Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures

by Mary Baker Eddy

398:1 Sometimes Jesus called a disease by name, as when he
said to the epileptic boy, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I
398:3 charge thee, come out of him, and enter no
more into him." It is added that "the spirit
[error] cried, and rent him sore and came out of him, and
398:6 he was as one dead," - clear evidence that the malady
was not material. These instances show the concessions
which Jesus was willing to make to the popular ignorance
398:9 of spiritual Life-laws. Often he gave no name to the
distemper he cured. To the synagogue ruler's daughter,
whom they called dead but of whom he said, "she is not
398:12 dead, but sleepeth," he simply said, "Damsel, I say unto
thee, arise!" To the sufferer with the withered hand
he said, "Stretch forth thine hand," and it "was restored
398:15 whole, like as the other."

The action of faith

Homoeopathic remedies, sometimes not containing a
particle of medicine, are known to relieve the symptoms
398:18 of disease. What produces the change? It is
the faith of the doctor and the patient, which
reduces self-inflicted sufferings and produces a new effect
398:21 upon the body. In like manner destroy the illusion of
pleasure in intoxication, and the desire for strong drink
is gone. Appetite and disease reside in mortal mind, not
398:24 in matter.

So also faith, cooperating with a belief in the healing
effects of time and medication, will soothe fear and change
398:27 the belief of disease to a belief of health. Even a blind
faith removes bodily ailments for a season, but hypnotism
changes such ills into new and more difficult forms of dis-
398:30 ease. The Science of Mind must come to the rescue,
to work a radical cure. Then we understand the process.
The great fact remains that evil is not mind. Evil has
399:1 no power, no intelligence, for God is good, and therefore
good is infinite, is All.

Corporeal combinations

399:3 You say that certain material combinations produce
disease; but if the material body causes disease, can
matter cure what matter has caused? Mortal
399:6 mind prescribes the drug, and administers it.
Mortal mind plans the exercise, and puts the body through
certain motions. No gastric gas accumulates, not a se-
399:9 cretion nor combination can operate, apart from the
action of mortal thought, /alias /mortal mind.

Automatic mechanism

So-called mortal mind sends its despatches over its
399:12 body, but this so-called mind is both the service and
message of this telegraphy. Nerves are un-
able to talk, and matter can return no an-
399:15 swer to immortal Mind. If Mind is the only actor, how
can mechanism be automatic? Mortal mind perpetuates
its own thought. It constructs a machine, manages it,
399:18 and then calls it material. A mill at work or the action
of a water-wheel is but a derivative from, and continua-
tion of, the primitive mortal mind. Without this force
399:21 the body is devoid of action, and this deadness shows
that so-called mortal life is mortal mind, not matter.

Mental strength

Scientifically speaking, there is no mortal mind out of
399:24 which to make material beliefs, springing from illusion.
This misnamed mind is not an entity. It is
only a false sense of matter, since matter is not
399:27 sensible. The one Mind, God, contains no mortal opin-
ions. All that is real is included in this immortal Mind.