Chapter VIII: Footsteps of Truth (1)

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

201:1 THE best sermon ever preached is Truth practised
and demonstrated by the destruction of sin, sickness,
201:3 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
201:6 two masters."

We cannot build safely on false foundations. Truth
makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away
201:9 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
201:12 of God, good.

The uses of truth

We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be
emptied. Let us disrobe error. Then, when
201:15 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
201:18 in truth through flood-tides of Love. Christian perfec-
tion is won on no other basis.

Grafting holiness upon unholiness, supposing that sin
202:1 can be forgiven when it is not forsaken, is as foolish as
straining out gnats and swallowing camels.
202:3 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

202:6 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,
202:9 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
202:12 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

202:15 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
202:18 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
202:21 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

202:24 Our beliefs about a Supreme Being contradict the
practice growing out of them. Error abounds where
Truth should "much more abound." We

202:27 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-
202:30 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
203:1 fatal pulmonary disease; as though evil could overbear
the law of Love, and check the reward for do-
203:3 ing good. In the Science of Christianity, Mind
- omnipotence - has all-power, assigns sure
rewards to righteousness, and shows that matter can
203:6 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
203:9 accusation of the rabbis, "He made himself
the Son of God," was really the justification
of Jesus, for to the Christian the only true
203:12 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
203:15 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-
203:18 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
203:21 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
203:24 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
203:27 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,
203:30 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
204:1 once the centre and circumference of being. It is evil
that dies; good dies not.

Spirit the only intelligence and substance
204:3 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
204:6 error is as conclusively mental as immortal
Truth; and that there are two separate, an-
tagonistic entities and beings, two powers, - namely,
204:9 Spirit and matter, - resulting in a third person (mortal
man) who carries out the delusions of sin, sickness, and
death.

204:12 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
204:15 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

204:18 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-
204:21 stand the Ego, and realize only one God, one
Mind or intelligence?

False and self-assertive theories have given sinners the
204:24 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
204:27 Mind; but in Science it can never be said that man
has a mind of his own, distinct from God, the /all/
Mind.

204:30 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
205:1 utterances; else God will continue to be hidden from hu-
manity, and mortals will sin without knowing that they
205:3 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
205:6 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
205:9 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
205:12 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

205:15 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,
205:18 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-
205:21 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;
205:24 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
205:27 where selfishness reigns.

Selfishness tips the beam of human existence towards
the side of error, not towards Truth. Denial of the one-
205:30 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,
206:1 we can have no other Mind but His, - no other Love,
wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no con-
206:3 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-
206:6 ment and free the lower propensities. It is the
province of spiritual sense to govern man.
Material, erring, human thought acts injuriously both
206:9 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
206:12 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.

206:15 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
206:18 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
206:21 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/,
206:24 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
206:27 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
206:30 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
207:1 these evils are not Spirit, for there is no evil in Spirit.
Because God is Spirit, evil becomes more apparent and
207:3 obnoxious proportionately as we advance spir-
itually, until it disappears from our lives.
This fact proves our position, for every scientific state-
207:6 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
207:9 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
207:12 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

207:15 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-
207:18 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
207:21 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-
207:24 ease, and death belong not to the Science of being. They
are the errors, which presuppose the absence of Truth,
Life, or Love.

207:27 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.
207:30 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
208:1 suppositional error, which affords no proof of God,
Spirit, or of the spiritual creation. Material sense de-
208:3 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
208:6 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, -
208:9 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.
208:12 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
208:15 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
208:18 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
208:21 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
208:24 forever unseen.

Sickness as only thought

Mind, not matter, is causation. A material body
only expresses a material and mortal mind. A mortal
208:27 man possesses this body, and he makes it
harmonious or discordant according to the
images of thought impressed upon it. You embrace
208:30 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
209:1 included in matter. Man, being immortal, has a perfect
indestructible life. It is the mortal belief which makes
209:3 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
209:6 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
209:9 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
209:12 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.
209:15 Nearness, not distance, lends enchantment to this view.

