older Scripture is reversed. In the begin-
ing God created man in His, God's, image; but mor-
30 tals would procreate man, and make God in their own
human image. What is the god of a mortal, but a mortal
magnified?
PAGE 141
 
 
More than profession required
 
1 This indicates the distance between the theological and
ritualistic religion of the ages and the truth preached by
3 Jesus. More than profession is requisite for
Christian demonstration. Few understand or
adhere to Jesus' divine precepts for living and
6 healing. Why? Because his precepts require the disci-
ple to cut off the right hand and pluck out the right eye,
- that is, to set aside even the most cherished beliefs
9 and practices, to leave all for Christ.
No ecclesiastical monopoly
All revelation (such is the popular thought!) must come
from the schools and along the line of scholarly and eccle-
 
12 siastical descent, as kings are crowned from a
royal dynasty. In healing the sick and sinning, 
Jesus elaborated the fact that the healing effect
15 followed the understanding of the divine Principle and
of the Christ-spirit which governed the corporeal Jesus.
For this Principle there is no dynasty, no ecclesiastical
18 monopoly. Its only crowned head is immortal sover- 
eignty. Its only priest is the spiritualized man. The
Bible declares that all believers are made "kings and
21 priests unto God." The outsiders did not then, and
do not now, understand this ruling of the Christ; there-
fore they cannot demonstrate God's healing power.
24 Neither can this manifestation of Christ be com- 
prehended, until its divine Principle is scientifically 
understood.
A change demanded
 
27 The adoption of scientific religion and of divine heal-
ing will ameliorate sin, sickness, and death. Let our
pulpits do justice to Christian Science. Let
30 it have fair representation by the press. Give 
to it the place in our institutions of learning now occu-
pied by scholastic theology and physiology, and it will
PAGE 142
 
 
1 eradicate sickness and sin in less time than the old systems, 
devised for subduing them, have required for self-estab-
3 lishment and propagation.
Two claims omitted
Anciently the followers of Christ, or Truth, measured
Christianity by its power over sickness, sin, and death;
 
6 but modern religions generally omit all but one 
of these powers, - the power over sin. We 
must seek the undivided garment, the whole Christ, as our
9 first proof of Christianity, for Christ, Truth, alone can
furnish us with absolute evidence.
Selfishness and loss
If the soft palm, upturned to a lordly salary, and archi-
 
12 tectural skill, making dome and spire tremulous with
beauty, turn the poor and the stranger from the 
gate, they at the same time shut the door on
15 progress. In vain do the manger and the cross tell their
story to pride and fustian. Sensuality palsies the right
hand, and causes the left to let go its grasp on the divine.
Temple cleansed
 
18 As in Jesus' time, so to-day, tyranny and pride need to
be whipped out of the temple, and humility and divine Sci-
ence to be welcomed in. The strong cords of
21 scientific demonstration, as twisted and wielded 
by Jesus, are still needed to purge the temples of their
vain traffic in worldly worship and to make them meet
24 dwelling-places for the Most High.
MEDICINE
Question of precedence
Which was first, Mind or medicine? If Mind was
 
27 first and self-existent, then Mind, not matter, must have
been the first medicine. God being All-in-
all, He made medicine; but that medicine was
30 Mind. It could not have been matter, which departs
from the nature and character of Mind, God. Truth
PAGE 143
 
 
1 is God's remedy for error of every kind, and Truth de-
stroys only what is untrue. Hence the fact that, to-day,
3 as yesterday, Christ casts out evils and heals the
sick.
Methods rejected
It is plain that God does not employ drugs or hygiene,
 
6 nor provide them for human use; else Jesus would have
recommended and employed them in his heal-
ing. The sick are more deplorably lost than
9 the sinning, if the sick cannot rely on God for help and
the sinning can. The divine Mind never called matter 
medicine, and matter required a material and human be-
12 lief before it could be considered as medicine. 
Error not curative
Sometimes the human mind uses one error to medi-
cine another. Driven to choose between two difficulties,
 
15 the human mind takes the lesser to relieve the 
greater. On this basis it saves from starva-
tion by theft, and quiets pain with anodynes. You
18 admit that mind influences the body somewhat, but
you conclude that the stomach, blood, nerves, bones, 
etc., hold the preponderance of power. Controlled by
21 this belief, you continue in the old routine. You lean on
the inert and unintelligent, never discerning how this de-
prives you of the available superiority of divine Mind.
24 The body is not controlled scientifically by a negative
mind.
Impossible coalescence
Mind is the grand creator, and there can be no power
 
27 except that which is derived from Mind. If Mind was
first chronologically, is first potentially, and 
must be first eternally, then give to Mind the
30 glory, honor, dominion, and power everlastingly due its
holy name. Inferior and unspiritual methods of healing 
may try to make Mind and drugs coalesce, but the two will
PAGE 144
 
 
1 not mingle scientifically. Why should we wish to make
them do so, since no good can come of it?
3 If Mind is foremost and superior, let us rely upon Mind,
which needs no cooperation from lower powers, even if
these so-called powers are real.
6 Naught is the squire, when the king is nigh;
Withdraws the star, when dawns the sun's brave light. 
Soul and sense
The various mortal beliefs formulated in human philoso-
 
9 phy, physiology, hygiene, are mainly predicated of matter,
and afford faint gleams of God, or Truth.
The more material a belief, the more obstinately
12 tenacious its error; the stronger are the manifestations of
the corporeal senses, the weaker the indications of Soul.
Will-power detrimental
Human will-power is not Science. Human will belongs
 
15 to the so-called material senses, and its use is to be con-
demned. Willing the sick to recover is not the
metaphysical practice of Christian Science, but
18 is sheer animal magnetism. Human will-power may in-
fringe the rights of man. It produces evil continually, 
and is not a factor in the realism of being. Truth, and
21 not corporeal will, is the divine power which says to
disease, "Peace, be still."
Conservative antagonism
Because divine Science wars with so-called physical
 
24 science, even as Truth wars with error, the old schools
still oppose it. Ignorance, pride, or prejudice 
closes the door to whatever is not stereotyped.
27 When the Science of being is universally understood, 
every man will be his own physician, and Truth will be
the universal panacea.
Ancient healers
 
30 It is a question to-day, whether the ancient inspired
healers understood the Science of Christian healing, or
PAGE 145
 
 
1 whether they caught its sweet tones, as the natural
musician catches the tones of harmony, without being
3 able to explain them. So divinely imbued
were they with the spirit of Science, that the
lack of the letter could not hinder their work; and that
6 letter, without the spirit, would have made void their
practice.
The struggle and victory
The struggle for the recovery of invalids goes on, not
 
9 between material methods, but between mortal minds 
and immortal Mind. The victory will be on 
the patient's side only as immortal Mind
12 through Christ, Truth, subdues the human belief in
disease. It matters not what material method one may
adopt, whether faith in drugs, trust in hygiene, or reliance
15 on some other minor curative.
Mystery of godliness
Scientific healing has this advantage over other meth-
ods, - that in it Truth controls error. From this fact
 
18 arise its ethical as well as its physical ef- 
fects. Indeed, its ethical and physical effects 
are indissolubly connected. If there is any mystery
21 in Christian healing, it is the mystery which godliness
always presents to the ungodly, - the mystery always 
arising from ignorance of the laws of eternal and unerr-
24 ing Mind.
Matter versus matter
Other methods undertake to oppose error with error,
and thus they increase the antagonism of one form of
 
27 matter towards other forms of matter or error, 
and the warfare between Spirit and the flesh
goes on. By this antagonism mortal mind must con-
30 tinually weaken its own assumed power.
How healing was lost
The theology of Christian Science includes healing 
the sick. Our Master's first article of faith propounded 
PAGE 146
 
 
1 to his students was healing, and he proved his faith by
his works. The ancient Christians were healers. Why
3 has this element of Christianity been lost?
Because our systems of religion are governed
more or less by our systems of medicine. The first idol-
6 atry was faith in matter. The schools have rendered 
faith in drugs the fashion, rather than faith in Deity. By
trusting matter to destroy its own discord, health and
9 harmony have been sacrificed. Such systems are barren
of the vitality of spiritual power, by which material sense
is made the servant of Science and religion becomes
12 Christlike.
Drugs and divinity
Material medicine substitutes drugs for the power of
God - even the might of Mind - to heal the body.
 
15 Scholasticism clings for salvation to the per- 
son, instead of to the divine Principle, of the 
man Jesus; and his Science, the curative agent of God,
18 is silenced. Why? Because truth divests material drugs
of their imaginary power, and clothes Spirit with suprem-
acy. Science is the "stranger that is within thy gates,"
21 remembered not, even when its elevating effects prac-
tically prove its divine origin and efficacy.
Christian Science as old as God
Divine Science derives its sanction from the Bible,
 
24 and the divine origin of Science is demonstrated through
the holy influence of Truth in healing sick-
ness and sin. This healing power of Truth
27 must have been far anterior to the period in 
which Jesus lived. It is as ancient as "the Ancient of
days." It lives through all Life, and extends throughout
30 all space.
Reduction to system
Divine metaphysics is now reduced to a system, to a
form comprehensible by and adapted to the thought of
PAGE 147
 
 
1 the age in which we live. This system enables the
learner to demonstrate the divine Principle,
3 upon which Jesus' healing was based, and
the sacred rules for its present application to the cure of
disease.
6 Late in the nineteenth century I demonstrated the divine
rules of Christian Science. They were submitted to the
broadest practical test, and everywhere, when honestly ap-
9 plied under circumstances where demonstration was hu-
manly possible, this Science showed that Truth had lost
none of its divine and healing efficacy, even though cen-
12 turies had passed away since Jesus practised these rules
on the hills of Judaea and in the valleys of Galilee. 
Perusal and practice
Although this volume contains the complete Science of
 
