Watching Point 275

275 — WATCH lest you feel that at your present stage of growth Science calls upon you to deny the body, or any of its organs and functions. Mrs. Eddy gives us no precedent for it. Read Miscellany, page 217.

When Gilbert C. Carpenter was living in Mrs. Eddy’s home, Calvin Frye instructed him never to deny that he had a heart, since at present we seem to need a heart that operates harmoniously. We should not deny that we have a stomach as long as we still need one. Rather should we, at the present time, strive to make the demonstration that causes material sense to become the servant of Science (Science and Health, page 146).

Edward Kimball once wrote an article in which he said that all there is to stomach is what God knows about it. He wrote, “Every organ or function of the body is an idea of God, and all there is to stomach is the truth about it. It is all right at all times, imperishable, perfect.” When Mrs. Eddy corrected his manuscript, she wrote in the margin after the first phrase, “A lie.” Yet he was only stating what she had taught him! She said in substance, “Declare, ‘I have a perfect liver in God,’ and let the spiritual import of this declaration destroy the false concept about liver. You may declare, ‘I have a perfect liver,’ or ‘there is no liver,’ provided the thought back of these declarations is right.”

From this we can deduce that she marked what he had written as a lie, since it was Science phrased in a way that would not be understandable to those for whom the article was being written. This proves that the truth can become a lie, when stated in such a way that one’s hearers will misunderstand it, or if it has the wrong thought back of it.

Mrs. Eddy once wrote to Mr. Kimball as follows: “Body and mortal mind are one. I know this and take no thought for the body. Look out that your thought is right and your stomach will be forgotten, for you have none in Truth. Stick to this Truth and all is well. If thy right hand offend, cast it from thee. Cast out your liver! God is your life and you are the liver and there is no other liver. This is casting out evils and these signs shall follow them that believe.”

Mrs. Eddy also said to Dr. Baker, “There are no material lungs. If they offend thee, pluck them out — destroy your false sense of organs. Christian Scientists should say they have perfect lungs, perfect stomach, perfect heart, etc., as idea, spiritual.”

Mrs. Eddy herself once questioned whether the scientific statement of being might not be too strong for one who was about to become a mother! When we realize that divine Love meets the human need, we will take that human need into consideration, and not try to deny out of existence that which still seems to be humanly necessary. Read Science and Health, 427:23.