Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy [the dot read aloud .TXT] 📗

self of error. Mortals 323:1 may seek the understanding of Christian Science, but they

will not be able to glean from Christian Science the facts 323:3 of being without striving for them. This strife consists

in the endeavor to forsake error of every kind and to possess no other consciousness but good.

 

A bright outlook

323:6 Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, we

are helped onward in the march towards righteousness,

peace, and purity, which are the landmarks 323:9 of Science. Beholding the infinite tasks of

truth, we pause, - wait on God. Then we push onward,

until boundless thought walks enraptured, and concep-323:12 tion unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory.

 

Need and supply

 

In order to apprehend more, we must put into practice what we already know. We must recollect that 323:15 Truth is demonstrable when understood, and

that good is not understood until demonstrated.

If “faithful over a few things,” we shall be made rulers 323:18 over many; but the one unused talent decays and is lost.

When the sick or the sinning awake to realize their need

of what they have not, they will be receptive of divine 323:21 Science, which gravitates towards Soul and away from

material sense, removes thought from the body, and elevates even mortal mind to the contemplation of some-323:24 thing better than disease or sin. The true idea of God

gives the true understanding of Life and Love, robs the

grave of victory, takes away all sin and the delusion that 323:27 there are other minds, and destroys mortality.

 

Childlike receptivity

 

The effects of Christian Science are not so much seen

as felt. It is the “still, small voice” of Truth 323:30 uttering itself. We are either turning away

from this utterance, or we are listening to it and going

up higher. Willingness to become as a little child and 324:1 to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of

the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks 324:3 and joy to see them disappear, - this disposition helps

to precipitate the ultimate harmony. The purification

of sense and self is a proof of progress. “Blessed are the 324:6 pure in heart: for they shall see God.”

 

Narrow pathway

 

Unless the harmony and immortality of man are becoming more apparent, we are not gaining the true idea 324:9 of God; and the body will reflect what governs it, whether it be Truth or error,

understanding or belief, Spirit or matter. Therefore 324:12 “acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace.”

Be watchful, sober, and vigilant. The way is straight

and narrow, which leads to the understanding that God 324:15 is the only Life. It is a warfare with the flesh, in which

we must conquer sin, sickness, and death, either here

or hereafter, - certainly before we can reach the goal 324:18 of Spirit, or life in God.

 

Paul’s enlightenment

 

Paul was not at first a disciple of Jesus but a persecutor of Jesus’ followers. When the truth first appeared 324:21 to him in Science, Paul was made blind,

and his blindness was felt; but spiritual

light soon enabled him to follow the example and teach-324:24 ings of Jesus, healing the sick and preaching Christianity throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and even in imperial

Rome.

324:27 Paul writes, “If Christ [Truth] be not risen, then is

our preaching vain.” That is, if the idea of the supremacy of Spirit, which is the true conception of being, 324:30 come not to your thought, you cannot be benefited by

what I say.

 

Abiding in Life

 

Jesus said substantially, “He that believeth in me 325:1 shall not see death.” That is, he who perceives the

true idea of Life loses his belief in death. He who has 325:3 the true idea of good loses all sense of evil,

and by reason of this is being ushered into the

undying realities of Spirit. Such a one abideth in Life, - 325:6 life obtained not of the body incapable of supporting life,

but of Truth, unfolding its own immortal idea. Jesus

gave the true idea of being, which results in infinite bless-325:9 ings to mortals.

 

Indestructible being

 

In Colossians (iii. 4) Paul writes: “When Christ, who

is our life, shall appear [be manifested], then shall ye also 325:12 appear [be manifested] with him in glory.”

When spiritual being is understood in all its

perfection, continuity, and might, then shall man be found 325:15 in God’s image. The absolute meaning of the apostolic

words is this: Then shall man be found, in His likeness,

perfect as the Father, indestructible in Life, “hid with 325:18 Christ in God,” - with Truth in divine Love, where

human sense hath not seen man.

 

Consecration required

 

Paul had a clear sense of the demands of Truth upon 325:21 mortals physically and spiritually, when he said: “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable 325:24 service.” But he, who is begotten of the beliefs of the

flesh and serves them, can never reach in this world the

divine heights of our Lord. The time cometh when 325:27 the spiritual origin of man, the divine Science which

ushered Jesus into human presence, will be understood

and demonstrated.

325:30 When first spoken in any age, Truth, like the light,

“shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended

it not.” A false sense of life, substance, and mind 326:1 hides the divine possibilities, and conceals scientific

demonstration.

 

Loving God supremely

326:3 If we wish to follow Christ, Truth, it must be in the

way of God’s appointing. Jesus said, “He that believeth

on me, the works that I do shall he do also.” 326:6 He, who would reach the source and find the

divine remedy for every ill, must not try to climb the hill

of Science by some other road. All nature teaches God’s 326:9 love to man, but man cannot love God supremely and set

his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the

material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual.

