Practical Healing
for'
IRind and Body
BY
JAIME W. YARNALL
J OH N "fryer ■
CHINESE- LIBRARY
PRACTICAL HEALING
■Ft)R
MIND AND BODY,
A Complete Treatise on the Principles and Practice
OF Healing by a Knowledge of
Divine Law.
By jane w. yarn all.
SECOND EDITION.
/ came that they might have life and that they might
have it more abundantly. — st. John, X. lo.
CHICAGO.
1893,
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JOHN FRYER
CHINESE LIBRARY
;IGHT, IHUl , UY J. W. Yaknall. /
INTRODUCTION.
P VERY student who takes up the study of the
■^^ laws of mind, will find that many of his life-
long views and ideas must give place to the
truths we find in the new dispensation.
This will not be hard to do when you remem-
ber that no practical help or comfort has ever
come to you from the old way of thinking and
doing, and we know that great help and comfort
do come from the new way. A willingness to
give up the false way is in the highest degree
essential to one who takes up the study with
honest, sincere desire to grasp an understanding
of its principles.
Prejudice gives a false coloring to all things,
thus blinding us to their true character.
One who reads with prejudice against any
theme will not get the right coloring, because the
4 INTRnnUCTION.
bias of such minds closes every avenue through
which the truth might otherwise find entrance.
To read with honest candor and sincere de-
sire for truth regardless of what the ' world may
say or think, will open your mind to what other-
wise would not appeal to your judgment at all.
It is universally admitted by all people of
judgment and candor that former ways of think-
ing, believing and doing, have always been more
or less disappointing, and have not brought the
comfort and happiness the race has always
hungered for.
The plans and aims men set out with are
acknowledged to be more or less a failure.
Each year of a man's life is an experiment,
and every new scheme has its doubtful side.
Men go on in life beset with fear and uncertainty
enough to weaken their efforts to a great extent,
all because true principles are not understood
and brought to bear upon their undertakings.
Each year brings an increase of restlessness
and dissatisfaction," all of which reflects upon the
physical. Nervous prostration has become almost
as common as less serious maladies, and may be
INTRODUCTION. 5
said to originate from the same cause, viz., Igno-
rance of truth,
The numerous forms of disease that show forth
upon the human race are all due to man's trans-
gression of the righteous law, or law of right ; and
man transgresses the righteous law because he
has a false conception regarding that law.
He falsely believes he is doing what will best
satisfy his desires and aspirations.
His false beliefs are the result of false educa-
tion; and false impressions are often inherited
from ancestors many generations back, according-
to mortality's ways.
The prophet declares "They taught their
tongue to speak lies, and their children have
inherited lies. "
These false ways are now showing forth in the
wretchedness and misery we see about us in the
form of disease, discord, insanity and crime.
In no age of the world has there ever been so
much insanity (so-called) as now. Each year
there is a demand for enlarged accommodations
for these victims of false education.
Such facts are cited only as proof that there is
6 INTRODUCTION.
somewhere a monstrous flaw in the ways and
methods of men.
Some great mistake in the problem of hfe has
set the whole machinery into confusion.
Harmony is the law of the universe, and it
should be the business of every man, woman and
child to seek a knowledge of that law.
"Man was created upright, but he sought out
many inventions."
He was also created with dominion over all
things, and his false and foolish inventions des-
troyed his consciousness of that dominion.
As long as man maintains a consciousness of
his divine nature, he will think and act in line
with that divine harmony which gives dominion;
otherwise the mortal gains supremacy and he
loses his dominion. In other words, when he
allows the carnal mind to rule he is out of har-
mony with Divine Law.
"The carnal mind is enmity against God," not
subject to Divine Law at all; and while the carnal
mind rules, the life problem will be full of mis-
takes.
The carnal nature has held the reins over man-
INTRODUCTION-. 7
kind for so many centuries that the children of
earth have scarcely any conception of true prin-
ciples in relation to life, and it remained for the
few earnest, self-sacrificing seekers for truth oi
this 1 9th century to discover a way to solve this'
great problem of hfe.
It is the sole aim of this science of all sciences,
to correct the false ways and mistakes of human
judgment that have brought discord and confusion
to the children of men, and when we prove by
demonstration that a knowledge of these princi-
ples will bring harmony out of discord, and give
health for sickness, and strength for weakness, by
correcting the false ways, every one must admit
that we have reached a step far in advance of any
previous reasoning, and yet we have only begun
to know the power of understanding truth.
To be able to secure and maintain a perfect
state of health and harmony for mind and body,
is the first step, and all have to take this first step
before they are qualified for the higher ones; at
the same time the principles by which you heal
your body and regulate your temper are the same;
and the earnest student will soon learn to control
8 INTRODUCTION.
circumstances, and rcf:julatc all the affairs of
life.
A careful study of the jirinciples herein ex-
plained, will enable any honest, earnest student
to heal all so-called diseased conditions of their
own bodies, or those of their friends and neipjh-
bcrs, and also to remove ill tempers and correct
all immoral tendencies.
By the knowledge and faithful practice of these
principles, life may be made one continual bles-
sing to yourself and every one about you, l)ecause
the very nature of the law is harmony.
J. W. Y.
ADVICE TO READER.
INASMUCH as many who read these lessons
1 will not have access to oral instruction, we feel
called upon to advise them not only to read the
lessons, but study every statement over and over
till its meaning is perfecdy clear.
The full meaning very seldom dawns upon the
conscious mind with the first reading, and often
not with the second or third; but with earnest
concentration and perseverence, the hght will
shine upon every statement, and the principles
will become so fixed in the mind that yoU will
become one with them, and they will spring to
your aid in every emergency.
The discipline given at the end of the third
lesson is most essential to all students who want
to make these principles practical in their lives,
and the more thoroughly you famiharize your
fO ADVICK TO READER.
thoughts with the statements, and train your
mind to reason in harmony with them at all times,
the better results will follow your efforts in the
study.
Repetition brings concentration; and when 3'ou
ha\e mastered every statement, and feel at one
with the principles laid down, you will have no
difhculty in healing, either yourself or others, and
you will be able to demonstrate over all seeming
difificulties, and finally you will live exemjit from
the need of healing, because you will know better
than to be sick. J. W. Y.
NOTE.
T^HE principles embodied in these lessons, as
taught by the author, have restored hun-
dreds of miserable invalids to perfect health;
many of whom have become efficient teachers
and healers ; and we feel assured that the careful
study of them will do the same for thousands who
still know not the way.
As a text book for teachers, as an instructor in
healing, and as a healer of all physical maladies
and mental inharmonies, I most respectfully offer
this message to the world.
J. W. Yarn ALL.
LESSON I.
"Attend to my words; * * * for they are life unto those that
find them and health to all their flesh."
TO gam a practical knowledge of the principles
herein set forth, one has to be willing to be-
gin at the very alphabet of truth, as beginning
right is a matter of vital importance.
This philosophy of healing by understanding
divine law, is based on man's sonship to God as
Mind, Spirit, First Caiise, which are all names
of Deity.
Man is the offspring of Divine Mind, and the
image and likeness of the same; therefore, we
want to reason all the way in harmony with that
statement.
To consider with dehberation what constitutes
mind in the perfection we ascribe to Deity, we
are forced to the conclusion that mind is the un-
derlying substance from which emanates every
attribute of Divinity, Life, TrutJi, Love, Lntelli-
gence, Wisdom, and Purity; all of which fill the
14 PRACTICAL HKALTNC;
universe:: and tend; coJttipually to good for the
children of men." ' '■ ■ "■ '
As'rn.aii ji> \i\^ essentj-eil nature is designed to be
and to act perfectly as the image and lik'eness of
God, all imperfect action and being arc contrary
to God's design; contrary to God's will. This
philosophy is called by various names; some like
to call it "mental science," because that name
calls forth less antagonism from the world in gen-
eral. Others prefer to call it "metaphysics," for
the same reason. Some give it the name of,
"The Science of Divine Healing;" but most of
its advocates boldly adhere to the name, "Chris-
tian Science, " which is in reality a name wisely
chosen, and no matter how much it is criticised,
nor how cruelly it is misrepresented, it is still
''CJiristian Science," because it was first taught
to the world in its purity by Jesus, who was called
the Christ, and it is therefore Christian in its
principles. It is called a science because it can
be demonstrated as truth by scientific and orderly
processes.
Jesus was called the Christ because he was
the anointed One, who was to embody the Prin-
ciple of Truth in the flesh, and teach true princi-
ples in such purity as had never been taught be-
fore, to a world so shadowed by ignorance as to
have no conception of truth as a principle by
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 5
which peace and harmony could be restored to
mankind.
That portion of the civihzed world that claim
to be followers of Christ are, as a rule, proud
and boastful of being Christians; that is, they
seem to feel that they stand on a higher plane
morally, intellectually and spiritually, than the
people of other religions ; and whether they live
up to their highest or not, there is a feeling of
confident assurance that the teachings of Christ
are triLc, and that He was the master mind. All
admit that He was the incomparable teacher of
true principles.
He said, "I am the way, the truth and the
life."
His early followers called him ''the master"
and he is still spoken of as the ' ' Master. "
We speak of the famous artists as the old
masters, because of their superior talent in one
especial branch of art.
The master musician is master of harmony in
music only.
The master in painting is master of harmony
in color and design only.
The master mechanic is master of machinery
only; and so on through every branch of learning
each one may be master of some one principle,
but Jesus the Christ was master of all true prin-
l6 PRACTICAL lIIiALINU
ciples, and understood and taught how to set
principles to work harmoniously without material
aids, and as all his teachings are absolutely true,
we do well to call him The Master.
As believers in his teaching it becomes us to
look carefully into the way we are understanding
his instruction, and see if we are walking consist-
ently with it.
Every promise he made has certain conditions
attached which must be met, and the condition
which will bring us freedom is. knowledge of
truth as he taught it. "Ye shall know the truth.
and the truth shall make you free. "
We are not to gauge our course of action, nor
our beliefs by what we see other professing
Christians do and think, but aim to know what
is true for ourselves, and thus educate the judg-
ment to see clearly how principles work in our
lives.
He did not promise the freedom by depending
upon what some one else knew or believed.
He meant of course that every one should un-
derstand and develop their own powers of mind,
which powers are the gift of God to his children,
to whom he gave dominion over all the earth.
The Psalmist said, "Thou gavest him do-
minion over all things, and hast put all things
under his feet. "
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 7
We have never been taught our birth-right in
regard to this dominion until now, and it is in
this Christian philosophy only that it is taught
now.
Without a knowledge of this divine power we
are in bondage to ignorance ; with it we are made
free, and we then have the mind that was in
Christ, and can do the works He did,
' 'Let the same mind be in you that was in
Christ Jesus our Lord, " is the admonition of the
Apostle Paul.
Jesus never taught nor acted from any human
authority; He never quoted the sayings nor
practiced the forms of the great Rabbis of his
time; He never referred his hearers for example
to the Scribes and Pharisees (who were in those
days the acknowledged authority on all matters
of rehgion), but warned his disciples against their
teaching and practices.
He knew they perverted the teachings of Scrip-
ture, and did not recognize the necessity of serv-
ing truth, but made forms and ceremony of great
importance, thus corrupting the minds of the
people by leading them into false ways, encourag-
ing hypocrisy and deceit, and ignoring righteous-
ness and truth.
In the study of this system we find Truth to be
the great working principle, without which there
1 8 PRACTICAL UKAI.INC.
can be no harmony, and wc find an understand-
ing of its working cjualities essential in using it,
else the Saviour would never have made the
knowledge of truth necessary to freedom, for
instead of adhering to the forms and traditions
of the Scribes and Pharisees he taught principles,
and did away with the cold formality that was so
kicking in Spirit.
How few of the teachers of Christian doctrines
have set their reasoning faculties to work to find
out how truth is going to make us free; therefore
the Christian religion, as taught for centuries past,
has lacked the practical quality that was intended
for every nation, tongue, and people to know;
and its clergymen have very largely gone back to
the ceremonious ways so characteristic of the
Scribes and Pharisees, besides bearing a close
resemblance to them in the narrowness, bigotry,
and intolerance they exhibit toward this practical
Christianity. They do not and can never expect
to carry the signs of true believers in Christ,
while going so contrary to the principles he
taught.
Jesus must have foreseen the faithless, half-
hearted service that would prevail to such an ex-
tent when he asked with such prophetic pathos,
"When the son of man cometh, shall he find
faith in the earth?"
FOR MIND AND BODY. IQ
This lack of faith in what truth will do for us
has always stood like an impenetrable cloud of
darkness between the conscious mind of man,
and the good things he desires.
We are not required to exercise a blind faith
in what we cannot understand, but our faith is
based upon philosophical reasoning.
To understand is to be able to give a reason
for the hope within us.
This philosophy, from first to last, is pure
reasoning based upon the premise that all the
world admit is true, viz. : the omnipotence and
omnipresence of God as Spirit, and man as the
offspring, the likeness and image of God.
As God is Mind, and man is the image and
hkeness of God, man is also mind in his essential
nature, and he possesses the attributes of God
consciously, in proportion as he recognizes and
acknowledges them and lives in harmony with
Divine law.
Man was given dominion over all flesh in the
beginning, and still retains it, providing he lives
in accord with the principles of truth.
Harmony is the law of the universe. Harmony
in the earth-life is Divine law manifest, and when
true principles are understood and acted upon,
perfect harmony of mind and body is the result.
To consider more definitely the nature and
20 I'KACTlCAl, UKAIINC
character of God, wc need to think of Ilini as
tlie f^reat center and source of all that is good
for mankind, as the sun is the center and source
of hght and heat for the world.
The triune principle. Life, Truth and Love,
constitutes all that is essential as the great
source of good, from whence flows or radiates all
goodness and perfection, filling all space with the
good we desire; and as no such thing as evil, or
falsity, or disease, or pain, or discord, can possi-
bly proceed from Life, Truth and Love, when
all space is filled with it, we begin to wonder
where such things come from, as they stcin.
There seems to be a conflict between what the
senses tell us and what reason says. Which
shall we believe? How shall we decide?
A great Jewish teacher and j^hilosopher, who
was considered very wise, once said: "When
thy senses tell thee what thy reason denies,
reject the testimony of thy senses and trust only
to thy reason."
Again, this accords with the admonition of
Jesus. He said: "Judge not according to ap
pearance, but judge righteous judgement, "which
means according to righteous reasoning.
The wise sayings of all generations agree.
Solomon said: "Man was made upright, but
he sought out many inventions," and one of the
FOR MIND AND BODY. 21
inventions of man is this mortal, human, carnal
mind, that leads us away from true principles,
and causes us to judge by appearance as we are
commanded not to do.
Paul seemed to understand this carnal nature,
and by him we learn that the carnal mind
is always at enmity against God, and is not sub-
ject to the law of God; neither, indeed, can be.
Why? Because it is not a creation of God's,
and is not a reality.
God never created anything that was at enmity
against another of his creations, because that
would be contrary to the law of harmony, which
is the law of love, the law of God, the only law
in the universe.
When we trust this carnal mind we are led
av\^ay from truth, and are continually led to
beheve in the false as real, and the more falsity
we harbor in the conscious mind, the more liable
we are to show forth the falsity in our physi-
cal conditions, because the ph5^sical is merely
the outward expression of what we think and
believe.
Solomon very wisely said of man: "As he
thinketh in his heart, so is he. "
If man thinks falsely and believes what is false,
his thoughts and beliefs must be mirrored in his
life, either in bodily conditions or his environ-
22 rilVSICAL IIFAMXr,
ments, and tlic only remedy for such conditions
is in knowinf,^ the true way.
The liuman family have been for so many ages
under the dominion of error that it amounts to
bonda<^e.
If^norance of truth is bondage to error always.
It has been very wisely and truly said that
" Ignorance of truth is the cause of all misery."
This was the inspired utterance bi Gautama
P)uddha. five hundred years before Jesus said,
"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free."
The wise and inspired of all ages agree most
wonderfully in their sayings, which proves that
all truth is one, and no statements of* ab.solute
truth can possibly conflict, no matter who makes
them, where they are made, nor in what age of
the world.
Now if knowing truth will make us free, surely
it is wise to seek the knowledge, for all desire
freedom.
As all our miseries are the result of not know-
ing truth, we need to know in wliat way erroneous
thinking and believing affects us physically and
otherwise.
Every reasoning mind will admit the fact that
the emotions of the conscious mind act with
instant effect upon the functions of the body
FOR MIND AND BODY,. 23
through the circulation. For instance, Fear, when
produced by a sudden shock, will stop the action
of the heart instantly, for the moment.
The function of the heart (as you know) is to
carry on a continual pumping process, which must
be iinccasing to be in harmony with physical law.
If the fear is of a forboding character, and is
accompanied wath dread and apprehension, it
acts differently, and involves other functions as
well as the heart.
If the fear amounts to a great terror of some
approaching and inevitable danger, the effect is
still different.
Terror dries up certain secretions, and has
been known to completely destroy the secretion
of coloring matter for the hair in a few hours,
leaving it perfectly white, and we cannot reason-
ably suppose that such terror would act on that
one function alone, but would affect the whole
system more or less, as is the case with 'fear of
every shade.
Anger is also very destructive to harmony of
body as well as mind. Violent anger is known
to suspend the digestion completely for the time,
by closing up the avenues through which the
gastric juice flows into the stomach, thereby
causing the pent up fluid to become more or less
poisonous.
24 PRACTICAL UKAI.INO
VVc often hear people say: " My blood fairly
boiled with anf]jer. " They speak more truly than
they know, for there is a boiling, seething condi-
tion of the fluids that changes the character of
the blood at once, turning it to acid poison, which
often shows forth in humors and blotches and
boils, and unsightly swellings. And then the
patient wonders why he is so grievously afflicted,
and will generally resort to some blood purifier
(so called), while all he needs is to live serenely
and control his passions.
Every ungodly emotion of the mind produces
an effect that is more or less destructive to health
and harmony, always acting through the functions
which are dependent upon the states of the con-
scious mind for their harmonious action.
It seems needless to mention the numerous
ways in which the functions of the body are dis-
turbed by the emotions and passions; and we
leave the reader to consider in his own way. and
perhaps by his own experience, how selfishness,
greed, envy, jealousy, hatred, malice, lust and
deceit destroy the peace and tranquillity of mind,
and thus affect the functional departments of the
whole system.
Many who see this and know it is true, are
not aware that every organ, every bone, mus
cle and nerve, and every joint and movement
FOR MIND AND BODY. I5
of the body, are wholly dependent for sustenance
and support upon the harmonious action of those
functions, while (as stated above) the functions
are wholly dependent upon the states of the
conscious mind. Then of course mind is the
responsible agent, and your reason tells you the
need of correcting the errors of the mind, and
training it to control its passions and emotions.
We have been taught by physiologists in the
past that the brain secretes the mind as the liver
secretes bile, which is a foolish and ridiculous
statement that requires very little reasoning to
prove its fallacy.
The brain is the instrument of the mind, with
which it directs every act of the body, consciously,
the same as the eye is the instrument of the mind
with which we see consciously, and the ear to
hear consciously.
The mind uses the brain to think upon what it
sees with the eye, and hears with the ear.
Mind is that which is real and eternal. Mind
is of God, and cannot perish.
If mind was dependent upon the brain for its
origin, it could bear no resemblance to the
Divine Mind.
The brain is of the earth earthy, and is nour-
ished and sustained in the same manner as other
physical organs, and is affected more or less as
26 PRACTICAI. HEALINCi
they arc l)y tho passions and emotions of the
mind, while mind is not a thing of earth at all,
nor is it dependent upon earth for its sustenance
and renewal.
Mind is not dej")cndcnt upon matter. Mind is
Spirit, and is renewed in the ima<^'e and after the
likeness of Infinite Mind, if so be that we reject
the false carnal nature and allow truth to rule.
"To be carnally minded is death."
The carnal mind is mortal, but when corrected
of its carnal false nature it is renewed in the like-
ness of God, and wheny)///)' corrected of ^// mor-
tal error, we have the mind that was in Christ
Jesus, and it is no longer carnal, or mortal.
The ]:)rocess of regeneration is the passing from
ignorance to knowledge; or from death unto life.
We put ofif the old man with his deeds, and
put Oil the new man, renewed in the likeness and
image of God.
The mortal puts on immortality by training
the mind to consciously know realities, and the
change is mirrored upon the body.
The peace and tranquillity that come with a
full realization of true principles, begin to act upon
the functions at once, and very soon the whole
physical body rejoices in perfect peace and har-
mony, which is all accomplished by the renewing
cf the mind from the source of all mind.
FOR MIND AND BODY 27
The blessings and benefits of understanding
these principles are threefold:
Healing all our infirmities.
Correcting all immoralities.
Brightening our intellectual faculties.
And the result is peace of mind, knowledge of
truth and health of body.
As you proceed in the study of this Divine law,
you will see how unmistakably dependent the
body is for health upon this peace of mind and
knowledge of truth.
It is very common for people to take up the
study solely for the healing, and they often say
at first, that they care nothing at all for the moral
or religious aspect of the subject, but they want
to get well, or they want to heal their family and
friends. They say: "lean get all the moral
and religious training I want in my church and
in society."
They don't know that their physical disorders
are all due to the foolishness, ignorance and false
ideas they have always been surrounded with in
society, as well as in their religious associations.
They don't know that purified morals and
spiritual awakening to what is real and true
regarding themselves, their origin, and their
powers, accomplish the desired change in bodily
conditions, more quickly and more perfectly when
28 PRACTICAL IIKAI.ING
they take up the study for the grand truth there
is in it. than for the heaUh it brings.
The greater our love for The Principle, the
greater the benefit.
Many have such lofty pride of intellect that
they feel humiliated to find themselves ignorant
of such grand truths, when they have spent
years of time and mints of money in the famous
institutions of learning and among the learned
men of the world in the acquirement of know-
ledge, but it makes no difference how much
pride of learning, nor how lofty and conceited
one is, all have to go back to first principles, and
begin at the bottom round of the ladder. You
will find all that is true in your great educa-
tion will be useful to you, and you will have the
judgment to detect the false and the firmness to
reject it if you are true to the principles of .sci-
ence
Some three hundred years ago one of the
great and learned men of France, Des Cartes, be-
came aware that much of the great learning he
had spent years to acquire was false and of no
use to him; so he set himself to work in great
earnestness to find a way to obliterate from his
mind all that was false in his fine education.
He spent much time in soHtude, communing with
the great unseen Intelligence, asking for guidance.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 29
and in the silence there came to him a message
in words so plain he could not misunderstand; it
was to the effect that all fttture discoveries oftrtie
laiv wait 2ipon the knowledge of the Occult laws of
healinz. This was a true revelation.
No matter how wise, how intellectual, or how
selfsatisfied we may be, we will find that true wis-
dom is only found through this law of healing
as Jesus taught it; and this knowledge is the
first step every one must take.
Those who think to shirk this first step 'be-
cause of some foolish pride or lofty conceit, will
never reach the peace of mind that is so essen-
tial to health.
"Except ye become as little children ye shall
in no wise enter into" this knowledge, which is
the kingdom of heaven.
You want to assume and declare at the outset
in this study, that mind controls all.
Mind builds the body true or false according
as we think truly or falsely of God, of His at-
tributes, and of our relation to Him, and our de-
pendence upon Him as the only Life, the only
Intelligence, the only Power in the universe.
As all things are dependent upon the Life
Principle, it is the problem of life we are dealing
with continually, and especially in this study are
we aiming to solve the life problem.
30 PRACTICAL lIKAl.lNi;
We have never known or heard of any one
who has solved it with full and entire satisfac-
tion.
Every one conception and see things
aright.
The story in Genesis has been reduced to the
understanding of all by translating the language^
\o read thus;
FOR MIND AND BODY. 35
"In the great forever, without beginning of
years or end of days, God is creating, or The
Good creates."
The whole statement in its true sense comes
from an understanding of God as Spirit — as First
Cause — the Absolute Principle of Good ; and all
responsibility in creation rests upon the Infinite
God.
The word God, or the name of Deity, in any
language means The Good. The word God with
one "o" embraces the all of good ^ while good
with two "o's" may only embrace one or more of
the God-like attributes.
Notice, the Good is the Creative Principle. All
nations and people who beheve in God at all.
believe Him to be good, and wise, and powerful,
and yet much of the religious instruction we have
heard regarding God tends to the impression that
He is cruel, vindictive, vengeful, and very weak
and variable about some things. The teachings
have not always harmonized with the statement
of Divine Being, which they set out with.
I repeat, that every true statement will agree
with every other true statement.
The fact that any statements ever conflict,
is the evidence that one or the other is in
error.
If we declare that God is omnipotent goodness
and love, and afterward admit a belief in another
36 I'KACrirAL IIKAl.INC.
power that is no/ good, we virtually deny the lirst
statement.
God would not be God if there could be another
power.
Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence
are the Essentials of Deity, and without them
there could be no God. These are names belonp;-
in<^ to God alone, and must not be f^iven to an-
other.
"Thou shalt have no other Gods before me."
We are commanded to "Acknowledf^e God in
all our ways, " which we cannot do while we admit
an evil power or presence.
When we hear the minister in his Sunday morn-
iiii^r prayer at church thank God that he is ]ier-
mitted to come into His holy presence on this
occasion, as we often hear them, we notice at once
that he has virtually denied the presence of God
during the week.
Of course, such admissions are unintentional,
but it betrays his misconception of God.
The personal God of /i/s conception could not
be omnipresent; therefore, he could not be God.
No one can conceive of a personal God beinj:;
omnipresent.
The prophet Isaiah said, ' ' Come now and let
us reason together." Let us do the same.
We say God is Spirit; all agree that God is
fOR MIND AND BODY. 37
Spirit, and the eyes of flesh cannot see Spirit;
but the eyes of flesh can see person.
God is Life, Truth, and Love, all of which are
Spirit, or Principle, unseen to the eyes of flesh,
but not unknown to spiritual perception.
God is the great center and source of all that
is good, and nothino; but good flows or radiates
from that center.