15 Mind-healing, never believe that you can absorb the whole
meaning of the Science by a simple perusal
of this book. The book needs to be studied,
18 and the demonstration of the rules of scientific healing
will plant you firmly on the spiritual groundwork of
Christian Science. This proof lifts you high above the
21 perishing fossils of theories already antiquated, and en-
ables you to grasp the spiritual facts of being hitherto
unattained and seemingly dim.
A definite rule discovered
 
24 Our Master healed the sick, practised Christian heal-
ing, and taught the generalities of its divine Principle to
his students; but he left no definite rule for
27 demonstrating this Principle of healing and
preventing disease. This rule remained to be discovered 
in Christian Science. A pure affection takes form in good-
30 ness, but Science alone reveals the divine Principle of
goodness and demonstrates its rules.
Jesus' own practice
Jesus never spoke of disease as dangerous or as difficult
PAGE 148
 
 
1 to heal. When his students brought to him a case they
had failed to heal, he said to them, "O faithless gen-
3 eration," implying that the requisite power 
to heal was in Mind. He prescribed no drugs,
urged no obedience to material laws, but acted in direct
6 disobedience to them.
The man of anatomy and of theology
Neither anatomy nor theology has ever described man
as created by Spirit, - as God's man. The former ex-
 
9 plains the men of men, or the "children of
men," as created corporeally instead of spir- 
itually and as emerging from the lowest, in-
12 stead of from the highest, conception of being. Both
anatomy and theology define man as both physical and
mental, and place mind at the mercy of matter for every
15 function, formation, and manifestation. Anatomy takes
up man at all points materially. It loses Spirit, drops the
true tone, and accepts the discord. Anatomy and the-
18 ology reject the divine Principle which produces harmo-
nious man, and deal - the one wholly, the other primarily
- with matter, calling that man which is not the counter-
21 part, but the counterfeit, of God's man. Then theology
tries to explain how to make this man a Christian, - how
from this basis of division and discord to produce the con-
24 cord and unity of Spirit and His likeness.
Physiology deficient
Physiology exalts matter, dethrones Mind, and claims
to rule man by material law, instead of spiritual. When
 
27 physiology fails to give health or life by this 
process, it ignores the divine Spirit as unable 
or unwilling to render help in time of physical need.
30 When mortals sin, this ruling of the schools leaves them
to the guidance of a theology which admits God to be
the healer of sin but not of sickness, although our great
PAGE 149
 
 
1 Master demonstrated that Truth could save from sickness
as well as from sin.
Blunders and blunderers
 
3 Mind as far outweighs drugs in the cure of disease as
in the cure of sin. The more excellent way is divine 
Science in every case. Is materia medica a
6 science or a bundle of speculative human
theories? The prescription which succeeds in one in-
stance fails in another, and this is owing to the different
9 mental states of the patient. These states are not com-
prehended and they are left without explanation except
in Christian Science. The rule and its perfection of opera-
12 tion never vary in Science. If you fail to succeed in any
case, it is because you have not demonstrated the life of
Christ, Truth, more in your own life, - because you have
15 not obeyed the rule and proved the Principle of divine
Science.
Old-school physician
A physician of the old school remarked with great
18 gravity: "We know that mind affects the body some-
what, and advise our patients to be hopeful
and cheerful and to take as little medicine as
 
21 possible; but mind can never cure organic difficulties." 
The logic is lame, and facts contradict it. The author
has cured what is termed organic disease as readily as she
24 has cured purely functional disease, and with no power
but the divine Mind.
Tests in our day
Since God, divine Mind, governs all, not partially but
 
27 supremely, predicting disease does not dignify therapeutics.
Whatever guides thought spiritually benefits
mind and body. We need to understand the
30 affirmations of divine Science, dismiss superstition, and
demonstrate truth according to Christ. To-day there 
is hardly a city, village, or hamlet, in which are not to
PAGE 150
 
 
1 be found living witnesses and monuments to the virtue
and power of Truth, as applied through this Christian
3 system of healing disease.
The main purpose
To-day the healing power of Truth is widely demon- 
strated as an immanent, eternal Science, instead of a
 
6 phenomenal exhibition. Its appearing is the
coming anew of the gospel of "on earth peace, 
good-will toward men." This coming, as was promised
9 by the Master, is for its establishment as a permanent 
dispensation among men; but the mission of Christian 
Science now, as in the time of its earlier demonstration,
12 is not primarily one of physical healing. Now, as then,
signs and wonders are wrought in the metaphysical heal-
ing of physical disease; but these signs are only to demon-
15 strate its divine origin, - to attest the reality of the higher
mission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of the
world.
Exploded doctrine
 
18 The science (so-called) of physics would have one be-
lieve that both matter and mind are subject to disease, 
and that, too, in spite of the individual's pro-
21 test and contrary to the law of divine Mind. 
This human view infringes man's free moral agency; and
it is as evidently erroneous to the author, and will be to
24 all others at some future day, as the practically rejected
doctrine of the predestination of souls to damnation or
salvation. The doctrine that man's harmony is gov-
27 erned by physical conditions all his earthly days, and that
he is then thrust out of his own body by the operation of
matter, - even the doctrine of the superiority of matter
30 over Mind, - is fading out.
Disease mental
The hosts of AEsculapius are flooding the world with
diseases, because they are ignorant that the human mind
PAGE 151
 
 
1 and body are myths. To be sure, they sometimes treat
the sick as if there was but one factor in the case; but
3 this one factor they represent to be body, not 
mind. Infinite Mind could not possibly create
a remedy outside of itself, but erring, finite, human mind
6 has an absolute need of something beyond itself for its
redemption and healing.
Intentions respected
Great respect is due the motives and philanthropy of
 
9 the higher class of physicians. We know that if they un-
derstood the Science of Mind-healing, and were
in possession of the enlarged power it confers
12 to benefit the race physically and spiritually, they would
rejoice with us. Even this one reform in medicine would
ultimately deliver mankind from the awful and oppres-
15 sive bondage now enforced by false theories, from which
multitudes would gladly escape.
Man governed by Mind
Mortal belief says that death has been occasioned by
 
18 fright. Fear never stopped being and its action. The
blood, heart, lungs, brain, etc., have nothing
to do with Life, God. Every function of the
21 real man is governed by the divine Mind. The human
mind has no power to kill or to cure, and it has no com-
trol over God's man. The divine Mind that made man
24 maintain His own image and likeness. The human 
mind is opposed to God and must be put off, as St. Paul
declares. All that really exists is the divine Mind and
27 its idea, and in this Mind the entire being is found har-
monious and eternal. The straight and narrow way is to
see and acknowledge this fact, yield to this power, and
30 follow the leadings of truth.
Mortal mind dethroned
That mortal mind claims to govern every organ of the
mortal body, we have overwhelming proof. But this so-
PAGE 152
 
 
1 called mind is a myth, and must by its own consent yield
to Truth. It would wield the sceptre of a monarch, but
3 it is powerless. The immortal divine Mind
takes away all its supposed sovereignty, and
saves mortal mind from itself. The author has endeavored
6 to make this book the AEsculapius of mind as well as of
body, that it may give hope to the sick and heal them,
although they know not how the work is done. Truth
9 has a healing effect, even when not fully understood. 
All activity from thought
Anatomy describes muscular action as produced by
mind in one instance and not in another. Such errors
 
12 beset every material theory, in which one
statement contradicts another over and over
again. It is related that Sir Humphry Davy once ap-
15 parently cured a case of paralysis simply by introducing
a thermometer into the patient's mouth. This he did
merely to ascertain the temperature of the patient's body;
18 but the sick man supposed this ceremony was intended 
to heal him, and he recovered accordingly. Such a fact
illustrates our theories.
The author's experiments in medicine
 
21 The author's medical researches and experiments had
prepared her thought for the metaphysics of Christian 
Science. Every material dependence had
24 failed her in her search for truth; and she can 
now understand why, and can see the means
by which mortals are divinely driven to a spiritual source
27 for health and happiness.
Homoeopathic attenuations
Her experiments in homoeopathy had made her skep-
tical as to material curative methods. Jahr, from
 
30 Aconitum to Zincum oxydatum, enumerates
the general symptoms, the characteristic
signs, which demand different remedies; but the drug
PAGE 153
 
 
1 is frequently attenuated to such a degree that not a ves-
tige of it remains. Thus we learn that it is not the drug
3 which expels the disease or changes one of the symptoms
of disease.
Only salt and water
The author has attenuated Natrum muriaticum (com-
 
6 mon table-salt) until there was not a single saline property
left. The salt had "lost his savour;" and yet,
with one drop of that attenuation in a goblet of
9 water, and a teaspoonful of the water administered at in-
tervals of three hours, she has cured a patient sinking in
the last stage of typhoid fever. The highest attenuation
12 of homoeopathy and the most potent rises above matter into
mind. This discovery leads to more light. From it may
be learned that either human faith or the divine Mind is
15 the healer and that there is no efficacy in a drug.
Origin of pain
You say a boil is painful; but that is impossible, for
matter without mind is not painful. The boil simply
 
18 manifests, through inflammation and swell-
ing, a belief in pain, and this belief is called a
boil. Now administer mentally to your patient a high
21 attenuation of truth, and it will soon cure the boil. The
fact that pain cannot exist where there is no mortal mind
to feel it is a proof that this so-called mind makes its
24 own pain - that is, its own belief in pain.
Source of contagion
We weep because others weep, we yawn because they
yawn, and we have smallpox because others have it; but
 
27 mortal mind, not matter, contains and carries 
the infection. When this mental contagion is
understood, we shall be more careful of our mental con-
30 ditions and we shall avoid loquacious tattling about
disease, as we would avoid advocating crime. Neither 
sympathy nor society should ever tempt us to cherish 
PAGE 154
 
 
1 error in any form, and certainly we should not be error's
advocate.
3 Disease arises, like other mental conditions, from as-
sociation. Since it is a law of mortal mind that certain
diseases should be regarded as contagious, this law ob-
6 tains credit through association, - calling up the fear that
creates the image of disease and its consequent manifes- 
tation in the body.
Imaginary cholera
 
9 This fact in metaphysics is illustrated by the following
incident: A man was made to believe that he occupied a
bed where a cholera patient had died. Imme-
12 diately the symptoms of this disease appeared, 
and the man died. The fact was, that he had not caught
the cholera by material contact, because no cholera patient
15 had been in that bed.
Children's ailments
If a child is exposed to contagion or infection, the
mother is frightened and says, "My child will be sick."
 
