“flesh warreth against the Spirit.” They can no more unite in action, than good can coincide with evil. It is wise not to take a halting and half-way position, or to expect to work equally with Truth and error. There is but one right way, namely, Divine Science, pointing to the spiritual way. To govern the body scientifically it must be reached through Mind. It is impossible to gain control over it by any other method. On this fundamental point timid conservatism is absolutely inadmissible. Radical reliance on the spiritual can alone accomplish the healing art.
When you manipulate patients, you are trusting in electricity and magnetism, more than in Truth; and so you employ matter more than Mind. You weaken your power, if you resort to any except spiritual means. It is useless to say that you manipulate patients, but you lay no stress on manipulation. If this is the case, why manipulate? Really you do it because you are ignorant of its baneful effects, or are not sufficiently spiritual to depend on Spirit. If this be so, improve your life work till you attain to Christian Science.
If, being too material to love the Science of Mind, you are satisfied with good words instead of deeds, adhering to error and afraid to trust Truth, the question then recurs, “Adam, where art thou?” It is unnecessary to resort to aught besides Mind in order to satisfy the sick that you are doing something for them; for if cured they are generally satisfied.
“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Having more faith in drugs than in Truth, this faith will incline you to the side of matter and error. Any mesmeric power you may exercise will diminish your ability to become a Scientist, and vice versa. The act of healing the sick through Mind alone, of casting out error with Truth, shows your position as a Christian.
How can the dishonest man rely on Truth to heal the sick? Being dishonest he cannot exercise this power in a right direction. Jesus cast out error and healed the sick without drugs, and he said, “The works that I do, ye shall do.”
You say that indigestion, fatigue, sleeplessness, cause distressed stomachs and aching heads. Then you consult your brains, in order to remember what has hurt you, when your remedy lies in forgetting the whole thing; for matter has no sensation, and the human mind is all that can produce pain.
To reduce inflammation, dissolve a tumor, or cure organic disease, I have found Mind more potent than all lower remedies. And why not, since Mind is the source and condition of all existence? Before deciding that stomach or head is disordered, one should consider, Who art thou that repliest to Spirit? Can matter speak for itself, or hold the issues of Life? Pain or pleasure has no partnership with what can neither suffer nor enjoy; but mortal belief has such a partnership.
“As a man thinketh, so is he.” Mind is all that feels, acts, or impedes action. Ignorant of this, or shrinking from its implied responsibility, the healing effort is made on the wrong side, and the conscious control over the body is lost.
If the scales are evenly adjusted, the removal of a single weight from either gives preponderance to the opposite. Whatever influence you cast on the side of matter, you take away from Mind, that can outweigh all else. Your belief militates against your health, when it ought to enlist on its side. When sick (according to belief) you rush after drugs, search the so-called laws of health, and depend on these to heal you, when you have really got yourself into the slough of disease through just this false dependence.
The human mind is inharmonious; hence the inharmony of the body. To ignore God, as of little use in sickness, is anomalous. If we thrust Him aside then, waiting for the hour of strength, we should learn that He can do more for us in sickness than in health.
Because man-made systems insist that man becomes sick and useless, suffers and dies, in consonance with the laws of God, are we to believe it? Despite God's spiritual law to the contrary, are we to believe an authority which Jesus has proved false? He did the will of the Father. He healed sickness in defiance of what is called material law, but in accordance with God's spiritual law.
The demands of God appeal to Mind only; but the claims of mortality, and what are termed laws of nature, appertain to matter. Which, then, are we to accept as legitimate, and capable of producing the highest human good? We cannot obey both physiology and Spirit; for one is opposed to the other, and insists upon supremacy in the affections. It is impossible to work from two standpoints. If we attempt it, we shall presently “cleave to the one and despise the other.” Mind's control over the body must supersede the so-called laws of matter. Obedience to material law prevents full obedience to spiritual law, — the law that overcomes material conditions, and puts matter under the feet of Mind. Like a barrister who should try to strengthen his plea by commencing, “Woe unto you, lawyers,” mortals entreat God to restore the sick to health, and forthwith, by using material means, shut out the aid of Spirit, thus working against themselves and their prayers, and suffocating man's God-given ability to demonstrate the sacred power. The plea for medicine and the laws of health comes from mortal ignorance of Science and celestial power.
Error produces error. Sickness is error, — inharmony. What causes disease cannot cure it. To admit that sickness is a condition over which God has no control, presupposes that omnipotent power is, on some occasions, null and void. The law of Christ, or Truth, finds all things possible to Spirit; but the so-called laws of matter find Spirit generally of no avail, and demand obedience to materialistic codes, — thus departing from the basis of Divine Science. Discords have no support from divine law, however much is said to the contrary. Antagonistic mortal opinions are incorrect, as Jesus clearly showed, when he healed the sick and raised the dead.
Can the agriculturist produce a crop without sowing the seed, and awaiting its germination according to the laws of God? The Scriptures inform us that sin, or error, first caused the condemnation of man to till the ground. In this case, obedience to Truth will remove this necessity. Truth never made error necessary, or devised a law to perpetuate it. The supposed laws that produce discord are not His laws, for it is the legitimate action of Truth to produce harmony. Laws of nature are truly His laws; but you construe that as law which annuls the power of Spirit. Mind, of a right, demands man's entire obedience, affection, and strength. No reservation is made for any lesser loyalty. Obedience to Truth gives man power and strength. Submission to error superinduces weakness and loss of power.
Physiology is one of the apples from the tree of knowledge. Error said that to eat thereof would open man's eyes, and make him as a god. Instead of this enlargement, it closes the eyes to man's God-given dominion over the earth.
Truth casts out all evils, and every materialistic method, with the higher spiritual law, — the law that gives sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, voice to the dumb, feet to the lame. If Christian Science dishonors belief, it honors understanding; and there is but One Mind entitled to honor.
The so-called laws of health are simply laws of mortal belief, the premises whereof are erroneous. Therefore the conclusions are wrong. Truth has made no laws to regulate sickness, sin, and death; for these are unknown to Truth. Belief produces the results of belief, and the penalty it affixes is as sure as the belief itself. The remedy lies in probing to the bottom, finding out the error of belief that produces a mortal disorder, and never honoring it with the title of law, or yielding obedience to it. Truth, Life, and Love are the only legitimate or eternal demands on man, and they are spiritual laws that enforce obedience.
We say, “My hand hath done it.” What is this my but mortal mind, the cause of all materialistic action? All voluntary — or miscalled involuntary — action of the mortal body is governed by this mind, not by matter.
Controlled by the Divine Intelligence, man becomes harmonious and eternal. That which is governed by human belief is discordant and mortal. We say man suffers from the effects of cold, heat, fatigue. This is human belief, not the Truth of Being, for matter cannot suffer. Mortal mind alone suffers; and that not because a law of matter has been transgressed,