Even His name is The Good.
This Trinity of Unity, Life, Truth, and Love,
sends forth rays of purity and goodness in power,
wisdom, health, strength, harmony, and peace,
and fills all space with the Divine essence which
makes the omnipresent Good.
By reasoning in this way we see how impossi-
ble it would be for the essence of all purity and
goodness to produce impurity, or evil, or foolish-
ness, or sickness, or weakness, or pain, or dis-
cord; therefore it is not a true supposition.
God is the only Substance in the universe, and
all Principle is one with the substance from which
it proceeds.
Substance is good because it is God. Life is
God, and Life is omnipresent good; even the
smallest imaginable space is filled with Life as
Principle.
Truth is God, and Truth is omnipresent good.
Love is God, and Love is omnipresent good.
3^ rRACTICAL IIKAI.ING
All tlu: old jihilosoplicrs and bards say God is
Truth, and God is Love, and no one dares to
say that Love as Divine Principle is not ^rood,
for Love is God.
Intelli<:;cnce is also good and God is Intelli-
p;cncc. Wisdom is pjood and God is Wisdom.
Notice — All these divine names are of a char-
acter that is eternal, and imperishable.
No power in tlu> universe can destroy the
Principle of Life, Truth. Love, Wisdom or
Intelligence; they are absolutely imperishable.
I)ecause they are God.
What is this Substance we call God that under-
lies all that is ' It is Mind ; "Mind is good,
and the good is God always, thus you see God
is also Mind, and Mind is the great First Cause,
the omnipresent creative Principle, the only Sub-
stance in the universe, the only Intelligence, the
only Power, the only Deity, the Good."
Remember all these attributes of perfection
mentioned as the difTerent qualities of Mind, the
Wisdom, Power. Intelligence, etc., belong to
God alone; therefore we have no right to attri-
l)ute Wisdom, Power, Intelligence, etc., to any
other being; and when you mention any power
opposed to the good, you violate the command,
"Thou shalt have no other Gods before me."
You are giving ]X)wer and omnipresence to some-
FOR MIND AND BODY. 39
thing that has no place nor existence, except in
the delusions of mortal mind, which is the mind
that is carnal and false, and not at all subject to
the law of the Good.
How can there be another Power when God
is omnipotent?
Every time the statement is made that there
is an evil power, there is a flat contradiction of
God's omnipotence. «
This is the point at which we have to part
company with the ideas of orthodoxy, which
ideas have held the whole Christian world in
bondage for 1800 years. We have been guilty
of idolatry without knowing it. That is, we
have believed in a Power other than the God we
profess to believe in as the only Power.
We have not been consistent. We have been
working .at this great problem of life on a false
basis, and then we wonder and complain at the
confusion and misery.
We have taken the evidence of the senses
while ignorant of true law, which is judging by
appearance, instead of righteous reasoning.
We have been so long under the dominion of
error that the false way of thinking seems true,
and the true way seems foolish and absurd till
we reason it out and prove it true.
No one has ever proved his dominion over
40 PRACTICAI, IIKALING
material conditions l)y mortality's ways, and
never will.
The flesh man is not the imap;e and likeness
of God, to whom He .
FOR MIND AND BODY. 4I
What are you saved from by accepting the'
truth? From all the discords that mortal error
produces; from sickness, pain, misfortune, crime
and poverty ; all of which are conditions that lead
deathward, while, "the gift of God is eternal
life" nozu.
Perfect health, peace and prosperity, all
depend upon our recognition and acknowledge-
ment of it through understanding divine law,
which is truth. The Master said, "Whosoever
will, may come and drink of the water of life
freely. "
What is it to drink of the water of life ?
It is to take into the mind coitsciously the
understanding and realization that we are heirs
of Eternal Life, and that we have the right to
claim it now.
We drink of the water of life whenever we take
into the mind a truth that satisfies our thirst for
righteousness.
We drink of the water of life when we accept
the gospel of good news in the spirit he gave it.
To "drink of the water of life" is a figure of
speech, and it is the spirit of the words that gives
the life, not the letter.
And now, dear reader, if you have not already
reasoned out your problem, begin at once. Go
to yourself and in the silence realize what God
42 PRACTICAL IIKAI.IXd
is, and wh.it your relation to Ilini is, and never
admit the reality of any seeming obstacle to your
understandin<,^
In this way you will find the divinity within
you. In this way you will find yourself in Spirit
the child of G(k1, and like Job. when all else has
failed you, you will say, "I would talk with God;
I would reason with the Almij^hty;" and like Job
you will find restored health, peace and pros
perity beyond your most san^^uine expectations.
This reasonin*:; with the Almij^^hty that brinies
peace is the discipline we advise for every stud-
ent of truth.
It is wise to set apart a ]iortion of each day,
from a quarter of an hour to an hour or more, if
convenient, alone in the silence, and concentrate
the mind upon this reasoning with the Almighty.
In doing so you call forth the best there is
within y(Hi; you find the Divine self of you.
Then you begin to consciously realize that all
that is God-created is good; All that is God-
created is imperishal)le. indestructible and
eternal.
All that is God-created is perfect and without
blemish.
Meditate upon this with full confidence that it
is true, and do not try to call up the proofs that
seem to contradict it.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 43
In the next lesson you will find a reasoning
that will prove these statements true, and with
faithful self discipline, you will soon prove them
to your own consciousness.
CURED BY THESE LESSONS.
Something over three years ago a Baptist clergyman, aged 65
years, who had been a victim of consumption (so called) for many
years, at times very low and again able to preach occasionally,
was finally reduced to a condition considered absolutely hopeless
by his family and by physicians. He became interested in Chris-
tian science, and consulted Dr. Yarnall regarding his chances for
a longer lease on life than what the doctors and his family con-
sidered possible. He said he was not at all afraid to die, but he
felt that it was very unbecoming in one who professed godliness
to carry such a miserable body. The principles of the science
were briefly explained, and all the help we could give was tend-
ered him. He had a few treatments, and then entered a class,
attending every lesson promptly. Before the close of the course
of twelve lessons he declared himself perfectly healed.
His testimony before the class at the close of the lessons was to
the effect that although he had been a preacher of the gospel of
Christ (as he had formerly understood it) for many years, he, like
the majority of Christians, had virtually denied the practical part
of the gospel by living contrary to what he preached. As he
expressed it; "After preaching or hearing a good sermon we all
go home and act all the week as if we did not believe a word
of it."
A large cavity in his lung, from which he was expectorating
most freely and offensively, was perfectly healed in a few days, and
in five weeks from the time he entered the class he was installed
as pastor of a new church, and is still preaching and in good
health. When asked if he should preach Christian Science, he
answered that he should preach Christ as he now understood
Christianity from the teaching he had listened to in this class,
and if people did not like his preaching the whole gospel as he
44 PRACTICAL HEALING
now uuderstood it, they would have to listeu to some one else. He
has since then taught many classes, and being a highly educated
theologian, his Rible lessons, taught in the light of Christian
Science, have been very uplifting and enlightening.
LESSON II.
"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
KNOWLEDGE OF TRUTH IS FREEDOM.
IN the previous lesson the statement is made
that ignorance of truth is bondage to error.
All bondage is mortal error, or mortal belief in
limitation, because of the false education, false
believing, and false ideas regarding the nature
and character of the God we worship.
No matter how sincerely devout we may be in
the worship of our God, if we have false ideas,
or a wrong conception of God, we are worshiping
a false God, and all our appeals are as vain as if
made to a god of wood or stone ; our condition is
then one of bondage, because of the error. We
are thus demonstrably ignorant of the triLc God.
A false idea concerning God is the first or fun-
damental error of the race, because all other
falsities grow out of it.
If we believe God to be a cruel, vindictive des-
pot, ready to slay or punish us on the slightest
46 rUACTICAL IIKAl.INti
pretext, \vc cannot love Him, for such belief
makes us fear Him instead. "Perfect love casts
out fear. "
If we believe that He allows an adversary to
destroy His children and His works, and brin*:;
confusion and misery uix)n them, we accuse Him
of weakness, or deny His omnipotence, and this
also brinpjs fear. Wc cannot have full confidence
in His power for <^ood if we believe in an opposin<^
power.
If we believe we are under tlie watchful eye of
an accusing God, we cannot be at jieace, because
we are continually afraid of offending Him.
Fear is the great destroyer of peace, and all
are in bondage to fear who harbor false ideas of
God.
Peace of mind is one of the first essentials to
perfect health of body, because the body is built
perfectly or imperfectly, according to the truth
or falsity harbored in the conscious mind ; in other
words, the body is the outward expression of the
thoughts and beliefs of the mind.
Every kind of false belief engenders fear. Every
error in our problem of life hides the truth from
our consciousness, and we are lost in doubt, ap-
prehension and fear, which is a state exactly
opposite to one of peace, all of which is bondage ;
and under this bondage we grow irritable; we
FOR MIND AND BODY. 47
believe in limitation instead of freedom; we im-
agine injuries, we become suspicious, we grow
envious and jealous of some one who seems to
enjoy what we seem to lack, and we make our-
selves miserable, sick and depressed over it.
When sickness overtakes us and we are pros-
trated with fever, the doctor will call it a bilious
attack or malarial fever, and we accept his diag-
nosis as the true solution, because we have never
been taught that envy and jealousy and suspicion
in the mind open the door to such poisons as
malaria and contagion.
No one has ever taught us that an irritable
temper and petulant, disagreeable ways would
produce acids in the blood, liable to show forth
in rheumatism or gout.
We were never taught that deceitfulness and
hypocrisy would show forth in various ways
upon the body or in the family; often upon the
most innocent and lovely character in the
family.
No one ever taught us that anger, hatred, and
malice long indulged were liable to culminate in
cancers, tumors, or ulcers that physicians con-
sider incurable ; nor that dread and apprehension
long endured ^N&x& liable to result in paralysis;
and that melancholy and brooding over trouble
destroy vitality and cause nervous debility, and
48 PRACTICAL IIKALING
sometimes insiinity; all of which arc only an ap-
pearance, therefore false.
Why do such ]-)assions and emotions produce
such effects in appearance?
Simply because the conscious mind of man
entertains erroneous opinions regarding the ' 'pow-
ers that be. "
If we did not believe in a power that could
injure us, or wrong us in some way, we should
not be irritable, susjiicious, envious or jealous.
If we did not fear that our rights would be in-
terfered with, we should not get angry, nor
indulge in hatred and malice.
In short, if we did not believe in the jiower of
evil, we should not be afraid; we are never afraid
of the good.
The effect of fear uju)n the functions of the
body (whether conscious or unconscious), is the
greatest predisposing cause of disease, although
it may be wholly refiected from other minds, as
is the case with infants and imbeciles.
And what are the evils so generally feared?
All evil is supposed to be of the devil; then comes
the question, Who or what is the devil?
Jesus said the devil was the father of lies.
A lie has no reahty and can do no harm, only
as we believe in it, and all that proceeds from
the devil is as the lie himself, false; therefore.
FOR MIXD AND BODY. 49
what we fear as evil is only a myth, and needs
only a firm rejection of its claims to destroy its
influence and obliterate its effects.
Sickness, pain, and all discords are the result
of believing in the reality of evil, and are only
appearances, false as the devil is false; who is
the father of all such conditions.
The word Father implies parentage, and the
offspring is supposed to bear a likeness to the
parent.
The father of all evil being in every sense
false, all the 'resultant conditions are also false.
"An evil tree cannot produce good fruit."
But you say, "The evil is a reality all the
same." No, not so.
Let us reason together again.
We have already stated that only the good is
real and true, and we aim to make no statements
that will not bear the light of reason. We
desire to measure every statement by the one
infallible rule already mentioned, viz.. Truth is
God, and God is Good, and the Good is all that
is real and true, and whatever does not harmon-
ize, or have its Origin in the triune Principle,
Life, Truth and Love, (which is God, and from
which flows and radiates all goodness and wis-
dom) is not true, is not real, and must be rejected
as false.
4
50 PRACTICAL IIKALING
Now, according to this line of reasoning it is
on^y the carnal mortal nature that sees or recog-
nizes evil at all; and we read that the carnal mind
is enmity against God, not subject to the law of
God; and according to Scripture it is "as prone
to err as the sparks to fly upward." It is not to
be depended upon at all. The carnal nature is
pure selfishness, and selfishness may be said to
be the devil, as it is directly or indircctl\' the
parent of all wrong doing.
It is selfishness that jiromjits one to be dis-
honest. It is selfishness that prompts one to
lie. It is selfishness that prompts one to slander
and traduce his neighbor. It is selfishness that
makes a man a tyrant. It is selfishness that
makes one vain, envious and jealous. It is sel-
fishness that makes one suspicious and cen-
sorious.
The selfish person is never happy, and never
radiates happiness to others, because the selfish
propensity is carnal and false, and must produce
its likeness in false conditions.
The grasping, selfish nature, that amis to
make everything bend to his desire for gain
regardless of the rights of his neighbor, is blind
to the fact that he will some day have to pay the
penalty of his greed in some* way that will more
than balance his accounts. He may have secured
FOR MIND AND BODY. 5 1
the material wealth, and he may for a time revel
in fancied enjoyment of it, but the day of reckon-
ing will come, unless he turns and wipes out the
wrongs by which he gained his selfish ends.
When sickness, misfortune and death overtake
him and take away his dearest treasure, he never
dreams that in the past, in his dishonest, selfish
greed, he set an inexorable law to work, which by
his own ignorance and folly was aimed at what
he held most dear.
He falsely believed he was gaining satisfaction
by gaining wealth regardless of the right.
' 'As ye sow, so also shall ye reap. "
Another phase of selfish blindness to truth is
represented by the man who is always in a state
of worry and anxiety, in anticipation of loss, of
misfortune, of accident; always on the verge of
some calamity which will surely come if he is
faithful with his fears. He sets the law to work
by a similar process, and like Job the very thing
he feared comes to pass. He may be honest
and upright in his dealings, and pious and Godly
as he understands Godliness, but the same false
ideas have held him in bondage to fear, and he
will finally succumb to nervous prostration.
Then the Dr. will dose him with morphine to
stupefy his senses, because he does not know
what ails him. He never dreams that confidence
52 PRACTICAL HKALING
in God, and a realization of his own divine ri^^hts,
would restore the nerves to their normal state.
The feeling of grief and depression because of
some fancied wrong, or because your feelings are
hurt, is purely selfish, and frequently culminates
in sick headaches and finally in spinal troubles if-
continued persistently.
The business man whose cares and perplexities
have robbed him of his rest and worried him into
a state of distraction and desjiair and final pros-
tration, generally goes to his ]:)hysician for advice,
and although the Dr. admits that the great
mental strain has bctn the predisposing cause of
his ]-)rostration, he will dose him with the most
nauseating drugs, as if that would set his mind
at rest. He will put the medicine in the stomach
that is to act upon the mind to restore courge and
tranquillity and judgment.
According to physics this is a very wise pro-
ceeding. According to metaphysics it is a very
foolish one.
He might just as well give a man a dose of
Castor Oil to cure him of stealing, because in
either case the cause of the trouble is not reached
at all.
A man steals because of a morbid belief that
he wants something that is not his own; the belief
is false, and when his mind is cured of that error
FOR MIND AND BODY. 53
he no longer desires what is not his own because
he has learned that satisfaction never comes by
wronging others.
The man who sinks under discouragement
because of failure in his business schemes, be-
lieves in limitation and inability on his own
account, which is another false belief, and the
longer he entertains that belief the more he will
weaken his efforts, and the deeper will he sink in
discouragement. He has been trusting wholly
to his human judgment and carnal desires, which
are so prone to err. He does not understand
true principles, nor consult the Christ within
himself.
Christ is Truth, and ''OtJicr foundation can no
man lay. " Every scheme to be successful must
be laid upon a true foundation ; it must rest upon
a true basis; and the failures of business schemes
are all due to ignorance of truth.
We are now coming upon the time prophesied,
that, "Judgment shall be laid to the hne, and
righteousness to the plummet."
The selfish greed for gain often blinds the
man of business to the justice due his neighbor,
and he is often heedless of the little stings of
guilt that prick him, he is so intent upon the gain
to himself, and all the time he thinks he is gather-
ing riches to himself.
54 iMiACiiCAL iii:ai.ixg
lie doesn't know tliat every moment of liis life
the functions of his body arc growing more and
more discordant. He doesn't know that the
dchcatc machinery of his anatomy is affected by
every twinge of guilt, and by every unrighteous
desire to accjuire gain to the disadvantage of his
neighbor.
He doesn't know that his fear lest someone
gets the advantage ot him in his business transac-
tions, is setting his whole nervous system into dis-
cord ; and when he is overwhelmed with confu-
sion he still doesn't know that he is a slave to
fear because of ignorance.
Ignorance of truth is what causes the mother
to cover her unborn babe with fears of every
imaginal)le evil condition, which so often leaves
its impress in some frightful deformity. And
often the children who are born with the most
perfect physique, are followed through childhood
and youth with fear and anxiety enough to crush
out all vitality. No matter how well meant
anxiety is, it is none the less crushing in its weight.
The whole \vorld seems borne down with this
weight of fear; fear of sickness, fear of accident,
fear of misfortune, fear of poverty, fear of death,
and, worse than all else, fear of eternal punish-
ment after death by an angry God.
People of every grade and rank feel that death
FOR MIND AND BODY. 55
stands ever ready to close in upon theixu and cut
off the last hope.
Although people have always believed in the
reality of these hard conditions, there have al-
ways been some who felt sure there ought to be a
way out of them, but the way has never seemed
clear till found in this wonderful law of mind, and
in this we find that knowledge of truth does in
reality make us free. Was ever so much mean-
ing embraced in twelve simple words as when
Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free?"
It was his mission to the world to teach the
truth that would make men free.
When brought before Pilate by the ignorant,
angry mob to give an account of himseif he said,
' 'To this end was I born, and for this cause came
I into the world, that I should bear witness to the,
truth. "
He not only bore witness to the truth, but he
demonstrated what truth would do for us by
understanding it.
I have already stated that truth is a working
principle that waits in the silence to be recog-
nized. That is, it waits for the word or thought
that will set it into action; just as the harp
strings wait for the touch of the musician before
they will give forth the harmony of sound.
56 PRACTICAL IIKALING
Our part is to know trutli; to understand the
nature of that wliicii works, and liow to set it into
action.
With this knowlednje wc find we may be hb-
erated from all the undesirable conditions that
result from ignorance of truth. We accomplish
our salvation from all evil, from all fear of evil,
and all danger from evil influences, by knowing
truth and understanding its working power.
To m.any this may seem a very strange state-
ment. It is only strange because it seems new,
and there are only two ways of looking at it. It
is either true or it is false. If it is true, those
who understand can jirovc it true; if false, no one
can prove it true, and we should be left to
struggle on as before, and grope our way through
ignorance and doubt without knowing the way
out of bondage.
It is utterly out of the question for the human
mind to be without beliefs of some kind, and the
great and wise king Solomon said of man, "As
he thinketh in his heart, so is he. " Every man
is going to think in line with his beliefs, and if he
believes falsely he will think false thoughts; there-
fore, he will show forth false conditions. His
body will express the character of his thoughts.
Thought is the builder, and it builds true or false
according to the beliefs and thoui^hts of the con-
F()R MIND AND BODY. S7
scious mind. If he is ignorant of truth, he is ha-
ble to build falsely because he trusts to mortal
sense.
Ignorance is not knowing, and the promise is
that knowing truth will make us free.
How are we to know with certainty that we
understand the truth in this matter?
By proving it.
Take the following statement of Being and
study it over, analyze it, turn it over and over in
your mind, and try and see every side, and every
phase of it; try and realize what it all means,
then make up your mind regarding it; whether
you really and truly believe it or not. You will
find that it agrees in every particular with the
commonly accepted statements of the Christian
denominations called orthodox.
There is but one God, one Life, one Truth,
ONE Love, one Substance, and one Power,
divinely Good, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and
Omnipresent. Now, let us reason from this state-
ment as a basis with full confidence that it is
true.
If we say God is Omnipotent, and mean what
we say, we deny the existence of any other
power, because Omnipotence means all the power
there is in existence.
When we say, God is Omniscience, we mean
5S PRACTICAL HKALIN'G
that He kmm]"]
the body, by saying, "There is no reahty in
matter. "
Repeat it over and over till you realize the
utter nothingness of matter, and it will seem to
dissolve and set you free from the weight, achcally
free, and then you begin to know that matter has
no more dominion over you. It had none before
in reality; only you thought you must consult it,
as to what it should eat, and what it should
drink, and about the cold, and the heat, and the
dampness, and the malaria.
Learn to know that your body is not joii- at all.
It is something that belongs to you; a possession
of yours, something by which you express what
you are.
Vo2c are mind, and you have dommion over
all flesh, and you must know that your body is
plastic to your word, or your way of thinking and
believing, and you may build it as you will.
If your joints were swollen and warped and
stiff and lame from Rheumatism, and you found
you could reduce the swelling, and ease the pain,
and make them flexible, and symmetrical and
comfortable in every way just by denying the
false claims of matter, and by speaking the true
into showing, you begin to believe that S2i7^e
enotigh matter is not a reality, and you refuse to
allow it to rule any more.
7<^ rRAcriCAL iii;ali\(;
You find that you have the mastery by think-
ing truly, and you begin to reahzc in how mam-
ways you may use the true word to dissolve the
error and destroy its effects.
When Paul and Silas were imprisoned tor
teaehing this same truth, the prison doors v/erc
thrown open in response to their undcrstandini,'
of the laws of Sj")irit.
Bolts and bars were as nothing to them, be-
cause they knew there was no substance in
matter.
This is the same law, and the errors regarding
all material law must be dissolved before we can
be free from the bondage of matter.
Deny the error firmly by the thought, ' 'Tliere
is no reality in matter," and if you like, say
" There is no matter at all," because Spirit is the
only Substance.
The third false belief of the race that stands
for denial is. that the appearance we call matter
has life, and intelligence. It has neither; and
the case needs no argument. Deny it vigorously.
Declare there is no life or intelligence in matter,
for matter itself is only a seeming.
All who follow this discipline earnestly and
understandingly begin to find that material
things seem changed to them; they begin to
realize how fleetin<^ and unreal matter is. How
FOR MIND AND BODY. 79
delusive all that pertains to matter is; to-day it
seems so real, to-morrow it is gone like a dream.
Whatever has a true claim to life can never
die, because life is eternal. Whatever has the
elements of decay is not substance, and whatever
fails is not intelligence, because pure intelligence
is God, unchangeable and unfailing.
So we need not hesitate to say, ' 'There is no
life, substance, or intelligence in matter; all is
mind."
The fourth false belief that must be denied is,
that the unreal material body can see, hear, feel,
taste and smell.
These senses are attributes of the conscious
mind, which uses the body as the instrument of
seeing, hearing, tasting, etc.
o' o' o'
The conscious mind is mortal or carnal in pro-
portion as it dwells in error, or lives to the flesh.
It puts off the mortal and puts on immortality
when it rises to the understanding that, "The
flesh profiteth nothing;" and it has no claim to
reality itself, until it is born into this realization
of truth.
While in the carnal state it assumes responsi-
bility and presumes to be mind, and reports pain,
and thinks the pain is in the body, while in real-
ity there is no pain, and mortal mind reports a
lie, which lie accords with its false character.
8o rRAcriCAi, iikai.txg
Deny the pain, every time mortal mind makes
such report, and you will soon prove it false.
The reason for such denial is, ' ' There is no
sensation iiimattcr.'' If you deny it firmly and
boldly, the pain, the weariness, or whatever will
vanish, and every time you conquer the false
claim you are stronger for the next occasion.
Send out the mental protest to all the world,
denying that matter has any sense of pain, and
your word will reach some poor suffering body,
who will wonder what has eased his pain so
mysteriously.
Yoit may never know it, but that makes no
difference.
We now come to the fifth false belief of the
human race.
It is the belief of the people all over the known
world that we live in a world that was created by
Divine Wisdom and Infinite Goodness; and that
cur world is governed by Divine Wisdorn and
Infmite Goodness; and that all space is filled
with Divine Wisdom and Infinite Goodness,
which is all true; but right in the face of this true
statement there is a general belief in sin, sick-
ness and death, and no one seems to notice that
one statement contradicts the other.
It has been very wisely said that "we mis-
create our own evils, " and ' 'AH that we are, is
the result of what we have thought."
FOR MIND AND BODY. 8 1
If sin, sickness and death are realities, in this
world, then the former statement regarding
Divine Wisdom and Infinite Goodness is not
true.
It is mortal mind again that talks of sin, sick-
ness and death. It is mortal mind that has
invented all the false beliefs, and it is mortal
mind that ''miscrcatcs' in every case; and no
matter how real the evils may seem, it is only a
"miscreation" of mortal mind, and it stands for
rejection because it is false.
Deny it boldly. No matter what form it takes ;
deny it. And the more real it seems, the more
persistent should be the denial. We are to judge
not according to appearance, but judge righteously,
which means according to righteous reasoning.
Let all your reasoning be from the one basis
given in the statement of Being, and you will
reason righteously.
The principal evils we have to deny are sin,
sickness and death, because all minor evils have
their origin in Sin first (which is error), then
comes sickness, then death, all according to
m(5rtal belief, hence all false.
Declare in the silence over and over, ' 'There is
no sin. There is no sickness. There is no death"
There is no evil at all, for all that is not of
God is false,
6
02 PRACTICAL IIKALINC.
When you are tempted to doubt the righteous-
ness of this practice of denials, just remember
Paul's admonition to "Deny all ungodliness,"
and take his counsel in this as much as in any
other matter.
Fear not to say "There is no evil; there is no
sin; there is no pain; there is no sorrow; there is
no poverty; there is no sickness; there is no
death. "
We know these words are true, because we
bring true and good conditions to jkiss by using
them understandingly.