18 The law of mortal mind and her own fears gov- 
ern her child more than the child's mind gov-
erns itself, and they produce the very results which might
21 have been prevented through the opposite understanding. 
Then it is believed that exposure to the contagion wrought
the mischief.
24 That mother is not a Christian Scientist, and her affec-
tions need better guidance, who says to her child: "You
look sick," "You look tired," "You need rest," or "You
27 need medicine."
Such a mother runs to her little one, who thinks she has
hurt her face by falling on the carpet, and says, moaning
 
30 more childishly than her child, "Mamma knows you are
hurt." The better and more successful method for any
mother to adopt is to say: "Oh, never mind! You're not
PAGE 155
 
 
1 hurt, so don't think you are." Presently the child forgets 
all about the accident, and is at play.
Drug-power mental
 
3 When the sick recover by the use of drugs, it is the law
of a general belief, culminating in individual faith, which
heals; and according to this faith will the effect
6 be. Even when you take away the individual
confidence in the drug, you have not yet divorced the drug
from the general faith. The chemist, the botanist, the
9 druggist, the doctor, and the nurse equip the medicine 
with their faith, and the beliefs which are in the majority
rule. When the general belief endorses the inanimate
12 drug as doing this or that, individual dissent or faith, un-
less it rests on Science, is but a belief held by a minority,
and such a belief is governed by the majority.
Belief in physics
 
15 The universal belief in physics weighs against the high
and mighty truths of Christian metaphysics. This errone-
ous general belief, which sustains medicine and
18 produces all medical results, works against
Christian Science; and the percentage of power on the
side of this Science must mightily outweigh the power of
21 popular belief in order to heal a single case of disease. The
human mind acts more powerfully to offset the discords 
of matter and the ills of flesh, in proportion as it puts less
24 weight into the material or fleshly scale and more weight
into the spiritual scale. Homoeopathy diminishes the
drug, but the potency of the medicine increases as the
27 drug disappears.
Nature of drugs
Vegetarianism, homoeopathy, and hydropathy have
diminished drugging; but if drugs are an antidote to
 
30 disease, why lessen the antidote? If drugs
are good things, is it safe to say that the
less in quantity you have of them the better? If drugs
PAGE 156
 
 
1 possess intrinsic virtues or intelligent curative qualities, 
these qualities must be mental. Who named drugs, and
3 what made them good or bad for mortals, beneficial or
injurious?
Dropsy cured without drugs
A case of dropsy, given up by the faculty, fell into
 
6 my hands. It was a terrible case. Tapping had been 
employed, and yet, as she lay in her bed, the
patient looked like a barrel. I prescribed
9 the fourth attenuation of Argentum nitratum with occa-
sional doses of a high attenuation of Sulphuris. She im-
proved perceptibly. Believing then somewhat in the
12 ordinary theories of medical practice, and learning that
her former physician had prescribed these remedies, I
began to fear an aggravation of symptoms from their
15 prolonged use, and told the patient so; but she was
unwilling to give up the medicine while she was re-
covering. It then occurred to me to give her un-
18 medicated pellets and watch the result. I did so, and
she continued to gain. Finally she said that she would
give up her medicine for one day, and risk the
21 effects. After trying this, she informed me that she
could get along two days without globules; but on 
the third day she again suffered, and was relieved by
24 taking them. She went on in this way, taking the
unmedicated pellets, - and receiving occasional visits
from me, - but employing no other means, and she was
27 cured.
A stately advance
Metaphysics, as taught in Christian Science, is the
next stately step beyond homoeopathy. In metaphysics,
 
30 matter disappears from the remedy entirely,
and Mind takes its rightful and supreme
place. Homoeopathy takes mental symptoms largely 
PAGE 157
 
 
1 into consideration in its diagnosis of disease. Christian
Science deals wholly with the mental cause in judging and
3 destroying disease. It succeeds where homoeopathy fails,
solely because its one recognized Principle of healing is
Mind, and the whole force of the mental element is em-
6 ployed through the Science of Mind, which never shares
its rights with inanimate matter.
The modus of homoeopathy
Christian Science exterminates the drug, and rests on
 
9 Mind alone as the curative Principle, acknowledging that
the divine Mind has all power. Homoeopathy
mentalizes a drug with such repetition of
12 thought-attenuations, that the drug becomes
more like the human mind than the substratum of this so-
called mind, which we call matter; and the drug's power
15 of action is proportionately increased.
Drugging unchristian
If drugs are part of God's creation, which (according 
to the narrative in Genesis) He pronounced good, then
 
18 drugs cannot be poisonous. If He could cre-
ate drugs intrinsically bad, then they should
never be used. If He creates drugs at all and designs
21 them for medical use, why did Jesus not employ them
and recommend them for the treatment of disease? 
Matter is not self-creative, for it is unintelligent. Erring
24 mortal mind confers the power which the drug seems to
possess.
Narcotics quiet mortal mind, and so relieve the body;
 
27 but they leave both mind and body worse for this sub-
mission. Christian Science impresses the entire corpore-
ality, - namely, mind and body, - and brings out the
30 proof that Life is continuous and harmonious. Science
both neutralizes error and destroys it. Mankind is the
better for this spiritual and profound pathology. 
PAGE 158
 
 
Mythology and materia medica
 
1 It is recorded that the profession of medicine originated
in idolatry with pagan priests, who besought the gods to
3 heal the sick and designated Apollo as "the god
of medicine." He was supposed to have dic-
tated the first prescription, according to the
6 "History of Four Thousand Years of Medicine." It is
here noticeable that Apollo was also regarded as the sender
of disease, "the god of pestilence." Hippocrates turned
9 from image-gods to vegetable and mineral drugs for heal-
ing. This was deemed progress in medicine; but
what we need is the truth which heals both mind and
12 body. The future history of material medicine may
correspond with that of its material god, Apollo, who was
banished from heaven and endured great sufferings
15 upon earth.
Footsteps to intemperance
Drugs, cataplasms, and whiskey are stupid substitutes 
for the dignity and potency of divine Mind and its effi-
 
18 cacy to heal. It is pitiful to lead men into 
temptation through the byways of this wil-
derness world, - to victimize the race with intoxicating
21 prescriptions for the sick, until mortal mind acquires an
educated appetite for strong drink, and men and women
become loathsome sots.
Advancing degrees
 
24 Evidences of progress and of spiritualization greet us
on every hand. Drug-systems are quitting their hold on
matter and so letting in matter's higher stra-
27 tum, mortal mind. Homoeopathy, a step in
advance of allopathy, is doing this. Matter is going out
of medicine; and mortal mind, of a higher attenuation
30 than the drug, is governing the pellet.
Effects of fear
A woman in the city of Lynn, Massachusetts, was
etherized and died in consequence, although her physi-
PAGE 159
 
 
1 cians insisted that it would be unsafe to perform a needed
surgical operation without the ether. After the autopsy,
3 her sister testified that the deceased protested 
against inhaling the ether and said it would kill 
her, but that she was compelled by her physicians to take
6 it. Her hands were held, and she was forced into sub-
mission. The case was brought to trial. The evidence 
was found to be conclusive, and a verdict was returned that
9 death was occasioned, not by the ether, but by fear of
inhaling it.
Mental conditions to be heeded
Is it skilful or scientific surgery to take no heed of men-
 
12 tal conditions and to treat the patient as if she were so
much mindless matter, and as if matter were
the only factor to be consulted? Had these
15 unscientific surgeons understood metaphysics, 
they would have considered the woman's state of mind,
and not have risked such treatment. They would either
18 have allayed her fear or would have performed the opera-
tion without ether.
The sequel proved that this Lynn woman died from
 
21 effects produced by mortal mind, and not from the disease
or the operation.
False source of knowledge
The medical schools would learn the state of man
 
24 from matter instead of from Mind. They examine the
lungs, tongue, and pulse to ascertain how
much harmony, or health, matter is permit-
27 ting to matter, - how much pain or pleasure, action or
stagnation, one form of matter is allowing another form
of matter.
30 Ignorant of the fact that a man's belief produces dis-
ease and all its symptoms, the ordinary physician is
liable to increase disease with his own mind, when he
PAGE 160
 
 
1 should address himself to the work of destroying it through 
the power of the divine Mind.
3 The systems of physics act against metaphysics, and
vice versa. When mortals forsake the material for the
spiritual basis of action, drugs lose their healing force,
6 for they have no innate power. Unsupported by the 
faith reposed in it, the inanimate drug becomes
powerless.
Obedient muscles
 
9 The motion of the arm is no more dependent upon the
direction of mortal mind, than are the organic action and
secretion of the viscera. When this so-called
12 mind quits the body, the heart becomes as tor- 
pid as the hand.
Anatomy and mind
Anatomy finds a necessity for nerves to convey the man-
 
15 date of mind to muscle and so cause action; but what does
anatomy say when the cords contract and be-
come immovable? Has mortal mind ceased
18 speaking to them, or has it bidden them to be impotent?
Can muscles, bones, blood, and nerves rebel against mind
in one instance and not in another, and become cramped
21 despite the mental protest?
Unless muscles are self-acting at all times, they are
never so, - never capable of acting contrary to mental
 
