94:12 The eastern empires and nations owe their false gov- ernment to the misconceptions of Deity there prevalent.
Tyranny, intolerance, and bloodshed, wherever found, 94:15 arise from the belief that the infinite is formed after the pattern of mortal personality, pa.s.sion, and impulse.
Ingrat.i.tude and denial
The progress of truth confirms its claims, and our 94:18 Master confirmed his words by his works. His healing- power evoked denial, ingrat.i.tude, and be- trayal, arising from sensuality. Of the ten 94:21 lepers whom Jesus healed, but one returned to give G.o.d thanks, - that is, to acknowledge the divine Principle which had healed him.
Spiritual insight
94:24 Our Master easily read the thoughts of mankind, and this insight better enabled him to direct those thoughts aright; but what would be said at this period of an in- 94:27 fidel blasphemer who should hint that Jesus used his in- cisive power injuriously? Our Master read mortal mind on a scientific basis, that of the omnipresence of Mind.
94:30 An approximation of this discernment indicates spiritual growth and union with the infinite capacities of the one Mind. Jesus could injure no one by his Mind-reading.
95:1 The effect of his Mind was always to heal and to save, and this is the only genuine Science of reading mortal 95:3 mind. His holy motives and aims were tra- duced by the sinners of that period, as they would be to-day if Jesus were personally present. Paul 95:6 said, "To be spiritually minded is life." We approach G.o.d, or Life, in proportion to our spirituality, our fidel- ity to Truth and Love; and in that ratio we know all 95:9 human need and are able to discern the thought of the sick and the sinning for the purpose of healing them.
Error of any kind cannot hide from the law of G.o.d.
95:12 Whoever reaches this point of moral culture and good- ness cannot injure others, and must do them good. The greater or lesser ability of a Christian Scientist to discern 95:15 thought scientifically, depends upon his genuine spirit- uality. This kind of mind-reading is not clairvoyance, but it is important to success in healing, and is one of the 95:18 special characteristics thereof.
Christ"s reappearance
We welcome the increase of knowledge and the end of error, because even human invention must have its 95:21 day, and we want that day to be succeeded by Christian Science, by divine reality. Mid- night foretells the dawn. Led by a solitary star amid 95:24 the darkness, the Magi of old foretold the Messiahship of Truth. Is the wise man of to-day believed, when he beholds the light which heralds Christ"s eternal dawn 95:27 and describes its effulgence?
Spiritual awakening
Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours.
95:30 Material sense does not unfold the facts of existence; but spiritual sense lifts human consciousness into eternal Truth. Humanity advances 96:1 slowly out of sinning sense into spiritual understanding; unwillingness to learn all things rightly, binds Christen- 96:3 dom with chains.
The darkest hours of all
Love will finally mark the hour of harmony, and spir- itualization will follow, for Love is Spirit. Before error 96:6 is wholly destroyed, there will be interrup- tions of the general material routine. Earth will become dreary and desolate, but summer and winter, 96:9 seedtime and harvest (though in changed forms), will continue unto the end, - until the final spiritualization of all things. "The darkest hour precedes the dawn."
Arena of contest
96:12 This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be 96:15 Science and peace. The breaking up of mate- rial beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which a.s.sume new 96:18 phases until their nothingness appears. These disturb- ances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.
96:21 Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization.
This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is 96:24 changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.
Millennial glory
As this consummation draws nearer, he who has shaped his course in accordance with divine Science 96:27 will endure to the end. As material knowl- edge diminishes and spiritual understanding increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally 96:30 instead of materially.
During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but 97:1 those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They 97:3 will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection.
Dangerous resemblances
In reality, the more closely error simulates truth and 97:6 so-called matter resembles its essence, mortal mind, the more impotent error becomes as a belief. Ac- cording to human belief, the lightning is fierce 97:9 and the electric current swift, yet in Christian Science the flight of one and the blow of the other will become harmless. The more destructive matter becomes, the 97:12 more its nothingness will appear, until matter reaches its mortal zenith in illusion and forever disappears. The nearer a false belief approaches truth without pa.s.sing 97:15 the boundary where, having been destroyed by divine Love, it ceases to be even an illusion, the riper it becomes for destruction. The more material the belief, the more 97:18 obvious its error, until divine Spirit, supreme in its do- main, dominates all matter, and man is found in the like- ness of Spirit, his original being.
97:21 The broadest facts array the most falsities against themselves, for they bring error from under cover. It requires courage to utter truth; for the higher Truth 97:24 lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its in- articulate sound is forever silenced in oblivion.
"He uttered His voice, the earth melted." This Scrip- 97:27 ture indicates that all matter will disappear before the supremacy of Spirit.