Some wicked cruel design is checked by timely
denial of the evil impulse. Some mean, selfrsh
act of injustice is made to die in shame and con-
fusion. Some lustful impulse is smothered be-
fore it has time to be acted on, and some poor
troubled heart is made glad and happy, and
they wonder what has relieved them and made
them so joyful and free; and to every one who
faithfully uses the true word for the relief of
humanity, comes the sweef assurance that every
day brings added blessings home to them.
This practice of denials is only the first step.
It is simply the beginning of discipline.
We have to tear down the false and remove
the rubbish of false beliefs, before we can build
truly upon the rock which is truth (Christ), and
FOR MIND AND BODY. 83
this is the discipHne that every student of truth
must practice before the mind is cleansed of
error.
We must erase every picture of error from the
body, by this treatment of the mind, before the
harmonious conditions will show forth.
Begin at once, and mentally deny the reality
of everything that conflicts in any way with
omnipresent goodness, purity and love.
Give yourself this discipline daily, two or three
times, if possible. It will bring you peace. It
will make you free. It will open your heart to
love. It will reveal to you powers you never
dreamed of, and teach you how you may gain
the mastery over all evil conditions and undesir-
able circumstances.
Never look upon this practice as foolish or
irrational, but consider it as much the prayer to
be delivered from evil as if worded after the old
fashion of supplication. It is your desire to be
delivered from evil that prompts the practice;
and desire is prayer.
Your prayers in the old way have never been
answered by restored health, because you still
believed in, and feared the evil as a reality; you
still believed in the reality of sickness and pain.
You still believed in the reports of mortal mind.
But now you can say to the mortal carnal
84 PRACTICAL HKALIXG
nature in tlic hmguaf^e of Edwin Arnold's "Light
of Asia, "
"But now, thou builder of this tabernacle,
Now I know thee who thou art;
Never shall thou biiild aj^ain these walls of pain,
Nor lay fresh rafters on tlie clay;
Broken thy house is, and the ridge pole split.
Delusion fashioned it,
Safe pass I thence, deliverance to obtain."
PARALYSIS HEALED.
Four years ago a lady who had been for many years an invalid,
partially jiaraly/ed, using crutches when able to move at all, living
constantly under the fear of sudden death from enlargement of the
heart, which pressed the ribs and other bones out of their normal
position, causing considerable deformity, and pronounced hope-
lessly incurable by many physicians, came into a class, and was
perfectly healed in six days by simply listening to these lessons.
Iler crutches were laid aside immediately, and in a few days she
was able to walk miles in calling upon her friends to tell them of
her restoration and of the healing she had found in Christian
vSiience.
She began to heal at once with remarkable success, and is now
an efficient teacher of the science.
LESSON
''Without the word was not anything made that was made."
WE have already considered the importance
of using words that are true, or words that
harmonize with divine law, and also the evil
effects of using words that are not true.
When we speak of words in this connection
we mean the import of your thoughts and ideas,
as much as the word spoken audibly.
Paul's caution to Timothy to ' ' hold fast to the
form of sound words" could be heeded by us
with the same profit.
There is great power in sound, true words,
especially in holding them in the mind. Jesus
said, " If 3'e abide in me, and ;;/v ivords abide myoit,
ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto
you." To abide is to hold fast; to keep. Christ's
words are all sound words; true words. Any true
word is the word of God; of Christ; and the true
word .creates or makes manifest what we desire,
86 PRAcriCAi, uKAi.ixc;
vvlnlc the false word or false idea '' iin'screatcs'
that which makes us miserable.
Whatever is not true of Spirit is not true at all,
although it may be a fact to mortal sense.
The power of thought has never been generally
known; and until very recently it has not been
considered a study of importance. We have
never been taught until now that our opinions and
beliefs regarding the peculiarities and shortcom-
ings of our friends and neighbors tended to de-
press and discourage and even augment the dis
agreeable traits we so deplore, especially when
speaking or thinking of them with condemnation
and censure.
The criticisms so freely indulged, and the un-
kind and often malicious charges made against a
neighbor or acquaintance, reflect upon them with
most demoralizing effect, but more so upon our-
selves. The very fact that you hold them in
mind as mean, or selfish, or proud, or mercenary,
or deceitful, tends to make them more so, and
makes you more so also. Such mortal errors and
disagreeable traits are never cured by recognition
of them. " He that stoppeth his ears and shut-
teth his eyes from seeing evil, he shall dwell on
high."
Wn-ien we do see them and think of them as a
reality we may be sure that there is something
FOR MIND AND BODY. ^J
in our own nature that in some way recognizes
its own, and although there may be an outward
disapproval and even an abhorrence of the fault,
there is a hidden fellowship with it, or we could
not see it.
If we are pure in heart we shall see only the
good.
Every accusing thought is a seed planted for
evil fruiting, and with a knowledge of this law
we vtust see our duty clearly. Cease to think
evil at all. Cease to criticise or condemn any-
one. Mentally deny what seems wrong, and only
recognize or speak of that which is good, for only
the good is true. To speak of the false or evil
at all as a thing of reality is to give it the fellow-
ship that is only due to truth and goodness.
To be always on the watch for something to
criticise or condemn, not only destroys the moral
integrity of the one so criticized, but it strikes
back upon ourselves with redoubled effect.
When your dearest treasure, your precious
and only child, is stricken with some terrible mal-
ady (so-called), diphtheria, perhaps, and you are
stricken with terror of the probable fatal result,
you moan and cry and bewail the cruel fate of
your child, and wonder why God allows such in-
nocence to suffer and die; never dreaming that
this is the outshowing or reflex expression of
88 rRAcricAL hkalinc;
your unkind and unjust condemnation of your
friend or neighbor. You recognize the mortal
error in your neighbor as a reality, and perhaps
even magnify it on the mortal plane, and this is
•your reward.
"Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and
see the reward of the wicked. "
That is, only the eyes of flesh can see the evil,
while spiritual perception tells you it is not a
reality. Spiritual perception enables you to
know all evil as only a mirage or unreal picture
of your error ; and your error often falls most
heavily on that which you hold most dear, and
thus you suffer a self-inflicted i>unishmcnt for
your unrighteous thought, and then charge it
to (jod.
Truly, "the way of the transgressor is hard,"
but thanks to the good Father, there is a way
out of this bondage ; a way ojien and free to all
who will seek it.
In seeking it we simply ojk'U our eyes to the
good and true, and close them against the evil
and false. We utterly deny the reality of all evil
or anything that can produce evil in appearance.
We never mind whnt unbelievers say about
proving the reality of evil; never mind what they
say about the reality of matter and the evidence
of the senses.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 89
They are reasoning according to appearance,
and the true thinker reasons from spiritual
perception.
He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he
himself is judged of no man. So don't be weak
and faithless; launch out boldly, and let reason
instead of sensation be your guide.
Righteous reasoning is the shining forth of
divine intelligence.
If you are weak and wavering and hesitate
because of the hostility of your church, or your
friends in the church, let reason guide you out of
that weakness also.
Take comfort in the fact that tViey agree with
all the first, propositions of Science, and that you
are sufficiently consistent to stand by those prop-
ositions and square every argument by them;
and by patient, loving forbearance you will win
them over from their foolish departure from their
acknowledged standpoint. You are conscious of
truth to lean upon, while they have only a man-
made creed that will not bear the light of
reason, and sooner or later they must see it and
acknowledge it.
The denial of the claims of evil and matter is
the point that is most disputed and brings the
most ridicule ; and we must admit that some
scientists have aired their newly adopted ideas in a
qr, rUACTICAl, IIIlAI.INCi
manner so foolish and mystifying to those who do
not understand, that many are held back from
investigating the subject because they are shocked
and mystified by statements that were never ex-
plained nor made to seem even rational.
We should not forget that we were all unbe-
lievers till we reached the point where conviction
of the truth dawned upon us, and it never dawned
u})on us by being shocked with foolish statements,
neither will it for others.
Let us be "wise as serpents and harmless as
doves," and we shall find a way to avoid the
fellowship or recognition of evil without shocking
any (-ne or showing any discourtesy.
People honestly think it is a falsehood to deny
the evils that stand out with such glaring reality
to the mortal sense, but some day they will know
that it is the falsehood to admit it.
In all the ways and methods known to the civ-
ilized world, the efforts to remedy the tendency
to evil conditions and search out their causes
have all been on a material plane, and it is well
known that, upon the whole, there has been no
perceptible diminution of evil, and no amelioration
of the evil conditions.
The ingenuity of man on a physical plane has
never yet discovered a way nor invented a plan
by which the errors of the human mind, (with
FOR MINU AND BODV. 9 1
their innumerable bad effects,) could be erased
from the boards of his experience ; and no matter
how talented, how intellectual or how highly edu-
cated one may be; no matter how much one may
know of material science, such knowledge has
never helped men to solve this problem of life,
and never will.
Every individual has an equal interest in this
great problem of life, if he would only awake to
a conscious realization of its importance; but
never till now has there been a way clearly opened
by which it might be solved. The new light that
is thrown upon it by the study of this philosophy
is daily proving it the true way. New and higher
truths are dawning upon every earnest student
of truth daily.
We find that when the conscious mind is will-
ing to be taught, and takes up the line of rea-
soning regardless of what seems, and regardless
of all preconceived opinions, and earnestly and
firmly, and persistently rejects all falsity by de-
nying the reality of all that is not consistent with
the eternal Principle that is God, the diseases
and discords, and evil conditions vanish as a re
ward of his righteous reasoning.
No one need complain that he has no proof of
such results following this practice, for there are
thousands who are living witnesses, who stand
92 PRACTICAL ni:Ai.i\c.
ready to testify tu the potency of this saving
method; many of them having been miraculously
saved and shown the way out of bondage by the
process.
But those who stubbornly harden their hearts
"will not be persuaded though one rose from the
dead." It was even so when Jesus of Nazareth
taught them. He quoted the prophecy of Isaiah,
saying, ' ' This people's heart is waxed gross,
and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes
they have closed; lest at any time they should
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
should understand with their hearts, and should
be converted and I should heal them. "
To be healed is to be saved; the words are
from the same root, and no one is made perfectly
whole till he is saved from th-e mortal errors that
show forth in sickness.
Every one of ordinary intelligence knows that
the world is weaYy. sick and discouraged with all
the recognized systems of cure, as well as those
of moral reform and religious training.
The so called cures do not cure at all.
The moral reforms do not reform at all.
And the religious training in common practice
makes either dogmatic bigots and hypocrites, or
agnostics and infidels; and each year we see the
confidence of the people growing less and less in
FOR MIND AND BODY. 93
those recognized systems; we all know there is
nothing reliable in them.
We have all repeatedly witnessed the efforts
of praying Christians to stay some threatened
calamity in the way of pestilence, famine or
flood; or perhaps in praying for the life of some
highly esteemed dignitary of the church or na-
tion. Have we ever seen those prayers answered ?
No, never. Such patients have always passed
away.
Why is it ?
Because they prayed without the righteous
conception of God; which, as before stated, is
equivalent to praying to a false God.
We read that the "effectual, fervent prayer of
the righteous availeth much"; and no matter how
fervent and earnest the prayer may be, if it lacks
the righteous quality it does not avail. Righteous-
ness means that which is right and true in
thought, word and deed.
A true, or righteous conception of God and
His laws enables man to offer the effectual prayer,
which is the prayer of acknowledgment, of
thanksgiving, of affirmation or recognition of
what is already provided.
The begging, pleading, beseeching and com-
plaining prayer is never availing.
We can never expect to change the plans or
94 I'RACTICAL UKAl.IXG
purposes of God by our pleading, because God
is already perfect in wisdom, goodness and love,
and His bounty is unlimited ; and He is yester-
day, to-day and forever the same.
/F^' must be reconciled to God as Ifc is ; not
God reconciled to us.
The change in ap{Kirent conditions that comes
by righteous prayer is in us; not in (jod, and this
reconciliation can be accomplished in noway but
by firmly rejecting, or denying as realities all false
ways. Ignore them perfectly, and train the con-
scious mind to see and know that all that is, is
good.
This soon brings a realization that what we pray
for is already ours.
The affirmation that you have the good you
desire, and the acknowledgment of its source
with thanksgiving, opens your eyes to the realiza-
tion of it asalreadyyours; while the complaining,
begging and beseeching prayer of one who loves
to acknowledge his unworthiness, and loves to tell
God how mean and depraved he is, never brings
any reward except in an increased sense of un-
worthiness and depravity.
- Such people carry a mental atmosphere wher-
ever they go that causes depression and gloom to
every one they meet, and even children shrink
from them because of that repellant mental state;
and yet they seem so pious.
FOR MIND AND BODY, 95
They generally carry very feeble bodies, and
people wonder why such a good man should be
so afflicted, and why he is not happier when he
is so good.
How could he be happy with such false ideas
about God and himself ?
He dare not be happy because he is too un-
worthy, and he thinks he is pleasing God by
being miserable; then he prays to God for release
from his misery, and prays with that same fool-
ish error that it is God that afflicts him.
''Therefore the God that ye made you '
Was grievous, and brought you no aid,"
Because it was by your false thought
" That the God of your making was nuidey
Every one may be said to make his own God,
in the sense that our conception of God is God
to us; and if our conception is a false one we get
no aid by our appeals.
God is Love, and His law is the law of Love,
and every one will get the conscious benefit
of the law of Love in proportion to his recogni-
tion of it, and his acknowledgment of its source
with gratitude; which he never can do while his
conception of God is so false and he thinks of
himself as so separate and apart from God.
We should think of ourselves as spiritual, and
in every way the likeness and image of God.
By so realizing our true being we lose that
96 rKACTICAL IIKALING
feeling of base depravity which is so false and
depressing, and which is responsible for so many
of the physical infirmities and weaknesses that
prevail so largely among the piously inclined, ac-
cording to those old ideas falsely called orthodox.
Such piety seeks debasement and names it
humility, instead of seeking to know the true self
and naming it the child of God, or the divine self.
Ilufeland, a very eminent Prussian who lived
a hundred years ago, was physician to the king,
and considered very wise and far-seeing in his
judgment. He said, that there is a region of man
that is never sick, and could not be made sick,
and to call that region to reign as the powerful
would make the sick man well.
He seemed to have caught a glimpse of the true
solution of the health problem; and yet his say-
ing was never made practical in his day, although,
like all true thoughts.// liz'cs, and has been treas-
ured as a word of wisdom, to be brought forth as
a gem of trulli wlieii the time was ripe for its
appreciation.
All such sayings have their weight, and all such
sayings go to prove that this law is as old as
time, and might always have blessed the world
with immunity from suffering if only men would
see and believe the true instead of the false; if
only men would use their reason and not judge
by appearance in all things.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 97
No one claims to have discovered a new law,
and the miracles wrought by the prophets of old
are made to seem less a mystery when we know
they were the result of their understanding of
Divine Law.
Jesus came as the Son of the Most High to
teach the power of the word in fulfillment of the
law that was from the beginning, and which
cannot change because it is the outflow from the
eternal Principle, that is God — "The same yes-
terday, to-day and forever, world without end. "
By understanding these principles and pro-
claiming them as the only power, and recogniz-
ing them as the only law, we set them into action.
Many think it a strange proceeding at first
because of its simplicity, and because there are
no apparent remedies, no appliances, no instru-
ments of torture, by which great ceremony is
sometimes made to appear wonderfully wise, but
never efficient.
Why should such ceremonious proceedings
seem so impressive and important when we never
see any good accomplished by them?
When Naaman the leper came in his chariot
to the prophet Elisha to be healed of his leprosy,
he expected the prophet to perform some strange,
mysterious ceremony or incantation to effect a
cure; and when the prophet told him to go and
98 I'RACTICAI. IIKAI.IXr,
wash seven times in Jordan, and made no pre-
paration for other performances, the proud
Syrian captain was very angry, and was about
to return to his own country without beinj^
healed. But his faithful servant remonstrated
with him and persuaded him to do as the prophet
told him, till he finally yielded and obeyed
Elisha, and washed seven times in Jordan, and
" Lo, his tiesh became like that ofvayounj^child."
His haughty pride, and his contempt for the
simplicity of the cure had come very near carry-
in<^ him home stiil a leper; just as pride and con-
tempt for the simplicity of the Christ method of
cure in our day causes so many to go through
the earth life with such feeble bodies and un-
happy states of mind.
In many cases that come for treatment by the
Christian Science method we find pride and
arrogance to be the devils that have to be cast
out. In some cases it is hatred and malice; in
some it is envy and jealousy; in some it is deceit
and treachery, and so on; the catalogue might
be extended to great length.
These are the devils that must be cast out;
for as long as we entertain them they are our
masters, and they hold us in a bondage that
must sooner or later be pictured forth in condi-
tions we do not desire.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 99
Even in the case of Naaman, his leprosy was
only the sign or picture of the false ways and
ungodly passions of the human heart, and it
makes no difference in what way it shows forth,
whether in leprosy, consumption or whatever, it
is the false that shows forth in any case of dis-
ease; and the false is what we want to obliterate
from our life, whether it is disease of the body,
or moral leprosy, the process is the same.
When we effectually deny the error that has
caused the infirmity (whatever it may be) we
are washing in Jordan. We are stripping off the
false beliefs in matter, and evil, and the false
power, and making ourselves clean and pure;
making ourselves ready for the new garment of
health that comes by claiming, affirming, ac-
knowledging the true.
We clothe ourselves with new conditions when
we acknowledge God as our health, our strength
and our peace.
Health is a state of the mind, insomuch as
the conscious mind recognizes truth, and re-
alizes that truth is God, and God is health.
We are not acknowledging God at all when
we complain of our pains and diseases, nor when
we talk of our burdens, nor when we admit
weakness, poverty or misfortune.
If we admit that God is all and in all, how can
we turn and declare sickness and pain to be real?
lOO rUACTICAL IIEALIN(;
We have seen how the evil passions indulj^ed
by the carnal nature, bear fruits in those miser-
able conditions.
We have seen how anger, hatred, malice,
envy, jealousy, deceit and selfishness, bring sor-
row, and how the sorrow seems to master man-
kind. We have seen how the belief in the reality of
matter weighs us down and makes us care-bur-
dened and sorrowful; and, as before stated, here-
tofore no one has ever discovered a way to wipe
out these evils; and when every attempt to rem-
edy or better such conditions is met by failure
and defeat, and nothing seems to comfort, or
cheer, or promise relief, we are assured that God
afflicts us for our good, and we must not repine,
but look for release only through the portals of
death.
We are told with many pious sighs that life
is a continual warfare, and there is no hope this
side the grave.
How dare the professed followers of Christ
teach such a fallacy? So contrary to what the
Master taught.
He always talked of the jiozl', and never of
" beyond the grave;" never.
Is it any wonder that the professing Christians
of the age get no answers to their prayers?
Is it any wonder that the problem of life shows
FOR MIND AND BODY. lOI
SO much confusion with them when they wander
so far away from the basic principles they set cut
with? '■■' ''■' ■ "'■ '
Every minister of the goSpel;, that jm'iDpfesiajld'
complains and draws upon his people for sym-
pathy — because of his physical infirmities, his
throat troubles, his nervous headaches, his great
exhaustion from too much study, or too great a
tax upon his strength in his pastoral duties, is a
living reproach upon the cause he presumes to
represent; and every such condition only adver-
tises his ignorance of gospel truths. Foolishness
and ignorance are the devils that hold him in
bondage.
No matter how much he may have learned in
the great schools of the world, nor with how much
pride he may boast of his scholarship; he may
attach the M. D. and the D. D. , and the L. L. D. ,
and exhaust the alphabet on down to X Y Z for
initials to indicate the degrees of learning that
have been conferred upon him, and what does it
all amount to when he allows himself to be fright-
ened into che pneumonia because he got his feet
wet, or because he was exposed to a draught of
cold air, or if he thinks he has been exposed to
malaria and is stricken with terror at the possible
fatal result?
To what purpose has he studied divinity, when
I02 PRACTICAL IIKALIXO
he knows nothin^^ of tlic dominion tliat is the in-
hcr-i.tance of every child of Divinity?
•He finds- all those hij^h-sounding titles mere
fcwibbles of; empty air when compared with the
knowledge of practical truth that is gained by
the study of Divinity according to righteous
reasoning. He will see that he has begun wrong
in his search for knowledge, because first princi-
ples have not been mastered first.
As he had not the knowledge of first principles
to begin with, his whole course of study is shad-
owed by that ignorance. The lack of that most
essential knowledge appears in everything he at-
tempts.
Although a fine education is a very desirable
acquisition, it is still more desirable to begin right.
If first principles are mastered first, all else
will be more easily acquired, and the judgment
will be educated to detect and discard the false
ideas that form so large a part of popular educa-
tion.
People of great learning are often very poorly
educated, and many wise men have discovered so
much that is false in the fine education they have
spent so much time and money to acquire, and
so little that is of practical use, that the world is
surfeited with what is called great learning, be-
cause it is lacking in knowledge.
Fur mind and body. 103
It is the false ideas, false impressions and
false education that stand in the way of true
knowlege, and which have to be rejected by a
firm denial of their reality.
The practice of denials is the second stepping-
stone to peace. The cleansing process which
shows forth the mind of truth, which is symbol-
ized by the washing in Jordan.
In this cleansing the mind of error, or casting
off the garment of falsehood, we must not leave
ourselves empty and naked, else we shall be like
the man from whom the evil spirit was cast out;
but returned, finding his place empty, swept
and garnished; and seeing the emptiness, he took
with him seven other devils worse than himself,
and they took up their abode with him, making
his last state worse than the first.
When we have faithfully cleansed the mind of
error by denial, we must not neglect the next step,
but clothe ourselves anew with assurances and
affirmations of goodness and truth before evil im-
pressions have time to take up their abode again.
The true is always the good, and its character
is positive ; while the false is the not good — the
evil, which is negative in character. It is equiv-
alent to nothing; hence we deny it.
If you have denied pain, your affirmation
should be its opposite — peace, rest, ease.
I04 PRACTICAL IIKALING
Remember always tliat the ^ijood you affirm is
of God. If you deny sickness, affirm that God
is your health. If you deny weakness, God is
your strenp;th. If you deny fear, God is your
courage, your peace, your love.
The word you speak or think is the creative
agent. The thought or idea is as much o?ir word
as if spoken, and is even more potent in its effects,
because it meets with no opposing argument as
it would if given audibly, and. as before stated,
every true thought is a word of God.
"Without the word was not anything made
that was made."
The true word has power to bring forth what-
ever we desire in 7'i<^/itcousncss.
Notice, when you affirm that God is your Life,
you want to realize that Life is an eternal Prin-
ciple that nothing can mar or destroy; and that
you live, move and have your being in the great
ocean of Life; that Life is God; and you are a
child of God; one with God, and an heir to eternal
Life.
To fully realize this truth is satisfaction. It
often brings a conscious thrill of joy that makes
you know that Life must be unbroken, because
its source is eternal and unfailing.
When you continue to realize the allness of
God as Life, which shows forth in the ever
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 05
present good, you feel assured that your denial
of the claims of death is righteous reasoning, and
you will stand by the affirmation that God is the
only Life, and you are an heir to eternal Life.
When you affirm that God is Truth and then
look about you and see so much that is false,
you may be tempted to think that after all, God
cannot be omnipresent; but turn from the temp-
tation; it is only the seeming, and never fear to
stand by the affirmation, God is Truth — and.
There is only God.
In knowing Truth we know God, and thus we
lose confidence in the old false ways, and when we
affirm that God is Truth, knowing that there is
only God, the false and troublesome conditions
fall away, and we are free. It is then we prove
that knowledge of Truth makes us free.
The affirmation, the acknowledgment, makes
it manifest; our word has power to prove the law
true. Again we repeat the text of the lesson:
' ' Without the word was not anything made that
was made."
The most wonderful name of the Father, God,
is Love. There is something inexpressible;
something indefinable by human language in the
Love that is Divine. The Father Love, the
Mother Love in One. It asks no reward for its
bestowal; it is no respecter of persons; it is the
Io6 PRACTICAL IIKAMXG
Holy Spirit, the Mother Principle of the God-
head.
To affirm, " God is Love," and repeat it over
and over with trust in your word, is a treatment
of itself which has cured many a headache and
many a pain that no other remedy could reach.
What more can we ask than perfection, in the
character and attributes of the God we worship?
And when the Divine Love is bestowed without
stint or limit, the least we can do is to acknowl-
edge it with thanksgiving.
"Acknowledge me in all thy ways and I will
direct thy paths." It is the honest, sincere real-
ization of the truth we affirm that makes our
affirmation potent to bring forth what we desire.
We may attain to that state of mind which
will enable us to say as Jesus did, "I and the
Father are one," by affirming the Life, Truth and
Love of God as Omnipotent, Omniscient and
Omnipresent, until we are alive with the realiza-
tion that it is true.
The Life, Truth and Love are the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit, or Mother Principle; the Omni-
present Trinity from which flows constantly the
health, strength, wisdom, peace, intelligence,
courage and trust; and when we lack any of these
desirable qualities in our life, it is because we
have not made ourselves one with the Divine
FOR MIND AND BODY. lO/
Father, which state of mind clears our perceptions
and makes our judgment reHable to consciously
know spiritual realities.
God is Substance: the only substance, and
when we make this affirmation with understand-
ing we begin to realize the nothingness of all
material things. We see how fleeting and illusory
are all things that the sight and touch call sub-
stantial, and we begin to know that Spirit is the
only Substance; the only Reality.
Spirit abideth forever, because Spirit is God.
So let us boldly affirm, God is the only Substance.
God is the only Intelligence, and knowing this
makes us feel that some intelligent force or power
unseen, moves us to think and act, whose
wisdom is our only source of supply; the great
unfailing fountain from which flow unceasing
supplies of knowledge.
The boasted human intellect that rears its head
with such lofty pride, is but a feeble reflection of
the Divine within us, untfl it is trained to know
the real self. And when that is accomplished
the Divine self will shine forth, the perfect child
expressed in the physical; free from blemish;
healthy and strong; happy and free.
This is the heritage of all who find the Divine
self.
The greatest wisdom of Greece was expressed
lOcS PRACIICAL IIKAI.lN'Cx
in the two simple words, " Know thyself, "carved
in stone and placed over the entrance to the
Delphic temple.
