Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1898).djvu/464

444 attempt to influence the thoughts of another, except it be to benefit him, or we are personally requested to give

him aid. In mental practice you must not forget that erring human opinions, conflicting selfish motives, and ignorant attempts to do good often render you incapable of knowing or judging accurately the needs of your fellow-men. Therefore this need must be personally expressed, and your aid solicited, before it is silently imparted to patients or people.

Ignorance, subtlety, and false charity do not forever conceal error; it will in time disclose and kill itself. The

recuperative action of the system, when mentally sustained by Truth, goes on naturally. When the reverse of Truth seems true to material sense, impart spiritual understanding, which destroys false evidence without frightening or discouraging the patient. Expose and denounce the claim of evil, in all its forms, but acknowledge no reality in them. A sinner is not reformed merely by assuring him that he cannot be a sinner, because there is no sin. To put down the claim of sin you must detect it, remove the mask, point out the illusion, and thus get the victory over sin, and prove its unreality.

A sinner is afraid to cast the first stone. He may say, as a subterfuge, that evil is unreal; but to prove it, he must

demonstrate his statement. To assume there are no claims of evil, and yet indulge them, is a moral offence. Blindness and self-righteousness cling fast to iniquity. When the Publican's wail went out to the great heart of Love, it won his humble desire. Evil which obtains in the bodily senses, but which the heart condemns, has no foundation; but if evil is