XIV. RECAPITULATION
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little. - ISAIAH.
465:1 THIS chapter is from the first edition of the author's class-book, copyrighted in 1870. After much labor 465:3 and increased spiritual understanding, she revised that treatise for this volume in 1875. Absolute Christian Science pervades its statements, to elucidate scientific 465:6 metaphysics.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
/Question/. - What is God? 465:9 /Answer/. - God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.
/Question/. - Are these terms synonymous? 465:12 /Answer/. - They are. They refer to one absolute God. They are also intended to express the nature, essence, and wholeness of Deity. The attributes of God are justice, 465:15 mercy, wisdom, goodness, and so on.
/Question/. - Is there more than one God or Principle? /Answer/. - There is not. Principle and its idea is one, 465:18 and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omni- 466:1 present Being, and His reflection is man and the universe. /Omni/ is adopted from the Latin adjective signifying /all/. 466:3 Hence God combines all-power or potency, all-science or true knowledge, all-presence. The varied manifesta- tions of Christian Science indicate Mind, never matter, 466:6 and have one Principle.
Real /versus/ unreal
/Question/. - What are spirits and souls? /Answer/. - To human belief, they are personalities 466:9 constituted of mind and matter, life and death, truth and error, good and evil; but these contrasting pairs of terms represent contraries, as Chris- 466:12 tian Science reveals, which neither dwell together nor assimilate. Truth is immortal; error is mortal. Truth is limitless; error is limited. Truth is intelligent; error 466:15 is non-intelligent. Moreover, Truth is real, and error is unreal. This last statement contains the point you will most reluctantly admit, although first and last it is the 466:18 most important to understand.
Mankind redeemed
The term /souls/ or /spirits/ is as improper as the term /gods/. Soul or Spirit signifies Deity and nothing else. 466:21 There is no finite soul nor spirit. Soul or Spirit means only one Mind, and cannot be rendered in the plural. Heathen mythology and Jewish 466:24 theology have perpetuated the fallacy that intelligence, soul, and life can be in matter; and idolatry and ritualism are the outcome of all man-made beliefs. The Science 466:27 of Christianity comes with fan in hand to separate the chaff from the wheat. Science will declare God aright, and Christianity will demonstrate this declaration and 466:30 its divine Principle, making mankind better physically, morally, and spiritually.
Two chief commands
467:1 /Question/. - What are the demands of the Science of Soul? 467:3 /Answer/. - The first demand of this Science is, " Thou shalt have no other gods before me." This /me/ is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt 467:6 have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second is like unto it, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 467:9 It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact 467:12 becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brother- hood of man will be established. Having no other gods, turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide 467:15 him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, hav- ing that Mind which was also in Christ.
Soul not confined in body
Science reveals Spirit, Soul, as not in the body, and 467:18 God as not in man but as reflected by man. The greater cannot be in the lesser. The belief that the greater can be in the lesser is an error that 467:21 works ill. This is a leading point in the Science of Soul, that Principle is not in its idea. Spirit, Soul, is not confined in man, and is never in matter. We reason im- 467:24 perfectly from effect to cause, when we conclude that matter is the effect of Spirit; but /a priori/ reasoning shows material existence to be enigmatical. Spirit gives 467:27 the true mental idea. We cannot interpret Spirit, Mind, through matter. Matter neither sees, hears, nor feels.
Sinlessness of Mind, Soul
Reasoning from cause to effect in the Science of Mind, 467:30 we begin with Mind, which must be under- stood through the idea which expresses it and cannot be learned from its opposite, matter. Thus we 468:1 arrive at Truth, or intelligence, which evolves its own unerring idea and never can be coordinate with human 468:3 illusions. If Soul sinned, it would be mortal, for sin is mortality's self, because it kills itself. If Truth is im- mortal, error must be mortal, because error is unlike 468:6 Truth. Because Soul is immortal, Soul cannot sin, for sin is not the eternal verity of being.
/Question/. - What is the scientific statement of being? 468:9 /Answer/. - There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor sub- stance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal 468:12 Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore 468:15 man is not material; he is spiritual.
Spiritual synonyms
/Question/. - What is substance? /Answer/. - Substance is that which is eternal and inca- 468:18 pable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are substance, as the Scriptures use this word in Hebrews: "The substance of things hoped 468:21 for, the evidence of things not seen." Spirit, the synonym of Mind, Soul, or God, is the only real substance. The spiritual universe, including individual man, is a com- 468:24 pound idea, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit.
Eternity of Life
/Question/. - What is Life? /Answer/. - Life is divine Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit. 468:27 Life is without beginning and without end. Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in 468:30 proportion as the other is recognized. Time is finite; 469:1 eternity is forever infinite. Life is neither in nor of mat- ter. What is termed matter is unknown to Spirit, which 469:3 includes in itself all substance and is Life eternal. Mat- ter is a human concept. Life is divine Mind. Life is not limited. Death and finiteness are unknown to Life. If 469:6 Life ever had a beginning, it would also have an ending.
/Question/. - What is intelligence? /Answer/. - Intelligence is omniscience, omnipresence, 469:9 and omnipotence. It is the primal and eternal quality of infinite Mind, of the triune Principle, - Life, Truth, and Love, - named God.