Spiritual translation

The compounded minerals or aggregated substances
composing the earth, the relations which constituent
209:18 masses hold to each other, the magnitudes,
distances, and revolutions of the celestial
bodies, are of no real importance, when we remember
209:21 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
209:24 found harmonious and eternal.

Material substances or mundane formations, astro-
nomical calculations, and all the paraphernalia of specu-
209:27 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
209:30 Spirit.

Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to un-
derstand God. It shows the superiority of faith by works
210:1 over faith in words. Its ideas are expressed only in "new
tongues;" and these are interpreted by the translation of
210:3 the spiritual original into the language which human
thought can comprehend.

Jesus' disregard of matter

The Principle and proof of Christianity are discerned
210:6 by spiritual sense. They are set forth in Jesus' demon-
strations, which show - by his healing the
sick, casting out evils, and destroying death,
210:9 "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
210:15 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
210:18 process.

Mind not mortal

The expression /mortal mind/ is really a solecism, for
Mind is immortal, and Truth pierces the error of mortality
210:21 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.
210:24 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-
210:27 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
210:30 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.

211:1 If brain, nerves, stomach, are intelligent, - if they talk
to us, tell us their condition, and report how they feel, -
211:3 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
211:6 greater?

Matter sensationless

The sensations of the body must either be the sensa-
tions of a so-called mortal mind or of matter. Nerves
211:9 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
211:12 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
211:15 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
211:18 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
211:21 on edge." Sympathy with error should disappear. The
transfer of the thoughts of one erring mind to another,
Science renders impossible.

Nerves painless

211:24 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
211:27 is dematerialized, these faculties must be lost,
for their immortality is not in Spirit; whereas the fact
is that only through dematerialization and spiritualiza-
211:30 tion of thought can these faculties be conceived of as
immortal.

Nerves are not the source of pain or pleasure. We
212:1 suffer or enjoy in our dreams, but this pain or pleasure
is not communicated through a nerve. A tooth which has
212:3 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
212:6 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-
212:9 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
212:12 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.
212:15 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-
212:18 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
212:21 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
212:24 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
212:27 thought, that the undulations of the air convey
sound, and possibly that other methods involve
so-called miracles. The realities of being, its
212:30 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
213:1 modus and action, are styled the real. Whoever con-
tradicts this mortal mind supposition of reality is called
213:3 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

213:6 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
213:9 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-
213:12 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
213:15 finite, temporary, and discordant.

Sound is a mental impression made on mortal belief.
The ear does not really hear. Divine Science reveals
213:18 sound as communicated through the senses of Soul -
through spiritual understanding.

Music, rhythm of head and heart

Mozart experienced more than he expressed. The
213:21 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-
213:24 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.
213:27 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.
213:30 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, -
214:1 it is possible that the impressions from Truth were as
distinct as sound, and that they came as sound to the
214:3 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
214:6 before his material senses, he could never have "walked
with God," nor been guided into the demonstration of
life eternal.

Adam and the senses

214:9 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
214:12 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-
214:15 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

214:18 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
214:21 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,
214:24 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
214:27 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,
214:30 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-
215:1 out pain, and they are forever at peace. Nothing can hide
from them the harmony of all things and the might and
215:3 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
215:6 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
215:9 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-
215:12 tudes. Whatever is governed by God, is never for an
instant deprived of the light and might of intelligence
and Life.

Light and darkness

215:15 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
215:18 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
215:21 truth and love.

With its divine proof, Science reverses the evidence of
material sense. Every quality and condition of mortality
215:24 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

215:27 Because he understood the superiority and immor-
tality of good, Socrates feared not the hemlock poison.
Even the faith of his philosophy spurned phys-
215:30 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-
216:1 able philosopher because of his faith in Soul and his in-
difference to the body.

The serpent of error

216:3 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-
216:6 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.
216:9 Spirituality lays open siege to materialism. On which
side are we fighting?

