Article September 16, 1916 Issue

The Divine Antidote

REV. JAMES J. ROME

In the study of chemistry the student learns that among the elements there are those of opposite qualities or characteristics, and that, as in the case of acids and alkalies, they can be used in the work of analysis for the purpose of neutralizing each other. This fact is taken advantage of in the practice of medicine, and drugs of certain qualities are administered by physicians to counteract or antidote the supposed presence in the human system of something of an opposite nature, so that one kind of matter may correct or destroy the other kind.

It is evident of course that matter could have no active quality in or of itself apart from mentality, for all action is the result of the operation of law of some kind; and to have law operative we must have mind, or thought, hence the action of material elements is primarily the operation of mental qualities. Now if the mental action or belief that endows matter with these different qualities could be discerned and analyzed, then the effect might be produced without the presence of the material element. Advancement enough has been made along the lines of physiological study to recognize that certain material effects have been produced without the presence of any matter as causative, and have therefore been entirely the result of mental action. It has been admitted by physicians, for instance, that an extreme state of anger or excitement has produced a deposit of some acid poison. Now it seems a peculiar procedure, when this acid poison was produced mentally by a condition of anger, to seek to counteract it by the administration of a material alkali; yet undoubtedly such would be the method adopted by any ordinary medical physician.

Even though the acid produced in the stomach is neutralized by some material means, if the mental condition which caused the acid deposit is not removed or changed, it is very evident that the ailment is not healed. The mental agitation needs to be treated. But now the question occurs, What kind of medicine shall we give one to change a bad disposition, acid or alkali? It is surely evident that a mental, not a material, antidote is needed to heal one who has a discordant mentality. It is because Christian Science furnishes the proper antidote that it has proved to be so superior to other methods in dealing with physical ills and discords of all kinds. It recognizes the disturbing cause as mental, not only in a few cases but in every case, and therefore appeals to a mental source for the cure. Our Master clearly intimated that a spiritual remedy for every human ill exists, and so he could say, "These signs shall follow them that believe; . . . They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

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