24 direction. If muscles can cease to act and become rigid
of their own preference, - be deformed or symmetrical, 
as they please or as disease directs, - they must be self-
27 directing. Why then consult anatomy to learn how mor-
tal mind governs muscle, if we are only to learn from
anatomy that muscle is not so governed?
Mind over matter
 
30 Is man a material fungus without Mind
to help him? Is a stiff joint or a contracted
muscle as much a result of law as the supple and 
PAGE 161
 
 
1 elastic condition of the healthy limb, and is God the
lawgiver?
3 You say, "I have burned my finger." This is an
exact statement, more exact than you suppose; for mor-
tal mind, and not matter, burns it. Holy inspiration
6 has created states of mind which have been able to nullify
the action of the flames, as in the Bible case of the three
young Hebrew captives, cast into the Babylonian furnace;
9 while an opposite mental state might produce spontaneous 
combustion.
Restrictive regulations
In 1880, Massachusetts put her foot on a proposed
 
12 tyrannical law, restricting the practice of medicine. If
her sister States follow this example in har-
mony with our Constitution and Bill of Rights,
15 they will do less violence to that immortal sentiment of the
Declaration, "Man is endowed by his Maker with certain
inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the
18 pursuit of happiness."
The oppressive state statutes touching medicine re-
mind one of the words of the famous Madame Roland,
 
21 as she knelt before a statue of Liberty, erected near the
guillotine: "Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy
name!"
Metaphysics challenges physics
 
24 The ordinary practitioner, examining bodily symptoms,
telling the patient that he is sick, and treating the case ac-
cording to his physical diagnosis, would natu-
27 rally induce the very disease he is trying to cure, 
even if it were not already determined by mor-
tal mind. Such unconscious mistakes would not occur, if
30 this old class of philanthropists looked as deeply for cause
and effect into mind as into matter. The physician agrees
with his "adversary quickly," but upon different terms
PAGE 162
 
 
1 than does the metaphysician; for the matter-physician
agrees with the disease, while the metaphysician agrees
3 only with health and challenges disease.
Truth an alterative
Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of
Truth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science
 
6 acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with 
Truth. It changes the secretions, expels hu-
mors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores
9 carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is
to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it
may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind.
Practical success
 
12 Experiments have favored the fact that Mind governs
the body, not in one instance, but in every instance. The
indestructible faculties of Spirit exist without
15 the conditions of matter and also without the 
false beliefs of a so-called material existence. Working
out the rules of Science in practice, the author has re-
18 stored health in cases of both acute and chronic disease in
their severest forms. Secretions have been changed, the
structure has been renewed, shortened limbs have been
21 elongated, ankylosed joints have been made supple, and
carious bones have been restored to healthy conditions. I
have restored what is called the lost substance of lungs, and
24 healthy organizations have been established where disease
was organic. Christian Science heals organic disease as
surely as it heals what is called functional, for it requires
27 only a fuller understanding of the divine Principle of
Christian Science to demonstrate the higher rule. 
Testimony of medical teachers
With due respect for the faculty, I kindly
 
30 quote from Dr. Benjamin Rush, the famous
Philadelphia teacher of medical practice. He
declared that "it is impossible to calculate the mischief
PAGE 163
 
 
1 which Hippocrates has done, by first marking Nature
with his name, and afterward letting her loose upon sick
3 people."
Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, Professor in Harvard Uni-
versity, declared himself "sick of learned quackery." 
6 Dr. James Johnson, Surgeon to William IV, King Of
England, said:
 
"I declare my conscientious opinion, founded on long
 
9 observation and reflection, that if there were not a single
physician, surgeon, apothecary, man-midwife, chemist, 
druggist, or drug on the face of the earth, there would be
12 less sickness and less mortality."
Dr. Mason Good, a learned Professor in London,
said :
15 "The effects of medicine on the human system are in
the highest degree uncertain; except, indeed, that it has
already destroyed more lives than war, pestilence, and
18 famine, all combined."
Dr. Chapman, Professor of the Institutes and Practice
of Physic in the University of Pennsylvania, in a published
 
21 essay said
"Consulting the records of our science, we cannot
help being disgusted with the multitude of hypotheses
 
24 obtruded upon us at different times. Nowhere is the
imagination displayed to a greater extent; and perhaps 
so ample an exhibition of human invention might gratify
27 our vanity, if it were not more than compensated by the
humiliating view of so much absurdity, contradiction, 
and falsehood. To harmonize the contrarieties of med-
30 ical doctrines is indeed a task as impractible as to
arrange the fleeting vapors around us, or to reconcile the
fixed and repulsive antipathies of nature. Dark and
PAGE 164
 
 
1 perplexed, our devious career resembles the groping of
Homer's Cyclops around his cave."
3 Sir John Forbes, M.D., F.R.S., Fellow of the Royal
College of Physicians, London, said:
"No systematic or theoretical classification of diseases
 
6 or of therapeutic agents, ever yet promulgated, is true, or
anything like the truth, and none can be adopted as a safe
guidance in practice."
9 It is just to say that generally the cultured class of medi- 
cal practitioners are grand men and women, therefore 
they are more scientific than are false claimants to Chris-
12 tian Science. But all human systems based on material
premises are minus the unction of divine Science. Much
yet remains to be said and done before all mankind is
15 saved and all the mental microbes of sin and all diseased
thought-germs are exterminated.
If you or I should appear to die, we should not be
 
18 dead. The seeming decease, caused by a majority of
human beliefs that man must die, or produced by mental
assassins, does not in the least disprove Christian Science;
21 rather does it evidence the truth of its basic proposition
that mortal thoughts in belief rule the materiality mis-
called life in the body or in matter. But the forever fact
24 remains paramount that Life, Truth, and Love save from
sin, disease, and death. "When this corruptible shall have
put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
27 immortality [divine Science], then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in
victory" (St. Paul).
 
PAGE 70
 
And when they shall say unto you,
Seek unto them that have familiar spirits,
And unto wizards that peep and that mutter;
Should not a people seek unto their God? - ISAIAH.
 
Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never
see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a
devil. - JOHN.
 
The infinite one Spirit
 
1
MORTAL existence is an enigma. Every day is a 
mystery. The testimony of the corporeal senses
3
cannot inform us what is real and what is delusive, but 
the revelations of Christian Science unlock the treasures 
of Truth. Whatever is false or sinful can
6
never enter the atmosphere of Spirit. There 
is but one Spirit. Man is never God, but spiritual man,
made in God's likeness, reflects God. In this scientific
9
reflection the Ego and the Father are inseparable. The 
supposition that corporeal beings are spirits, or that there
are good and evil spirits, is a mistake.
Real and unreal identity
 
12
The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade 
of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal. The 
questions are: What are God's identities?
15
What is Soul? Does life or soul exist in the thing 
formed?
PAGE 71
 
 
1
Nothing is real and eternal, - nothing is Spirit, - but 
God and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither
3
person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion 
of material sense.
The identity, or idea, of all reality continues forever;
 
6
but Spirit, or the divine Principle of all, is not in Spirit's 
formations. Soul is synonymous with Spirit, God, the 
creative, governing, infinite Principle outside of finite form,
9
which forms only reflect. 
Dream-lessons
Close your eyes, and you may dream that you see a
flower, - that you touch and smell it. Thus you learn
12
that the flower is a product of the so-called 
mind, a formation of thought rather than of 
matter. Close your eyes again, and you may see land-
15
scapes, men, and women. Thus you learn that these 
also are images, which mortal mind holds and evolves 
and which simulate mind, life, and intelligence. From
18
dreams also you learn that neither mortal mind nor 
matter is the image or likeness of God, and that im-
mortal Mind is not in matter.
Found wanting
 
21
When the Science of Mind is understood, spiritualism 
will be found mainly erroneous, having no scientific basis
nor origin, no proof nor power outside of
24
human testimony. It is the offspring of the 
physical senses. There is no sensuality in Spirit. I never
could believe in spiritualism.
27
The basis and structure of spiritualism are alike ma- 
terial and physical. Its spirits are so many corporealities, 
limited and finite in character and quality. Spiritualism
30
therefore presupposes Spirit, which is ever infinite, to be 
a corporeal being, a finite form, - a theory contrary to
Christian Science.
PAGE 72 
 
 
1
There is but one spiritual existence, - the Life of 
which corporeal sense can take no cognizance. The
3
divine Principle of man speaks through immortal sense. 
If a material body - in other words, mortal, material 
sense - were permeated by Spirit, that body would
6
disappear to mortal sense, would be deathless. A con- 
dition precedent to communion with Spirit is the gain of
spiritual life.
Spirits obsolete
9
So-called spirits are but corporeal communicators. As 
light destroys darkness and in the place of darkness all
is light, so (in absolute Science) Soul, or God,
12
is the only truth-giver to man. Truth de- 
stroys mortality, and brings to light immortality. Mortal
belief (the material sense of life) and immortal Truth
15
(the spiritual sense) are the tares and the wheat, which 
are not united by progress, but separated.
Perfection is not expressed through imperfection.
 
