Imperial Valley press., 1917-01-15
MUST LOOK BACK OF MATERIAL
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1t is Observed ii this connection
that all system or treatment for The
SEX take more or less account OF the
fact that a diseased t2GdiGon O. The
body as It appears 70 the physical
scfseS la only the effect Of something
else, but as & rule these systems are
content to discern a, cause possibly
oGe or two or three stages removed
but not whit less physical than the
outward manifestation Of the disease.
Such Il sO-called cause IS itself only
an effect. Correctly speaking, nothing
in Or Of the material body coald be
lie cause Of disease, fOE mater. OF
which the body is composed, t.Inot
do anything of and By itself. Mat
ter does not have initiative or intel
}i"oaco or creative power. 1t c2nnot
make itself sick or we'll, weak or
st"onr, alive or Gead. The things
matter appears to do are done always
hE something else. If a dozen bricks
he placed on end in row, with reg
u,ar intervals between, and brick
number one be toppIed against brick
number two, all the bricks in the row
VII one by cne fall. Number twelve
brick clearly was knocked over by
uumber eleven, which in turn fell be-
cause Of number ten, and so on back
to number one, and to the hand that
topp!cd it. Here we have merely a
series of material effects. But what
caused the hand to move? We OBJ
serve we are now approaching the ac-
tual source Of the disaster to the row
If bricks, ard that it was not mate
rial but mental. Thus if every So
called physical action. whether in the
body or IN that which We call nature,
were to be traced to its absolute be-
ginning, it would be necessary to go
on back through successive so-callad
material causes until one should come
to either Intelligence CT its counter
felt.
In this way is at least indicated the
reasonab!oness OF employing N aid
Of the sick & mental method by which
we may look beyond the yisibly bod
IL effects for the actual origin Of the
difficulty. But it is evident that 4
system devoted solely to the healing
of physical disease would not he en-
titled to be termed Christian Science.
The fact is that Christian Science
healing is spiritual healing, in which
the physical benefits, notable as they
may be, are but Incidents. This heal
ing IS always and oaly the result of
moral or spiritual regeneration. It
$ the fruit of intelligent, applied
righteousness. Christian Science
healing can be practiced best by those
who are purest in heart, and its ef
fects could not he otherwise than
good.
Christian Science, therefore is
unique in both means and aims, and
it does not resemble IN any import
ant respect systems, whether mental
o. physical, that strive only to make
humanity comfortable in . material
scrse Of existence, that involve nc
e,or7l standard vh2toven, and that
~oJ1j lie employed as readily for i'm
nr0pcr as for proper purposes. WIZ
these distinctions clearly in view one
may understand how Far removed is
this spiritual healing from whatever
might be attempted 'throHoh tie use
E huran will, mental suggestion, or
CIV "ni0d-ofcr-matter" process, and
Gro may also understand why various
let,er-day attempts at combjninG
hr9notj-n1 with religions and modi-
cine have failed 70 achieve anything
comoa~ablc with the good works that
are being wrought through Christian