Servants and masters

The understanding that the Ego is Mind, and that
216:12 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-
216:15 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-
216:18 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
216:21 and evil.

If the decision were left to the corporeal senses, evil
would appear to be the master of good, and sickness to
216:24 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-
216:27 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,
216:30 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
217:1 own likeness. The loss of man's identity through the
understanding which Science confers is impossible; and
217:3 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

217:6 Medical schools may inform us that the healing work
of Christian Science and Paul's peculiar Christian con-
version and experience, - which prove Mind
217:9 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-
217:12 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

217:15 That scientific methods are superior to others, is
seen by their effects. When you have once conquered
a diseased condition of the body through
217:18 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
217:21 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
217:24 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,
217:27 and so destroy this illusion, for matter cannot be weary
and heavy-laden.

You say, "Toil fatigues me." But what is this /me/!
217:30 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-
218:1 intelligent. Mortal mind does the false talking, and that
which affirms weariness, made that weariness.

Mind never weary

218:3 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
218:6 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

218:9 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,
218:12 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
218:15 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-
218:18 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
218:21 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?

218:24 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.

218:27 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
218:30 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,
219:1 pain, weakness, weariness, sorrow, sin, death, will be
unknown, and the mortal dream will forever cease. My
219:3 method of treating fatigue applies to all bodily ailments,
since Mind should be, and is, supreme, absolute, and
final.

Affirmation and result

219:6 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,
219:9 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
219:12 the whole body "sick, and the whole heart faint;" whereas
divine Mind heals.

When this is understood, we shall never affirm concern-
219:15 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
219:18 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
219:21 harmoniously. "The wish," says the poet, "is ever father
to the thought."

Scientific beginning

We may hear a sweet melody, and yet misunderstand
219:24 the science that governs it. Those who are healed
through metaphysical Science, not compre-
hending the Principle of the cure, may misun-
219:27 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
219:30 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.

Hygiene ineffectual

220:1 We hear it said: " I exercise daily in the open air. I
take cold baths, in order to overcome a predisposition to
220:3 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,
220:6 and induce sufferers to look in other directions for cause
and cure.

Instinct is better than misguided reason, as even na-
220:9 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
220:12 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-
220:15 mosphere of mortal mind, leaves catarrh to the latter.
Colds, coughs, and contagion are engendered solely by
human theories.

The reflex phenomena

220:18 Mortal mind produces its own phenomena, and then
charges them to something else, - like a kitten
glancing into the mirror at itself and thinking
220:21 it sees another kitten.

A clergyman once adopted a diet of bread and water
to increase his spirituality. Finding his health failing,
220:24 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
220:27 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
220:30 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.

Starvation and dyspepsia

221:1 I knew a person who when quite a child adopted the
Graham system to cure dyspepsia. For many years, he
221:3 ate only bread and vegetables, and drank noth-
ing but water. His dyspepsia increasing, he
decided that his diet should be more rigid, and
221:6 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
221:9 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
221:12 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,
221:15 and he is now in perfect health without a vestige of the
old complaint.

He learned that suffering and disease were the self-
221:18 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-
221:21 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
221:24 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-
221:27 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
221:30 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
222:1 that this phantasm of mortal mind disappears as we better
apprehend our spiritual existence and ascend the ladder
222:3 of life.

This person learned that food affects the body only
as mortal mind has its material methods of working, one
222:6 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-
222:9 generates this fleshly mind and feeds thought with the
bread of Life.

Food had less power to help or to hurt him after he
222:12 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
222:15 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
222:18 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
222:21 hygiene, and was well.

He learned that a dyspeptic was very far from being
the image and likeness of God, - far from having "do-
222:24 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
222:27 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
222:30 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
223:1 matter, and plant ourselves upon what is pure and per-
fect. Paul said, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
223:3 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
223:6 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
223:9 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
223:12 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.
223:15 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
223:18 it pause." "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into
the ditch."