All great thinkers depreciate the authority of
books and Priests, and forms and ceremonies,
and aim to know the self.
In every affirmation of good we make with
understanding and trust, we are making the true
self manifest.
When we say, ' ' God is my Life. " knowing
that there is no other Life, we begin to realize
that the Life that is God, Eternal Life, perfect
Life, in which there can be no pain, no disease,
no death, nor anything that leads to death, is the
Life that is lived within us, pure, free, wise and
immortal; we find we arc lived by the Divine life.
When the undesirable conditions of pain and
sickness come into our lives according to mortal
sense, we must know that it is only a human
perversion of Divine law, and is not true; hence
the need of constant watchfulness in denying the
evil that seems so real to mortal sense.
Stand by your basic statements, and all will
be well.
You see how easy it is to take up this line of
thought and follow on with pure reasoning.
If God is the only Life, Substance and Reality,
and God is Spirit, Omnipresent, then you say,
FOR MIND AND BODY IO9
I am Spirit, because I am the offspring of Spirit;
I am Mind, because I am the idea, the Hkeness
and image of Omnipotent Mind; I hve, move and
have my being in omnipresent Wisdom and Love.
The very thinking of such thoughts, or speaking
such words with understanding takes away all
burdens, all fear and anxiety; we feel that truly
we have a Father and friend who cares for us in
love, whose power is unlimited, and we trust
Him, knowing His law is love and mercy.
To give yourself such discipline daily soon
brings the assurance that through you the power
of righteous thought may work for the uplifting
of others, and you set it into action by speaking
the true word; by acknowledging the allness of
the good; and you will feel a certain conviction
that a healing potency, a comforting influence
goes out from you to reach with health or cheer
the one to whom you send it; and you always
find your good words return to bless and strength-
en you.
Nowhere else is found such rest, such peace,
such relief from burdens; and in no other way
can the Divine Love that heals the hurt be brought
so near and made so comforting.
In no other way has freedom been made so
tangible and sure.
By no other means has the prophecy in Reve-
no PRACTICAL IIKALING
latinn bcHMi explained. We see clearly how it
can be brou.^ht to pass in every single life.
It says, "There shall be no more pain, neither
sorrow nor crying, for former things have passed
away, and behold, all things have become new."
And this is the literal fulfillment of the proph-
ecy in every individual case that is willing to
abide by the requirements; but there is no prom-
ise without some condition to be met.
Isaiah said, "They that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength."
To wait upon the Lord is to trust the law of
God.
Solomon said, " In the way of righteousness
is life; and in the patliway thereof there is no
death. "
Jesus said, " If a man keep my sayings he
shall never see death. " Also, " If ye abide in me,
and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye
will, and it shall be done unto you."
The conditions to be met may all be summed
up in the one word, " Overcome."
In the denial of evil you overcome evil condi-
tions.
"To him that overcometh I will give of the
tree of life."
"To him that overcometh I will give to eat of
the hidden manna."
FOR MIND AND BODY. I I I
" To him that overcometh will I give power
over nations."
" He that overcometh shall inherit all things.''
The only sure way to overcome the universal
beliefs in evil and in the power of evil, is to take
the following Statement of Being with the denials
attached, and make it a religious duty to give
yourself this discipline daily, once, twice or three
times, as you find it convenient.
Take it in sections at first, and thoroughly
familiarize yourself with every statement and de-
nial ; always giving your affirmations of good after
making your denials. For every denial of evil,
you should affirm its opposite good; always ac-
knowledging God in the good you affirm.
God is my health.
God is my strength.
God is my wisdom.
SELF-DISCIPLINE.
There is but one Substance, one Power, one
Intelligence, one Life, one Truth, one Love, which
is the one God of the Universe, who is Spirit, the
all good which fills all space. God is omnipresent
good.
I am a child of God, "made in Llis image,
after His likeness."
I also am Spirit, I live, move and have my
being in God ; and as I am like my Father I can-
112 rRACTICAI. in:AI.IX(i
not Ik: sick, norsuflcr j);iin, and no evil can conic
t(^ nic because all that is, is f^ood,
I deny the reality of evil, I deny the j)o\ver of
evil, I deny the reality of pain, of sorrow, of sick-
ness, of weakness, of weariness, of poverty, of
misfortune, of discoura,u,ement, of fear, of doubt,
of foolishness, of ignorance, of discord, of dan^^er,
of death, and of all evil influences from every
source, because all evil is false.
I declare there is no power in any mortal law
to hold me in bondage. Lust and sensuality of
any shade or deforce have no power to harm me,
Deceitfulness, treachery, lying or hypocrisy arc
powerless to afTect me for evil. There is no
power in calumny, suspicion, criticism or censure.
There is no power in anger or ill temper, or scorn,
or contempt; there is no power in prejudice or
sujicrstition. There is no power in selfishness,
envy, jealousy, pride, hatred, malice or revenge.
I am law against all that is false and foolish,
and 1 declare the influence of all such passions
utterly null and void to me. I declare all such
passions powerless to harm ajiy one.
I also deny the reality of matter, because God
is the only Substance, and God is Spirit.
I also deny that the appearance we call matter
has any Life, Suostance or Intelligence, because
God is the only Life and Intelligence, and God
is Spirit.
FOR MIND AND BODY. II3
Only the Good is true; only the Good has
power, God is health. God is Stength. God
is Wisdom. God is Peace.
Affirm whatever good you desire as of God
always. It is the prayer of acknowledgment, the
prayer of thanksgiving.
To "pray without ceasing and in everything
give thanks," is the prayer of affirmation. Say
to yourself after each practice of your discipline,
' ' My word shall not pass away, nor return to me
void; it shall accomplish that whereunto it is
sent."
CASB OF HEAIylNG.
A lady came to us who had been for years suffering with what
physicians call eczema of the lower limbs. Every remedy known
to Materia Medica had been tried with uo relief whatever. Her
limbs from the knee to the feet were swollen out of all resem-
blance to the human leg, and the ichorous exudation, together
with the itching and burning, was intolerable.
In addition to this torture from eczema she was subject to very
severe and prolonged attacks of nervous headache. She was treated
by science about five days, during which time she entered the class
and discontinued the treatments.
Before the close of the course of lessons her limbs were reduced
to their natural size and symmetry and every vestige of humor had
disappeared, the skin healed as smooth and healthy as that of
a child; the headaches had completely disappeared, and now after
three years' experience in the science she testifies to a continuance
of perfect health and peace. She said, "I never before realized
what the promise meant to those who hunger and thirst after
righteousness." Besides the feeling of perfect security against all
sickness herself, she helps and heals others and lives a life of con-
tinual praise and thanksgiving for the blessed knowledge of this
truth.
8
LESSON IV.
" As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith wiihout works
is dead also:"
WHEN a Student oi truth begins to realize
the power there is in true words, he nat-
urally feels a desire to talk about it and tell his
friends what marvelous changes have come to him
in health, in peace, or in circumstances, from
using the scientific mental arguments given in the
second and third lessons.
We all feel this dtsire to share our new-found
joys with our friends when these great truths
first dawn upon us, and it is good for us to feel
the desire. At the same time we would caution
every student for their own peace of mind not to
be too eager.
Until you are more familiar with the principles,
perhaps your ability to explain your position is
not equal to your zeal in wanting your friends to
know the beautiful g(ispel of health and peace
you have found; and it is wise to keep silent
about the process by which you train your mind
m the knowledge of truth, until you feel able to
answer all questions that arise.
FOR MIND AND BODY. II5
Your friends will argue of course from the old
standpoint, and unless you are well grounded in
what you know, you may be easily confused, and
things may begin to look more rational from that
old standpoint again; and you will wonder if after
all you are not mistaken about this new Science.
The old way of reasoning from the evidence
of the senses, appeals too strongly to the con-
scious mind for us to be convinced without some
misgivings; and the argument from the carnal
side is liable to get the upper hand unless you are
soundly anchored in the truth.
In view of this we advise students to refrain
from all controversy regarding the truth or falsity
of Science, until you can give clear and convinc-
ing reasons for the claims of Science.
All controversy tends to discord, and discord
is not scientific. Harmony is the law of the uni-
verse, and whatever disturbs the harmony is error.
Those who oppose and dispute the claims of
the Science, do so on grounds purely material,
and have no conception at all of the higher
spiritual law, and still less belief in the possibility
of the human intellect being trained to grasp
what to them has always been called the super-
natural. If convinced of the truth in one point,
they will always find another point to attack,
which to them seems weak.
Il6 PRACTICAL HEALING
It is very common, especially among orthodox
people, to commence their objections wilh the
name; which, if they must go through with every
phase of opposition, is a very good place to begin.
They often urge that Christian Science is a
term very misleading, and that Scientists have
no right to use the word " Christian" at all.
This objection comes, of course, from not
knowing, and from being too lofty and conceited
to be informed on the subject. And probably
from reading in some religious journal a warning
to "beware of Christian Scientists, because they
do not believe in Christ."
All such ridiculous misstatements have been
made, even from the pulpits, and by men who
are supposed to preach the gospel of Christ;
and we would that every student of Christian
Science could defend the truth against such false
statements in a manner wise and charitable.
Let people know that we consider the name
wisely chosen because of its significance.
Science, from the word Scire, means to know;
and any true principles or combination of truths,
arranged in orderly fashion, so as to admit of
demonstration, may be called a science.
Christ, from the ancient word Krestos, means
Truth. Your clergymen very likely will tell you
that Christ means, "the anointed," and he will
FOR MIND AND BODY. II7
go no further with an explanation, because it is
the custom of theologians to be satisfied with
that; but the word means truth, and the one
who represents or embodies the principle of truth
is the anointed one.
It has been a custom among the Jews since
the days of Aaron and Moses, for the high priests
to be anointed with oil. The high priest is sup-
posed to be a teacher of religious truth — and the
anointing with oil is a very solemn religious
ceremony among the Jews".
Jesus was the embodiment of truth in the
flesh, hence he was called Christ — the anointed.
The world has always called those who were
anointed to preach the truth, ''the Christ."
Gautama Buddha was the Christ of the Bud-
dhists; so also was Confucius considered the
Christ, but none of the so-called Christs have
taught absolute truth unmixed with error, except
Jesus. He only among them all, spoke, and
taught, and lived, and proved the unerring truth ;
and what could be more fitting than that those
who follow his teachings and practices, and de-
monstrate over error as he did, should give his
name to the science that explains the principles
he taught, which none of these objectors do.
Truth as he taught it is found to be a living
principle, and by the knowledge of truth, we set
the principle into action.
Ii8 I'RACiiCAi, iii:ai.i.\'(;
When set into action l)y uiulcrstaiuling it, its
tendency is always to life.
Jesus said to keep his words would make us
one with eternal life.
To keep his words means, to keep their true
meaninf^ in the mind, and to square our lives by
the princij)les he taught.
The words of no other teacher will do this;
not even those who were called the Christ, be-
cause their teachings were not always true.
In every instance where they taught a truth,
it was in perfect harmony with what Jesus taught,
but so much error was mi\cd with what they
taught that the tendency was more toward death
than to life.
If such men as Plato, Aristotle, Milton.
Shakespeare, and many others, had only taught
absolute truth instead of mixing such glittering
falsities with their brilliant ideas, with what
grand results they might have used their powers
to lift men out of the bondage of evil.
Although their ideas may give polish to the
human intellect, they do not inspire the soul to
reach above the plane of mere human intellect,
except when they strike a note of pure truth, and
in those gems of true thought only are men made
better by their having lived.
The search for the laws of life can never be
successful on a material plane.
FOR MIND AND BODY. I I9
There is a law well known among true phi-
losophers, by which we learn that people grow to
be like what they study most earnestly, and think
most about, and the more absorbingly one de-
votes himself to any theme, the more he takes
on the character of that study in his physical life.
In ancient times there were schools for the
study of Divine law, and students who were faith-
ful and diligent accomplished wonderful things
by the study.
The study of Divinity is the study of ' ' First
Cause" — the study of God, and the earnest,
faithful student of Divine law, cannot fail to dis-
cover his powers as a child of God, and as he
daily realizes more and more his own divine nat-
ure, he becomes more and more God-like in his
life, and in his power over all his environments, and
he finds thathe truly has dominion over all things,
and may put all difficulties under his feet.
Those ancient students of Divine law, who
were most faithful and devout, acquired such
proficiency in the knowledge of true principles as
to become the acknowledged prophets; and their
achievements in the line of healing and perform-
ing miracles, were truly God-like.
It was only by a knowledge of these principles
that Elisha, and Joshua, and Daniel and many
others (who were called the holy men of Israel),
I20 PRACTicAi. iii:ai.i\(;
were ciblc In defy iKilural law aiul make tlic law
of Spirit work for them. We find that even now.
with a knowledge of this wonderful law of mind,
any one may know and use the same law, so far
as he is willing to discard the old errors that hang
like a veil between his conscious mind and the
truth that would enlighten it.
If we want to be Christ-like, we must study
and accept the principles Christ taught. If we
want to be God liki\ let us study the mystery of
Godliness.
Jesus taught tliis Divine la-v with sueh sim-
plicity that the only marvel is, that students of
his gospel have failed so utterly in understanding
the principles he taught.
This lack of understanding explains the lack
of Christ-like powers, and Ciirist-like deeds
among his professed followers.
Where do we hnd any students of Divinity, in
tliis age. who have so mastered tlie principles of
Divine law, as to be able to )-)rophesy, or per-
form miracles, or lual the sick?
They are often very diligent in the study of
man-made creeds instead; or as Jesus said to the
Scribes and Pharisees, " In vain do they wor-
ship 7ni\ while teaching for doctrine the com-
mandments of men."
And have not such teachings proved ' ' in vaiit' ?
FOR MIND AND BOBY. 12 1
Now, we do not want to attach to Christian
Science, any of those old false and foolish doc-
trines or dogmas that blind us to what is real and
true, but we want to hold fast to all that is true,
and thus increase our confidence in the power of
truth to set us free.
Ask yourself, Did it ever make me love God,
or fill me with an earnest desire to serve Him
better, by believing that He created me totally
wicked and depraved?
Does it make me love to serve God better by
believing that He sets a personal devil to follow
me in all my ways; to deceive and tempt me to
do and act contrary to His commands?
Does it increase my confidence in the power of
God to believe in another great power opposed
to God in all things?
Have any of these beliefs ever brought me
peace of mind, or health of body?
To ask yourself these questions with a sincere
desire to be set in the way of truth, you are com-
pelled to answer, "No. None of these beliefs
has ever helped me to find the divinity within
me, or lift me out of bondage."
Now, to study Christ in the spirit of Christ,
will lift you out of bondage.
If we keep His sayings our lofty purposes and
righteous desires intensify daily, and the living
122 rRACllCAL IlKALIXG
truth thrills all our being with certainty of eter-
nal life; we feel ourselves to he one with the
deathless Christ Himself.
In the teachings of Christ, there is no belief in
evil to weigh us down, no belief in sickness, no
belief in death; but the living Christ (Truth) shall
reign from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the
uttermost parts of the earth; loosing the coils of
the world's belief in evil, till all the children
of earth are redeemed by the Christ's teachings,
by the absolute truth understood.
Notice, the Christ (Truth) has always been
with us. but not being understood, it has not made
us consciously free; we are not fully redeemed
till we fully recognize the power of truth, and
acknowledge the freedom.
The law works by orderly processes, the same
as the laws of chemistry, or mathematics, both
of which are simply a shadowing forth of the
spiritual law.
In the study of aiiy science and all sciences,
the steps are orderly and sequential ; that is, one
step follows another in the regular order neces-
sary to school the mind to an understanding of
the principles taught.
In changing the beliefs of the mind (which in
some cases amounts to complete revolution) it is
accomplished by a new line of thought, or an en-
tirely new set of arguments.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 23
When we grasp the full perception of the
argument, as some do in one grand fiash of
illumination, the clouds of darkness and doubt
are lifted at once, which experience will not come
while the mind still opposes and objects and
questions every step of the way; for this reason
the mental change from ignorance to knowledge
is slow to most of us, because most of us do
question and doubt at first; and yet the change
that comes slowly is as a rule more satisfying to
the reasoning mind, because one is better able to
explain the process of passing from darkness to
light, or from ignorance to knowledge; we can
give a better reason for the hope within us when
we have deliberately reasoned it out.
It has always been the aim of philanthropist
and preacher and teacher through all the ages
to teach what would most benefit the race; but
all have failed to define the distinction most im-
portant to know between the spiritual and the
material — the mortal and the immortal; and yet
in moments of apparent inspiration, when the
highest truths have seemed to dawn upon them,
they all very strangely seem to agree, and will
utter the same truths, in S2tbstance.
It could not be otherwise when all inspiration
comes from the one great Intelligence.
Herein lies the science of Christianity. No
124 rRAcriCAi, iikai.ixc
statements of true Christian prineiples can by
any possibility conflict, and every truth will agree
with every other truth.
Science is science and all true calculations that
start from a true basis, must of necessity bring
results that are true; whether in mathematics,
astronomy, or the problem of life.
If we set out in this problem of life on the
basis that Spirit is the only Substance, we must
calculate all the way along in harmony with that
statement. We build the world about us as we
think, and as we think so we believe.
Thinking and wording do the building. The
vvord is Spirit; that is, the essence gf the word
is the spirit of it. "He sent his word and
healed them."
When He sends His word He sends by a mes-
senger; we are the messengers, and it is the
"God that worketh in you, both to will and to
do of His good pleasure."
The healing word is sent in the Divine law
that erases the false efifects of mortal error, and
this Divine law must be acknowledged as the
only power before it will act.
You begin your acknowledgment of this law
when you declare that, "Spirit is the only sub-
stance," and if all your thoughts and ideas har-
monize with this first statement of science, you
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 25
will begin to build your world harmoniously
around you.
If to-day you rise to the full realization that
sickness, pain and sorrow are a delusion, of course
you reject them, you denounce them as errors
that you will have no more fellowship with, and
you realize health and peace from your reason-
ing. You are building harmonious conditions
around you.
Then to-morrow you forget all about this loft}
state of mind that gave you such peace and com-
fort, and you begin to think and talk of sickness and
pain again, and recall all the miserable conditions
you suffered as if they were an actual reality ; your
words and thoughts are taking on the old errors
again, and you are rewarded by a return of the sick-
ness and pain. You have unintentionally forgot-
ten that "thinking and wording do the building."
Then you are apt to think that the science
doesn't work for you as it does for others, or as
you expected it to do, and by that thought you
are sending out clouds of darkness that hide the
truth from others, as well as yourself.
"By thy words thou art justified, and by thy
worrds thou art condemned."
"Only the good is true," and when you have
once proved it so, stand by the statement, and
make all things bend to it.
126 TRACTICAL IIKALI.Nc;
All evil of whatever character is simply nega-
tion, nonentity, nothingness.
All the ancient philosophers who are quoted as
so wise and wonderful, declare in substance that
"all evil is negation, and all matter is delusion,
and that we take what oily sccnis for the reality.
The Scriptures tell us that God made all that
is, and that He made all things good; they tell
us also that lie /'/Vt^a-.c all things, and looks upon
all He has created as perfect, and that He is too
pure to behold inicjuity or sin. Then of course
sin and inicjuity are not a reality ; what seems so is
mortal mind's invention ; a delusion that bears
the same relation to our higher nature, that the
hideous nightmare does to the conscious mind
when we awake.
When the conscious niind [illows the senses to
rule in its reports of evil and pain, it has wan-
dered away from true ])rinciples, and it suffers the
consequence in tliis seeming condition of pain,
which is typified l)y the prodigal son wlio wan-
dered away from his father's house and took up
his abode in a far country. The far country is
the false state of mind in wliich we are only con-
scious of what the carnal nature sees.
When the prodigal son began to sufTer want
"he came to himself," and said, "I will arise
and go to my Father."
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 27
When the conscious mind begins to reahze the
fact that all pain and discord are the result of
foolishly depending on what the senses tell us, it
begins to come to itself and remember the com-
fort and peace it once enjoyed before wandering
away into this far country, or this false way of
thinking, and it says, ' ' I will arise and return to
true principles."
The coming to itself is when it realizes how
false the mortal way is; and the turning from the
false to the true is the return to the Father's
house, where all is joy and gladness.
The beautiful lesson taught by this parable
shows how surely we all may find the true way if
we will. Try and forget the old false conception
of this lesson, which places all the benefits of
obedience away off in the world to come, and
know that here and now are all the blessings we
desire, if only we will see the true way to obtain
them.
The Psalmist David said, "Only with thine
eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the
wicked." He meant only with the eyes of flesh,
of course. Spiritual perception knows only good-
ness, while mortal mind judges by appearance.
To judge by appearance, we should pronounce
the child of the universal Father often very im-
perfect; often sick and miserable ; he would seem
128 PRACTICAL 11 HALING
(in many cases) to be the creation of a being
capable of making a great deal of wretchedness;
but science denies this, and as science deals with
principles, it makes man by pure reasoning to be
the creation of a Being whose very attributes
preclude the possibility of His making anything
imperfect.
How could He make His own children totally
depraved when by His own Infinite perfection He
could have no such conception as depravity?
What a monstrous perversion is the doctrine of
total depravity; and who can estimate the wicked-
ness and infidelity it has caused?
Of all things created, man is God's master-
piece; the image and likeness of Himself.
He called all mankind His children, and j)ro-
nounced all He had created, ''very o^oody
"Come, and let us reason together," respecting
these things.
We find that man in his essential nature is the
spiritual likeness and image of God or the idea
of God; while the j^hysical man is but the unreal
shadow of the Divine idea, or the outward ex-
pression of the thoughts and beliefs of the finite
mind.
To reason thus, makes us consciously one with
the mind that creates; and until we realize this
oneness, we are wanderers in the far country of
mortal error.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 29
When Kepler discovered the perfection of the
law of planetary motion and distance, like one
inspired, he caught the idea of unvarying law,
and cried out, "Oh, God! I think thy thoughts
after thee."
Unvarying law makes it utterly impossible for
an all-wise Creator, whose very attributes are per-
fection, to create a being in His own likeness and
image that is imperfect and miserable; therefore
the miserable appearance is the delusion of mor-
tal sense, or the invention of the carnal man, and
nothing but the word of truth will dispel the de-
lusion.
The power of the word has to be continually
kept in mind while the student of truth pursues
the study, because it is the word that creates.
The Saviour said, ' ' My words are Spirit and
they are Life." And He said, that for us to
keep His words would make us one with eternal
Life.
Now to keep the spirit of his words, we must
reject all that does not agree with his teachings.
So with the words of denial we open the door to
freedom; we have been in bondage to error, and
we wrench asunder the chains of ignorance that
have bound us to shadows, by our word of denial.
This experience is often like a revelation, be-
cause it is a truth that comes to our knowledge by
130 I'KACTICAL irKAMNC,
earnestly seeking wisdom from llie source of all
trutli and wisdom.
It is also by our true icord that we gather
courage and assurance when we affirm the good.
The inner man perceives and knows wliat the
natural man cannot comprehend.
We feel a conscious thrill of freedom that
amounts to knowing the absolute nothingness of
pain and misery, and a certainty that we have
dominion over such conditions.
We see that all misery and wretchedness are
the out-showing of erroneous reasoning, and that
all such reasoning lacks foundation.
We look back upon the bitter experiences of
the past as a miserable dream.
We see how falsely — how needlessly we suf-
fered in those beliefs, and how our foolish false
beliefs augmented our miseries.
We learn that thoughts are words which make
up our happiaess or misery, and that thoughts
can be controlled; and then we find it reasonable
to say, if we control our thoughts aright, we shall
show forth right conditions.
According to appearance, the conscious mind
would say that circumstances and conditions con-
trol our thoughts; but according to righteous rea-
soning our thoughts should control circumstances
and conditions. We must make them do it.
FOR MIND AND BODY. I3I
To accept the appearance for the reality is to
remain in bondage to ignorance. We prove our
ignorance of the laws of mind when we give up
our dominion to mortality's claims.
What we know of the effect of silent thought
proves thought to be the first active agent in all
things.
Thought first suggests the idea of sickness,
and immediately sets about some invention for a
name, and it is thought that decides to name it
after some popular belief of mortal mind; then it
is thought that suggests the remedy.
We first think of the soothing character of an
opiate before the opiate is given, and we don't
know that the opiate is but a symbol of the
thought that suggests it; we don't know that to
turn the thought from the material drug to spir-
itual truth will heal the patient quicker and bet-
ter without the opiate; so we proceed in our ig-
norance and give the symbol, perfectly oblivious
of the potency of true thoughts or true words to
heal.
The same error obtains among such Christians
as depend upon the sacraments to give spiritual
comfort, instead of relying upon the true word
which the sacraments only symbolize.
The body and blood of Jesus Christ are of
themselves but a symbol of His word; and the
132 PRACTICAL HKALING
bread and wine are but symbols of the symbol,
and can only satisfy as mortal mind believes in
it, or as the Catholic devotee believes in the effi-
cacy of the holy water.
In case of sickness, we bring quicker and more
permanent cure every time by the true word or
thouglit, tlian we can with the dru.i:;, and it is a
remedy that is always at hand; if we are suffi-
ciently in earnest to keep the mind in the way of
truth; then there are no nauseating bottles and
pills and powders to handle, and no instruments of
torture; no blisters to dress; no greasy ointments;
no unplcasantodors, but just the clean, pure word
of truth that corrects the foolish, false beliefs and
makes health shine forth.
We may very reasonably look forward to the
time when it will be a mark of reproach as well
as ignorance for anyone to be sick; when the
knowledge of truth will cover the earth as the
waters cover the sea." Then there will be no
sickness to cure, because the great numbers who
think only truth will become great health and
strength centers from which there will constantly
radiate health, strength, peace and harmony, and
their light will so shine as to convince the world
of the reality of the truth they live.
