Rudimental Divine Science

Rudimental Divine Science

DEFINITION OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PRINCIPLE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PERSONALITY OF GOD HEALING SICKNESS AND SIN INDIVIDUALITY OF GOD MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL SCIENCE NON-EXISTENCE OF MATTER MATERIALITY INTANGIBLE BASIS OF MIND-HEALING MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL MAN DEMONSTRATION IN HEALING MEANS AND METHODS ONLY ONE SCHOOL How would you define Christian Science? 1AS the law of God, the law of good, interpreting anddemonstrating the divine Principle and rule of 3universal harmony.What is the Principle of Christian Science?It is God, the Supreme Being, infinite and immortal 6Mind, the Soul of man and the universe. It is our Fatherwhich is in heaven. It is substance, Spirit, Life, Truth,and Love, -- these are the deific Principle. 9Do you mean by this that God is a person?The word person affords a large margin for misappre-hension, as well as definition. In French the equivalent 12word is personne. In Spanish, Italian, and Latin, it ispersona. The Latin verb personare is compounded ofthe prefix per (through) and sonare (to sound). 15In law, Blackstone applies the word personal to bodilypresence, in distinction from one's appearance (in court,for example) by deputy or proxy. 18Other definitions of person, as give by Webster, are 1"a living soul; a self-conscious being; a moral agent;especially, a living human being, a corporeal man, woman, 3or child; an individual of the human race." He adds,that among Trinitarian Christians the word stands for oneof the three subjects, or agents, constituting the Godhead. 6In Christian Science we learn that God is definitely indi- vidual and not a person, as that word is used by the bestauthorities, if our lexicographers are right in defining 9person as especially a finite human being; but God ispersonal, if by person is meant infinite Spirit.We do not conceive rightly of God, if we think of Him 12as less than infinite. The human person is finite; andtherefore I prefer to retain the proper sense of Diety byusing the phrase an individual God rather than a per- 15sonal God; for there is and can be but on infinite indi- vidual spirit, who mortals have named God.Science defines the individuality of God as supreme 18good, Life, Truth, Love. This term enlarges our senseof Diety, takes away the trammels assigned to God byfinite though, and introduces us to higher definitions. 21Is healing the sick the whole of Science?Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Chris-tian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and 24action, in the higher range of infinite goodness. Theemphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing ofsin; and this task, sometimes, may be harder than the 27cure of disease; because, while mortals love to sin, they 1do not love to be sick. Hence their comparative acqui-escence in your endeavors to heal them of bodily ills, and 3their obstinate resistance to all efforts to save them fromsin through Christ, spiritual Truth and Love, whichredeem them, and become their Saviour, through the 6flesh, from the flesh, -- the material world and evil.This Life, Truth, and Love -- this trinity of good -- wasindividualized, to the perception of mortal sense, in the 9man Jesus. His history is emphatic in our hearts, and itlives more because of his spiritual than his physical healing.His example is, to Christian Scientists, what the models 12of the masters in music and painting are to artists.Genuine Christian Scientists will no more deviate mor-ally from that divine digest of Science called the Sermon 15on the Mount, than they will manipulate invalids, prescribedrugs, or deny God. Jesus' healing was spiritual in itsnature, method, and design. He wrought the cure of 18disease through the divine Mind, which gives all truevolition, impulse, and action; and destroys the mentalerror made manifest physically, and establishes the oppo- 21site manifestation of Truth upon the body in harmonyand health.By the individuality of God, do you mean that God has 24a finite form?No. I mean the infinite and divine Principle of allbeing, the ever-present I AM, filling all space, including 27in itself all Mind, the one Father-Mother God. Life, 1Truth, and Love are this trinity in unity, and their uni-verse is spiritual, peopled with perfect beings, harmonious 3and eternal, of which our material universe and men arethe counterfeits.Is God the Principle of all science, or only of Divine or 6Christian Science?Science is Mind manifested. It is not material; neitheris it of human origin. 