18
Spirit is not made manifest through matter, the anti- 
pode of Spirit. Error is not a convenient sieve through 
which truth can be strained.
Scientific phenomena
21
God, good, being ever present, it follows in divine 
logic that evil, the suppositional opposite of good, is never
present. In Science, individual good derived
24
from God, the infinite All-in-all, may flow 
from the departed to mortals; but evil is neither com-
municable nor scientific. A sinning, earthly mortal is
27
not the reality of Life nor the medium through which 
truth passes to earth. The joy of intercourse becomes 
the jest of sin, when evil and suffering are communicable.
30
Not personal intercommunion but divine law is the com- 
municator of truth, health, and harmony to earth and
humanity. As readily can you mingle fire and frost as
PAGE 73
 
 
1
Spirit and matter. In either case, one does not support 
the other.
3
Spiritualism calls one person, living in this world, ma- 
terial, but another, who has died to-day a sinner and sup-
posedly will return to earth to-morrow, it terms a spirit.
6
The fact is that neither the one nor the other is infinite 
Spirit, for Spirit is God, and man is His likeness. 
One government
The belief that one man, as spirit, can control an-
 
9
other man, as matter, upsets both the individuality and 
the Science of man, for man is image. God 
controls man, and God is the only Spirit. Any
12
other control or attraction of so-called spirit is a mortal 
belief, which ought to be known by its fruit, - the repe-
tition of evil.
15
If Spirit, or God, communed with mortals or controlled 
them through electricity or any other form of matter, the
divine order and the Science of omnipotent, omnipresent
18
Spirit would be destroyed. 
Incorrect theories 
The belief that material bodies return to dust, hereafter
to rise up as spiritual bodies with material sensations and
 
21
desires, is incorrect. Equally incorrect is the 
belief that spirit is confined in a finite, ma- 
terial body, from which it is freed by death, and that, when
24
it is freed from the material body, spirit retains the sensa- 
tions belonging to that body.
No me-diumship
It is a grave mistake to suppose that matter is any part
 
27
of the reality of intelligent existence, or that Spirit and 
matter, intelligence and non-intelligence, can 
commune together. This error Science will
30
destroy. The sensual cannot be made the mouthpiece of 
the spiritual, nor can the finite become the channel of
the infinite. There is no communication between so- 
PAGE 74 
 
 
1
called material existence and spiritual life which is not 
subject to death.
Opposing conditions
 
3
To be on communicable terms with Spirit, persons must 
be free from organic bodies; and their return to a mate-
rial condition, after having once left it, would
6
be as impossible as would be the restoration 
to its original condition of the acorn, already absorbed 
into a sprout which has risen above the soil. The seed
9
which has germinated has a new form and state of exist- 
ence. When here or hereafter the belief of life in matter
is extinct, the error which has held the belief dissolves
12
with the belief, and never returns to the old condition. 
No correspondence nor communion can exist between 
persons in such opposite dreams as the belief of having
15
died and left a material body and the belief of still living 
in an organic, material body.
Bridgeless division
The caterpillar, transformed into a beautiful insect,
 
18
is no longer a worm, nor does the insect return to 
fraternize with or control the worm. Such
a backward transformation is impossible in
21
Science. Darkness and light, infancy and manhood, 
sickness and health, are opposites, - different beliefs, 
which never blend. Who will say that infancy can utter
24
the ideas of manhood, that darkness can represent light, 
that we are in Europe when we are in the opposite hemi-
sphere? There is no bridge across the gulf which divides
27
two such opposite conditions as the spiritual, or incor- 
poreal, and the physical, or corporeal.
In Christian Science there is never a retrograde step,
 
30
never a return to positions outgrown. The so-called dead 
and living cannot commune together, for they are in
separate states of existence, or consciousness.
PAGE 75
 
 
Unscientific investiture
 
1
This simple truth lays bare the mistaken assumption 
that man dies as matter but comes to life as spirit. The
3
so-called dead, in order to reappear to those 
still in the existence cognized by the physical
senses, would need to be tangible and material, - to have
6
a material investiture, - or the material senses could take 
no cognizance of the so-called dead.
Spiritualism would transfer men from the spiritual sense
 
9
of existence back into its material sense. This gross mate- 
rialism is scientifically impossible, since to infinite Spirit
there can be no matter.
Raising the dead
 
12
Jesus said of Lazarus: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; 
but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." Jesus
restored Lazarus by the understanding that
15
Lazarus had never died, not by an admis- 
sion that his body had died and then lived again. Had
Jesus believed that Lazarus had lived or died in his
18
body, the Master would have stood on the same plane of 
belief as those who buried the body, and he could not have
resuscitated it.
21
When you can waken yourself or others out of the belief 
that all must die, you can then exercise Jesus' spiritual 
power to reproduce the presence of those who have thought
24
they died, - but not otherwise. 
 
Vision of the dying 
There is one possible moment, when those living on the
earth and those called dead, can commune together, and
27
that is the moment previous to the transition, 
- the moment when the link between their op- 
posite beliefs is being sundered. In the vestibule through
30
which we pass from one dream to another dream, or 
when we awake from earth's sleep to the grand verities 
of Life, the departing may hear the glad welcome of those
PAGE 76 
 
 
1
who have gone before. The ones departing may whisper 
this vision, name the face that smiles on them and the
3
hand which beckons them, as one at Niagara, with eyes 
open only to that wonder, forgets all else and breathes 
aloud his rapture.
Real Life is God
 
6
When being is understood, Life will be recognized as 
neither material nor finite, but as infinite, - as God,
universal good; and the belief that life, or
9
mind, was ever in a finite form, or good in 
evil, will be destroyed. Then it will be understood that
Spirit never entered matter and was therefore never
12
raised from matter. When advanced to spiritual being 
and the understanding of God, man can no longer com- 
mune with matter; neither can he return to it, any more
15
than a tree can return to its seed. Neither will man seem 
to be corporeal, but he will be an individual conscious- 
ness, characterized by the divine Spirit as idea, not matter.
18
Suffering, sinning, dying beliefs are unreal. When 
divine Science is universally understood, they will have
no power over man, for man is immortal and lives by
21
divine authority. 
Immaterial pleasure
The sinless joy, - the perfect harmony and immortality 
of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness
 
24
without a single bodily pleasure or pain, - 
constitutes the only veritable, indestructible
man, whose being is spiritual. This state of existence
27
is scientific and intact, - a perfection discernible only 
by those who have the final understanding of Christ in
divine Science. Death can never hasten this state of
30
existence, for death must be overcome, not submitted to, 
before immortality appears.
The recognition of Spirit and of infinity comes not
PAGE 77
 
 
1
suddenly here or hereafter. The pious Polycarp said: 
"I cannot turn at once from good to evil." Neither do
3
other mortals accomplish the change from error to truth 
at a single bound.
Second death
Existence continues to be a belief of corporeal sense
 
6
until the Science of being is reached. Error brings its 
own self-destruction both here and hereafter, 
for mortal mind creates its own physical con-
9
ditions. Death will occur on the next plane of existence 
as on this, until the spiritual understanding of Life is
reached. Then, and not until then, will it be demon-
12
strated that "the second death hath no power." 
 
A dream vanishing
The period required for this dream of material life,
embracing its so-called pleasures and pains, to vanish
15
from consciousness, "knoweth no man . . . 
neither the Son, but the Father." This period 
will be of longer or shorter duration according to the
18
tenacity of error. Of what advantage, then, would it be 
to us, or to the departed, to prolong the material state and
so prolong the illusion either of a soul inert or of a sinning,
21
suffering sense, - a so-called mind fettered to matter. 
Progress and purgatory 
Even if communications from spirits to mortal con-
sciousness were possible, such communications would
 
24
grow beautifully less with every advanced stage 
of existence. The departed would gradually 
rise above ignorance and materiality, and Spiritualists
27
would outgrow their beliefs in material spiritualism. 
Spiritism consigns the so-called dead to a state resembling
that of blighted buds, - to a wretched purgatory, where
30
the chances of the departed for improvement narrow 
into nothing and they return to their old standpoints of
matter.
PAGE 78 
 
 
Unnatural deflections
 
1
The decaying flower, the blighted bud, the gnarled oak, 
the ferocious beast, - like the discords of disease, sin,
3
and death, - are unnatural. They are the fal- 
sities of sense, the changing deflections of mor- 
tal mind; they are not the eternal realities of Mind.
Absurd oracles
 
6
How unreasonable is the belief that we are wearing 
out life and hastening to death, and that at the same 
time we are communing with immortality!
9
If the departed are in rapport with mor- 
tality, or matter, they are not spiritual, but must still
be mortal, sinning, suffering, and dying. Then why
12
look to them - even were communication possible - for 
proofs of immortality, and accept them as oracles? Com-
munications gathered from ignorance are pernicious in
15
tendency. 
Spiritualism with its material accompaniments would
destroy the supremacy of Spirit. If Spirit pervades all
 
18
space, it needs no material method for the transmission 
of messages. Spirit needs no wires nor electricity in order
to be omnipresent.
Spirit intangible
 
21
Spirit is not materially tangible. How then can it 
communicate with man through electric, material effects? 
How can the majesty and omnipotence of
24
Spirit be lost? God is not in the medley 
where matter cares for matter, where spiritism makes 
many gods, and hypnotism and electricity are claimed
27
to be the agents of God's government. 
Spirit blesses man, but man cannot "tell whence
it cometh." By it the sick are healed, the sorrowing are
 
30
comforted, and the sinning are reformed. These are the 
effects of one universal God, the invisible good dwelling
in eternal Science.
PAGE 79
 
 
Thought regarding death
 
1
The act of describing disease - its symptoms, locality, 
and fatality - is not scientific. Warning people against
3
death is an error that tends to frighten into 
death those who are ignorant of Life as God. 
Thousands of instances could be cited of health restored
6
by changing the patient's thoughts regarding death. 
Fallacious hypotheses
A scientific mental method is more sanitary than the
use of drugs, and such a mental method produces perma-
 
9
nent health. Science must go over the whole 
ground, and dig up every seed of error's sow- 
ing. Spiritualism relies upon human beliefs and hy-
12
potheses. Christian Science removes these beliefs and 
hypotheses through the higher understanding of God, for
Christian Science, resting on divine Principle, not on ma-
15
terial personalities, in its revelation of immortality, intro- 
duces the harmony of being.
Jesus cast out evil spirits, or false beliefs. The Apostle
 
18
Paul bade men have the Mind that was in the Christ. 
Jesus did his own work by the one Spirit. He said: "My
Father worketh hitherto, and I work." He never de-
21
scribed disease, so far as can be learned from the Gospels, 
but he healed disease.
Mistaken methods
The unscientific practitioner says: "You are ill. Your
 