When we consider how young the science is,
and the scoffs and skepticism it meets with, we
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 33
need not wonder that many who embrace it are
weak and incompetent in their efforts at first. It
takes a brave heart to bear the ridicule and crit-
icism so freely lavished by the world (even if it is
in ignorance), and many allow it to overcome,
and the science is held responsible for their fail-
ures, while in truth their failures were due to the
lack of science.
We all begin our work of heahng with fear and
trembling, and we are beset with many doubts
of our ability to heal at all, until we become more
thoroughly grounded in the knowledge by prac-
tice and experience ; each little victory is worth a
great deal to the novice until courage and con-
fidence are established.
All failure to cure is a sign of fear; and fear is
sign of doubt in the power of truth to do; and
doubt betrays the lack of thorough understanding
of the principles on which the healing argument
is based.
We need to rise above all criticism, and above
ridicule or unfavorable comment, to where we can
truly say, ''None of these things 7noveiize."
People very soon learn to respect the stand one
takes when he shows that it is taken on princi-
ple, and that nothing can move him from it.
We desire to see every student of truth so
thoroughly trained in the understanding of these
134 I'RACriCAL IIKALING
principles that no argument, no ridicule, no op-
position or persecution can move him; and so
firm that "the gates of hell shall not prevail
against his thoughts."
This is the same truth that Jesus said to Peter
was the rock upon which he should build his
church, "and the gates of hell should not ]irevail
against it."
The gates of hell are the assaults of opposition,
calumny, persecution, and misrepresentation,
that have always been hurled at faithful followers
of truth.
And the false doctrines and half-hearted
service of professing Christians may also be called
the gates of hell. All things that tend to shut
out the whole blessed helpful truths of the gospel
of Christ, are gates of hell.
God said. "Let there be a firmament in the
midst of the waters. " We are taught that this
passage signifies, "Let there be a firm mind."
As before explained, " waters " signify or sym-
bolize the conscious mind that is ever changing
and drifting and surging here and there like the
waves of the sea; and "firmament" means a
firm mind; or, Let there be a steadfast certainty
as to what you know; let there be no wavering
or doubt or hesitation, but base your position
upon true Principle, and then stand.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 35
This steadfast certainty of truth can be estab-
lished in every mind by the faithful practice of
affirmations, after the denial of all error has been
thoroughly done.
Nothing so inspires hope, confidence and cour-
age as to faithfully and trustfully affirm the good
things provided us, as already ours.
We begin to feel that we have the key that
unlocks the storehouse of wisdom and bounty,
and the problem of life seems much nearer be-
ing solved, and our enthusiasm is sometimes
unspeakable.
But we must go through the trial of our faith;
no one escapes this trial, though the faithful
need suffer nothing.
We find the ways of the world still opposed to
the ways of science, and we find ourselves ex-
posed to many rebuffs, sometimes our dearest
friends turn against us just as Jesus said they
would. Sometimes we are left completely alone
among skeptics and the most merciless of scof-
fers; in fact, everything tends to discourage and
depress, as it seems to mortal sense, and then is
the time to show your faith in the principles you
have espoused.
Then is the time to prove your principles true.
"Let there be a firm mind." Show to the world
that you have taken a firm and definite stand by
13^^ PRACTICAI. HKAI.ING
principles tliat will bear you out, and )()u will
prove it to them.
The cleansing by denials, and the spiritualiz-
ing and comforting practice of affirmations are
only a beginning.
We have to stand porter at the door of con-
scious thought continually, to keep down the
deceptions of mortality's claims.
We are constantly meeting with strong sense
evidence that contradicts ojir statements; all we
see, all we hear, and even the popular learning
of the land are opposed to our statements, and
the cruel sneers of the cold, heartless world be-
gin to shake our confidence in our own ability to
withstand so much; tJicn we think of the grand
principles that we knoiv are true, and all this
array of discouragements sinks into insignifi-
cance, and we are stronger for the trial.
Every student of truth will sooner or later
have all these phases of discouragement to con-
tend with, and "blessed is he that ovcrcometh."
Everything we see, and even all nature seems
arrayed against us, if we judge by appearance.
When the senses corroborate what the skeptics
say, we are apt to think the science is in danger
till we remember that we are not to judge by
appearance.
Never mind what seems at all. According to
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 37
pure reason, science is true; according to appear-
ance it is not true, and you have to choose either
the truth that is — or the error that only seems.
Doubt grows spontaneously in mortal mind and
needs no cultivation, but the strangest fact is
that we are not inclined to doubt the false at all;
that seems more real than all else; but we doubt
the tr7ie, and generally refuse to believe it till it
is proven.
' ' Blessed are they that have not seen and yet
have believed."
All these temptations to return to the old ways
are strengtheners, if we turn them to account.
"It is the trial of your faith which worketh
patience, and patience Godhness, and Godliness
the peaceable fruits of righteousness," which
means the result of right thinking.
When such discouraging experiences come, as
they are very liable to do, go back to your self-
training and regain your peace of mmd as if just
beginning; and until your perceptions are clear
and sure, and sufficiently developed to solve your
life problem without wavering, you will need to
use the rule we give you, till it is accomplished.
You want to feel and affirm that God works
through you to will and to do, and you want to
know that whenever you are prompted to do a
good deed it is God working in you, and you have
'3"^ I'RAC'IICAI, IIKAI.ING
virtually surrendered your human will to the Di-
vine, which works through you; and as long as
you leave scl/oxit of the question the Divine will
-work for you, and through you, and /;/ y(ju, and
thus you make the divinity within you manifest;
not only in works, hut in the physical expression.
The finding of the real self is the work of the
conscious mind under the willing guidance of
Divine Wisdom. It is a process of unfoldment
which is accomplished (jnly by the study of God
or the Good as the Supreme Principle of the
univcM-sc, with which we are inseparably con-
nected in spirit.
We find the/r//^- self only when we utterly deny
the mortal self and its claims.
The very corner stone, or foundation of this
practice is, first, in the proper understanding of
what you are to deny, why you deny it, when
you deny certain errors for certain conditions, and
in what manner you do it to make it effectual;
then in following up the denials with such affirm-
ations as are most needed in the case, with per-
fect confidence and trust in the law, and perfect
confidence and trust in this proceeding as a
means of setting the law into actic^n.
This course of procedure, either in self-disci-
pline, or in treating others, is what brings the
kingdom of heaven, because it tears away the
FOR MIND AND BODY, 1 39
veil that hides the Divine Self. When the king-
dom of heaven is made manifest is "when the
without is as the within,'' or when the Divine
Self shines forth in perfect health, a reflection of
the Divine Image.
CURE OF ASTHMA.
A middle aj^ed lady who had suffered from childhood with
asthma iu its most distressing form, with most exhausting and fre-
quent paroxysms of coughing, in addition to which was a palsied
condition of the hands, arms and head, by which she was deprived
of using a pen or pencil, was cured by these lessons and a few
treatments. Of course she had been through the usual experience
with physicians all to no purpose, as after years of experimenting
all agreed that nothing could be done for her.
After the first treatment she sat through the lesson with only
two slight paroxysms of coughing, and went home very much
cheered. After the second treatment she sat through the lesson
without coughing at all. After the third treatment and lesson she
declared she was healed, and from that time on she walked several
blocks to the class and home again after the lesson, while at first
she had to be assisted from the carriage to the class room.
About the sixth lesson she brought pencil and book and aston-
ished her friends by taking notes and writing nearly as steadily
and rapidly as other students.
Her cough was gone. She breathed like other people, and her
hands had ceased to tremble.
Never was more grateful joy expressed by a healed patient than
by her. Even her looks proclaimed the praise thrt was in her
heart.
LESSON V.
" IJe ye lliercfore ])erfect as your I'ather which is in lieaven
is perfect."
EVERY child t)f God shows forth three ]')hases
of cnhghtenmcnt to the conscious mind; the
rchgious, the philosophical, the scientific.
The religious is the ultimate, the highest, be-
cause it is that which binds us to the great First
Cause, the Father, God.
It is an interior perception of truth, or knowl-
edge of true principles, and a willing obedience
to their promptings.
The phase of the mind we call philosophical is
simply the point where the conscious mind rea-
sons from an intellectual standpoint only, and
before it reaches the interior perception or spir-
itual illumination, and yet has a clear intellectual
perception as to how principles work; and by a
close adherence to the philosophical reasoning we
find we can prove things in such a manner as to
call it a science.
FOR MIND AND BODY. I4I
A scientific truth is the same as Divine Law
reduced to the understanding of the human in-
tellect; for a thing cannot be scientific unless it
is based upon a true foundation.
Truth is God, and Divine Law is the law of
God.
True science points the way to true philosophy,
and philosophy according to true science, leads
to rehgion, and religion to God.
Each is necessary to the other.
A rehgious statement is often very obscure
until philosophy reduces it to the comprehension
of the intellect, and then science steps in and
proves it by demonstration.
Thus we see how religion, philosophy and
science strengthen each other. How each one is
dependent upon the others, and neither is com-
plete and perfect without the others.
There is a true and philosophical reason for all
the statements of Christian Science, else it would
not be scientific; and as the statements prove
true, they must finally be known and acknowl-
edged of all men as the only rational way of
proving our sonship; the re and ligo that binds
us to God and makes us conscious of our divine
inheritance.
It is by philosophical reasoning according to
this Divine Science that we discover how every
142 I'RACTICAL HKAI.INC.
mind is possessed of the faculty oi radiating its
(juality, or dilTusing an influence corresponding
to its character, which influence reaches every
other mind that is found open and receptive to
that iniluence; especially when near or in any
way associated.
Any observing person will readily notice the
difTerencc in the influence scmt out by the differ-
ent qualities of mind.
When you see a person who is timid, unde-
cided and vacillating, never having any decision
of character, or judgment of his own, you may be
sure that such a mind is acting under some influ-
ence that produces this lack of judgment; he is
acting under authority, although he may not be
aware of it.
He is unconsciously moved by some mind that
holds an idea of superiority over him, which
seems to deprive him of wisdom and judgment to
act for himself; at the same time the mind that
assumes superiority over him may also be acting
under authority.
He maybe very learned and scholarly, and yet
allow the conclusions of other men to imprison
him and harness him down to such ideas and
theories as are found in the books written by
great men, and he is proud of his great learning,
pedantic and conceited, and his mental presence
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 43
completely extinguishes all originality in those
who do not hold themselves above such mental
influence.
The books written by the so-called great men
of the world, often contain ideas as false in
principle and theory as the ideas of the unedu-
cated; and if written by one of strong will and
firm personal influence, that influence is felt even
by the reader of the book, and no true education
is possible by depending upon such authority.
The only true education is gained by such
teaching as tends to the drawing forth of what is
within, and enlarging our powers by a knowledge
of our Divine ability to judge of men and princi-
ples, regardless of all human authority.
"He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he
himself is judged of no man."
It is not ahvays those who have the greatest
learning that are the best educated.
We send our children to schools where they are
taught a great deal about the stars and the planets
and their distances, and their atmospheres, all
about the rocks and minerals, all about the dif-
ferent monarchs that have governed the different
nations, and all about the wars and the great
quarrels between nations; and they are taught
ways and methods of becoming great generals
and mighty warriors, with the impression deeply
144 rUACTICAL HEALING
rooted and j^roundcd, that these are the things
tliat make up the best good in hfc; or that the
acquirement of great wealth will best satisfy their
aspirations; or that political power and great in-
fluence in government affairs would make great
men of them; all these mistakes of education are
noza at this very time bearing fruit in the restless
lives and wretched bodily conditions, and discon-
tent from unholy ambitions so common in every
community.
Why are our insane asylums so overcrowded
with unfortunate lunatics? Why are so many
suicides recorded in every morning paper? Why
do so many succumb to the fatal belief in soft-
ening of the brain? And of paralysis, and apo-
plexy?
All because of false education in one way or
another.
Many of the physical troubles so prevalent in
this age are superinduced by the great competi-
tion, or by an unlawful ambition to excel in what-
ever is undertaken, even to the disadvantage and
destruction of others.
In politics, and in seeking power and place in
government affairs, a man scarcely considers the
position worth having unless it is gained by the
complete ruin and overthrow of his opponent,
who may be more worthy than himself.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 145
In business matters it is very little better, and
in the professions, especially with the medical
profession, all is confusion and discord in the
struggle for supremacy. Even with clergymen
this ambition is often deplorably manifest. It
really begins with children in the schoolroom,
and grows more intense with each year, and is
so often encouraged by the parents that many
have been called upon to mourn the untimely
death of the promising son or daughter.
This destroying ambition is not confined to
the male portion of mankind, by any means.
It permeates every phase and grade of society.
It is the bane of fashionable life. It creates
jealousies and animosities, and engenders so
much strife over the non-essentials of life, that
its degrading influence morally can scarcely be
estimated, to say nothing of its destructive in-
fluence upon the physical.
When people are stricken with physical mal-
adies they never dream that it is due to such
false ideas of life; and hundreds may sicken and
die from such causes, and the world jogs on as
before, enacting the same foolish drama year
after year, creating more lunatics and providing
more convicts for the prisons, and more sorrow
for the honest and level-headed that escape such
influences.
146 PRACTICAL IIKAI.IXG
The world has never till now been awake to
the fact that all the prevailing diseases of the
world may be traced to such causes, and in
every case has its origin in the false influences
exerted over the people — beginning with the
young minds that are so plastic to every strong
wave of thought, and extending through every
community and to every individual in the com-
munity.
If any one i)iesumes to set up an opinion not
in harmony with the popular beliefs, he is set
aside as a little strange, or a little ojf ; conse-
quently truth has to wait patiently fcjr the recog-
nition that has to be made before it will serve us.
Truth can aff"ord to wait; and if truth were
human instead of Divine, how it would smile to
see the eager scramble of men after shadows,
and the reluctance with which they often accept
the substance.
The mental influence exerted in every case is
good or bad, according to the quality of the dom-
inent minds, and besides the quality and char-
acter of the mental influence sent out by all
minds, even the secret opinions and beliefs they
hold are more or less felt.
The strongest effect produced by opinions and
beliefs is in our views concerning life — its source,
its origin and purpose.
FOR MIND AND BODY. I47
We throw light or shade over others according
as we think truly or falsely of God and His deal-
ings with us as His children.
Who does not remember in. childhood the feel-
ing of gloom and depression experienced, when-
ever the minister made his pastoral visits; espe-
cially if he happened to be of the persuasion that
believe in the doctrine of reprobation and eternal
damnation for infants and heathen? His visits
were always like a funeral occasion, and always
left a gloom over the home like the shadow of
some great sorrow.
We used to suppose it was his extreme good-
ness which gave us such a sense of unworthiness
and actual depravity in his presence; and yet we
did not know of any wickedness we had been
guilty of; we only knew that we felt terribly wicked
and depraved whenever he came, and those feel-
ings never troubled us at other times.
We mention this to show the effect of such false
ways of thinking.
The very presence of such a mind seems to
emit a poisonous quality to the atmosphere we
breathe, and such pastoral visits never leave any
cheer or hope behind, and no one is the better
for his call.
His sermons were generally about the wrath of
God and the danger of impenitence and the awful
14!^ rRACTICAL IIKALING
doom awaitinj^ the sinner, but never of tlie love
of God, and after his solemn visits God seemed
more angry than ever.
The depressing influence such a mind sends
out is all due to the monstrous false conception of
God; and his opinions regarding Divine law were
of the same monstrous character, therefore he
could onl\- radiate darkness and gloom. It is the
law.
The very opposite effect is produced by coming
in contact with one who holds absolutely true
views concerning God. He diffuses love and har-
mony wherever he goes; his presence is like sun-
shine, and his visits are alive with hope and
courage. There is cheer in the very thought of
his coming, as well as in the memory of his genial
presence.
The first is sad and sornnvful over the afflic-
tions that he thinks God has sent upon his chil-
dren, and he believes that they must submit to
the punishment because it is the will of God; he
seems to live in constant fear of being elected to
eternal perdition, and he goes about with his sad
forebodings in his face, and in every move, and
thus emits darkness and envelopes every one in it
who comes within his influence.
The other is bright and cheery because he
knows that God is a loving Father who bestows
Ff)R MIND AND BODY,
149
bounteous blessings upon His children without
stint. He knows that God imparts life, health,
strength and vigor, simply for the acknowledg-
ment, and with this confidence and trust there is
nothing to be sad and sorrowful about, and he
radiates health, confidence and harmony wherever
he goes.
Notice, the sad and sorrowful radiate sadness
and sorrow.
The glad and joyous radiate joy and gladness.
One who believes in sickness and talks a great
deal about sickness, sends forth diseased condi-
tions.
One who believes in health as man's legitimate
inheritance, will radiate health by his very pres-
ence.
The wise and original thinker radiates wisdom
and originality.
The spiritually minded radiate life and vigor,
strength and vitality.
It is only the spiritually minded who deal with
principles and understand realities.
There is a natural and continual conflict be-
tween the materially educated and the spiritually
minded, until the materialist begins to perceive
something higher than the earthy stones and
bones he has dealt with as realities heretofore.
It is the natural man that deals solely with ma-
150 I'KArriCAL iii'.ai.inm;
terial tliiiiys, and l)eli(.'vcs in material laws, and
consults the flesh on all matters pertaining to the
cartli life; and "the natural man rcceiveth «r?/
the tilings of the spirit, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned."
Now, spiritual discernment is simply an inte-
rior perception, or knowledge of how Principle
works, independent of material aids.
The spiritually minded have the majestic and
all-conquering power of omnipotent wisdom to
guide them, and by trusting it they are sure to
win in every conflict.
The spiritually minded do not depend upon
the theories and false ideas of the materialist, but
lean upon the eternal truth as it dawns upon
their interior perceptions; and what we lean upon
for health, strength and judgment, strikes out
and carries an influence to those with whom we
associate, or in any way come in contact with.
We radiate health and confidence when we
live in the absolute certainty that God is our
health; and in the knowledge that there is no
other source of health, and that we can ap-
propriate all we need, and the supply never
grows less. Acknowledge it continually, and
your "light shall break forth as the morning (to
shine upon all), and your health shall spring fortli
speedily."
FOR MIND AND BODY. I5I
Don't forget that whatever you think or be-
heve carries an influence to others that mitst
accord with the character of your thoughts and
behefs, whether audibly expressed or not.
When we are filled with the conviction that
only the good is true and powerful, our very
presence comforts and soothes the restless, fever-
tossed patient, w4io has never before known any-
thing better or higher than some nauseating drug
to cool his fever.
He may not know from whence comes the
sweet, soothing influence, and he wonders how
he came to feel such peace, and such confidence
that he i*s going to pull through, as he calls it ;
and this impression for good will not leave him;
he will feel a prompting daily to seek a knowl-
edge of this comforting influence, whatever it
may be, and sooner or later the Christ will be-
gin to be consciously acknowledged by him.
In this way you let your light shine, and Truth
(Christ) is glorified in the result.
Even when the principles of science are only
accepted intcllcctiially, the influence radiated
from such is better, higher and more up-lifting,
than from those who grovel in material beliefs
and ideas.
Many a case of healing has been accomplished
by those who only receive the truth intellectually,
152 PRACTICAL IIKAI.IXr,
but such arc not fully cincliorcd in the knowledge
of spiritual supremacy, and are liable to be
shaken from their foundation, because their
foundation is only in the human intellect.
Their reasoning has not yet reached the point
of conscious illumination by the spirit of truth.
Their faith is based upon what seems true from
logical reasoning, and from what others have
proved true, and they are on the right road to
full understanding; but so long as it is not based
upon actual knowledge by the interior perception
they are liable to be shaken.
What we know by spiritual i)(rc-(;i)ti()n c annot
be taken from us.
Those who accomjilish healing by the intellec-
tual perception only, are very apt to think they
have a full understanding, because to them the
human intellect is the highest; and until they seek
the deeper spiritual certainty of truth in all its
working power they will find themselves subject
to all the ills and discords they formerly had,
after the first enthusiasm cools.
It is the steadfast loyalty to Principle, and the
constant acknowledgment of the supremacy of
Spirit that closes the door to every discord, which
practice soon brings the interior perception.
Paul said, ' ' I would that thou affirm constantly,
that they which have believed in God (in the
good) might be careful to luaintain good works."
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 53
You do not maintain good works when you
allow mortality's claims to creep in after you
have once turned them out by denial.
When you allow the old pains and discords to
return, you are tempted to think that after all
this science does not do for you what you had ex-
pected of it; you are apt to blame the science and
forget to examine your own part in the matter.
If you are loyal to science, science will take care
of you; but if you begin to relate in detail all the
pains, and aches that have returned, and describe
all the bad symptoms you notice, as you did before
knowing anything of the principles of science, you
need not wonder if they stay by you in appear-
ance, for recognition is all they ask.
You fellowship with error when you recognize
it, and thus contradict the statements of science
and leave the field to mortal error.
When you have grown to a full realization of
the power of words you will not indulge in such
complaints, for, ' ' By thy words thou art justified,
and by thy words thou art condemned."
The words of truth when spoken or thought
with understanding and trust, will surely bear
good fruit; but there must be an acknowledgment
of the supremacy of Spirit.
The very knowledge of truth brings peace, be-
cause it is acknowledgment as well; and all suf-
fering indicates that knowledge of truth is lacking.
154 I'RACTTCAI. 1 1 HALING
You believe tliat God made all that really ex-
ists, and that He made all things good? Yes;
then in reality there is no pain, sorrpw or discord,
and what seems so is mortal mind's delusion.
Never take the evidence of the senses unless
they report according to righteous reason.
Your reason tells you that God never made
pain, sorrow or discord, because all that He
made is good — like Himself.
What could be more absurd than to suppose
pain, sorrow or discord, could proceed from Life,
Truth and Love?
It is not a reasonable supposition, therefore it
is a delusion of mortal mind to even believe in
them as realities.
As the drunken inebriate persists in his beastly
appetite for strong drink until it culminates in
mania po(u, m which the snakes and toads and
other reptiles are as real to hifn in his delirium as
anything ever was in his lucid moments, he finds
upon regaining his reason that all those horrid
reptiles were only phantoms of his imagination,
and never had any real existence.
Very similar is the experience of the suffering
invalid who comes into the full light of this bless-
ed truth.
When he comes to himself, as it were, he finds
he had no disease at all, and what seemed so was
the penalty for his mistake in believing in evil.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 55
The picture of his error on his body may not
be obhterated at the very moment he comes to
himself, but with the change from error to truth,
it will be manifest upon his body in due time.
We are to take no account of time at all. It
is for us to hold firmly to the true word, and leave
the result to the law (the Lord).
The time of its manifestation depends very
largely upon our faithful adherence to Principle,
regardless of what seems.
Never allow yourself to think it is not for you
to receive this great blessing.
So many do this, and thus push away the very
thing they so much desire.
It is like hanging up a thick curtain between
you and the hght, and then complaining of the
darkness, saying the light is not for you.
Whatever we desire that is good is God-
prompted. A desire that is good cannot be
prompted by evil ; and Jesus said, ' ' What things
so- ever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye
receive them, and ye shall have them.''
The desire is of itself a promise according to the
words of Jesus, but the condition of the promise
is that you believe, or trust.
A very common mistake is made by wrongly
interpreting our desires.
The man who indulges in stimulants supposes
156 rUACTICAL IlKALING
that sLronj^f think will satisfy his desires. He is
mistaken in his desire, and he will often go on in
his mistaken way of trying to satisfy a desire,
until he sinks into utter ruin physically, morally
and financially (seemingly), before he awakes to
the fact that it is not strong drink that he wants
at all.
When he does arouse himself to see his error,
when he comes to himself, as it were, he sees that
wliat he wanted was something that would satisfy
his higher nature; he finds he was hungering and
thirsting for righteousness (the right way), and
when he begins in earnest to seek the right
way it (/ocs satisfy his higher nature, and through
the higher law he finds his physical body no
longer recjuires a stimulant; he is happier without
it, and better satisfied with himself altogether,
and wonders how he ever couldhave so degraded,
himself.
The restless desire for something that will sat
isfy is so often left to the carnal nature to decide,
that we are led into strange and devious wa3's in
the search, never feeling certain whether we are
seeking wisely or not; uncertainty makes us
afraid, and the fear brings confusion.
Fear always shows forth in what we d(.> not
want ; never in what we hke.
Job said, "The thing I feared has come u])on
me."
FOR MIND AND BODY. 157
All undesirable conditions, mental, physical or
otherwise, are evidence that you believe in, and
fear a law or power other than the good; thus we
are constantly betraying our ignorance of truth,
or our false beliefs, by our bodily and mental
conditions.
To those who know the law the cause for
disease and discord is often like an open book,
even when the patient is wholly ignorant of it,
but will attribute all such conditions to some ma-
terial cause, bad air, impure water, malaria,
over work, over heating, etc., none of which
could so affect him if he understood his divine
birthright, which teaches him the allness of good,
wisdom to know the right, and nothing to fear.
Without this knowledge we grope in ignorance,
and are misled in our desires, while knowing
truth enables us to interpret our desires and thus
reject the claims and suggestions of the carnal
nature.
In this transition from ignorance to knowledge
we go from a helpless, useless, wretched state of
mind, to conscious power to speak peace to
troubled hearts, and command health-giving
thoughts, which are the working powers of mind;
and the good we accomplish is the effect of con
scious thinking upon unconscious conditions; by
which we mean that thoughts build and control
the unconscious body.
158 I'kACTICAL lIKAI.INi;
Our conscious thoughts arc makiii!^ coiitinual
chanj^'cs in our bodily conditions.
As before stated, the story of the crcaLion
syniboh'zes the conscious mind of man.
Waters signifies the mind that thinks con-
sciously and actively; that varies and changes
like the waves of the sea; now animated — now
l^lacid and still — and again so turbid :ind angry
as to simulate passion.
The dry land symbolizes tlie .seLiled con^'ic-
lions of the mind; the fixed ways of thinking, the
result of education and j^rejudice, that make the
character fixed, and which characteristics exter-
nalize or picture forth upon the physical body
and ils organs, and an; in science denominated
unconscious mind.