9All true Science represents a moral and spiritual force,which holds the earth in its orbit. This force is Spirit,that can "bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades," and 12"loose the bands of Orion."There is no material science, if by that term you meanmaterial intelligence. God is infinite Mind, hence there 15is no other Mind. Good is Mind, but evil is not Mind.Good is not in evil, but in God only. Spirit is not in matter,but in Spirit only. Law is not in matter, but in Mind only. 18Is there no matter?All is Mind. According to the Scriptures and ChristianScience, all is God, and there is naught beside Him. "God 21is Spirit;" and we can only learn and love Him throughHis spirit, which brings out the fruits of Spirit and ex-tinguishes forever the works of darkness by His marvel- 24lous light.The five material senses testify to the existence ofmatter. The spiritual senses afford no such evidence, 1but deny the testimony of the material senses. Whichtestimony is correct? The Bible says: "Let God be 3true, and every man a liar." If, as the Scriptures imply,God is All-in-all, then all must be Mind, since God isMind. Therefore in divine Science there is no material 6mortal man, for man is spiritual and eternal, he beingmade in the image of Spirit, or God.There is no material sense. Matter is inert, inanimate, 9and sensationless, -- considered apart from Mind. Livesthere a man who has ever found Soul in the body or inmatter, who has ever seen spiritual substance with the 12eye, who has found sight in matter, hearing in the materialear, or intelligence in non- intelligence? If there is anysuch thing as matter, it must be either mind which is 15called matter, or matter without Mind.Matter without Mind is a moral impossibility. Mindin matter is pantheism. Soul is the only real conscious- 18ness which cognizes being. The body does not see, hear,smell, or taste. Human belief says that it does; butdestroy this belief of seeing with the eye, and we could 21not see materially; and so it is with each of the physicalsenses.Accepting the verdict of these material senses, we should 24believe man and the universe to be the football of chanceand sinking into oblivion. Destroy the five senses asorganized matter, and you must either become non-exist- 27ent, or exist in Mind only; and this latter conclusion isthe simple solution of the problem of being, and leads to 1the equal inference that there is no matter.The sweet sounds and glories of earth and sky, assum- 3ing manifold forms and colors, -- are they not tangible andmaterial?As Mind they are real, but not as matter. All beauty 6and goodness are in and of Mind, emanating from God;but when we change the nature of beauty and goodnessfrom Mind to matter, the beauty is marred, through a 9false conception, and, to the material senses, evil takesthe place of good.Has not the truth in Christian Science met a response 12from Prof. S. P. Langley, the young American astronomer?He says that "color is in us," not "in the rose;" and headds that this is not "any metaphysical subtlety," but a 15fact "almost universally accepted, within the last fewyears, by physicists."Is not the basis of Mind-healing a destruction of the evi- 18dence of the material senses, and restoration of the trueevidence of spiritual sense?It is, so far as you perceive and understand this predi- 21cate and postulate of Mind-healing; but the Science ofMind- healing is best understood in practical demonstra-tion. The proof of what you apprehend, in the simplest 24definite and absolute form of healing, can alone answerthis question of how much you understand of ChristianScience Mind-healing. Not that all healing is Science, 1by any means; but that the simplest case, healed in Science,is as demonstrably scientific, in a small degree, as the most 3difficult case so treated.The infinite and subtler conceptions and consistenciesof Christian Science are set forth in my work Science and 6Health.Is man material or spiritual?In Science, man is the manifest reflection of God, per- 9feet and immortal Mind. He is the likeness of God; andHis likeness would be lost if inverted or perverted.According to the evidence of the so-called physical 12senses, man is material, fallen, sick, depraved, mortal.Science and spiritual sense contradict this, and they affordthe only true evidence of the being of God and man, the 15material evidence being wholly false.Jesus said of personal evil, that "the truth abode notin him," because there is no material sense. Matter, as 18matter, has neither sensation nor personal intelligence.As a pretension to be Mind, matter is a lie, and "thefather of lies;" Mind is not in matter, and Spirit cannot 21originate its opposite, named matter.According to divine Science, Spirit no more changes itsspecies, by evolving matter from Spirit, than natural 24science, so-called, or material laws, bring about altera-tion of species by transforming minerals into vegetablesor plants into animals, -- thus confusing and confounding 27the three great kingdoms. No rock brings forth an apple; 1no pine-tree produces a mammal or provides breast-milkfor babes. 