The efforts of error to answer this question by some
223:21 /ology/ are vain. Spiritual rationality and free thought ac-
company approaching Science, and cannot be put down.
They will emancipate humanity, and supplant unscientific
223:24 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
223:27 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
223:30 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
224:1 is increasing and the power of sin diminishing, for the,
world feels the alterative effect of truth through every
224:3 pore.

As the crude footprints of the past disappear from the
dissolving paths of the present, we shall better understand
224:6 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
224:9 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
224:12 many but not enough Christianity. Centuries ago re-
ligionists were ready to hail an anthropomor-
phic God, and array His vicegerent with pomp
224:15 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
224:18 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-
224:21 bingers of truth's full-orbed appearing.

A higher and more practical Christianity, demonstrat-
ing justice and meeting the needs of mortals in sickness
224:24 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
224:27 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
224:30 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?
225:1 Whence cometh it? What is it that binds man with iron
shackles to sin, sickness, and death? Whatever enslaves
225:3 man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes
man free.

Truth's ordeal

You may know when first Truth leads by the few-
225:6 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,
225:9 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
225:12 always some tumult, but there is a rallying to truth's
standard.

Immortal sentences

The history of our country, like all history, illustrates
225:15 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-
225:18 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
225:21 breath of freedom come from the cannon's mouth. Love
is the liberator.

Slavery abolished

Legally to abolish unpaid servitude in the United
225:24 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-
225:27 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
225:30 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-
226:1 can slavery was abolished in our land. That was only
prophetic of further steps towards the banishment of a
226:3 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
226:6 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-
226:9 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
226:12 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
226:15 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."
226:18 Human codes, scholastic theology, material medicine and
hygiene, fetter faith and spiritual understanding. Divine
Science rends asunder these fetters, and man's birthright
226:21 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-
226:24 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
226:27 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-
226:30 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
227:1 of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of
man are fully known and acknowledged.

Higher law ends bondage

227:3 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
227:6 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
227:9 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
227:12 is the foundation of continued bondage and of human
suffering.

Native freedom

Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail to fore-
227:15 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
227:18 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

227:21 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
227:24 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
227:27 divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs,
crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and de-
faced the tablet of your being.

227:30 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
228:1 direct opposition to them and in defiance of all material
conditions.

No fleshly heredity

228:3 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
228:6 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
228:9 right, we shall have no dangerous inheritances, and fleshly
ills will disappear.

God-given dominion

The enslavement of man is not legitimate. It will
228:12 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
228:15 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-
228:18 mony as the spiritual reality and discord as the material
unreality.

If we follow the command of our Master, "Take no
228:21 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
228:24 Truth.

Priestly pride humbled

There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence has
all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dis-
228:27 honor God. The humble Nazarene overthrew
the supposition that sin, sickness, and death
have power. He proved them powerless. It should have
228:30 humbled the pride of the priests, when they saw the dem-
onstration of Christianity excel the influence of their dead
faith and ceremonies.

229:1 If Mind is not the master of sin, sickness, and death,
they are immortal, for it is already proved that mat-
229:3 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;
229:6 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.
229:9 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
229:12 at the same time admits that Spirit is God, - vir-
tually declaring Him good in one instance and evil in
another.

Self-constituted law

229:15 By universal consent, mortal belief has constituted
itself a law to bind mortals to sickness, sin, and death.
This customary belief is misnamed material
229:18 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
229:21 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,
229:24 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
229:27 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
229:30 matter nor of divine Mind, which causes the belief of sick-
ness. The remedy is Truth, not matter, - the truth that
disease is /unreal/.

230:1 If sickness is real, it belongs to immortality; if true,
it is a part of Truth. Would you attempt with drugs,
230:3 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,
230:6 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-
230:9 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
230:12 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-
230:15 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
230:18 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-
230:21 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
230:24 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

230:27 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
230:30 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
231:1 must be obliterated through Christ in divine Science, or
the so-called physical senses will get the victory.

Destruction of all evil