Notice the distinction:
The conscious mind is that whicli acts upon
the blood and secretions huDicdialily; changing
the quality and tone of the blood with every
changing emotion or thought, thereby producing
a corresponding change in the body and all its
organs; therefore the body with its organs is the
unconscious expression of past conscious think-
ing, and is called '^ tinconscious viind."
As it is the conscious thinking and believing
that regulates the character of the bloc^d, and
operates with instant effect upon the functions
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 59
and secretions, we must know that the conscious
mind is responsible for all bodily changes.
This may be proved by any observing person
in daily experience.
Every one knows that violent anger leaves one
depressed and unhappy; which is only a begin-
ning of the bad effects of anger. It is also well
known that fear is very destructive to harmony
of body.
To indulge in hateful sarcasm changes the
character of the blood. Moment by moment the
change goes on, till the quality of the blood pro-
duces a corresponding change in all the organs
of the body.
To indulge in scorn and criticism and con-
temptuous sneers, no matter how much occasion
you may think you have for such contempt, you
not only augment the trait you so despise, but
you yourself will take on a tinge of the same
character, besides destroying the richness and
sweetness of your own blood.
Your blood takes on an acid, watery condition,
the result of your unwholesome state of mind,
and the more you harbor the scorn and contempt
the more thoroughly will that state of mind be
photographed upon your unconscious body, which
IS like the sensitive plate in the camera, and re-
flects the exact state of mind you hold.
l6o I'KACTICAI, IIKAI.ING
It is s;iid tliat Emanuel Swedcnborg in his
moments uf inspiration could see the cliange pro-
duced upon the physical orf,^ans of men by their
thoughts.
He said that the changing, conscious thoughts
change the action and character of the lungs, the
heart, the stomach, tlie liver and kidneys, with
lightning-like rai-)idity; just as the pictures on
the screen change with the movements of the
slide in the magic lantern; and our reason tells
us that thoughts of love, and goodness, and
truth, and charity could only produce harmony,
because the law of the universe is harmony; and
love, goodness, truth and charity are divine at-
tributes which can only produce harmony.
The warm, loving thought of sympathy and
good will and genuine charity toward a friend or
neighbor, or even a foe, acts just as quickly; and
such thoughts of love and kindness often work a
sudden transformation, and the watery acids in the
blood are turned torichness and sweetness, that
show forth not only in bodily health, but in im-
proved mental powers, purer motives and better
character.
It is character that makes tin; man, .ind char-
acter that builds the body.
We want to look upon the physical body as
simply the expression of mind, and nothing more.
FOR MIND AND BODY. l6l
To educate the mind in this philosophy opens
our eyes to read character, and enables us to see
all people in their true light.
Nothing will seem to us as it has in the past.
Even our dearest friends, though we may have
loved them very dearly, they have not been tons
all they might have been, because we have always
believed in the possibility of sickness and death,
and of separation. In the realm of reality we
see and know people as they really are, and there
is no fear concerning them, and no belief in possi-
ble loss.
Instead of the hard, cold fear of death, the cer-
tainty of eternal life springs up, and all the former
ways that worried and fretted us into sadness and
despair, now turn blessed faces to cheer and com-
fort us; the reward for overcoming.
We overcome the fear of evil by learning the
unreality of it. We overcome the fear of accident
or misfortune by knowing we are folded round in
safety from all evil. We overcome the fear of
poverty by knowing that God's bounty is unlim-
ited, and we are His children and can have all we
claim in righteousness. We overcome the fear
of death by knov/ing that in God is eternal life,
that we are one with God, and heirs to eternal life.
What more can we ask than to be assured of
freedom from a.11 evil, protection from all harm,
l62 I'RACTICAL HEAI-TNG
provided with all bounty, and eternal life as the
crowninj^ [?ift?
All this is ours without the asking; we only have
to acknowledge it as already provided, and live
consistent with the law that we set into action by
our acknowledj;ment and trust.
We set the law to work just as soon as we
silence the fnls(; claims of mortal mind. What
we speak t)f in Science as mortal mind is that
which yields to influences whether true or false.
Its yielding character proves it mortal. It is that
which takes what is false for truth as readily as
that which is true, until it is trained to know truth
and reject the false.
It is simply a reflection of the human intellect,
and the farther it goes from truth the more dis-
torted and unlike the substance it reflects.
It presumes to be mind, just as the counter-
feit dollar presumes to pass for a genuine dollar
but just as soon as it is known to be counterfeit
it is worthless.
As soon as we know that the mortal mind
(human judgment) is not reliable in its supposed
knowledge of things, we begin to look to a high-
er source of knowledge, which is reliable.
This is the puzzling part of the great problem
of life, apparently.
To be convinced without a single lingering
FOR MIND AND BOBY. 1 63
doubt that the mortal mind u only mortal; that
it is but the imperfect shadow of the real, and
wholly unreliable, is to find ourselves one with
the mind that is God.
When we know the real we lose sight of tne un-
real sense world; that is, the reports of the mor-
tal mind and the appearances of materiality are
understood as nothingness.
' ' Old things have passed away, and behold,
all things have become new"; which means when
we are born into the understanding of things as
they really are, all things are so changed to us
that we see only the good.
We realize the nothingness of all materiality.
As mortal mind is not mind at all in reality, so
is the flesh man not 7na7i at all in reality.
The Adam man is nowhere referred to as the
real creation of God that he pronounced good
and perfect, and to whom he gave dominion.
He never gave dominion to the Adam man ;
Adam was the man of flesh, and the word traced
back to its origin means error; and when the race
began to look upon the flesh as the real man, the
belief of sin and death came into the world, and
man lost his dominion by falsely believing in the
reality of the flesh.
All are familiar with the scriptural statement,
-' In Adam all die (which means in error all die).
164 PRACTICAL HEALING
but in Christ (truth) all are made alive," and the
law of sin and death is annulled by accepting truth.
We have to know and realize that the fleshly
man is but the shadow, and so declare it, before
we can prove it true; and to prove it we must
reach the point of a positive statement, and fear-
lessly declare against all negation, and against
all of mortality's claims regarding the flesh.
This is the very point in the teachings of Jesus
where many of his acknowledged disciples " went
away and walked no more with him."
He said, "The flesh profiteth nothing; it is
the sjiirit that quickeneth," and they said, "This
is a hard saying; who can hear it?" and they
would have none of it. They went away and
joined his enemies, and some of them afterward
helped to crucify him.
They also said of Paul that he was a teacher
of strange doctrines, a stirrer up of seditions, a
pestilent fellow deceiving the people, while he was
trying to make them understand the truth that
would save them from all misery and wretchedness.
He wanted them to realize what the real, true
self is; he wanted them to listen to the silent
law that speaks within every man, woman and
child that lives; that true school master we have
heard so much about, and learned so little of
what it means.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 165
We have always heard about the true school
rriaster, but no one has ever told us how to con-
sult it.
All the old philosophers and teachers and wise
men of all ages, have recognized the importance
of knowing the true self.
It was called by Pythagoras the ''salt of men,"
and the "everlasting fountain of virtue."
Plutarch called it the "unerring guide.''
Socrates called it the "Divine self." And
John, the beloved disciple of Jesus, called it ' ' the
light that lighteth every man that cometh into
the world."
We shall all find it to be the unerring counsellor
if we consult it aright.
When we are willing to drop the claims of the
mortal self and listen to this silent monitor,
we "drop the old man with his deeds," as Paul
expresses it, and "bring immortality to light."
It will prompt us to use the needful word in
every case of healing. It guides us in our teach-
ing of truth. It teaches us how to conduct our
business affairs; how to live so that life is one
unbroken succession of victories over evil. It is
the only reliable guide, because it is the divine of
us, and we are never without it; but as long as
we look only to the negative, the nothing side,
the shadow, we are not giving heed to the uner-
ring guide at all.
l66 PRACTICAL IIKAI.IXC
1l is f;iitlitul sclf-disciplinc that hrinj^s to the
mind a reahzatioii of tlic true self.
Tlic human intellect is always pushing its
claims to the front, and we are easily deceived
into thinking ic really has a claim to supremacy,
but according to Paul's experience, "The wis-
dom of men is foolishness with God," and when
we find the divine self, which is always one with
God, the human intellect of itself will seem fool-
ishness to the divine self.
Of course we first have to accept or listen to
this truth by the consent of the intellect or con-
scious mind, and thus we find that it is the con-
scious mind that needs the discipline, and has to
be corrected of error.
It is iciih the conscious mind that we repeat
over and over the words of truth in denial f)f
mortality's claims, and we iind them ]-)otcnt to
erase the error.
Sometimes we are tempted to doubt the power
of true words to accomplish the cleansing, even
when we know the words are true; we do not
doubt the truth of the words, but we doubt their
potency; and we are very prone to doubt our
own ability to use them with effect.
The evil condition as it seems, the discourag-
mg circumstances, the sorrow and grief, all seem
so real, and so impossible of removal by such a
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 67
process, that the very thou^^ht seems presumption
at first. And yet, —
Only the word of- truth will make the desired
change, and whether we accept it all at once, or
come more gradually into an understanding of
its principles, depends wholly upon ourselves.'
It has been said that it takes the ordinary
mind three years to train itself to really believe
and see things as they are in truth, and cease to
agree with the seeming, according to mortal sense.
The tenacity with which people cling to the
old ways of thinking and believing is the princi-
pal obstacle to a quick realization of the true
way.
Not many years ago we were taught that it
took seven years for the human body to renew
itself in all its parts; but now we know it only
takes as many months when in perfect health.
Some French scientist, whose opinion seems
to have been considered worthy of notice, has
quite recently declared that the human body is
wholly renewed in eleven months, which is the
longest time nozo considered by any one of good
judgment on the subject.
The old seven years theory has been discov-
ered false and fallacious by investigations on a
basis purely material, while with a knowledge of
the mental forces we are much better able to
l6S PRACTICAL HFALIXG
judge of this process of renewal, because we know
the functions and secretions act harmoniously or
otherwise, according to the st,^te of the mind and
its understanding of law.
According to this statement the hody is never
more than eleven months old.
Then the question arises, why do we grow old
in looks, in fcelinf];R. and in loss of vipjor and
vitality?
Simply because the ways of the world, the
ideas and theories of men, all tend to such con-
ditions. Men brlin'C in time. Men believe in
old age.
" As he thinketh in his liciirt. so is he, " said
Solomon.
If we believe in old age we grow old. If we
believe in wear and tear we grow weary, and wear
out in appearance.
It is all mortal belief in what is false.
It is all a lie. Nobody can grow old.
If we claim eternal life and acknowledge its
source we shall renew our strength.
Did not the prophet Isaiah say in plain lan-
guage, " They that wait upon the Lord shall re-
new their strength; they shall mount up with
wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint"?
To wait upon the Lord is to stand firm to true
principles and trust the law to work for you.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 69
All who plant their feet firmly on the rock
truth, determined to stand by the scientific state-
ments, report bodily changes in proportion to
their trust in the law (Lord).
Improved health conditions, awakened intelli-
gence, and sounder judgment, all come to the
earnest-hearted student very quickly; and sooner
or later the daily affairs of life begin to move in
harmony with other improved conditions, and per-
fect peace of mind is established.
None of these happy changes ever come to us
from depending upon external agencies for help,
or upon drugs for health.
To know that the thoughts of the mind are the
builders of the body, opens our eyes to the im-
portance of training the mind in the ways of
wisdom.
Our thoughts and beliefs are as much the crea-
tive word as when we speak them audibly, and true
words are like seeds planted in fertile soil, which
some day will bring forth good things to match
the true thought or word.
"Think truly, and thy thoughts
Will the world's famine feed;
Speak truly, and each word of thine
Will be a fruitful seed;
Live truly, and th}' life will be
A great and noble creed."
170 PRACTICAL TI EALING
DYvSrrcrsiA crRED.
A lady who had sufTered with chronic dyspepsia for many years,
who thought she dared not eat meat, dared not eat vegetables,
dared riot eat hot cakes or warm bread, dared not drink cofTee, and
her tea must be very weak; in fact nothing could be suggested
that she dared to eat; even oat meal with very thin milk gave her
great paiti, and she ate it with fear and trembling till she attended
these lessons.
She commenced by saying this was her last hope. In less than
a week she could eat whatever she liked without any disturbance
or pain, and better still without fear of any further trouble.
She began to heal others before her first course of lessons was
finished, and has been a very successful jjractitioner for more than
three years, doing wonderful healing, aJid is also prospered as
never before.
LESSON VI.
"With all thy {getting, get understanding."
TT is well for students of Christian science to
^ know at the outset, that you are liable to
meet with those who claim to understand science,
and yet will seem to disagree with you on some
points; which, if you are not watchful with your
denials and affirmations, will confuse and depress
you at first, or until your experience teaches you
that nothing can hurt or discourage you.
There is not a righteous cause in existence that
has not been more or less handicapped by poor
representatives, and sometimes spurious advo-
cates; all of which has nothing; to do with Princi-
ple.
You have the infallible rule by which to judge
of what is true and scientific. Whatever does
not accord with the Statement of Being (which
acknowledges but one power in the universe),
must be rejected as false and misleading.
If any one tells you there is a power called
^72 I'KACTTCAI, IIKAI.IXO
malicious, animal nia-nctism, or mesmerism, you
want to deny it at once loi/h Jirwnrss, lest you
allow fear to get the upper hand.
There is no such power.
There are hundreds of Christian Scientists who
have been led to believe in this seeming power,
and they jiave made so much of it, and their at-
tention has been given so largely to the fear of
It, that they seem to be losing their power to
heal; losing their peace of mind, and also their
health, by it.
Such belief is a ])lain contradiction of the state-
ments they set out with, and can onlv lead to
confusion.
Whoever believes m any such power betrays a
lack of understanding of the principles of science
besides showing very plainly that they lean upon
s(Mne personality more than upon that Divine
Principle which is the only Reality.
Pay no attention to what people say against or
for teachers of the science.
If you want to be proficient in knowledge. s/;u/y
the science instead of the scientists.
Stand by the principles m all your ways, and
your understanding will save you from confusion.
If you allow every criticism to move you there
will be no peace for you.
Never in the history of the world has there
FOR MIND AND BODY. T 73
been a new and startling discovery of principles,
or an innovation that set aside the old ways, that
did not meet with scorn, criticism, opposition and
persecution; and the calumnies that have been
heaped upon discoverers, as well as upon the ad-
vocates of mighty principles, have driven many
to despair; and it was left for Christian Science
to discover a law by which calumny and perse-
cution are made powerless to hurt any righteous
cause. We render them powerless by under-
standing the righteous law.
If you notice very closely you will observe that
those who misrepresent and slander Christian
Science, sooner or later lose their standing and
influence, and often sink into a state of inability
to even conduct their business affairs successfully.
They turn the law against themselves unwit-
tingly by their unrighteous persecution of a right-
eous cause; which they, would not do if they
understood the law.
The law works with the same accuracy when
one who professes an understanding of the sci-
ence criticises, defames or misrepresents another.
The law is no respecter of persons; and every
professing Christian, whether a scientist or not,
is in duty bound to further the cause of this prac-
tical Christianity instead of hampering it by per-
secution and calumny.
174 I'RACTICAL IIKAI.ING
Of course the science is iiivulnerLible. and can-
not be hurt; and every weapon aimed at it by
prejudice and ignorance, or by jealousy and mal-
ice, will act as the boomeranj^;. and only strike the
one who hurls it.
When Peter and John Were tried betore a coun-
cil of Scribes and Pharisees for teachiiiL; this same
doctrine, Gamaliel, who was held in high esteem,
remonstrated against the proceedings. Jew as he
was, he seemed to have a noble sense of justice
in this case, worthy of emulation.
After reminding the council how every unright-
eous scheme came to naught, he said: "Re-
frain from these men. and let them alone, for if
this work l)e of men it will come to naught, but
if it be of Godjjr cannot overthrow it."
What a wise conclusion!
Some day the world will see how useless it is to
try to stay the spread of this majestic truth.
For eighteen centuries it has withstood all at-
tempts to extinguish it, though sometimes its
light has grown very dim (in appearance), and
many have wondered why all the healing and
comforting, and blessed ministrations of the gos-
pel of Christ had vanished and left Christians
without a Christ ministry.
Understanding the Principle, and standing by
the principles for Principle's sake, the science will
take care of you.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 75
Your defense is in the law.
In studying science you study God. Science
teaches us to be wise and God-Hke; and charity
and love set the God-Hke powers to do great
works
Power comes witli understanding.
We do not have to read a great number of
books in order to understand science.
We enter upon the study of science by the
wihing acceptance of its first principles, and when
it dawns upon the interior perception it is as if
we were entering into a new country.
Every student of science will receive that inte-
rior knowledge in his own way, and the stock of
information already stored in the mind has much
to do with helping or hindering his understanding.
The study of mind or metaphysical law tends
to develop strong mental powers, even on the
plane of the human intellect; while to study
Spirit with the realization that Spirit is the only
Reality, and Spirit and Mind are One, gives us the
key to ail power. Then we can say with Paul,
"I can do all things through Christ which
strengthencth mc."
Christ is the spirit of truth.
We grow to be like what we study most; and
by studying the truth we become Christ-like in
powers, and can do the same works Christ did.
176 PRACTICAL IIKAI.IXG
To Study Mind or Spirit as a hcilini; ])rinci))le,
\vc become a healing force.
We develoji tlie Christ-]>()\vi'r witliiii us, in the
Hne of healing.
The mind that develops the healing force in
greatest perfection will manifest the healing
power in three difTerent wa}s.
That is, there is a three-fold change wrought
by the well trained healing mind.
Bodily health, moral rectitude, and awakened
intelligence, must always be shown as signs of
perfect healing.
The bodily health is generally the first sign
sought for, and usually the- first manifest; but
the other changes come in due time, often as the
result of study and practice of the divine principle
of healing.
The moral change and intellectual awakening
are not so (juickly manifest in the patient as in
the faithful student, while the healing is often
accomplished very speedily by another mind.
Let it be understood that it is always the Christ
within you that accomplishes the healing.
No one can doubt that the greatest powers of
the Christ were shown by the good works He did,
which were mostly works of healing.
"The secret law" is the law of healing and
working miracles.
FOR MIND AND BODY 1 77
We read that he "took his disciples apart"
when he taught them these powers, because it
was not lawful for him to teach it openly.
When teaching the multitudes, he taught the
same doctrine, but was obliged to teach them in
parables, which even to this day are obscure in
their meaning to many, especially to those who
only read on the surface.
It is only within the past twenty-five or thirty
years that this philosophy could have been taught
openly, even here in this "so-called" enlightened
land; and even now it is not uncommon to hear
of people who fancy it ought to be suppressed;
which, of course, is only because of their ignorance
of its principles.
Such opposition will all die out sooner or later,
as all error must.
Everything that opposes the healing mind, or
the righteous endeavor to set the law of harmony
into action by the powers of mind, can be met
and mastered by that mind.
When you speak the word of truth you set the
principle of truth into action, and the truth princi-
ple by its very nature heals, saves, makes free.
It is the law.
Jesus means Saviour, the same as Joshua.
Jesus was the Christ (Truth), and he saves by
the Christ Principle. To heal and to save are
synonymous terms.
178 I'RACriCAL IIKAl.FNCr
When Jesus said, " Lo, I am witli you alway,"
he was speaking of the divine of him, the Christ,
which is the son of God. When speaking of him-
self as Jesus lie called himself the "son of man."
All have the Christ within, and it works the
works of God through us in proportion to our
acknowledgment of its power and presence, and
our loyalty to it, by the exclusion of error from
the conscious mind by righteous reasoning.
It is often asked why the pious and devout for
ages past have failed to accomplish such results
by their devotion to the cause of Christ.
They have not recognized the Christ within
them at all; neither have they been loyal to
Principle, to the exclusion of error.
Preachers and teachers and philanthropists all
over the civilized world have mixed a little truth
with a oirat deal of error.
The pulpit has always given power and sway
to another power beside the good.
The press have always done the same, and are
still holding up this great power of evil and turn-
ing the world over into its clutches as if they
hated to mention the good side of anything, or
see anyone loosen the coils of evil.
They gather up statistics of crime and records
of horrors and scent out every unclean transac-
tion that refl>ects an unwholesome influence, and
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 79
then wonder at the awful depravity in the world,
and deplore the weakness and inefficiency of re-
ligious methods and moral reforms to stay such
evils.
Evil and the power of evil are held up and
given such prominence that many really believe
it to be greater than the power of good.
People are not aware that they invoke that
which they name and give place to and believe
in.
They give it working efficiency in seeming by
recognition and acknowledgment. Discord is
the result.
When we realize the majesty, and wisdom, and
power, and absolute all-ness of the good, and so
acknowledge it, we invoke that adorable Intel-
ligence, we set it into action, and harmony is the
result.
We invoke the majestic Principle of health
when we name it as Divine, and trust its work-
ing power, and believe in its law.
These lessons treat of much that the natural
man cannot understand.
They treat of spiritual principles, which are
only clear to the interior perceptions; but in this
way we are led to the "gateway of understand-
ing." We " speak the mystic word that lets us
in,"
l8o PRACTICAL HEALING
Some of the first statements of the science de-
mand the rejection of the evidence of the senses
when their reports are not in harmony with rea-
son, and the natural man rebels against that de-
mand, because Jie judges solely by the senses.
He judges by the senses because he has not
opened his mind to receive tlie deeper knowl-
edge which deals with principles only.
"Whoso is spiritual hath all power, for Spirit
workcth for him."
When we let the Spirit work for us (that is,
when we trust Principle), the hard ways of life
and human experience are utterly forgotten.
Pain and heart sorrows are swept away, and we
forget we ever had them even in seeming.
Something comforts us with sweet assurance
that all is right, and blessings unknown in form-
er days seem showered upon us without the
asking.
New understanding of the ways of life dawns
upon us.
We have new perceptions of law. We even
see how the writers of Scripture in their highest
moments of inspiration could foresee how Divine
law would work; and we see how they recognized
only the Good as a working principle in the uni-
verse.
When we have caught but a slight perception
FOR MIND AND BODY. l8l
of the supremacy of Spirit, we see that those in-
spired writers knew evil as unreahtyand all mat-
ter as but the expression of something real.
The Psalmist David said, "Only with thine
eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the
wicked."
As much as to say, It is only by sense evidence
that you behold and see the false conditions that
mortal error (which he calls wickedness) pro-
duces. Spiritual perception takes no account of
it; knows it not, because it is not real,
" He that shutteth his eyes from seeing evil,
he shall dwell on high; his place of defense
shall be the munitions of rocks, bread shall be
given him, and his waters shall be sure." Evi-
dently the prophets and inspired writers knew
that spiritual law is the only law, and material
phenomena are but shadows of the real.
Spiritual creation is the only creation, and the
shadow is mortal mind's conception of it.
To mortal mind the material seems the only
creation, because the finite or mortal mind "per-
ceiveth not the things of the spirit," but looks
upon the shadow as the real.
The conscious mind is mortal or carnal so long
as it allows the evidence of the senses to decide
for it, but when the conscious mind is willing to
be guided by the interior perceptions, it casts off
l82 I'RACTICAL HEALING
the carnal mortal nature, and is renewed in the
image and likeness of God, and becomes one
with the Divine Self.
When thus born into the understanding of
truth the mortal puts on immortality, and as the
physical is plastic to the thoughts and beliefs of
the conscious mind, it very soon responds to the
change and begins to take on a more perfect
state of health, symmetry and happy expression
very remarkable in many cases.
The change is often so wonderful that it seems
like a new creation; and yet the perfection was
there all the time, concealed by false ideas and
mortal beliefs.
We do not create, but we do a similar work. By
a knowledge of law, we speak the perfection that
already exists, into visible manifestation; and in
proportion as we train the conscious mind to know
and understand this law, will the carnal nature
lose control. In proportion as we consecrate our
life to the work of destroying error and the belief
in evil, will we be powerful in correcting the carnal
nature in others.
In works of healing you are correcting mortal
error exactly the same as if you were treating for
immorality.
Mortal error shows forth in many ways besides,
upon the body; sometimes in ill tempers, some,-
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 83
times in immoral traits of character, sometimes
in morbid fancies; and every patient who comes
for heahng, shows by his bodily condition that
his life problem has all been wrought according to
mortal error.
The conditions he complains of are the proof
of his ignorance of the power of truth to set things
right. In his ignorance he yields to the sugges-
tions of the carnal nature, which is not subject
to the law of the good, hence the confusion, the
disease.
The whole human family live in an atmosphere
of mortal beliefs in sickness, and mortal beliefs
regarding causes, which beliefs tend continually
to produce the very thing they believe in and fear.
If we are open and receptive to those false in-
fluences and beliefs, we shall probably suffer the
consequence ; but if we are fortified by a knowl-
edge of the truth that saves, and makes free, we
shall not succumb to any such prevailing physical
troubles.
Without this knowledge and constant realiza-
tion as a defense against mortal error, the sick-
ness is liable to come.
Whoever catches the belief that health is the
legitimate inheritance of every one, will refuse to
be sick, no matter what prevails in the way of
epidemics, contagions or whatever.
184 PRACTICAI, IIKAMN'G
They appropriate hcaltli by the very character
of their thoughts.
Those who bchcve in the epidemic and fear it
will appropriate the sickness.
The belief in health as our rightful inheritance
must be based on knowledge of divine law in
mental action, else it is liable to be overthrown.
The conscious mind needs to know that the
health is the showing forth of the true self, in
order to make it unfailing.
The conscious mind must never admit that
health can be destroyed.
Health is one of the imperishable attributes of
God. Tliat is, it belongs in the category of per-
fect divine Principle. Health is God; therefore
it is indestructible; there is no such thing 3.s/)oo?'
health, feeble health, viiserable health, etc.
Health is healtli. and it cannot be qualified by
any such adjectives; and when we fully realize
the unchangeable, indestructiblp character of the
actual self of us, the child of God, we begin to
prove its perfection and excellence by making the
physical show forth in visible signs of perfection
and harmony.