3To sense, the lion of to-day is the lion of six thousandyears ago; but in Science, Spirit sends forth its own harm-less likeness. 6How should I undertake to demonstrate Christian Sciencein healing the sick?As I have given you only an epitome of the Principle, 9so I can give you here nothing but an outline of the prac-tice. Be honest, be true to thyself, and true to others;then it follows thou wilt be strong in God, the eternal 12good. Heal through Truth and Love; there is no otherhealer.In all moral revolutions, from a lower to a higher con- 15dition of thought and action, Truth is in the minority anderror has the majority. It is not otherwise in the fieldof Mind- healing. The man who calls himself a Christian 18Scientist, yet is false to God and man, is also utteringfalsehood about good. This falsity shuts against him theTruth and the Principle of Science, but opens a way 21whereby, through will- power, sense may say the unchris-tian practitioner can heal; but Science shows that he makesmorally worse the invalid whom he is supposed to cure. 24By this I mean that mortal mind should not be falselyimpregnated. If by such lower means the health is seem-ingly restored, the restoration is not lasting, and the patient 27is liable to a relapse, - - "The last state of that man is 1worse than the first."The teacher of Mind-healing who is not a Christian, 3in the highest sense, is constantly sowing the seeds ofdiscord and disease. Even the truth he speaks is moreor less blended with error; and this error will spring up 6in the mind of his pupil. The pupil's imperfect knowl-edge will lead to weakness in practice, and he will be apoor practitioner, if not a malpractitioner. 9The basis of malpractice is in erring human will, andthis will is an outcome of what I call mortal mind, -- afalse and temporal sense of Truth, Life, and Love. To 12heal, in Christian Science, is to base your practice onimmortal Mind, the divine Principle of man's being; andthis requires a preparation of the heart and an answer 15of the lips from the Lord.The Science of healing is the Truth of healing. Ifone is untruthful, his mental state weighs against his 18healing power; and similar effects come from pride,envy, lust, and all fleshly vices.The spiritual power of a scientific, right thought, with- 21out a direct effort, an audible or even a mental argument,has oftentimes healed inveterate diseases.The thoughts of the practitioner should be imbued with 24a clear conviction of the omnipotence and omnipresenceof God; that He is All, and that there can be none besideHim; that God is good, and the producer only of good; 27and hence, that whatever militates against health, har-mony, or holiness, is an unjust usurper of the throne of 1the controller of all mankind. Note this, that if you havepower in error, you forfeit the power that Truth bestows, 3and its salutary influence on yourself and others.You must feel and know that God alone governs man;that His government is harmonious; that He is too pure 6to behold iniquity, and divides His power with nothingevil or material; that material laws are only human be-liefs, which govern mortals wrongfully. These beliefs arise 9from the subjective states of thought, producing the be-liefs of a mortal material universe, -- so-called, and ofmaterial disease and mortality. Mortal ills are but errors 12of thought, -- diseases of mortal mind, and not of matter;for matter cannot feel, see, or report pain or disease,Disease is a thing of thought manifested on the body; 15and fear is the procurator of the thought which causessickness and suffering. Remove this fear by the truesense that God is Love, -- and that Love punishes nothing 18but sin, -- and the patient can then look up to the lovingGod, and know that He afflicteth not willingly the childrenof men, who are punished because of disobedience to His 21spiritual law. His law of Truth, when obeyed, removesevery erroneous physical and mental state. The beliefthat matter can master Mind, and make you ill, is an 24error which Truth will destroy.You must learn to acknowledge God in all His ways.It is only a lack of understanding of the allness of God, 27which leads you to believe in the existence of matter, orthat matter can frame its own conditions, contrary to the 1law of Spirit.Sickness is the schoolmaster, leading you to Christ; 3first to faith in Christ; next to belief in God as omnipo- tent; and finally to the understanding of God and manin Christian