Part 58 (1/2)

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

The action of faith

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

So also faith, cooperating with a belief in the healing effects of time and medication, will soothe fear and change 398:27 the belief of disease to a belief of health. Even a blind faith removes bodily ailments for a season, but hypnotism changes such ills into new and more difficult forms of dis- 398:30 ease. The Science of Mind must come to the rescue, to work a radical cure. Then we understand the process.

The great fact remains that evil is not mind. Evil has 399:1 no power, no intelligence, for G.o.d is good, and therefore good is infinite, is All.

Corporeal combinations

399:3 You say that certain material combinations produce disease; but if the material body causes disease, can matter cure what matter has caused? Mortal 399:6 mind prescribes the drug, and administers it.

Mortal mind plans the exercise, and puts the body through certain motions. No gastric gas acc.u.mulates, not a se- 399:9 cretion nor combination can operate, apart from the action of mortal thought, _alias_ mortal mind.

Automatic mechanism

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

Mental strength

Scientifically speaking, there is no mortal mind out of 399:24 which to make material beliefs, springing from illusion.

This misnamed mind is not an ent.i.ty. It is only a false sense of matter, since matter is not 399:27 sensible. The one Mind, G.o.d, contains no mortal opin- ions. All that is real is included in this immortal Mind.

Confirmation in a parable

Our Master asked: ”How can one enter into a strong 399:30 man's house and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man?” In other words: How can I heal the body, without beginning with so-called 400:1 mortal mind, which directly controls the body? When disease is once destroyed in this so-called mind, the fear 400:3 of disease is gone, and therefore the disease is thor- oughly cured. Mortal mind is ”the strong man,” which must be held in subjection before its influence upon health 400:6 and morals can be removed. This error conquered, we can despoil ”the strong man” of his goods, - namely, of sin and disease.

Eradicate error from thought

400:9 Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they forsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divine Mind, and abandon their material beliefs.

400:12 Eradicate the image of disease from the per- turbed thought before it has taken tangible shape in conscious thought, _alias_ the body, and you pre- 400:15 vent the development of disease. This task becomes easy, if you understand that every disease is an error, and has no character nor type, except what mortal mind a.s.signs to 400:18 it. By lifting thought above error, or disease, and con- tending persistently for truth, you destroy error.

Mortal mind controlled

When we remove disease by addressing the disturbed 400:21 mind, giving no heed to the body, we prove that thought alone creates the suffering. Mortal mind rules all that is mortal. We see in the body 400:24 the images of this mind, even as in optics we see painted on the retina the image which becomes visible to the senses. The action of so-called mortal mind must be 400:27 destroyed by the divine Mind to bring out the harmony of being. Without divine control there is discord, mani- fest as sin, sickness, and death.

Mortal mind not a healer

400:30 The Scriptures plainly declare the baneful influence of sinful thought on the body. Even our Master felt this.

It is recorded that in certain localities he did not many 401:1 mighty works ”because of their unbelief” in Truth. Any human error is its own enemy, and works against itself; 401:3 it does nothing in the right direction and much in the wrong. If so-called mind is cheris.h.i.+ng evil pa.s.sions and malicious purposes, it is not a healer, 401:6 but it engenders disease and death.

Effect of opposites

If faith in the truth of being, which you impart men- tally while destroying error, causes chemicalization (as 401:9 when an alkali is destroying an acid), it is be- cause the truth of being must transform the error to the end of producing a higher manifestation.

401:12 This fermentation should not aggravate the disease, but should be as painless to man as to a fluid, since matter has no sensation and mortal mind only feels and sees 401:15 materially.

What I term _chemicalization_ is the upheaval produced when immortal Truth is destroying erroneous mortal be- 401:18 lief. Mental chemicalization brings sin and sickness to the surface, forcing impurities to pa.s.s away, as is the case with a fermenting fluid.

Medicine and brain

401:21 The only effect produced by medicine is dependent upon mental action. If the mind were parted from the body, could you produce any effect upon the brain 401:24 or body by applying the drug to either? Would the drug remove paralysis, affect organization, or restore will and action to cerebrum and cerebellum?