Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1898).djvu/318

298 not materiality, but spirituality, was the reality of man's existence; while to the rabbis, the spiritual was the intangible and uncertain, if not the unreal.

If a mother had a child who was frightened at imaginary ghosts, and sick in consequence of her fear, would

she say to her: “Ghosts are real. They exist, and are to be feared; but you must not be afraid of them”?

Children, like adults, ought to fear a reality which can harm them, and which they do not understand; for at any moment they may become its helpless victims; but instead of increasing children's fear by declaring ghosts to be real, merciless, and powerful, thus watering the very roots of childish timidity, the children should be assured that their fears are groundless, that ghosts are not realities, but traditional beliefs, erroneous and man-made.

In short, children should be told not to believe in ghosts, because there are no such things. If belief in their reality is destroyed, terror will depart and health be restored. The objects of alarm will then vanish into nothingness, no longer seeming worthy of fear or honor. To accomplish a good result, it is certainly not irrational to tell the truth about ghosts.

The Christianly Scientific real is the sensuous unreal. What seems real to material sense is unreal in Science.

The physical senses and Science have ever been antagonistic; and they will so continue, till the testimony of the physical senses yields entirely to Christian Science.

How can a Christian — having the stronger evidence of Truth, which contradicts the evidence of error — think