Science and Health, by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 390 to 394

Page 390

Ultimate harmony

         We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and we
         should never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, sim-
6      ply because, to the mortal senses, there is seem-
         ing discord. It is our ignorance of God, the
         divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and
9      the right understanding of Him restores harmony. Truth
         will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and
         pains of sense for the joys of Soul.

Unnecessary prostration

12    When the first symptoms of disease appear, dispute the
         testimony of the material senses with divine Science. Let
         your higher sense of justice destroy the false
15    process of mortal opinions which you name
         law, and then you will not be confined to a sick-room nor
         laid upon a bed of suffering in payment of the last far-
18    thing, the last penalty demanded by error. “Agree with
         thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with
         him.” Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon
21    the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that
         it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more
         the author of sickness than He is of sin. You have no
24    law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sick-
         ness, but you have divine authority for denying that neces-
         sity and healing the sick.

Treatment of disease

27    “Agree to disagree” with approaching symptoms of
         chronic or acute disease, whether it is cancer, consump-
         tion, or smallpox. Meet the incipient stages
30    of disease with as powerful mental opposi-
         tion as a legislator would employ to defeat the passage of
         an inhuman law. Rise in the conscious strength of the

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1      spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind,
         alias matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit.
3      Blot out the images of mortal thought and its beliefs in
         sickness and sin. Then, when thou art delivered to the
         judgment of Truth, Christ, the judge will say, “Thou
6      art whole!”

Righteous rebellion

         Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient
         or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against
9      them. Banish the belief that you can possi-
         bly entertain a single intruding pain which can-
         not be ruled out by the might of Mind, and in this way
12    you can prevent the development of pain in the body.
         No law of God hinders this result. It is error to suffer
         for aught but your own sins. Christ, or Truth, will de-
15    stroy all other supposed suffering, and real suffering for
         your own sins will cease in proportion as the sin ceases.

Contradict error

         Justice is the moral signification of law. Injustice de-
18    clares the absence of law. When the body is supposed
         to say, “I am sick,” never plead guilty. Since
         matter cannot talk, it must be mortal mind
21    which speaks; therefore meet the intimation with a pro-
         test. If you say, “I am sick,” you plead guilty. Then
         your adversary will deliver you to the judge (mortal
24    mind), and the judge will sentence you. Disease has
         no intelligence to declare itself something and announce
         its name. Mortal mind alone sentences itself. Therefore
27    make your own terms with sickness, and be just to yourself
         and to others.

Sin to be overcome

         Mentally contradict every complaint from the body,
30    and rise to the true consciousness of Life as
         Love, — as all that is pure, and bearing the
         fruits of Spirit. Fear is the fountain of sickness,

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1      and you master fear and sin through divine Mind; hence
         it is through divine Mind that you overcome disease.
3      Only while fear or sin remains can it bring forth death.
         To cure a bodily ailment, every broken moral law should
         be taken into account and the error be rebuked. Fear,
6      which is an element of all disease, must be cast out to
         readjust the balance for God. Casting out evil and fear
         enables truth to outweigh error. The only course is to
9      take antagonistic grounds against all that is opposed to
         the health, holiness, and harmony of man, God’s image.

Illusions about nerves

         The physical affirmation of disease should always be
12    met with the mental negation. Whatever benefit is pro-
         duced on the body, must be expressed men-
         tally, and thought should be held fast to this
15    ideal. If you believe in inflamed and weak nerves, you
         are liable to an attack from that source. You will call it
         neuralgia, but we call it a belief. If you think that con-
18    sumption is hereditary in your family, you are liable to
         the development of that thought in the form of what is
         termed pulmonary disease, unless Science shows you
21    otherwise. If you decide that climate or atmosphere is
         unhealthy, it will be so to you. Your decisions will mas-
         ter you, whichever direction they take.

Guarding the door

24    Reverse the case. Stand porter at the door of thought.
         Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in
         bodily results, you will control yourself har-
27    moniously. When the condition is present
         which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise,
         heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office
30    as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears.
         Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the
         body cannot suffer from them. The issues of pain or

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1      pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman
         forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forget-
3      ting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance.

The strength of Spirit

         The body seems to be self-acting, only because mortal
         mind is ignorant of itself, of its own actions, and of their
6      results, — ignorant that the predisposing, re-
         mote, and exciting cause of all bad effects is a
         law of so-called mortal mind, not of matter. Mind is the
9      master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness,
         sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority. Take
         possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action.
12    Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike
         good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing
         can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on
15    man.

No pain in matter

         Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind
         governs, and that in Science man reflects God’s govern-
18    ment. Have no fear that matter can ache,
         swell, and be inflamed as the result of a law
         of any kind, when it is self-evident that matter can have
21    no pain nor inflammation. Your body would suffer no
         more from tension or wounds than the trunk of a tree
         which you gash or the electric wire which you stretch,
24    were it not for mortal mind.

         When Jesus declares that “the light of the body is the
         eye,” he certainly means that light depends upon Mind,
27    not upon the complex humors, lenses, muscles, the iris
         and pupil, constituting the visual organism.

No real disease

         Man is never sick, for Mind is not sick and matter
30    cannot be. A false belief is both the tempter
         and the tempted, the sin and the sinner, the
         disease and its cause. It is well to be calm in sickness;

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1      to be hopeful is still better; but to understand that sick-
         ness is not real and that Truth can destroy its seeming
3      reality, is best of all, for this understanding is the uni-
         versal and perfect remedy.