Science, whereby you learn that God is good, 6and in Science man is His likeness, the forever reflection ofgoodness. Therefore good is one and All.This brings forward the next proposition in Christian 9Science, -- namely, that there are no sickness, sin, anddeath in the divine Mind. What seem to be disease, vice,and mortality are illusions of the physical senses. These 12illusions are not real, but unreal. Health is the conscious-ness of the unreality of pain and disease; or, rather, theabsolute consciousness of harmony and of nothing else. 15In a moment you may awake from a night-dream; justso you can awake from the dream of sickness; but thedemonstration of the Science of Mind-healing by no means 18rests on the strength of human belief. This demonstra-tion is based on a true understanding of God and divineScience, which takes away every human belief, and, 21through the illumination of spiritual understanding, re-veals the all-power and ever-presence of good, whenceemanate health, harmony, and Life eternal. 24The lecturer, teacher, or healer who is indeed a ChristianScientist, never introduces the subject of human anatomy;never depicts the muscular, vascular, or nervous opera- 27tions of the human frame. He never talks about thestructure of the material body. He never lays his hands 1on the patient, nor manipulates the parts of the body sup-posed to be ailing. Above all, he keeps unbroken the Ten 3Commandments, and practises Christ's Sermon on theMount.Wrong thoughts and methods strengthen the sense of 6disease, instead of cure it; or else quiet the fear of the sick on false grounds, encouraging them in the belief oferror until they hold stronger than before the belief that 9they are first made sick by matter, and then restoredthrough its agency. This fosters infidelity, and is mentalquackery, that denies the Principle of Mind-healing. If 12the sick are aided in this mistaken fashion, their ailmentswill return, and be more stubborn because the relief isunchristian and unscientific. 15Christian Science erases from the minds of invalidstheir mistaken belief that they live in or because of matter,or that a so-called material organism controls the health 18or existence of mankind, and induces rest in God, divineLove, as caring for all the conditions requisite for the well-being of man. As power divine is the healer, why should 21mortals concern themselves with the chemistry of food?Jesus said: "Take no thought what ye shall eat."The practitioner should also endeavor to free the minds 24of the healthy from any sense of subordination to theirbodies, and teach them that the divine Mind, not materiallaw, maintains human health and life. 27A Christian Scientist knows that, in Science, diseaseis unreal; that Mind is not in matter; that Life is God, 1good; hence Life is not functional, and is neither matternor mortal mind; knows that pantheism and theosophy 3are not Science. Whatever saps, with human belief,this basis of Christian Science, renders it impossible todemonstrate the Principle of this Science, even in the 6smallest degree.A mortal and material body is not the actual individualityof man made in the divine and spiritual image of God. 9The material body is not the likeness of Spirit; hence itis not the truth of being, but the likeness of error ? thehuman belief which saith there is more than one God, -- 12there is more than one Life and one Mind.In Deuteronomy (iv. 35) we read: "The Lord, He isGod; there is none else beside Him." In John (iv. 24) 15we may read: "God is Spirit." These propositions, un-derstood in their Science, elucidate my meaning.When treating a patient, it is not Science to treat every 18organ in the body. To aver that harmony is the real anddiscord is the unreal, and then give special attention towhat according to their own belief is diseased, is scientific; 21and if the healer realizes the truth, it will free his patient.What are the means and, methods of trustworthy ChristianScientists? 24These people should not be expected, more than others,to give all their time to Christian Science work, receivingno wages in return, but left to be fed, clothed, and sheltered 27by charity. Neither can they serve two masters, giving 1only a portion of their time to God, and still be ChristianScientists. They must give Him all their services, and 3"owe no man." To do this, they must at present ask asuitable price for their services, and then conscientiouslyearn their wages, strictly practising Divine Science, and 6healing the sick.The author never sought charitable support, but gavefully seven- eighths of her time without remuneration, ex- 9cept the bliss of doing good. The only pay taken for herlabors was from classes, and often those were put off formonths, in order to do gratuitous work. She has never 12taught a Primary class without several, and sometimesseventeen, free students in it; and has endeavored to takethe full price of tuition only from those who were able to 15pay. The student who pays must of necessity do betterthan he who does not pay, and yet will expect and requireothers to pay him. No discount on tuition was made on 18higher classes, because their first classes furnished studentswith the means of paying for their tuition in the higherinstruction, and of doing charity work besides. If the 21Primary students are still impecunious, it is their ownfault, and this ill- success of itself leaves them unpreparedto enter higher classes. 