24
brain is overtaxed, and you must rest. Your body is 
weak, and it must be strengthened. You have
nervous prostration, and must be treated for it."
27
Science objects to all this, contending for the rights of in- 
telligence and asserting that Mind controls body and brain.
Divine strength
Mind-science teaches that mortals need "not be weary
 
30
in well doing." It dissipates fatigue in doing 
good. Giving does not impoverish us in the 
service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us.
PAGE 80 
 
 
1
We have strength in proportion to our apprehension of 
the truth, and our strength is not lessened by giving
3
utterance to truth. A cup of coffee or tea is not the equal 
of truth, whether for the inspiration of a sermon or for
the support of bodily endurance.
A denial of immortality
 
6
A communication purporting to come from the late 
Theodore Parker reads as follows: "There never was,
and there never will be, an immortal spirit."
9
Yet the very periodical containing this sen- 
tence repeats weekly the assertion that spirit-communica- 
tions are our only proofs of immortality.
Mysticism unscientific
 
12
I entertain no doubt of the humanity and philanthropy 
of many Spiritualists, but I cannot coincide with their
views. It is mysticism which gives spiritual-
15
ism its force. Science dispels mystery and 
explains extraordinary phenomena; but Science never 
removes phenomena from the domain of reason into the
18
realm of mysticism. 
Physical falsities
It should not seem mysterious that mind, without the
aid of hands, can move a table, when we already know
 
21
that it is mind-power which moves both table 
and hand. Even planchette - the French toy
which years ago pleased so many people - attested the con-
24
trol of mortal mind over its substratum, called matter. 
It is mortal mind which convulses its substratum, matter.
These movements arise from the volition of human belief,
 
27
but they are neither scientific nor rational. Mortal mind 
produces table-tipping as certainly as table-setting, and
believes that this wonder emanates from spirits and elec-
30
tricity. This belief rests on the common conviction that 
mind and matter cooperate both visibly and invisibly, 
hence that matter is intelligent.
PAGE 81
 
 
Poor post-mortem evidence
 
1
There is not so much evidence to prove intercommuni- 
cation between the so-called dead and the living, as there
3
is to show the sick that matter suffers and has 
sensation; yet this latter evidence is destroyed by 
the Mind-science. If Spiritualists understood the
6
Science of being, their belief in mediumship would vanish. 
No proof of immortality
At the very best and on its own theories, spiritualism 
can only prove that certain individuals have a continued
 
9
existence after death and maintain their affili- 
ation with mortal flesh; but this fact affords
no certainty of everlasting life. A man's assertion that
12
he is immortal no more proves him to be so, than the op- 
posite assertion, that he is mortal, would prove immor-
tality a lie. Nor is the case improved when alleged spirits
15
teach immortality. Life, Love, Truth, is the only proof 
of immortality.
Mind's manifestations immortal
Man in the likeness of God as revealed in Science can-
 
18
not help being immortal. Though the grass seemeth to 
wither and the flower to fade, they reappear.
Erase the figures which express number, silence
21
the tones of music, give to the worms the body 
called man, and yet the producing, governing, divine 
Principle lives on, - in the case of man as truly as in
24
the case of numbers and of music, - despite the so-called 
laws of matter, which define man as mortal. Though 
the inharmony resulting from material sense hides the
27
harmony of Science, inharmony cannot destroy the divine 
Principle of Science. In Science, man's immortality de-
pends upon that of God, good, and follows as a necessary
30
consequence of the immortality of good. 
Reading thoughts 
That somebody, somewhere, must have known the 
deceased person, supposed to be the communicator, is
PAGE 82 
 
 
1
evident, and it is as easy to read distant thoughts as near. 
We think of an absent friend as easily as we do of one
3
present. It is no more difficult to read the 
absent mind than it is to read the present.
Chaucer wrote centuries ago, yet we still read his thought
6
in his verse. What is classic study, but discernment of 
the minds of Homer and Virgil, of whose personal exist- 
ence we may be in doubt?
Impossible intercommunion
 
9
If spiritual life has been won by the departed, they 
cannot return to material existence, because different 
states of consciousness are involved, and one
12
person cannot exist in two different states of 
consciousness at the same time. In sleep we
do not communicate with the dreamer by our side despite
15
his physical proximity, because both of us are either un- 
conscious or are wandering in our dreams through differ-
ent mazes of consciousness.
18
In like manner it would follow, even if our departed 
friends were near us and were in as conscious a state of
existence as before the change we call death, that their
21
state of consciousness must be different from ours. We 
are not in their state, nor are they in the mental realm
in which we dwell. Communion between them and
24
ourselves would be prevented by this difference. The 
mental states are so unlike, that intercommunion is as
impossible as it would be between a mole and a human
27
being. Different dreams and different awakenings be- 
token a differing consciousness. When wandering in 
Australia, do we look for help to the Esquimaux in their
30
snow huts? 
In a world of sin and sensuality hastening to a
greater development of power, it is wise earnestly to
PAGE 83
 
 
1
consider whether it is the human mind or the divine 
Mind which is influencing one. What the prophets of
3
Jehovah did, the worshippers of Baal failed to do; yet 
artifice and delusion claimed that they could equal the
work of wisdom.
6
Science only can explain the incredible good and evil 
elements now coming to the surface. Mortals must find 
refuge in Truth in order to escape the error of these latter
9
days. Nothing is more antagonistic to Christian Science 
than a blind belief without understanding, for such a
belief hides Truth and builds on error.
Natural wonders
 
12
Miracles are impossible in Science, and here Science 
takes issue with popular religions. The scientific mani-
festation of power is from the divine nature
15
and is not supernatural, since Science is an 
explication of nature. The belief that the universe, in-
cluding man, is governed in general by material laws, but
18
that occasionally Spirit sets aside these laws, - this be- 
lief belittles omnipotent wisdom, and gives to matter the
precedence over Spirit.
Conflicting standpoints
 
21
It is contrary to Christian Science to suppose that life 
is either material or organically spiritual. Between 
Christian Science and all forms of superstition
24
a great gulf is fixed, as impassable as that be- 
tween Dives and Lazarus. There is mortal mind-reading 
and immortal Mind-reading. The latter is a revelation
27
of divine purpose through spiritual understanding, by 
which man gains the divine Principle and explanation of
all things. Mortal mind-reading and immortal Mind-
30
reading are distinctly opposite standpoints, from which 
cause and effect are interpreted. The act of reading 
mortal mind investigates and touches only human beliefs. 
PAGE 84 
 
 
1
Science is immortal and coordinate neither with the 
premises nor with the conclusions of mortal beliefs. 
Scientific foreseeing
 
3
The ancient prophets gained their foresight from a 
spiritual, incorporeal standpoint, not by foreshadowing 
evil and mistaking fact for fiction, - predict-
6
ing the future from a groundwork of corpo- 
reality and human belief. When sufficiently advanced 
in Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men
9
become seers and prophets involuntarily, controlled not 
by demons, spirits, or demigods, but by the one Spirit. 
It is the prerogative of the ever-present, divine Mind, and
12
of thought which is in rapport with this Mind, to know 
the past, the present, and the future.
Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to
 
15
commune more largely with the divine Mind, to foresee 
and foretell events which concern the universal welfare, 
to be divinely inspired, - yea, to reach the range of fetter-
18
less Mind. 
The Mind unbounded
To understand that Mind is infinite, not bounded by
corporeality, not dependent upon the ear and eye for
 
21
sound or sight nor upon muscles and bones 
for locomotion, is a step towards the Mind-
science by which we discern man's nature and existence.
24
This true conception of being destroys the belief of spirit- 
ualism at its very inception, for without the concession of
material personalities called spirits, spiritualism has no
27
basis upon which to build. 
Scientific foreknowing
All we correctly know of Spirit comes from God, divine
Principle, and is learned through Christ and Christian
 
30
Science. If this Science has been thoroughly 
learned and properly digested, we can know
the truth more accurately than the astronomer can read
PAGE 85
 
 
1
the stars or calculate an eclipse. This Mind-reading 
is the opposite of clairvoyance. It is the illumination of
3
the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the ca- 
pacity of Soul, not of material sense. This Soul-sense 
comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the
6
divine Mind. 
Value of intuition
Such intuitions reveal whatever constitutes and per-
petuates harmony, enabling one to do good, but not
 
9
evil. You will reach the perfect Science of 
healing when you are able to read the human 
mind after this manner and discern the error you would
12
destroy. The Samaritan woman said: "Come, see a 
man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this
the Christ?"
15
It is recorded that Jesus, as he once journeyed with his 
students, "knew their thoughts," - read them scientifi-
cally. In like manner he discerned disease and healed
18
the sick. After the same method, events of great mo- 
ment were foretold by the Hebrew prophets. Our
Master rebuked the lack of this power when he said:
21
"O ye hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky; 
but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" 
Hyprocrisy condemned
Both Jew and Gentile may have had acute corporeal
 
24
senses, but mortals need spiritual sense. Jesus knew the 
generation to be wicked and adulterous, seek-
ing the material more than the spiritual. His
27
thrusts at materialism were sharp, but needed. He never 
spared hypocrisy the sternest condemnation.. He said :
"These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other
30
undone." The great Teacher knew both cause and 
effect, knew that truth communicates itself but never 
imparts error.
PAGE 86 
 
 
Mental contact
 
1
Jesus once asked, "Who touched me?" Supposing 
this inquiry to be occasioned by physical contact alone,
3
his disciples answered, "The multitude throng 
thee." Jesus knew, as others did not, that
it was not matter, but mortal mind, whose touch called
6
for aid. Repeating his inquiry, he was answered by the 
faith of a sick woman. His quick apprehension of this 
mental call illustrated his spirituality. The disciples'
9
misconception of it uncovered their materiality. Jesus 
possessed more spiritual susceptibility than the disciples.
Opposites come from contrary directions, and produce
12
unlike results. 
Images of thought
Mortals evolve images of thought. These may appear 
to the ignorant to be apparitions; but they are myste-
 