326:12 We must forsake the foundation of material systems,

however time-honored, if we would gain the Christ as

our only Saviour. Not partially, but fully, the great 326:15 healer of mortal mind is the healer of the body.

 

The purpose and motive to live aright can be gained

now. This point won, you have started as you should. 326:18 You have begun at the numeration-table of Christian

Science, and nothing but wrong intention can hinder your

advancement. Working and praying with true motives, 326:21 your Father will open the way. “Who did hinder you,

that ye should not obey the truth?”

 

Conversion of Saul

 

Saul of Tarsus beheld the way - the Christ, or Truth 326:24 - only when his uncertain sense of right yielded to a

spiritual sense, which is always right. Then

the man was changed. Thought assumed a 326:27 nobler outlook, and his life became more spiritual. He

learned the wrong that he had done in persecuting Christians, whose religion he had not understood, and in hu-326:30 mility he took the new name of Paul. He beheld for the

first time the true idea of Love, and learned a lesson in

divine Science.

327:1 Reform comes by understanding that there is no abiding pleasure in evil, and also by gaining an affection for 327:3 good according to Science, which reveals the immortal

fact that neither pleasure nor pain, appetite nor passion,

can exist in or of matter, while divine Mind can and does 327:6 destroy the false beliefs of pleasure, pain, or fear and all

the sinful appetites of the human mind.

 

Image of the beast

 

What a pitiful sight is malice, finding pleasure in re-327:9 venge! Evil is sometimes a man’s highest conception

of right, until his grasp on good grows stronger.

Then he loses pleasure in wickedness, and it 327:12 becomes his torment. The way to escape the misery of

sin is to cease sinning. There is no other way. Sin is

the image of the beast to be effaced by the sweat of agony. 327:15 It is a moral madness which rushes forth to clamor with

midnight and tempest.

 

Peremptory demands

 

To the physical senses, the strict demands of Christian 327:18 Science seem peremptory; but mortals are hastening to learn that Life is God, good, and that

evil has in reality neither place nor power in the human or 327:21 the divine economy.

 

Moral courage

 

Fear of punishment never made man truly honest.

Moral courage is requisite to meet the wrong and to 327:24 proclaim the right. But how shall we reform the man who has more animal than

moral courage, and who has not the true idea of good? 327:27 Through human consciousness, convince the mortal of

his mistake in seeking material means for gaining happiness. Reason is the most active human faculty. Let 327:30 that inform the sentiments and awaken the man’s dormant sense of moral obligation, and by degrees he will

learn the nothingness of the pleasures of human sense 328:1 and the grandeur and bliss of a spiritual sense, which

silences the material or corporeal. Then he not only will 328:3 be saved, but is saved.

 

Final destruction of error

 

Mortals suppose that they can live without goodness,

when God is good and the only real Life. What is the 328:6 result? Understanding little about the divine

Principle which saves and heals, mortals get

rid of sin, sickness, and death only in belief. These errors 328:9 are not thus really destroyed, and must therefore cling

to mortals until, here or hereafter, they gain the true understanding of God in the Science which destroys human 328:12 delusions about Him and reveals the grand realities of

His allness.

 

Promise perpetual

 

This understanding of man’s power, when he is 328:15 equipped by God, has sadly disappeared from Christian

history. For centuries it has been dormant, a

lost element of Christianity. Our missionaries 328:18 carry the Bible to India, but can it be said that they

explain it practically, as Jesus did, when hundreds of

persons die there annually from serpent-bites? Under-328:21 standing spiritual law and knowing that there is no material law, Jesus said: “These signs shall follow them that

believe, … they shall take up serpents, and if they 328:24 drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They

shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” It

were well had Christendom believed and obeyed this 328:27 sacred saying.

 

Jesus’ promise is perpetual. Had it been given only

to his immediate disciples, the Scriptural passage would 328:30 read you, not they. The purpose of his great life-work

extends through time and includes universal humanity.

Its Principle is infinite, reaching beyond the pale of a 329:1 single period or of a limited following. As time moves

on, the healing elements of pure Christianity will be fairly 329:3 dealt with; they will be sought and taught, and will glow

in all the grandeur of universal goodness.

 

Imitation of Jesus

 

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little under-329:6 standing of Christian Science proves the truth of all that

I say of it. Because you cannot walk on the

water and raise the dead, you have no right to 329:9 question the great might of divine Science in these directions. Be thankful that Jesus, who was the true demonstrator of Science, did these things, and left his example for 329:12 us. In Science we can use only what we understand. We

must prove our faith by demonstration.

 

One should not tarry in the storm if the body is freez-329:15 ing, nor should he remain in the devouring flames. Until one is able to prevent bad results, he should avoid their

occasion. To be discouraged, is to