Man not structural
Anatomy declares man to be structural. Physiology
173:18 continues this explanation, measuring human
strength by bones and sinews, and human life
by material law. Man is spiritual, individual, and eter-
173:21 nal; material structure is mortal.
Phrenology makes man knavish or honest according to
the development of the cranium; but anatomy, physiology,
173:24 phrenology, do not define the image of God, the real im-
mortal man.
Human reason and religion come slowly to the recogni-
173:27 tion of spiritual facts, and so continue to call upon
matter to remove the error which the human mind alone
has created.
173:30 The idols of civilization are far more fatal to health
and longevity than are the idols of barbarism. The idols
of civilization call into action less faith than Buddhism
174:1 in a supreme governing intelligence. The Esquimaux
restore health by incantations as consciously as do civi-
174:3 lized practitioners by their more studied methods.
Is civilization only a higher form of idolatry, that
man should bow down to a flesh-brush, to flannels, to
174:6 baths, diet, exercise, and air? Nothing save divine
power is capable of doing so much for man as he can
do for himself.
Rise of thought
174:9 The footsteps of thought, rising above material stand-
points, are slow, and portend a long night to the traveller;
but the angels of His presence - the spiritual
174:12 intuitions that tell us when "the night is far
spent, the day is at hand" - are our guardians in the
gloom. Whoever opens the way in Christian Science is
174:15 a pilgrim and stranger, marking out the path for gen-
erations yet unborn.
The thunder of Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount
174:18 are pursuing and will overtake the ages, rebuking in
their course all error and proclaiming the kingdom of
heaven on earth. Truth is revealed. It needs only to
174:21 be practised.
Medical errors
Mortal belief is all that enables a drug to cure mortal
ailments. Anatomy admits that mind is somewhere in
174:24 man, though out of sight. Then, if an indi-
vidual is sick, why treat the body alone and
administer a dose of despair to the mind? Why declare
174:27 that the body is diseased, and picture this disease to the
mind, rolling it under the tongue as a sweet morsel and
holding it before the thought of both physician and pa-
174:30 tient? We should understand that the cause of disease
obtains in the mortal human mind, and its cure comes
from the immortal divine Mind. We should prevent the
175:1 images of disease from taking form in thought, and we
should efface the outlines of disease already formulated in
175:3 the minds of mortals.