To think and speak a great deal of spiritual
perfection and harmony as your rightful inheri-
tance, makes it show forth; you build as you
think.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 1 85
It is the business of the conscious mind to first
know truth, then prove its knowledge true by
making harmony manifest.
We let our light shine by making harmony man-
ifest in our environments, as well as in bodily
health.
We let our light shine when we speak health
into manifestation for a patient.
We let our light shine when we teach others
the way, and at the same time obey the com-
mand to preach the gospel, and heal the sick.
All who know this mighty truth can make it
shine forth in some way, if only in proclaiming
the law, by the silent rejection of all mortali-
ty's claims, and affirming the truth. Even
children can be taught to make the good mani-
fest by refusing to see evil.
In whatever way we use the law we increase
our understanding of it, and we find new truths
dawn upon us daily.
New and higher perceptions come as a reward
for faithfully serving Truth.
You need to be very thorough and earnest
with your self-discipline, and reject all falsity;
deny all the claims of mortal mind, and all the
claims of matter as a reality, and all the evils you
have ever believed in, until every pain and sor-
row, and every undesirable condition sinks out of
1 86 PRACTICAL HEAI.INCi
sight, and you realize that "only the good is
true."
Don't say you can't do it.
You can do it; every one can do it, but you
can't do it by holding the thought that 30U can't.
If you sit in the silence alone and force your con-
scious mind to drop all thoughts of a negative
character, by which I mean the not desirable, and
cease to think or speak of the changing, perishing
character of the material world about you, and
think and speak only of that which is true and
deathless, everything will begin to take orr the
deathless perfection you have in mind.
Think and speak persistently of the divine of
you, and the divineness of your inheritance.
Make the declaration over and over (mentally)
that you are a child of Wisdom, a child of har-
mony, a child of perfection, and )ou will find
wisdom, harmony and perfect conditions mani-
fest in your life.
Remember that so much wisdom, harmony and
perfection as you make manifest in your life, just
so much of the divine of you is manifest.
Being a child of perfection in every sense you
must realize the necessity of acknowledgment.
"Acknowledge me in all thy ways and I will direct
thy paths."
Jesus said, "Call no man upon earth your
Father, for one is your Father, even God."
FOR MIND AND BODY. 187
You see how Jesus in his teaching spoke con-
tinually of the real, actual of our being.
He never spoke of God as the father of the
flesh man, and all his teachings tend to show the
nothingness of all flesh, as well as of all evil, which
is the offspring of our false behefs regarding the
flesh.
When we consider that the flesh man is only
the outward expression of our thoughts and beliefs,
we shall reahze the importance of thinking and
believing in harmony with divine law.
As we see the folly of believing in and fearing
an evil power, the mist is cleared away, and all
the rubbish of former ways of thinking goes with
it. Then dawns upon us the beauty of knowing
realities, and the certainty that we can prove
them true.
We prove them by the wonderful power of the
word.
' ' Without the word was not anything made
that was made."
We ' ' receive the spirit of adoption " by know-
ing the true nature of our inheritance, and declar-
ing it.
Always speak to the true self of you in 3^our
self-discipline; not to the mortal at all, and when
treating a friend or neighbor or patient whose
mortal ways need correcting, call mentally to the
rp^il c;plf nf him ^nH thi<; will «pt him riaht
iSS I'RACrirAi. iv! .\i.ixc.
It is not the true self uf him that docs the wrong.
To call him by name (mentally) a:/d tell him
of his spiritual birthright to perfcctio'.i and good-
ness, will set his whole conGciou.:>'. nature into
harmony with his divine nature.
You lift the mortal nature out of its sordidness
and sensuality by calling the true self into mani-
festation, and the morral begins to put on immor-
tality, or is swallowed up in immortality.
This is the kind of service that brings us into
union with Christ. It gives us the mind that was
in Christ. By understanding the spirit of His
teaching, and keeping his words till we are alive
with their meaning, we are letting the same
eternal mind that He called the Father speak
through us.
This is the only true atonement, or at-one-
ment. which has always been misunderstood.
We have always been taught that the blood
of Christ atoned for our sins, the literal blood;
but never has it been explained to the satisfac-
tion of any rational mind by the usual view of the
vicarious atonement.
No one ever taught us that the blood was only
a vSymbol of the true word, and that the word
was Life, Spirit.
Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you
are spirit, and they are life."
\
FOR MIND AND BODY. . 1 89
The blood of Christ means the word of truth,
and He tells us to drink of it; that is, to take it
into our inmost understanding, as we would
drink of refreshing water when thirsty ; accept it,
and abide in it, which makes us one with it.
It makes us one with eternal life, one with
absolute truth; the only rational at-one-ment.
This may all seem very metaphysical to one
who has not reasoned on this Hne, as it all relates
to mind, and the various states of mind, which
is the only way to understand the physical.
When we think and talk of physical states and
conditions we are thinking and talking about
mere negation; and from the fact that we neces-
sarily grow to be like what we study, think about
and believe in, you can readily understand how
dull and negative we grow by believing in and
calculating for the physical as the real.
This dull negative state hides our concep-
tion and understanding of what is true; it is the
"natural man that perceiveth not the things of
the spirit, neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned."
There can be no spiritual discernment where
the conscious mind clings to the negative.
Spiritual discernment is simply understanding
of truth.
When we have trained the mind into a per-
I9(» I'RACTICAl, 1 1 KA I. INT.
sistcnt detcriiiination to i
hours.
All schools of medicine, as well as mineral waters and changes
of climate, had utterly failed to give relief.
Three years ago my husband and myself learned, by attending a
course of lessons with you. that if we governed our lives by the
teachings of Jesus, we have the power to overcome all inharmony.
By your teachings we learned how to overcome error. Since then
I have never had a sick headache. I regard my cure as one of
the signs that Jesus said should follow them that believe.
Gratefully your friend and pupil.
Dallas. Tex., July, 1891. Mrs. W. H.Johnson.
I was healed of a very distressing stomach trouble, besides
other less serious maladies, by attending your lessons. Was per-
fectly well before I completed my first course of lessons, and
FOR MINI) AND BOBY. 197
since then have demonstrated the truths of Christian Science by
healing many of the physical and mental inharmonies of people
•who came to me for help. Mrs. E. W. Morgan.
Lincoln, Neb.
By your teaching alone I was lifted from the depths of despair,
mentally and physically. Being Consumptive, suffering with
bronchitis, catarrh and asthma, I was made well.
At the second lesson my sprained foot, which was swollen out of
all shape, was healed perfectly well; since which time I have
neither taken nor given a single dose of material medicine in my
family, and all fear of sickness has vanished.
Sherman, Texas. ^^^- ^^- L- Hunter.
After years of suffering with liver and kidney troubles, and
finding all medicines, climates and mineral waters of no avail, in
my despair I seemed to be led to Mrs. Yaruall. I took both
lessons and treatments, and the second day during the lesson and
treatment I felt that I was healed.
It was the happiest day of my life, and I say, God bless the
workers in Christian Science everywhere. A. M.
I was for thirty years afflicted with hernia in its most serious
form, never daring to stand on my feet a moment without my
truss securely adjusted.
I attended a course of lessons with Mrs. Yarnall, during which
time I laid aside my truss, and for four years have been perfectly
free from the former trouble. J. C. H.
After many years of suffering, and five years a confirmed in-
valid, during which lime many able physicians had pronounced
my case utterly hopeless, I was cured, sound and well, in three
days, by listening to your lessons (beginning with no confidence
whatever), and for three years have been blessed in the work of
healing others. Mary Orr.
Del Norte, Col.
19^ PRACTICAI. nr.AI.INC.
I am rejoiced to be able to testify that by j-our lessons alone,
without any treatment except the discipline jou taught us. I was
changed in one short month from a nervous, miserable invalid to
a sound, well woman, and for three years and over I have rejoiced
in perfect health, strt-ngth and endurance beyond all expectation ;
but the physical change sinks into insignificance compared with
the mental and spiritual. I never Iwfore knew what the peace
that passeth understanding meant. M. A. LEAKE.
Dallas, Texas.
St. Loiis. Mo., June 28, 1891.
My Dear Mrs. Yarnall: — I have found potency, power and
truth in the words of your teaching. They voice the true senti-
ment of life, peace, health and love. The more I ponder on the
work of the words you have spoken to me, the more I feel like "a
strong man to nm a race." Your lectures have pointed out to me
a new way, and I feel more clearly through your teaching the
light of the life that never goes out. Respectfully,
C. J. GUIFFITH.
I esteem it a privilege to testify to the healing and harmonizing
effects of your lessons upon all who hear them.
They promote harmony in every department of life ; they re-
move all fear of sickness, and heal the heartaches as nothing else
can.
They open a new Heaven and a new Earth, and therefore bless
mankind by establishing the knowle«lge of truth that makes us
free. W. I. Smith.
St. Louis, Mo.
PART II
LESSON VII.
"He sent his word and healed them."
ON first taking up the study of Christian Sci-
ence, the student often experiences a feehng
of discouragement and doubt of his or her abihty
to grasp the truth in such fullness as to be able
to heal the sick by it.
There seems to be so much to remember, and
there is such a complete turning about from old
ways and old beliefs, that have formerly been so
hrmly relied upon, that the change seems like a
leap in the dark. Then we remember that the
change from the old false ways is what we are
seeking, and we know that no good can come
from the new way while we hold to the old.
There can be no dividing of honors.
The old ways which brought you only pain and
discord are false, and are entitled to no Jionors.
If the new way brings you peace and harmony
it is true, and is entitled to all honor.
200 rRACTICAI. ilKAI.IXG
Truth is a jealous Ciotl. and will not divick'
honors with error.
Divine Science could not be a true science if it
could be made to deviate from exactness.
You would consider the science of mathematics
very imperfect and unreliable if it would admit
of now and then a little deviation from the true
calculation to accommodate the whim of some
student of mathematics.
Science is Science only when it is exact, and
Divine Science is no exception, but is rather the
Science of all sciences; and all failures to obtain
correct results by the science are due to lack of
undcrstandinj^f of Divine law, just as all failures
to get true answers to your mathematical prob-
lems are due to your lack of understanding of
the principles of mathematics.
There is nothing wrong with tlu? science in
either case.
The trouble is all in the various whims of the
mortal mind that thinks it dare not launch out
beyond the reach of old errors, although the old
errors have yielded only discord and discomfort.
It is the turning away from old time-honored
fallacies that people are afraid of, and yet the
turning away is what does them good.
They will say they are afraid to do without
the doctor in sickness for fear something might
happen.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 20I
Something docs happen very often when they
have the doctor, and even when they have three
or four of them.
One old lady said nothing could induce her to
do without her doctor in sickness. He had stood
by her faithfully for twenty years, and she had
buried nine children who all died under his care,
and now that her husband was about to die she
thought it would be very ungrateful to discard
his services ; he was always such a comfort at the
funeral.
Another old lady said she never allowed her-
self to be without calomel and jalap in the house;
they acted so powerfully in sickness.
Such people are honest and sincere, and never
dream how ludicrous their ideas seem to the
advanced thinker.
The ways of mortal mind are the inventions of
the carnal nature, which is always opposed to
the good, and it is better to turn your back firmly
upon the false way right in the beginning.
' If you have been a sufferer from some chronic
malady, and thought you must make a laboratory
of your stomach, don't imagine that you must
break off grad7cally from your eighteen doses
daily ; no ; ' 'Throw all physic to the dogs" at once.
If it had ever done you any good you would
have found it out ere this ; and if it does no good,
the sooner you break off the better.
202 PRACTICAL IIKAIJMG
Let the Principle that created you heal you.
By trusting it, you set it to work, and you
cannot trust it while you cling to old idols.
The shortest way to success is the straight anc!
narrow way.
Put aside all fear ot being misled.
Don't be persuaded by any one to think it a
dangerous doctrine that does not teach belief in
an angry God, a burning hell and a personal
devil.
Science has proved it to be dangerous to believe
such wicked absurdities.
Science proves that what we believe in, and
think about, is shad(nved forth in our life.
If we believe in an angry God, we shall 'oe
continually haunted by fear of offending Him.
If we believe in a burning hell, our lives will be
tortured by miseries that constitute hell; and if
we believe in an individual personal devil —
' 'going about like a roaring lion, seeking whom
he may devour" — we shall live in perpetual dread.
All things go to prove that heaven and hell are
states of mind.
By the devil that Jesus likenea to a roaring
lion, etc., is evidently meant the evil propensities
of the human heart, which are constantly urging
us to let the carnal selfish nature have control.
Those propensities devour us in seeming.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 203
They consume us, mortally speaking.
Did not the Psalmist David say, "The pains
of hell gat hold upon me"? which in his case was
as much the result of carnal foolishness as with
any one else.
David had the wisdom to repent and turn
from carnal foolishness, and his beautiful songs
of praise are the outpourings of a grateful soul to
the Lord, who "delivered him from his dis-
tresses. "
The pains of hell which Dav'd suffered were
evidently distress of mind.
Did we ever get any comfort or heavenly
delight in the thought of an angry God ?
Did it ever give us comfort or peaee to beheve
in a burning hell that the angry God had pre-
pared for his disobedient children?
Did we ever get comfort or satisfaction in the
belief that God created us totally wicked and
depraved, with a strong tendency to disobedi-
ence, and no knowledge of how to remedy the
tendency? No! No! No! to all such questions.
Then let us abandon all beliefs that do not
bring harmony into our lives.
If we would have health of body we must be-
gin with harmony of mind, and we must know
that false ways and false ideas never bring har-
mony.
204 I'RACriCAl, riKAi.ixr,
Solomon said : " There is a way that seemeth
right unto a man. but the end thereof arc the
ways of death. "
Solomon knew that the ways of mortal error
were disappointing and misleading.
Paul expressed the same sentiment when he
said : " To be carnally minded is death."
Carnal ways and sordid desires have always
seemed to be the way to gain satisfaction, but
they have always found death at the end.
Now the ways of science tend continually to life.
Jesus said : "I come that ye might have life,
and that ye might have it more abundantly.''
That is, to let the life-giving principle reign
supreme.
There is a life-giving cjuality in the teachings
of science that no other Christian teachings have
ever had, and the vital principle makes its im-
pression in such unmistakable ways that no
faithful student can doubt or forget the principles.
With the thorough discipline we advise, the
truth sinks deeper and deeper till you thoroughly
understand and are at one with it.
The eager anxiety to master the whole philos-
ophy at once is very natural and common, but is
often a hindrance.
It betrays the fact that you are looking too
eagerly for what the intellect approves.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 205
You are not yet aware that you must ' ' leap
the bounds of the human intellect."
To ' ' wait patiently on the Lord {the law), you
enter a realm of thought and understanding so
far above and beyond the comprehension of mere
sense perception (which is all the intellect de-
pends upon), that you are astonished at the
unreliabihty of the human intellect when //;^illu-
mined by spiritual perception.
When doubts arise and you feel enveloped in
mental darkness, as you are liable to at first, you
have the remedy always at hand.
Deny the darkness and doubt with vigor and
assurance till it disappears.
Your self-training will always set you right if
you use it with trust.
As long as you talk or think doubtfully of your
understanding or ability, the darkness and doubt
will grow deeper.
If you talk and think about not knowing, you
fellowship with ignorance and you grow more and
more negative until you become a complete pic-
ture of negation and doubt, which is a helpless
condition.
Never admit your doubts, either by thought
or word, but constantly affirm wisdom as your
divine inheritance; hold patiently to affirmations
of wisdom and strength and harmony, and your
206 I'RACTICAL HKALTNCr
doubts have vanished before you know il. "^'our
confidence is secured.
Never admit the negative, the not good, the
uncertain, in any case ; but boldly hold to the
positive good, the definite and r^rA?///, for, "By
thy words thou art justified, and by thy words
thou art condemned."
Now, as before stated, the conscious mind
which does the thinking, is responsible for all
bodily conditions, all circumstances and environ-
ments; therefore, according to the character of
our thoughts and beliefs in the past, so do our
bodies, our circumstances and environments show
forth now; and according as we think and be-
lieve noiu will we produce corresponding condi-
tions in the future.
Put aside every thought that would foster a
belief in disease. For instance, the bi-lief in
])h}'sical causation is wonderfully jirolific of
sickness.
Notice the result of the ages of study of
physics.
Those who devote themselves to the study of
physics, go on year after year seeking for causes
for this, that and the other, with no perceptible
benefit to the world.
It is just dawning upon the minds c^f those
who notice, that diseases (according to mortal
FOR MIND AND BODY. 20/
sense) are actually propagated by the investiga-
tions and conclusions of men who devote their
time to such study.
Medical records are furnishing proofs of this
statement (unintentionally) every year. The
great and famous experts in special diseases
have, in some cases, studied and thought in the
one line of investigation till their own bodies
have taken on the very diseases they were seek-
ing causes for.
Quite recently a healthy, robust physician of
New York, who had spent months and years on
the study of insanity and its causes, prepared a
most able treatise on the subject, which he read
before a medical society. He went home from
the meeting as insane as the cases he had
described, and killed his wife and children and
himself as a result of his study of dementia.
He believed in insanity, and his belief was
intensified by the constant study of the theme.
In the study of causation on a physical plane,
no one ever dreams of mental causes.
Their microscopic investigations often reveal
the presence of organic hfe in the air we breathe,
and in the water we drink; and upon further
investigation they find the same organic life in
the patient who suffers an attack of the prevail-
ing epidemic, and their conclusions are all based
upon those investigations.
208 PRACTICAL IIKAMXC.
There hiis been no attempt on the part of
physicians to analyze or study the mental con-
ditions that act upon the functions, and produce
such marvelous changes.
How, according to physical causation, do they
account for the fact that one of a family will be
stricken with a fever, while none of the others
take it, although all have lived in the same
atmosphere and drank of the same water?
All answers to such questions are weak and
unsatisfactory, which goes to prove how unre-
liable material science is, and that much of the
so-called science of pathology is guess-work.
Many of the most eminent physicians of the
age have candidly admitted that "the most
they kuoio is that they know nothing."
As believers in Divine law we know that mortal
mind is the cause of all discord.
The work of mortal mind is to imitate the
ways and creations of Immortal Mind, and the
deceptive character of its imitations makes them
seem like real creations to those who only know
what the senses tell them.
We know that mortal mind creates what scans,
as dehrium tremens creates snakes and toads.
Mortal mind would have no knowledge of
organic life in the air and water, if no one went
in search for such things with his microscope.
FOR MILND AND' BDDY. 209
Have they removed the trouble by investiga-
tion or augmented it by increasing the fears ?
All such laws as mortal mind invents can be
set aside as null and void by Divine law under-
stood.
Of course students of material science shake
their wise heads in derision at the idea of mental
causation, but what does that prove ?
Did not the persecutors of Galileo have to
admit the truth of his discovery after they had
tortured him for daring to state it ?
Are not all discoveries of great principles
treated in a similar fashion at first ?
And have they not all withstood the assaults of
the world that calls itself so highly civilized ?
No great and mighty truths when once discov-
ered can be wholly lost to the world.
Now, to dispose of this question of physical
causation, science boldly declares there is no
such thing in reahty; what seems so is all in
mortal belief, and it is the mortal belief in what
is false that causes the mistakes in our Hfe
problem; the mistakes bring worry and failure,
and finally sickness, sorrow and death as the
world believes in death.
When it comes to putting the principles of
science into practice as corrective measures, it
is necessary to "lay the axe at the root of the
2IO PRACTICAL IIKALING
tree, "' which, iiccoidiiig to the teachin, their worst
enemy.
Now let us reason this question. All that you
have and all that you are, is God given. God
never gave you anything that is not good; and
God never gave you a bad temper. Then how
is it?
246 PRACTICAL HEALING
Why, according to reason you have no such
thing as a bad temper; according to appearance
you have, but it is all a mortal delusion which
you will never con(|ucr till you go at it scien-
tifically.
Deny it most emiihatically, but don't imagine
that the denial is a license to indulge the pas-
sion. Not at all.
The belief in a bad temper is j^oductive of
great misery on a mortal plane, and is a false
belief.
Put it under your feet; it has no claim to
fellowship at all. Know that God is Peace,
Omnipresent peace, and if you abide in truth
nothing can ruffle your temper.
God is Love, and if you abide in Love there
can be no anger.
The same may be said of all the secret sins
that come of selfishness.
Any feeling of anger, hatied, aversion or sus-
picion has its root in selfishness, and can only be
cured by love.
By honest candor you can soon conquer all
hatred or aversion by righteous reasoning.
To abide in truth and keep the true word will
set you free from every secret sin and its effects
in seeming.
How to abide in truth and love, is with many
FOR MIND AND BODY. 247
the point that seems impractical, while in reality
it is very simple.
Let all your arguments for truth be based in
the one statement of Divine Being, which admits
of no reality in anything which contradicts that
statement; therefore you are to deny every evil
passion that is contrary to the law of love, or to
the allness of the good.
Remember the power of the word. If you
deny selfishness in all its phases with a conscious
reahzation of the law of love, you put all selfish
impulses under your feet, and let Divine Love
take its place; then you abide in love and peace.
To secure harmony in all your life conditions,
you will see the wisdom of gaining the mastery
over all evil thoughts and unholy passions, as
well as all dependence upon material props or
medicinal aids in sickness.
As you have already accepted the statement
that ' ' there is but one power, " be consistent, and
stand by that statement.
Your power for good consists in your steadfast
loyalty to that statement; while to turn back to
the belief that a senseless drug has power for
good nullifies your trust in Divine Law, and you
lose the heafing effect.
' ' Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me. "
Truth is a jealous God, and cannot tolerate
error.
248 I'RACTICAL HEALING
If your eye is sin0 PKACIICAI. IIKALING
If you have really accepted the statements of
science, and are at one with them, you will re-
member that there is but one mind. To rely
upon that one mind, which means trustinj:,^ to
Divine wisdom, you will be able to settle all such
questions, because Divine wisdom leads you, or
prompts you, to let goof all mortality's leadings,
and trust Itself wholly.
' ' Launch out into the deep. " if you would se-
cure a goodly draught.
^on't cruise around among the foolish, shallow
mconsistencies of mortal mind for truth. You
may toil all the days and nights of your life in
that way. and nothing but disappointment will
come of it.
You have only to remember how little good
you have ever realized from such sources; then
consider that deep down within every heart there
is something that says, " There is good for me.''
That is the divine prompting to seek in the right
direction.
Every real desire of the human heart is for
good, and should be satisfied. It can be satis-
fied by going about it according to science, and
in no other way.
While believing in the responsibility of mortal
mind, you are made aware of its limitation; con-
sequently you believe in ignorance, weakness and
FOR MIND AND BODY. 281
unreliability as realities. You don't stop to con-
sider that those words express only negation,
that which is not, and you think of ignorance as
something real, and perhaps wonder what you
shall read to remedy the ignorance.
The books written by people who believe m
the reality of ignorance and weakness will not
help you out of your darkness at all, because
they are in the same error. It would be the
blind leading the bhnd.
You will find their statements as weak and un-
reliable as your own. We repeat, there is but
one mind of which you are a branch. Divine
Principle is the vine, and we in our divine nature
are the branches, while mortal mind is but the
shadow. This one mind is the only Substance
in the universe. It is the all Principle, and your
reason tells you how to consult it. The apostle
James said, ' ' If any man lack Wisdom, let him
ask of God."
You ask of God when you consult this Princi-
ple, and you get the wisdom by trusting its work-
ing Intelligence.
It is the aim of Christian Science to educate
the conscious mind to know what is true. In
knowing truth we know God, and when we
reason according to this knowledge of God we
consult true Principle, which is in reality asking
of God.
282 PRACTICAL HEALING
Now, there is a conditiou upon which you re-
ceive what you ask for. which is tliat you abide
in truth,
Jesus said, " If ye al)ide in Me, and AI)- words
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it
shall be done unto you."
To abide in Christ is to abide in Truth, and
your receiving what you ask depends upon the
accuracy of your reasoning, and your willingness
to abide in that line of reasoning, or stand by it,
be true to it.
You can readily understand that there must be
a great difference between the mind that accepts
ihe whole truth without a doubt of its working
power, and the one who doubts and questions
every step of the way, and only believes what is
proved by sense evidence.
It is the one who awakens the interior percep-
tion or intuition who /:?iok>s and understands h)w
Principle works, and whose faith in what it will
do is based upon knowledge.
Perfect understanding makes perfect faith,
therefore perfect works will follow understand-
ing-
If there is very little understanding there will
be very little faith, consequently imperfect dem-
onstrations will be the result.
There may be an intellectual perception of the
FOR xMIND AND BODY. 28^
philosophy of mental action without fully accept-
ing the teachings as true, but no one can open
the mind to a perfect, unbiased understanding of
these principles without accepting them. It is
impossible.
The very nature of true Principle is to vitalize
and awaken a realization of the Divine within
us, and when that is accomphshed we understand
and cannot help accepting.
Whoever talks unbelief in this truth does not
understand it, you may be sure, and while you
talk unbelief you push away the day of under-
standing.
It is better to keep silent, even if you think
you do not believe, for sooner or later you will
have to take back all you say that is not true of
Christian Science. After a time you will prove
it true in so many ways that you will wonder you
ever doubted.
By giving expression to your doubts you dull
your comprehension and put off the day of per-
fect peace.
The same is true in demonstrating over sick-
ness. If you have a case to treat that does not
yield, or seems stubborn, it is better never to
speak of it unless in a very private way to some
one who understands Science, and you want their
help on the case. If you are impressed that
284 PRACTICAL HEALING
some error or fault holds a patient in bondage,
be careful about giving expression to the thought,
and deny the error suggested or named by the
impression.
Whoever enters into details by describing a
case minutely, with all the bad symptoms as they
appear, helps to fix the disease a little closer and
make it less yielding.
What we talk about and think much about has
a wonderful effect upon our work, and one who
persists in talking error or" indulges in gossip and
calumny cannot hope to succeed.
To be perfectly consistent, we need to com-
pletely ignore all evil and all pain; all calumny
and discord and evil speaking as well as to cease
from thinking evil.
This is the science of silence, and more is ac-
complished by silent wisdom than by noisy con-
troversy.
