Chapter 6 SCIENCE, THEOLOGY, MEDICINE

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

107:1 In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or

divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and

107:3 named my discovery Christian Science. God

had been graciously preparing me during many

years for the reception of this final revelation of the ab-

107:6 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-

107:9 ence, delivering the children of men from

every ill "that flesh is heir to." Through

Christian Science, religion and medicine are

107:12 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

107:15 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

107:18 in the prospect of those days in which we must say, "I

have no pleasure in them."

108:1 Whence came to me this heavenly conviction, - a con-

viction antagonistic to the testimony of the physical senses?

108:3 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

108:6 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

108:9 price of learning love," establish the truism that the

only sufferer is mortal mind, for the divine Mind cannot

suffer.

Demonstrable evidence

108:12 My conclusions were reached by allowing the evidence

of this revelation to multiply with mathematical certainty

and the lesser demonstration to prove the

108:15 greater, as the product of three multiplied by

three, equalling nine, proves conclusively that three times

three duodecillions must be nine duodecillions, - not

108:18 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,

108:21 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-

108:24 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

108:27 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

108:30 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,

109:1 and led up to my demonstration of the proposition that

Mind is All and matter is naught as the leading factor in

109:3 Mind-science.

Scientific evidence

Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that Mind

is All-in-all, that the only realities are the divine Mind

109:6 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

109:9 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-

109:12 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-

109:15 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,

109:18 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

109:21 conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and dem-

onstration. The revelation of Truth in the understand-

ing came to me gradually and apparently through divine

109:24 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

109:27 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,

109:30 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-

110:1 presence, omniscience, - Spirit possessing all power,

filling all space, constituting all Science, - contradict

110:3 forever the belief that matter can be actual.

These eternal verities reveal primeval exist-

ence as the radiant reality of God's creation,

110:6 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

110:9 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

110:12 earth.

Scriptural foundations

In following these leadings of scientific revelation,

the Bible was my only textbook. The Scriptures were

110:15 illumined; reason and revelation were recon-

ciled, and afterwards the truth of Christian

Science was demonstrated. No human pen nor tongue

110:18 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-

110:21 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-

110:24 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

110:27 sight of, and must again be spiritually dis-

cerned, taught, and demonstrated according

to Christ's command, with "signs following."

110:30 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

111:1 agnosticism, pantheism, theosophy, spiritualism, or

millenarianism and the demonstrable truths of Chris-

111:3 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

111:6 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

111:9 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

111:12 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

111:15 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

111:18 represent.

Pertinent proposal

A prize of one hundred pounds, offered in Oxford Uni-

versity, England, for the best essay on Natural Science,

111:21 - 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

111:24 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

111:27 demonstration in healing the sick, this fact became evi-

dent to me, - that Mind governs the body,

not partially but wholly. I submitted my

111:30 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-

112:1 tifically employed, to be the most effective curative agent

in medical practice.

One school of Truth

112:3 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-

112:6 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

112:9 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

112:12 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

112:15 scientifically Christian.

Unchanging Principle

From the infinite One in Christian Science comes one

Principle and its infinite idea, and with this infinitude

112:18 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

112:21 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

112:24 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

112:27 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

112:30 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

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-

113:3 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,

113:6 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

113:9 The fundamental propositions of divine metaphysics

are summarized in the four following, to me, /self-evident/

propositions. Even if reversed, these proposi-

113:12 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

113:15 stand upon which is not purely metaphysical.

1. God is All-in-all.

2. God is good. Good is Mind.

113:18 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-

113:21 tent God, Life.

Which of the denials in proposition four is true? Both

are not, cannot be, true. According to the Scripture,

113:24 I find that God is true, "but every [mortal] man a

liar."

Metaphysical inversions

The divine metaphysics of Christian Science, like the

113:27 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

113:30 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.

Definition of mortal mind

114:1 Usage classes both evil and good together as /mind/;

therefore, to be understood, the author calls sick and sin-

114:3 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

114:6 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

114:9 divine.

In Science, Mind is /one/, including noumenon and phe-

nomena, God and His thoughts.

Imperfect terminology

114:12 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-

114:15 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

114:18 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

114:21 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-

114:24 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

114:27 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-

114:30 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,

115:1 the one great obstacle to the reception of that spiritual-

ity, through which the understanding of Mind-science

115:3 comes, is the inadequacy of material terms for

metaphysical statements, and the consequent

difficulty of so expressing metaphysical ideas as to make

115:6 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

115:9 mouth tasteth meat." The great difficulty is to give the

right impression, when translating material terms back

into the original spiritual tongue.

115:12 SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF IMMORTAL MIND

Divine synonyms

GOD: Divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love,

Soul, Spirit, Mind.

Divine image

115:15 MAN: God's spiritual idea, individual, per- fect, eternal.

Divine reflection

IDEA: An image in Mind; the immediate 115:18 object of understanding. - /Webster/.

SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF MORTAL MIND

/First Degree:/ Depravity.

Unreality

115:21 PHYSICAL. Evil beliefs, passions and appetites, fear,

depraved will, self-justification, pride, envy, de-

ceit, hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, disease,

115:24 death.

/Second Degree:/ Evil beliefs disappearing.

Transitional qualities

MORAL. Humanity, honesty, affection, com-

passion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance.

116:1 /Third Degree:/ Understanding.

Reality

SPIRITUAL. Wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding, 116:3 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

116:6 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

116:9 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-

116:12 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

116:15 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

116:18 that God is all, therefore that matter is nothing beyond an

image in mortal mind.

Divine personality

Christian Science strongly emphasizes the thought that

116:21 God is not /corporeal/, but /incorporeal/, - that is,

bodiless. Mortals are corporeal, but God is

incorporeal.

116:24 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

116:27 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

116:30 not in the lower sense. An infinite Mind in a finite form

is an absolute impossibility.

117:1 The term /individuality/ is also open to objections, be-

cause an individual may be one of a series, one of many,

117:3 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

117:6 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

117:9 Being or His manifestation; mortals alone do

this. God's essential language is spoken of in the last