24People are being healed by means of my instructions,both in and out of class. Many students, who havepassed through a regular course of instruction from me, 27have been invalids and were healed in the class; but ex-perience has shown that this defrauds the scholar, though 1it heals the sick.It is seldom that a student, if healed hi a class, has left 3it understanding sufficiently the Science of healing to im- mediately enter upon its practice. Why? Because theglad surprise of suddenly regained health is a shock to 6the mind; and this holds and satisfies the thought withexuberant joy.This renders the mind less inquisitive, plastic, and tract- 9able; and deep systematic thinking is impracticable untilthis impulse subsides.This was the principal reason for advising diseased 12people not to enter a class. Few were taken besides inva-lids for students, until there were enough practitioners tofill in the best possible manner the department of healing. 15Teaching and healing should have separate departments,and these should be fortified on all sides with suitable andthorough guardianship and grace. 18Only a very limited number of students can advanta-geously enter a class, grapple with this subject, and wellassimilate what has been taught them. It is impossible 21to teach thorough Christian Science to promiscuous andlarge assemblies, or to persons who cannot be addressedindividually, so that the mind of the pupil may be dissected 24more critically than the body of a subject laid bare foranatomical examination. Public lectures cannot be suchlessons in Christian Science as are required to empty and 27to fill anew the individual mind.If publicity and material control are the motives for 1teaching, then public lectures can take the place of privatelessons; but the former can never give a thorough knowledge 3of Christian Science, and a Christian Scientist will neverundertake to fit students for practice by such means. Lec- tures in public are needed, but they must be subordinate 6to thorough class instruction in any branch of education.None with an imperfect sense of the spiritual significa-tion of the Bible, and its scientific relation to Mind- 9healing, should attempt overmuch in their translation ofthe Scriptures into the "new tongue;" but I see thatsome novices, in the truth of Science, and some impostors are 12 committing this error.Is there more than one school of scientific healing?In reality there is, and can be, but one school of the 15Science of Mind-healing. Any departure from Science isan irreparable loss of Science. Whatever is said andwritten correctly on this Science originates from the Princi- 18ple and practice laid down in Science and Health, a workwhich I published in 1875. This was the first book, re-corded in history, which elucidates a pathological Science 21purely mental.Minor shades of difference in Mind-healing have origi- nated with certain opposing factions, springing up among 24unchristian students, who, fusing with a class of aspirantswhich snatch at whatever is progressive, call it their first-fruits, or else post mortem evidence. 27A slight divergence is fatal in Science. Like certain 1Jews whom St. Paul had hoped to convert from meremotives of self-aggrandizement to the love of Christ, these 3so-called schools are clogging the wheels of progress byblinding the people to the true character of ChristianScience, -- its moral power, and its divine efficacy to 6heal.The true understanding of Christian Science Mind-healing never originated in pride, rivalry, or the deification 9of self. The Discoverer of this Science could tell you oftimidity, of self-distrust, of friendlessness, toil, agonies, andvictories under which she needed miraculous vision to 12sustain her, when taking the first footsteps in thisScience.The ways of Christianity have not changed. Meek- 15ness, selflessness, and love are the paths of His testimonyand the footsteps of His flock. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 19666
Author: Eddy, Mary Baker
Release Date: Oct 30, 2006
Format: eBook
Language: English