Sometimes a case is manifesting health so
rapidly under your treatment that you can hardly
restrain your delight, and you are tempted to
tell a friend how bad the case was when you saw
it first, and you relate the whole account, as it
seemed to mortal sense, and your friend is
amazed at your ability to do as you have with
the case, and she relates the whole thing to her
friends, and they to their friends, with variations,
FOR MINI) AND BODY. 285
and the next day you are horrified to find your
patient back in the old condition, nearly or quite
as bad as ever.
You had forgotten that thinking and wording
were building according to your words.
When patients are first healed they are keenly
susceptible to every wave of thought, and espe-
cially to the thoughts and moods of the one who
treats them, and until the health is well estab-
lished the least said about the case the better,
unless every word is in harmony with Divine
law.
" A hint to the wise is sufficient." Never talk
promiscuously about a case you are treating, and
avoid as much as possible having unbelieving
minds fixed upon the case while it needs treat-
ment.
A case treated by a student of these lessons
just comes to my thought. Being given, up to
die by physicians and friends, the patient begged
for a scientist. Very soon she rallied, and in the
course of a few days seemed about to realize
perfect health, when she was visited by a rela-
tive.
When the relative found her so bright and ful]
of hope and cheer, and learned that it was all
attributable to Christian Science treatments, she
began a system of persecution and abuse of the
286 PRACTICAL IIKAI.INC.
Science that so shocked the ]Kitient in licr Ic'cl^le
condition that she died before the next morn-
ing.
Had the patient understood the truth for her
self, she need not have yielded to the dej^ressinL;
influence of any such foolish persecution, i)ui
while dependent upon the understanding of an-
other, and that one absent, she was driven
about by popular prejudice, and "the end thereof
are tlie ways of death."
Had the scientist known of the situation at
the time, she might have changed the current of
the mental inHuence, but all was over before slu>
knew of it.
Such are the situations we are all called ujion
to meet, but with steadfast, determined purpose,
we shall overcome every obstacle. " The gates
of hell shall not prevail against us."
Every seeming obstacle we find in our jiath-
way gives an opportunity to test the law, and
every victory over discouragements will lift you
to a higher plane spiritually, and increase your
understanding and trust of Divine law.
You will rise above the fear that it is presump-
tion to say, " God works through me to will and
to do. " Every good deed you feel prompted to
do, it is God working in you and through }ou
There is no other Spirit of good to prompt you
FOR MIND AND BODY. 287
to good deeds, and whatever you do in spirit and
truth, you will be strengthened by that affirma-
tion to yourself, ' ' God works through me to will
and to do all that ought to be done by me. "
There is great power and strength in the real-
ization that the great Principle of Intelligence,
Love and Truth never ceases to work tJwough us
andy^^r us, except when we acknowledge or re-
cognize another power. To keep that realiza-
tion in mind continually, and let no mortal error
come between to darken it, will give you power
to heal instantly, without argument.
All students of this truth have to begin the
work of healing by argument, and by faithful use
of the argument as taught in these lessons, your
experience will soon teach you to detect the
needs of each case you are called upon to treat,
and the very word you need to use will often
spring spontaneously to your aid.
When you attain to that state of perfect un-
derstanding and oneness with Divine Principle,
you will be able to heal without argument, and
your patients will not be so apt to show chemi-
calization.
It is the denial of evil passions and old false
beliefs that causes chemicalization, but it has to
be done. Perfect understanding enables you to
speak as Jesus did to the waves, "Peace, be
still." and it is done.
288 I'RACTICAI. IlKAl.I.NC
Those who h:ivc demonstrated thiit state of per-
fect oneness with Divine Principle have had to
be<;in at the bej^inninj^, just as you are now doinj^,
and they reached that state of oneness witli the
Father by steadfast loyalty U) Principle, and in no
other way.
The chemicalization, either in student or pa-
tient, is the proof that some stubborn error has
not been fully eradicated, and the confusion or
disturbance is liable to linj^er until that error
«;ives place to truth. It has already been dis-
turbed, or it would not strike back, but it has not
been dislod<^'ed, or it would cease to disturb;
therefore the disturbing; cause should be routed
from its stronghold.
Sometimes a patient is holding malice against
some one, and is too proud or too stubborn to
yield. In such case, pride, Jiatrcd and malice
should be made null and void by denial, followed
by the comforting affirmations.
Sometimes deception is the demon that creates
the disturbance; if so, treat it the same way.
Any fault must be treated the same in tender
kindness, but never with censure or blame.
Never indulge in condemnation, no matter how
glaring the fault may seem, nor how exasperat-
ing.
You can do the case no good so long as you
FOR MIND AND BODY. 289
dwell upon the mortal error as a reality, even in
thought; but to contradict its reality effectually
causes a vibration which amounts to a tumult till
it is quieted by tender words of love.
We will say you have held to that denial,
which proved to be the keynote to the trouble,
until your patient is quiet, and ceases to com-
plain of unrest or confusion, or ceases to show
irritability.
If the disturbance has been severe and pro-
longed, they now and then complain of great
exhaustion after it, as one might who had car-
ried a heavy burden for a long distance, until he
trembled and quivered with weariness, and ex-
haustion compelled him to lay it down. He is
relieved of his burden, but still trembles with
weakness. So is your patient relieved of his
guilty fears.
He is afraid of great prostration, however, and
there is fear to conquer as long as any remnant
of suffering continues. Exhaustion is sure to
suggest death to the patient, if he still believes
in death, and there are several false beliefs that
are closely related to the belief in death.
A belief in limitation covers the whole ground.
It embraces the belief in foolishness, ignorance
and weakness, and his great physical exhaustion
is the oul] picturing of this false belief of the
290 PRACTICAL HEALINCt
whole human race in hmitation, and in toohsh-
ness and ignorance.
He forgets that he is a child of dominion ; that
he is law against all conditions of weather, of
climate, of temperature, of diet and of all physi-
cal laws.
This law of dominion for the child of God has
never made any impression upon ///;//, because
he believed so thoroughly in limitation, and yet
he always admired the dominant qualities in
man. A man is not really a man without those
dominant tjualitics.
The signs of the dominant character are Intel-
ligence, Wisdom, Vigor, Vitality, Courage, En-
durance, Health, Strength, Boldness and Brav-
ery.
Notice, every one of these dominant charac-
teristics is Godlike in cjuality, and goes to prove
the Divine Sonship of man.
The child of God is not weak, or sick, or foolish,
or ignorant, nor lacking in courage and vitality,
and to show these negative qualities in any de-
gree is a sign that the ways of mortality have
lured him from his Father's house, and made
him forget the Omnipotent Source from whence
he might gather strength every moment, and the
Omniscient Source from which he might gather
wisdom at all times, so he trembles with weak-
FOR MIND AND BODY. 29I
ness and prostration because of this belief in
limitation.
The foolishness and ignorance of the world are
holding him in bondage to the mortal belief in
death from which yoit are to set him free.
There is no symptom so alarming to you as this
terrible prostration, and you need to lean strongly
on the Almighty arm, when anybody complains of
it. The thought of death is constantly struggling
for supremacy in your mind, but you have the all-
conquering power of truth on your side, if you
stand firm.
You want to deny fear, foolishness and ignor-
ance, and all limitation.
Deny your own belief in limitation. Deny the
power of all negation.
Say over and over. There is no death.
After denying all negation thoroughly, begin to
afhrm. Love, Love, Divine Love, and trust and
courage and strength. Vigor, vitality. Intelli-
gence, wisdom and Life, Life, Life. You are
alive with the Life of the Spirit, which is Life
everlasting. Eternal Life, perfect Life. You are
alive with the Life of the Spirit.
You are strong with the strength of the Spirit.
You are fearless with the courage of Spirit.
Bathe your patient mentally in all the sweet,
comforting, soothing, strengthening affirmations
that Divine love suggests to you.
202 I'RACTICAI. IIKAI.IM l
To aflirin all the dominanl (iiKililics jii the
spirit of love, is the <:^reat point for a state of ex-
haustion.
You are sh-oia^, brave, fearless and free.
"With lonj^ life will I satisfy him, because he
hatli set his love upon me."
SALT RHEUM CURED.
A lady came for treatment who had been allHctcd from child-
hood with Salt Rheum on the hands and fingers, always Ijeing
ohligi-d (as she thought) to keep her fingers wrapped in cloths,
with salves and liniments; always trying new remedies, and al-
ways disappointed in the result.
Never since childliood allowed to tlo what would necessitate
having her hands in water, and always nursing her sore fingers.
She had daily treatments for a week, at the end of which time
she was perfectly healed, with hands and fingers as soft and
smooth as a child's.
After three years of freetlom fram the old annoyance she feels
secure from any return of it.
LESSON XII.
TOWARD the close of the primary course of
lessons, the student of Christian Science is
very apt to wonder if these principles will work
for him as they do for others.
The real inwardness of such mighty principles
seems slow in finding its way to the understand-
ing sometimes. There is so much to remember
and such a wholesale demolishing of old ideas
that have been cherished as true, that much
firmness and decision is needed to secure the
practical knowledge necessary to turn the Divine
Law to account in the solution of the life prob-
lem.
The rejection of all evil, and of everything
that does not accord with the statement of Di-
vine Being, is the first step to be taken, and
every one has to take the first step first. No
one can afford to miss this first step, else they
will have missed the full cleansing, the seven
washings in Jordan.
294 PRACTICAL IIKALING
Even if the seven cleansing denials are all
made in one instant, they have to be made; that
is, the seven phases of falsity in human belief
have got to be erased, whether it is done in five
minutes or five years.
The time of its showing forth in perfect free-
dom depends upon your realization that all those
errors are null and void to you.
What are the seven errors so common to man-
kind that must be erased before perfect peace
can be established ?
First, The belief in an angry God. and the
fear that attends the belief.
Second, The belief in a burning hell, and the
fear that attends the belief.
Third, The belief in a personal devil, and the
fear that goes with it.
Fourth, The belief in hereditary taint in the
flesh, and the fear that goes with it.
Fifth, The belief in sensuality of all kinds,
and the fear that goes with it.
Sixth, The belief in deceit, with its fears.
Seventh, The belief in all secret sins that take
root in selfishness.
This covers the whole ground.
We will say you understand the basis on which
your denial rests, and the process by which you
set the Principle into action. You h:i\e used
FOR MIND AND BODY. 295
your knowledge of this law of mind to erase those
talse impressions and errors of judgment, and
you find yourself free from the bondage to which
you were subject while ignorant of your divine
right as a child of God*
Voii: are conscitmsly free.
Ahnu, the next step, the next round in the
ladder, is to take on; or clothe yourself anew
after the cleansing.
This you find is accomplished by affirmations
of good, or by the acknowledgment of good as
the only reality, and by affirming your rightful
inheritance as a child of God, and your domin-
ion over all material environments. This is
clothing yourself with conditions in harmony with
true law.
You find that by understanding the workings
of true law you can trust it; you have faith in
what it will do for you, because you know it has
its source in Divine Wisdom.
You find that the conscious mind of man may
be trained or attuned to perfect harmony with
the divine self, thus establishing a consciousness
of the oneness of man with the Father.
The branch is one with the vine, but always
dependent upon the vine for sustenance and
growth.
As the body is always dependent upon the
earth for sustenance and supply, so is the mind
206
I'KACTICM, lll:AI,IX(i
(Which is not n thin« „f earth at all) dcncndent
"1-n He great eternal n,inoi
out effort, what may we not accomplish by honest,
earnest intention to heal and bless ?
Our heahng thoughts are never lost; they are
lovnig messengers that carry healing to some one,
even if they find no entrance into the heart of
the one they are intended for.
No true thought, no healing thought, no word
of loving intention to heal and bless can possibly
be lost; it nuLst set the healing forces to work in
some mind, somewhere.
The only law under which you rest is that you
be faithful in speaking, thinking and radiating
truth, health and harmony
The time is now at hand when those who un-
derstand may judge of character by the mental
atmosphere an individual radiates.
Every one sheds a silent influence correspond-
ing to the character of his thoughts, beliefs and
opinions, just as the rose sheds an invisible per-
fume which all recognize as that of the rose.
And if your thoughts, beliefs and opinions
spring from a willing service to truth we shall ra-
diate health and joy, and our very presence will
be a benediction.
. There is no occasion for a sanctimonious atti-
tude. Sanctimonious piety never gives joy or
freedom, but holds one in solemn bondage to
form which the heart can never sanction.
302 rRACTTCAi. iii:ai.i.\( .
So. while devoutly acknowledging God as the
only source of health, strength and joy. we claim
His bounty as our birthright without debasement
or feeling of unworthiness. This true attitude
of mind sheds cheerful assurance to others.
We claim all the dominant qualities that are
God-like and powerful, because they belong to
us as children of God.
They are our inheritance from the Father.
We are children of power, of peace and har-
mony, and by acknowledging the same with
thanks we show forth the power, peace and har-
mony. God is no respecter of persons. He
deals ecjually with all his children, and if any
seem to lack in power or in vigor, health or har-
mony in (Uiy zaay, that one has failed to recognize
and claim his own.
The sixth movement of the law, or the sixth
treatment of a patient (according to the rule) is
the one in which he needs the assurance of his
right to claim perfection in every department of
his being.
If you are treating yourself, you have already
reasoned it out in the study of the lessons, and
you make your claim with confidence, because
you know upon what it is based; but if you are
treating a patient who has not reasoned it out,
and is only looking for healing, you have not
FOR MIND AND BODY. 3O3
done for him all you can do, till you assure
him of his birthright by silent argument; and you
must continue this assurance till he responds by
realizing it himself You have already given him
the words of courage and trust that relieved him
of the fear when he believed that great weak-
ness and prostration were upon him, and he
gratefully acknowledges the peace and health
your treatments have given him. He says he is
perfectly well, and his looks show that he is
happy, but he still wants something of you, he
does not seem to know just what.
Many practitioners do not recognize this need,
but no patient should be discharged without the
blessing this need calls for as a sustaining treat-
ment.
You have nothing to deny; you have only to
give him a reiteration of the perfection you have
already affirmed for him, but the impression
must be made deeper, and you will think of
many words of courage, strength and enduring
trust to add in assuring him of his inheritance,
and he should be held in these uplifting thoughts
for several days, as security against the mortal
error that might otherwise gain the mastery over
him again.
Say to him with earnest deliberation and per-
fect trust in what you say:
304 I'KAt iiCAi, iikai.im;
You arc the perfect creation of tlic livin«^ God.
Spiritual like the Thither, in harmony with all
jierfection; fearless and free.
You arc perfectly healthy, strong, wise and
i;ood.
You have ability and judgment.
You see only good.
You rcHcct only good.
You reflect the whole universe of goodness in
health, strength, vigor, vitality, courage and
endurance.
You are perfect because you are a child of
perfection.
You are wise because you are a child of wis-
dom, and you reflect wisdom from every (piarter.
Ability, judgment, health, strength and peace
are your rightful inheritance, and no one can de-
prive you of them.
Your peace tiows like a river.
From every source and through every avenue
comes goodness and perfection to bless and
strengthen you.
You are compassed about with truth, goodness
and strength, through which no evil can reach
you.
The Divine Life is lived within you perfect.
In the Divine Life is vigor, vitality, health,
strength, peace and joy for evermore.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 305
You know it, and realize it.
You acknowledge it with gratitude.
You are happy, fearless and free.
You are perfectly well and sound and strong,
mentally, morally and physically.
You abide in the truth that makes free.
The Lord will bless you, and keep you, and
cause his face to shine upon you for evermore.
These are true thoughts that may be given to
any one under any circumstances, because they
are the truth regarding the child of God.
In these words you speak of spiritual perfec-
tion without reference to what appears in the
ili^.sh at all.
This is sowing to the Spirit.
" For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the
flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the
Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."
It is clearly sowing t"^ the flesh when we think
and calculate for the flesh as the real man ; and
we know and prove that thinking and realizing
only Spiritual perfection, makes the man of flesh
manifest that perfection.
Never doubt your own ability to demonstrate
over every seeu.ing difficulty.
Doubt is the demon that deprives you of suc-
cess in your attempts to demonstrate truth. You
must know that there is no situation, circum-
3O0 rRACTICAL UKALING
Stance or condition in life that you may not mas-
ter if you av7/.
Cold and heat, fire and frost, storm and tem
pest, wind and Hood are your servants, not your
masters.
\Vc may truly say, I love the cold and the
heat; 1 love the storm and the tempest; I love
the wind and the tlood; I love all that has been
called dangerous for mankind, because I glorify
God in provinfj it powerless to harm me.
God is glorified in every instance where His
children overcome error and the fear of evil hap-
penings.
If you think you have an enemy, say to him
(mentally), There is only love between us. You
arc a child of Divine Love. You arc love.
Persist in these affirmations patiently, and pay
no attention to what seems to contradict them,
and you will turn his enmity to love. To recog-
nize enmity is to foster and nourish it.
The same is true of sickness and pain.
You defile the temple of God when you say.
I am sick. I am weak, I am in pain, or I am un-
worthy.
' ' Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If
any man defile the temple of God, him shall God
destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which
temple ye are."
FOR xMIND AND BODY. 307
The moment you admit sickness, pain or dis-
ease you withdraw your conscious support of the
Spirit in the measure of your complaint. The
Hkeness and image of your error is made mani-
fest in an increase of discord, disease and dis-
comfort.
Never place the false word, the negative after
the ' ' I am, " not even in thought, for the word
or thought has power to bring forth. The false
shows forth in secviing only, according to mortal
belief. The trice shows forth in reality, accord-
ing to Divine Law.
"By thy words thou art justified," means by
the word of truth is justification manifest.
"By thy words thou art condemned," means
that all condemnation is begotten of false words.
A man's word is his only burden, said the
prophet, therefore it is wisdom to soeak only of
Divine perfection.
Let the positive good follow the "I am"
always. I am well; I am strong; I am wise; I
am free; I am able; I am oerfect, because I am
the child of Perfection.
I am compassed about by the law of perfec-
tion and goodness, and no evil can touch me, for
in the realm of reality there is only good.
' ' May the Lord bless thee, and keep thee, and
cause his face to shine upon thee, " and may thy
3o8 I'RACriCAL IIKALING
liearl (3pcn to receive the truth that will prove
thy shield and buckler.
BLINDNESS CURED.
Au elderly geutlcman who was totaly blind from cataract, and
suffering intense agonies irom neuralgia, embracing all of one
side of the bead, the eye swollen and protruding, had not slept au
hotu at a time for Over a year in consequence of the pain, came
to the city to consult physicians, who had decided to retnove the
right eye and operate upon the other. As he was about to be
taken to the hospital a kind friend, who had been healed by
Christian Science, came in and persuaded him to try it.
He was treated and went away relieved of all pain; slept soundly
all night, which he had not done before for a year. He came for
treatment the two succeeding days, after which he returned to his
home in the country and was treated absently.
In about three weeks he wrote that he could see to read the
papers with his best eye, and with the other he could count his
fingers by holding them up to the light. Absent treatments were
continued for about three months, after which we received word
that he was perfectly healed, and he praised God for his delivery
from the hands of the surgeon, and for his rescue from a world of
darkness.
CONCLUSION.
AFTER perusing these lessons for the first
time, the student is very apt to falter and
hesitate about accepting all the statements.
This is because he has not yet reasoned it out
from the basic principles, and the only remedy
is to go over the whole ground deliberately,
(again and again if necessary) till every state-
ment is clearly understood.
The benefits of science, the peace, comfort
and assurance that science is true, will not be
fully realized while one fears to depart from the
old ways that darken his life.
Do you feel that you do not understand ?
Then say to yourself mentally, ' ' Nothing can
stand between me and the knowledge of truth
thut will liberate me from all error.
Meditate upon this declaration, hold to it,
and reason it out on the basis of the absolute
allness of the Good, the Omnipresent Wisdom,
and Omnipotent Power.
3IO i'RACTICAL HEALING
Then affirm, "I can know. I can under-
stand."
Then I do know. I do understand.
Affirm that you caji, till it becomes a fixed con-
viction of the mind, and in the regular secjuential
order of unfoldment you will find it easy to say,
I do.
To hcLjin without any scruples about it, and
say, I do understand. I do know. I aj7t able,
etc., is still better; but to those who think they
dare not we should advise the more gradual pro-
ceeding.
When you realize the full meaning of the "/
ani" you will not be afraid to say I do understand.
I do know.
You will rather be afraid to say, I can't, or I
don't know.
Never put the negative word after the ' ' I am"
in any case.
I can't. I don't know, and I'm afraid, belong
to the old dispensation of darkness and negation.
The " I am " is in the present, the positive decla-
ration of what is now.
So fear not to say, I can understand no7o. I
do understand nouf. I have Divine Wisdom no-io.
I am the perfect child of God nozo.
Hold to this persistently, and "thy light shall
break forth as the morning, and thy health shall
spring forth speedily."
FOR MIND AND BODY. 3II
Throw all doubt and fear to the winds, and
declare, I am under the protection of Almio;hty
Goodness, Wisdom and Love, and nothing but
good can reach me.
When days of darkness and discouragement
seem to overcome, these are the words that will
restore peace and harmony, if used with trust.
If beset with opposition and persecution accord-
ing to the ways of mortal mind, say to yourself,
there is no power but of God, and I am free from
all evil, and from all discord that comes of mortal
errdr. God is my refuge; in Him I trust. I am
fearless and free.
If you still believe in and fear headaches, or
indigestion, or the danger of taking cold, say, no.
There is no life or sensation in matter, and I have
dominion over my flesh; I am Spirit and I cannot
take cold or suffer a headache or indigestion.
Only the good is true.
As the will of God is only good, and my human
will is merged in the Divine will, I am one with
Divine perfection, and I will show forth that per-
fection in my flesh.
I am perfectly well and sound and strong in
every part.
I am free from even the belief in headaches,
indigestion, or taking cold. Hold to such
thoughts till you realize freedom.
312 PRACTICAl, UFAI.TXr,
If you still feci wearied with your daily cares,
and 3'our duties seem burdensome, take a few
moments to yourself in the silence, and meditate
upon the absolute perfection of Spirit, and the
impossibility of Spirit being weary. Say, God is
my rest, God is my peace, and I have strenpjth
and endurance unlimited. I am at rest.
Such thou,i;hts held for a few moments will re-
move all weariness, and you soon know that true
thinking is the only sure panacea for every ill.
If you think you are wronged or injured in any
way, mentally deny that anything or anybody in
in the whole world can injure you by word or
deed.
To any individual that you think is inclined to
wrong you, call the name mentally and say your
intentions toward me are only good, and every-
thing you say and do is a help and advantage to
me and also to yourself. There is only love be-
tween us, and only love in your heart.
No matter how contrary things may seem, hold
to this hne of thought and the good will concjucr.
Many ask if it is right to treat for temporal bless-
ings such as money and other material needs.
It is certainly right to trust God for whatever
we seem to lack that is good, the same as to pray
for the temporal blessing of health. As it is
•rood to have abundance and be free from ha-
FOR MIND AND BODY. 313
rassing care, it is rio;ht to treat for just \vhat you
need.
All good is the gift of God; so it is the good
law or law of God that provides the abundance.
When poverty stares you in the face (accord-
ing to the seeming) you may know that the ad-
versity is the result of adverse calculations in your
problem.
The adversary in this case is your dependence
upon what mortal mind says, without reference
to Divine Principle.
You set the law into action in a manner adverse
to righteousness, and the consequence is adver-
sity in temporal affairs.
How have you made the law work adversely?
By a belief in limitation which caused fear and
doubt regarding the outcome of your plans.
The fear and doubt brought forth what you ex-
pected; then the complaining and bemoaning
your ill success increased the difficulty, and you
held still more strongly to the belief that you were
unfortunate.
The fear, the complaints and admissions of
' ' bad luck " (so called) sets the law to work in
appearance on the adverse or negative side.
You acknowledge a false power every time you
complain of adversity.
You recognize a phantom as reality every time
314 PRACIICAL HKALINC;
you admit poverty; you nafne it as something
not good, and it stays by you as long as you ad-
mit it.
It is all a mistake. Not a word of it is true.
The remedy is to reason yourself out of the
belief by denying the poverty and everything
that tends to limitation.
Deny adversity and the fear of it. Deny that
one can have more than another, or better judg-
ment or more ability than another.
In short, set your conscious mind into liar-
money with Divine Goodness and love, which
means abundance of all that is good.
Your denials will remove every obstacle to per-
fect realization, which comes by affirming the
abundance you desire as already received.
Plold to your affirmations with trust, and praise
and thank God for abundance, even if you
haven't a penny. Give praise and thanks to the
Giver of all good, and keep affirming abundance
as already yours. Be patient and true to the
Principle, and abundance will come to you, some-
times in very unexpected ways.
You set the law to work in righteousness by
praise and thanksgiving; while by the adverse
plan you unconsciously push away the very thing
you want by complaining and by admitting the
not good.
FOR MIND AND BODY. 315
Never tell anybody you are poor, no matter
how apparent the poverty is to mortal sense;
the abundance will never come by naming the
lack of abundance. You invoke the negative
forces (or what seems a force) when you name
it or give it a conscious recognition in mind as a
reality.
You also invoke the Almighty Principle of
goodness. Jehovah Jireh, the Provider, when
you acknowledge it as all, and praise and glorify
it as your only refuge, defense and supply.
Your acknowledgment and trust of this great
providing power sets the law into action, just as
surely as the touch of the harp strings sets them
to vibrating.
If the touch is made by the trained and skilled
musician, the vibration will be harmonious and
sweet; but if made by the awkward, untaught
hand it will be discordant.
So it is with all who use these mighty princi-
ples for the harmonizing of life's conditions.
The mind must be trained to know the laws of
harmony in mental action, and thus be able to
bjing harmony out of discord in every de}-)art-
ment of our being.
The same principles may be applied to every
problem that has a righteous end in view, by first
rooting out every plant that our heavenly Father
3"' rRACTicAi, iiFAi.rar,
(D,vinc Principle) hath not planted. an