15
rious only because it is unusual to see 
thoughts, though we can always feel their
influence. Haunted houses, ghostly voices, unusual
18
noises, and apparitions brought out in dark seances 
either involve feats by tricksters, or they are images and
sounds evolved involuntarily by mortal mind. Seeing
21
is no less a quality of physical sense than feeling. Then 
why is it more difficult to see a thought than to feel one?
Education alone determines the difference. In reality
24
there is none. 
Phenomena explained
Portraits, landscape-paintings, fac-similes of penman-
ship, peculiarities of expression, recollected sentences,
 
27
can all be taken from pictorial thought and 
memory as readily as from objects cognizable
by the senses. Mortal mind sees what it believes as
30
certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and 
sees its own thoughts. Pictures are mentally formed 
before the artist can convey them to canvas. So is it
PAGE 87
 
 
1
with all material conceptions. Mind-readers perceive 
these pictures of thought. They copy or reproduce
3
them, even when they are lost to the memory of the mind 
in which they are discoverable.
Mental environment
It is needless for the thought or for the person hold-
 
6
ing the transferred picture to be individually and con- 
sciously present. Though individuals have
passed away, their mental environment re-
9
mains to be discerned, described, and transmitted. Though 
bodies are leagues apart and their associations forgotten, 
their associations float in the general atmosphere of human
12
mind. 
Second sight 
The Scotch call such vision "second sight", when
really it is first sight instead of second, for it presents
 
15
primal facts to mortal mind. Science enables 
one to read the human mind, but not as a 
clairvoyant. It enables one to heal through Mind, but
18
not as a mesmerist. 
Buried secrets 
The mine knows naught of the emeralds within its
rocks; the sea is ignorant of the gems within its caverns,
 
21
of the corals, of its sharp reefs, of the tall ships 
that float on its bosom, or of the bodies which 
lie buried in its sands: yet these are all there. Do not
24
suppose that any mental concept is gone because you do 
not think of it. The true concept is never lost. The
strong impressions produced on mortal mind by friend-
27
ship or by any intense feeling are lasting, and mind- 
readers can perceive and reproduce these impressions. 
Recollected friends
Memory may reproduce voices long ago silent. We
 
30
have but to close the eyes, and forms rise 
before us, which are thousands of miles away 
or altogether gone from physical sight and sense, and
PAGE 88 
 
 
1
this not in dreamy sleep. In our day-dreams we can 
recall that for which the poet Tennyson expressed the
3
heart's desire, - 
the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still.
6
The mind may even be cognizant of a present flavor and 
odor, when no viand touches the palate and no scent 
salutes the nostrils.
Illusions not ideas
 
9
How are veritable ideas to be distinguished from il- 
lusions? By learning the origin of each. Ideas are 
emanations from the divine Mind. Thoughts,
12
proceeding from the brain or from matter, are 
offshoots of mortal mind; they are mortal material be-
liefs. Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. Beliefs
15
proceed from the so-called material senses, which at one 
time are supposed to be substance-matter and at another 
are called spirits.
18
To love one's neighbor as one's self, is a divine idea; 
but this idea can never be seen, felt, nor understood 
through the physical senses. Excite the organ of ven-
21
eration or religious faith, and the individual manifests 
profound adoration. Excite the opposite development, 
and he blasphemes. These effects, however, do not pro-
24
ceed from Christianity, nor are they spiritual phenomena, 
for both arise from mortal belief.
Trance speaking illusion
Eloquence re-echoes the strains of Truth and Love.
 
27
It is due to inspiration rather than to erudition. It shows 
the possibilities derived from divine Mind,
though it is said to be a gift whose endowment
30
is obtained from books or received from the 
impulsion of departed spirits. When eloquence proceeds 
from the belief that a departed spirit is speaking, who
PAGE 89
 
 
1
can tell what the unaided medium is incapable of know- 
ing or uttering? This phenomenon only shows that the
3
beliefs of mortal mind are loosed. Forgetting her igno- 
rance in the belief that another mind is speaking through
her, the devotee may become unwontedly eloquent. Hav-
6
ing more faith in others than in herself, and believing 
that somebody else possesses her tongue and mind, she
talks freely.
9
Destroy her belief in outside aid, and her eloquence 
disappears. The former limits of her belief return. She
says, " I am incapable of words that glow, for I am un-
12
educated." This familiar instance reaffirms the Scrip- 
tural word concerning a man, "As he thinketh in his heart,
so is he." If one believes that he cannot be an orator with-
15
out study or a superinduced condition, the body responds 
to this belief, and the tongue grows mute which before 
was eloquent.
Scientific improvisation
 
18
Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational 
processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry,
and the power of expressing them. Spirit,
21
God, is heard when the senses are silent. We 
are all capable of more than we do. The influence or
action of Soul confers a freedom, which explains the phe-
24
nomena of improvisation and the fervor of untutored lips. 
Divine origination 
Matter is neither intelligent nor creative. The tree is
not the author of itself. Sound is not the originator of
 
27
music, and man is not the father of man. Cain 
very naturally concluded that if life was in the 
body, and man gave it, man had the right to take it away.
30
This incident shows that the belief of life in matter was 
"a murderer from the beginning."
If seed is necessary to produce wheat, and wheat to
PAGE 90
 
 
1
produce flour, or if one animal can originate another, 
how then can we account for their primal origin? How
3
were the loaves and fishes multiplied on the shores of 
Galilee, - and that, too, without meal or monad from 
which loaf or fish could come?
Mind is substance
 
6
The earth's orbit and the imaginary line called the 
equator are not substance. The earth's motion and 
position are sustained by Mind alone. Divest
9
yourself of the thought that there can be sub- 
stance in matter, and the movements and transitions now
possible for mortal mind will be found to be equally
12
possible for the body. Then being will be recognized 
as spiritual, and death will be obsolete, though now
some insist that death is the necessary prelude to
15
immortality. 
Mortal delusions
In dreams we fly to Europe and meet a far-off friend.
The looker-on sees the body in bed, but the supposed
 
18
inhabitant of that body carries it through 
the air and over the ocean. This shows the
possibilities of thought. Opium and hashish eaters men-
21
tally travel far and work wonders, yet their bodies stay 
in one place. This shows what mortal mentality and 
knowledge are.
Scientific finalities
 
24
The admission to one's self that man is God's own like- 
ness sets man free to master the infinite idea. This con-
viction shuts the door on death, and opens it
27
wide towards immortality. The understanding 
and recognition of Spirit must finally come, and we may
as well improve our time in solving the mysteries of being
30
through an apprehension of divine Principle. At present 
we know not what man is, but we certainly shall know 
this when man reflects God.
PAGE 91
 
 
1
The Revelator tells us of "a new heaven and a 
new earth." Have you ever pictured this heaven and
3
earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme 
wisdom?
Let us rid ourselves of the belief that man is separated
 
6
from God, and obey only the divine principle, Life and 
Love. Here is the great point of departure for all true
spiritual growth.
Man's genuine being
 
9
It is difficult for the sinner to accept divine Science, 
because Science exposes his nothingness; but the sooner
error is reduced to its native nothingness, the
12
sooner man's great reality will appear and his 
genuine being will be understood. The destruction of
error is by no means the destruction of Truth or Life, but
15
is the acknowledgment of them. 
 
Absorbed in material selfhood we discern and reflect 
but faintly the substance of Life or Mind. The denial of
18
material selfhood aids the discernment of man's spirit- 
ual and eternal individuality, and destroys the erroneous 
knowledge gained from matter or through what are termed
21
the material senses. 
Erroneous postulates 
Certain erroneous postulates should be here considered 
in order that the spiritual facts may be better
 
24
apprehended. 
 
The first erroneous postulate of belief is, that substance,
life, and intelligence are something apart from God. 
27
The second erroneous postulate is, that man is both 
mental and material.
The third erroneous postulate is, that mind is both evil
 
30
and good; whereas the real Mind cannot be evil nor the 
medium of evil, for Mind is God.
The fourth erroneous postulate is, that matter is in-
PAGE 92 
 
 
1
telligent, and that man has a material body which is part 
of himself.
3
The fifth erroneous postulate is, that matter holds in 
itself the issues of life and death, - that matter is not
only capable of experiencing pleasure and pain, but also
6
capable of imparting these sensations. From the illusion 
implied in this last postulate arises the decomposition of
mortal bodies in what is termed death.
9
Mind is not an entity within the cranium with the power 
of sinning now and forever.
Knowledge of good and evil
In old Scriptural pictures we see a serpent coiled around
 
12
the tree of knowledge and speaking to Adam and Eve. 
This represents the serpent in the act of
commending to our first parents the knowl-
15
edge of good and evil, a knowledge gained from matter, 
or evil, instead of from Spirit. The portrayal is still
graphically accurate, for the common conception of mor-
18
tal man - a burlesque of God's man - is an outgrowth 
of human knowledge or sensuality, a mere offshoot of
material sense.
Opposing power
 
21
Uncover error, and it turns the lie upon you. Until 
the fact concerning error - namely, its nothingness - 
appears, the moral demand will not be met,
24
and the ability to make nothing of error will 
be wanting. We should blush to call that real which is
only a mistake. The foundation of evil is laid on a belief
27
in something besides God. This belief tends to support 
two opposite powers, instead of urging the claims of Truth
alone. The mistake of thinking that error can be real,
30
when it is merely the absence of truth, leads to belief in 
the superiority of error.
The age's privilege
Do you say the time has not yet come in which to
PAGE 93
 
 
1
recognize Soul as substantial and able to control the 
body? Remember Jesus, who nearly nineteen centuries
3
ago demonstrated the power of Spirit and said, 
"He that believeth on me, the works that I 
do shall he do also," and who also said, "But the hour
6
cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall 
worship the Father in spirit and in truth." "Behold, 
now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of sal-
9
vation," said Paul. 
 
