latent creation of mind, before it appears as matter, — I am never mistaken in my scientific diagnosis of disease.
Whenever an aggravation of symptoms has occurred, from mental chemicalization, I have seen the mental signs, assuring me that danger was over, before the patient felt the change, and have said to the patient, “You are healed,” — sometimes to his discomposure, when he was incredulous. But it always proved as I foretold.
I name these facts to show that disease has a mental origin; that faith in rules of health, or in drugs, begets and fosters disease, by attracting the mind to the subject of sickness, by exciting fear of it, and by dosing the body in order to avoid it. The faith reposed in these things should find a higher home. Understanding the control of Mind over body, we should put no faith in material means.
Science reveals the origin of all disease as wholly mental. It declares that all disease is cured by Mind, however much we trust the drug, or any other medium to which faith is directed. It is Mind, not matter, that heals the sick. You should heal the sick by means of divine power. The action of Truth restores harmony. Metaphysical healing enables one to heal the absent as well as the present. The spiritual capacity to apprehend thought is gained only when man is found not wearing his own righteousness, but reflecting the divine nature.
Science enables one to read the human mind, but not as a clairvoyant. It enables one to heal through Mind, but not as a mesmerist. When man is governed by Spirit, God, who understands all things, he knows that to Spirit all things are possible. The only approach to this affluence of Truth, that heals the sick, is found in Divine Science.
We walk in the footsteps of Truth and Love by following the example of our Master, and having the understanding of metaphysics. Christianity is its basis; and all error, that pins our trust to matter instead of God, is directly opposed to it.
Ignorant of the footsteps and the basis of metaphysical healing, you may attempt to unite with it mesmerism, mediumship, electricity; but not one of these can mingle with metaphysical healing, or demonstrate it. Whosoever reaches the understanding of this Science, in its higher significations, will perform the sudden cures of which it is capable; but this can be done only by taking up the cross and following Christ, Truth.
We are Christian Scientists only as we quit our hold upon material things, and grasp the spiritual, — until we have left all for Christ. Mortal beliefs are not spiritual. They come from the hearing of the ear, from person instead of from Principle, and from the mortal instead of the immortal.
Spirit never believes in God. It is God. Human power is a material belief, a blind force, the offspring of will and not of Wisdom, of the mortal mind and not of the Immortal. It is the headlong cataract, the devouring flame, the tempest's breath. It is lightning and storm, together with all that is selfish, dishonest, and impure. Moral and spiritual might belong to Spirit, who holds the “winds in His fist,” in accord with Science and harmony.
Will-power is not Science. It belongs to the senses, and is objectionable. Willing the sick to recover is not metaphysics, but sheer animal magnetism. Will may infringe upon the rights of man. It produces evil continually, and is far from the Science of Being. Truth, and not Will, is the healer, that says to disease, “Peace, be still.”
The personal senses may cherish affinities with their opposites. In Christian Science Truth never mingles with error. Mind has no affinity for matter; therefore Truth is able to cast out the ills of the flesh. Mind, God, sends forth the aroma of Spirit, the atmosphere of Intelligence. The belief that a pulpy substance, under the skull, is Mind, is a mockery of Intelligence, the mimicry of Mind.
The theory that Spirit is distinct from matter, but must pass through it, or into it, to be individualized, would reduce Truth to the dependency of error, and require Something to be made manifest through Nothing. Better the suffering that awakens mortal mind from its dream, than the false pleasures that tend to perpetuate it.
Scientists can heal the sick who are absent from them, since space is no obstacle to Mind. Immortal Mind heals what eye hath not seen. The whole world is made better by Truth on its pinions of light, chasing away the darkness of error.
Mortal mind, acting from the basis of sensuous belief in matter, is animal magnetism; but when mortal mind, contradicting the evidence of the senses, yields to the government of God, it can go forth on errands of love. In proportion as you understand Christian Science, you lose animal magnetism; and you disarm sin of its imaginary power, as you gain spiritual understanding.
You can have no power opposed to God in Science, and the senses must give up their false testimony. Your influence for good is the weight you throw into the right scale. The good you do, and the good you embody, give you the only power obtainable. Evil is not power. It is a mockery of strength, that ere long betrays its weakness, and falls, never to rise again. Bowring's verse expresses my thought on this subject: —
The chain of being is complete in me;
In me is matter's last gradation lost,
And the next step is Spirit — Deity!
The following testimonials are appended, simply to elucidate my topic: —
I was suffering from pulmonary difficulties, pains in the chest, a hard and unremitting cough, hectic fever; and all those fearful symptoms made my case alarming. When I first saw Mrs. Glover (afterwards Mrs. Eddy) I was reduced so as to be unable to walk any distance, and could sit up but a portion of the day. Walking up stairs gave me great suffering in breathing. I had no appetite, and seemed surely going to the grave, the victim of consumption. I had received her attention but a short time when my bad symptoms disappeared, and I regained health. During this time I rode out in storms to visit her, and found the damp weather had no unpleasant effect on me. From my personal experience, I am led to believe that the Science by which she not only heals sickness, but explains the way to keep well, is deserving the earnest attention of the community. Her cures are not the result of medicine, mediumship, or mesmerism, but the application of a Principle that she understands.
James Ingham.
East Stoughton, Mass.
Miss Ellen C. Pillsbury, of Tilton, N. H., was suffering from what her physicians called enteritis, of the severest form, following typhoid fever. Her case was given up by her regular physician, and she was lying at the point of death, when Mrs. Glover (afterwards Mrs. Eddy) visited her. In a few moments after Mrs. Glover entered the room and stood by the bedside, Miss Pillsbury recognized her aunt, and said, “I am glad to see you, aunty.” In about ten minutes more Mrs. Glover told her to rise from her bed and walk. Miss Pillsbury rose and walked seven times across her room, then sat down in a chair. For two weeks before this we had not entered her room without feeling obliged to step lightly. Her bowels were so tender that she felt the jar, and it increased her sufferings. She could only be moved on a sheet from bed to bed. When she walked across the room, at Mrs. Glover's bidding, Mrs. Glover told Miss Pillsbury to stamp her foot strongly upon the floor, and she did so without suffering from it. The next day she was dressed, and went down to the table; and on the fourth day made a journey of about a hundred miles in the cars.
Mrs. Elizabeth P. Baker.
The following is a case of heart-disease, which I cured without having seen the patient: —
Please find inclosed a check for five hundred dollars, in reward for your services, that can never be repaid. The day you received my husband's letter I became conscious, for the first time in forty-eight hours. My servant brought my wrapper, and I arose from bed and sat up. The attack of heart-disease lasted two days, and we all think I could not have survived, but for the wonderful help received from you. The enlargement of my left side is all gone, and the doctors