Christianity still rejected
Christianity is again demonstrating the Life that is 97:30 Truth, and the Truth that is Life, by the apos- tolic work of casting out error and healing the sick. Earth has no repayment for the persecutions which 98:1 attend a new step in Christianity; but the spiritual recom- pense of the persecuted is a.s.sured in the elevation of ex- 98:3 istence above mortal discord and in the gift of divine Love.
Spiritual foreshadowings
The prophet of to-day beholds in the mental horizon the signs of these times, the reappearance of the Chris- 98:6 tianity which heals the sick and destroys error, and no other sign shall be given. Body can- not be saved except through Mind. The Science of Chris- 98:9 tianity is misinterpreted by a material age, for it is the healing influence of Spirit (not _spirits_) which the material senses cannot comprehend, which can only be spiritu- 98:12 ally discerned. Creeds, doctrines, and human hypotheses do not express Christian Science; much less can they demonstrate it.
Revelation of Science
98:15 Beyond the frail premises of human beliefs, above the loosening grasp of creeds, the demonstration of Christian Mind-healing stands a revealed and practical 98:18 Science. It is imperious throughout all ages as Christ"s revelation of Truth, of Life, and of Love, which remains inviolate for every man to understand and to 98:21 practise.
Science as foreign to all religion
For centuries - yea, always - natural science has not been considered a part of any religion, Christianity not 98:24 excepted. Even now mult.i.tudes consider that which they call _science_ has no proper con- nection with faith and piety. Mystery does 98:27 not enshroud Christ"s teachings, and they are not theo- retical and fragmentary, but practical and complete; and being practical and complete, they are not deprived of 98:30 their essential vitality.
Key to the kingdom
The way through which immortality and life are learned is not ecclesiastical but Christian, not human but divine, 99:1 not physical but metaphysical, not material but scien- tifically spiritual. Human philosophy, ethics, and super- 99:3 st.i.tion afford no demonstrable divine Principle by which mortals can escape from sin; yet to escape from sin, is what the Bible demands. "Work 99:6 out your own salvation with fear and trembling," says the apostle, and he straightway adds: "for it is G.o.d which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good 99:9 pleasure" (Philippians ii. 12, 13). Truth has furnished the key to the kingdom, and with this key Christian Sci- ence has opened the door of the human understanding.
99:12 None may pick the lock nor enter by some other door.
The ordinary teachings are material and not spiritual.
Christian Science teaches only that which is spiritual and 99:15 divine, and not human. Christian Science is unerring and Divine; the human sense of things errs because it is human.
99:18 Those individuals, who adopt theosophy, spiritualism, or hypnotism, may possess natures above some others who eschew their false beliefs. Therefore my contest is 99:21 not with the individual, but with the false system. I love mankind, and shall continue to labor and to endure.
The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the 99:24 manifestations of which are health, purity, and self- immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposi- 99:27 tion, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to G.o.d"s spiritual, perfect man.
CHAPTER V - ANIMAL MAGNETISM UNMASKED
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man.
- JESUS.
Earliest investigations
100:1 MESMERISM or animal magnetism was first brought into notice by Mesmer in Germany in 1775. Ac- 100:3 cording to the American Cyclopaedia, he regarded this so-called force, which he said could be ex- erted by one living organism over another, as 100:6 a means of alleviating disease. His propositions were as follows:
"There exists a mutual influence between the celestial 100:9 bodies, the earth, and animated things. Animal bodies are susceptible to the influence of this agent, disseminat- ing itself through the substance of the nerves."
100:12 In 1784, the French government ordered the medical faculty of Paris to investigate Mesmer"s theory and to report upon it. Under this order a commission was 100:15 appointed, and Benjamin Franklin was one of the com- missioners. This commission reported to the govern- ment as follows:
100:18 "In regard to the existence and utility of animal mag- netism, we have come to the unanimous conclusions that there is no proof of the existence of the animal magnetic 101:1 fluid; that the violent effects, which are observed in the public practice of magnetism, are due to manipula- 101:3 tions, or to the excitement of the imagination and the impressions made upon the senses; and that there is one more fact to be recorded in the history of the errors of 101:6 the human mind, and an important experiment upon the power of the imagination."
Clairvoyance, magnetism
In 1837, a committee of nine persons was appointed, 101:9 among whom were Roux, Bouillaud, and Clo- quet, which tested during several sessions the phenomena exhibited by a reputed clairvoyant. Their 101:12 report stated the results as follows:
"The facts which had been promised by Monsieur Berna [the magnetizer] as conclusive, and as adapted to 101:15 throw light on physiological and therapeutical questions, are certainly not conclusive in favor of the doctrine of animal magnetism, and have nothing in common with 101:18 either physiology or therapeutics."
This report was adopted by the Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris.