In all moral revolutions, from a lower to a higher condition of thought
and action, Truth is in the minority and error has the majority. It is
not otherwise in the field of Mind-healing. The man who calls himself a
Christian Scientist, yet is false to God and man, is also uttering
falsehood about good. This falsity shuts against him the Truth and the
Principle of Science, but opens a way whereby, through will-power, sense
may say the unchristian practitioner can heal; but Science shows that he
makes morally worse the invalid whom he is supposed to cure.
By this I mean that mortal mind should not be falsely impregnated. If by
such lower means the health is seemingly restored, the restoration is not
lasting, and the patient is liable to a relapse,--"The last state of that
man is worse than the first."
The teacher of Mind-healing who is not a Christian, in the highest sense,
is constantly sowing the seeds of discord and disease. Even the truth he
speaks is more or less blended with error; and this error will spring
up in the mind of his pupil. The pupil's imperfect knowledge will lead
to weakness in practice, and he will be a poor practitioner, if not a
malpractitioner.
The basis of malpractice is in erring human will, and this will is an
outcome of what I call _mortal mind_,--a false and temporal sense
of Truth, Life, and Love. To heal, in Christian Science, is to base your
practice on immortal Mind, the divine Principle of man's being; and this
requires a preparation of the heart and an answer of the lips from the
Lord.
The Science of healing is the Truth of healing. If one is untruthful, his
mental state weighs against his healing power; and similar effects come
from pride, envy, lust, and all fleshly vices.
The spiritual power of a scientific, right thought, without a direct
effort, an audible or even a mental argument, has oftentimes healed
inveterate diseases.
The thoughts of the practitioner should be imbued with a clear conviction
of the omnipotence and omnipresence of God; that He is All, and that there
can be none beside Him; that God is good, and the producer only of good;
and hence, that whatever militates against health, harmony, or holiness,
is an unjust usurper of the throne of the controller of all mankind. Note
this, that if you have power in error, you forfeit the power that Truth
bestows, and its salutary influence on yourself and others.
You must feel and know that God alone governs man; that His government
is harmonious; that He is too pure to behold iniquity, and divides His
power with nothing evil or material; that material laws are only human
beliefs, which govern mortals wrongfully. These beliefs arise from the
subjective states of thought, producing the beliefs of a mortal material
universe,--so-called, and of material disease and mortality. Mortal ills
are but errors of thought,--diseases of mortal mind, and not of matter;
for matter cannot feel, see, or report pain or disease.
Disease is a thing of thought manifested on the body; and fear is the
procurator of the thought which causes sickness and suffering. Remove
this fear by the true sense that God is Love,--and that Love punishes
nothing but sin,--and the patient can then look up to the loving God,
and know that He afflicteth not willingly the children of men, who are
punished because of disobedience to His spiritual law. His law of Truth,