Logic and revelation
Divine logic and revelation coincide. If we believe 
otherwise, we may be sure that either our
12
logic is at fault or that we have misinterpreted 
revelation. Good never causes evil, nor creates aught 
that can cause evil.
15
Good does not create a mind susceptible of causing 
evil, for evil is the opposing error and not the truth of
creation. Destructive electricity is not the offspring of in-
18
finite good. Whatever contradicts the real nature of the 
divine Esse, though human faith may clothe it with angelic
vestments, is without foundation.
Derivatives of spirit
 
21
The belief that Spirit is finite as well as infinite has 
darkened all history. In Christian Science, Spirit, as a
proper noun, is the name of the Supreme Being.
24
It means quantity and quality, and applies ex- 
clusively to God. The modifying derivatives of the word
spirit refer only to quality, not to God. Man is spiritual.
27
He is not God, Spirit. If man were Spirit, then men 
would be spirits, gods. Finite spirit would be mortal, 
and this is the error embodied in the belief that the infi-
30
nite can be contained in the finite. This belief tends to 
becloud our apprehension of the kingdom of heaven and
of the reign of harmony in the Science of being. 
PAGE 94
 
 
Scientific man
 
1
Jesus taught but one God, one Spirit, who makes man 
in the image and likeness of Himself, - of Spirit, not of
3
matter. Man reflects infinite Truth, Life, and 
Love. The nature of man, thus understood,
includes all that is implied by the terms "image" and
6
"likeness" as used in Scripture. The truly Christian 
and scientific statement of personality and of the relation
of man to God, with the demonstration which accompa-
9
nied it, incensed the rabbis, and they said: "Crucify him, 
crucify him . . . by our law he ought to die, because he
made himself the Son of God."
12
The eastern empires and nations owe their false gov- 
ernment to the misconceptions of Deity there prevalent. 
Tyranny, intolerance, and bloodshed, wherever found,
15
arise from the belief that the infinite is formed after the 
pattern of mortal personality, passion, and impulse. 
Ingratitude and denial
The progress of truth confirms its claims, and our
 
18
Master confirmed his words by his works. His healing- 
power evoked denial, ingratitude, and be-
trayal, arising from sensuality. Of the ten
21
lepers whom Jesus healed, but one returned to give God 
thanks, - that is, to acknowledge the divine Principle 
which had healed him.
Spiritual insight
 
24
Our Master easily read the thoughts of mankind, and 
this insight better enabled him to direct those thoughts 
aright; but what would be said at this period of an in-
27
fidel blasphemer who should hint that Jesus used his in- 
cisive power injuriously? Our Master read mortal mind
on a scientific basis, that of the omnipresence of Mind.
30
An approximation of this discernment indicates spiritual 
growth and union with the infinite capacities of the one
Mind. Jesus could injure no one by his Mind-reading. 
PAGE 95
 
 
1
The effect of his Mind was always to heal and to save, 
and this is the only genuine Science of reading mortal
3
mind. His holy motives and aims were tra- 
duced by the sinners of that period, as they 
would be to-day if Jesus were personally present. Paul
6
said, "To be spiritually minded is life." We approach 
God, or Life, in proportion to our spirituality, our fidel-
ity to Truth and Love; and in that ratio we know all
9
human need and are able to discern the thought of the 
sick and the sinning for the purpose of healing them. 
Error of any kind cannot hide from the law of God. 
12
Whoever reaches this point of moral culture and good- 
ness cannot injure others, and must do them good. The
greater or lesser ability of a Christian Scientist to discern
15
thought scientifically, depends upon his genuine spirit- 
uality. This kind of mind-reading is not clairvoyance, 
but it is important to success in healing, and is one of the
18
special characteristics thereof. 
Christ's reappearance 
We welcome the increase of knowledge and the end
of error, because even human invention must have its
 
21
day, and we want that day to be succeeded 
by Christian Science, by divine reality. Mid-
night foretells the dawn. Led by a solitary star amid
24
the darkness, the Magi of old foretold the Messiahship 
of Truth. Is the wise man of to-day believed, when he
beholds the light which heralds Christ's eternal dawn
27
and describes its effulgence? 
Spiritual awakening 
Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep
in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours.
 
30
Material sense does not unfold the facts of 
existence; but spiritual sense lifts human 
consciousness into eternal Truth. Humanity advances 
PAGE 96
 
 
1
slowly out of sinning sense into spiritual understanding; 
unwillingness to learn all things rightly, binds Christen-
3
dom with chains. 
The darkest hours of all
Love will finally mark the hour of harmony, and spir-
itualization will follow, for Love is Spirit. Before error
 
6
is wholly destroyed, there will be interrup- 
tions of the general material routine. Earth
will become dreary and desolate, but summer and winter,
9
seedtime and harvest (though in changed forms), will 
continue unto the end, - until the final spiritualization of
all things. "The darkest hour precedes the dawn." 
Arena of contest
 
12
This material world is even now becoming the arena 
for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord
and dismay; on the other side there will be
15
Science and peace. The breaking up of mate- 
rial beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want
and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new
18
phases until their nothingness appears. These disturb- 
ances will continue until the end of error, when all
discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth. 
21
Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. 
This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue
until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is
24
changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless. 
Millennial glory
As this consummation draws nearer, he who has
shaped his course in accordance with divine Science
 
27
will endure to the end. As material knowl- 
edge diminishes and spiritual understanding
increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally
30
instead of materially. 
During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor
to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but 
PAGE 97
 
 
1
those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in 
check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They
3
will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the 
certainty of ultimate perfection.
Dangerous resemblances
In reality, the more closely error simulates truth and
 
6
so-called matter resembles its essence, mortal mind, the 
more impotent error becomes as a belief. Ac-
cording to human belief, the lightning is fierce
9
and the electric current swift, yet in Christian Science 
the flight of one and the blow of the other will become
harmless. The more destructive matter becomes, the
12
more its nothingness will appear, until matter reaches 
its mortal zenith in illusion and forever disappears. The
nearer a false belief approaches truth without passing
15
the boundary where, having been destroyed by divine 
Love, it ceases to be even an illusion, the riper it becomes
for destruction. The more material the belief, the more
18
obvious its error, until divine Spirit, supreme in its do- 
main, dominates all matter, and man is found in the like-
ness of Spirit, his original being.
21
The broadest facts array the most falsities against 
themselves, for they bring error from under cover. It
requires courage to utter truth; for the higher Truth
24
lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its in- 
articulate sound is forever silenced in oblivion. 
"He uttered His voice, the earth melted." This Scrip-
 
27
ture indicates that all matter will disappear before the 
supremacy of Spirit.
Christianity still rejected
Christianity is again demonstrating the Life that is
 
30
Truth, and the Truth that is Life, by the apos- 
tolic work of casting out error and healing the 
sick. Earth has no repayment for the persecutions which
PAGE 98 
 
 
1
attend a new step in Christianity; but the spiritual recom- 
pense of the persecuted is assured in the elevation of ex-
3
istence above mortal discord and in the gift of divine Love. 
Spiritual foreshadowings
The prophet of to-day beholds in the mental horizon 
the signs of these times, the reappearance of the Chris-
 
6
tianity which heals the sick and destroys error, 
and no other sign shall be given. Body can-
not be saved except through Mind. The Science of Chris-
9
tianity is misinterpreted by a material age, for it is the 
healing influence of Spirit (not spirits) which the material
senses cannot comprehend, which can only be spiritu-
12
ally discerned. Creeds, doctrines, and human hypotheses 
do not express Christian Science; much less can they 
demonstrate it.
Revelation of Science
 
15
Beyond the frail premises of human beliefs, above the 
loosening grasp of creeds, the demonstration of Christian 
Mind-healing stands a revealed and practical
18
Science. It is imperious throughout all ages 
as Christ's revelation of Truth, of Life, and of Love, which
remains inviolate for every man to understand and to
21
practise. 
Science as foreign to all religion
For centuries - yea, always - natural science has not
been considered a part of any religion, Christianity not
 
24
excepted. Even now multitudes consider that 
which they call science has no proper con- 
nection with faith and piety. Mystery does
27
not enshroud Christ's teachings, and they are not theo- 
retical and fragmentary, but practical and complete; and
being practical and complete, they are not deprived of
30
their essential vitality.
Key to the kingdom
The way through which immortality and life are learned
is not ecclesiastical but Christian, not human but divine,
PAGE 99
 
 
1
not physical but metaphysical, not material but scien- 
tifically spiritual. Human philosophy, ethics, and super-
3
stition afford no demonstrable divine Principle 
by which mortals can escape from sin; yet 
to escape from sin, is what the Bible demands. "Work
6
out your own salvation with fear and trembling," says 
the apostle, and he straightway adds: "for it is God
which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good
9
pleasure" (Philippians ii. 12, 13). Truth has furnished 
the key to the kingdom, and with this key Christian Sci-
ence has opened the door of the human understanding.
12
None may pick the lock nor enter by some other door. 
The ordinary teachings are material and not spiritual. 
Christian Science teaches only that which is spiritual and
15
divine, and not human. Christian Science is unerring 
and Divine; the human sense of things errs because it
is human.
18
Those individuals, who adopt theosophy, spiritualism, 
or hypnotism, may possess natures above some others 
who eschew their false beliefs. Therefore my contest is
21
not with the individual, but with the false system. I 
love mankind, and shall continue to labor and to endure.
The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the
24
manifestations of which are health, purity, and self- 
immolation, must deepen human experience, until the 
beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposi-
27
tion, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place 
to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to
God's spiritual, perfect man.