True sense of infinitude
469:12 /Question/. - What is Mind? /Answer/. - Mind is God. The exterminator of error is the great truth that God, good, is the /only/ Mind, and 469:15 that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind - called /devil/ or evil - is not Mind, is not Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality. There 469:18 can be but one Mind, because there is but one God; and if mortals claimed no other Mind and accepted no other, sin would be unknown. We can have but one Mind, if 469:21 that one is infinite. We bury the sense of infinitude, when we admit that, although God is infinite, evil has a place in this infinity, for evil can have no place, where all 469:24 space is filled with God.
The sole governor
We lose the high signification of omnipotence, when after admitting that God, or good, is omnipresent and 469:27 has all-power, we still believe there is another power, named /evil/. This belief that there is more than one mind is as pernicious to divine theology 469:30 as are ancient mythology and pagan idolatry. With 470:1 one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, 470:3 the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science. The supposed existence of 470:6 more than one mind was the basic error of idolatry. This error assumed the loss of spiritual power, the loss of the spiritual presence of Life as infinite Truth without an 470:9 unlikeness, and the loss of Love as ever present and universal.
The divine standard of perfection
Divine Science explains the abstract statement that 470:12 there is one Mind by the following self-evident propo- sition: If God, or good, is real, then evil, the unlikeness of God, is unreal. And evil can 470:15 only seem to be real by giving reality to the unreal. The children of God have but one Mind. How can good lapse into evil, when God, the Mind of man, 470:18 never sins? The standard of perfection was originally God and man. Has God taken down His own standard, and has man fallen?
Indestructible relationship
470:21 God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection, man, remains perfect. Man is the expression 470:24 of God's being. If there ever was a moment when man did not express the divine perfec- tion, then there was a moment when man did not express 470:27 God, and consequently a time when Deity was unex- pressed - that is, without entity. If man has lost per- fection, then he has lost his perfect Principle, the divine 470:30 Mind. If man ever existed without this perfect Principle or Mind, then man's existence was a myth.
The relations of God and man, divine Principle and 471:1 idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine 471:3 order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He cre- ates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history.
Celestial evidence
471:6 The unlikeness of Truth, - named /error/, - the op- posite of Science, and the evidence before the five cor- poreal senses, afford no indication of the grand 471:9 facts of being; even as these so-called senses receive no intimation of the earth's motions or of the science of astronomy, but yield assent to astronomical 471:12 propositions on the authority of natural science.
The facts of divine Science should be admitted, - although the evidence as to these facts is not supported 471:15 by evil, by matter, or by material sense, - because the evidence that God and man coexist is fully sustained by spiritual sense. Man is, and forever has been, God's re- 471:18 flection. God is infinite, therefore ever present, and there is no other power nor presence. Hence the spirit- uality of the universe is the only fact of creation. "Let 471:21 God be true, but every [material] man a liar."
The test of experience
/Question/. - Are doctrines and creeds a benefit to man? /Answer/. - The author subscribed to an orthodox 471:24 creed in early youth, and tried to adhere to it until she caught the first gleam of that which inter- prets God as above mortal sense. This 471:27 view rebuked human beliefs, and gave the spiritual im- port, expressed through Science, of all that proceeds from the divine Mind. Since then her highest creed has 471:30 been divine Science, which, reduced to human apprehen- sion, she has named Christian Science. This Science 472:1 teaches man that God is the only Life, and that this Life is Truth and Love; that God is to be understood, adored, 472:3 and demonstrated; that divine Truth casts out supposi- tional error and heals the sick.
God's law destroys evil
The way which leads to Christian Science is straight 472:6 and narrow. God has set His signet upon Science, mak- ing it coordinate with all that is real and only with that which is harmonious and eternal. 472:9 Sickness, sin, and death, being inharmonious, do not originate in God nor belong to His government. His law, rightly understood, destroys them. Jesus furnished 472:12 proofs of these statements.
Evanescent materiality
/Question/. - What is error? /Answer/. - Error is a supposition that pleasure and 472:15 pain, that intelligence, substance, life, are existent in mat- ter. Error is neither Mind nor one of Mind's faculties. Error is the contradiction of Truth. 472:18 Error is a belief without understanding. Error is unreal because untrue. It is that which seemeth to be and is not. If error were true, its truth would be error, and we should 472:21 have a self-evident absurdity - namely, /erroneous truth/. Thus we should continue to lose the standard of Truth.
Unrealities that seem real
/Question/. - Is there no sin? 472:24 /Answer/. - All reality is in God and His creation, har- monious and eternal. That which He creates is good, and He makes all that is made. Therefore 472:27 the only reality of sin, sickness, or death is the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human, erring belief, until God strips off their disguise. They are not 472:30 true, because they are not of God. We learn in Christian 473:1 Science that all inharmony of mortal mind or body is illu- sion, possessing neither reality nor identity though seeming 473:3 to be real and identical.
Christ the ideal Truth
The Science of Mind disposes of all evil. Truth, God, is not the father of error. Sin, sickness, and death are 473:6 to be classified as effects of error. Christ came to destroy the belief of sin. The God- principle is omnipresent and omnipotent. God is every- 473:9 where, and nothing apart from Him is present or has power. Christ is the ideal Truth, that comes to heal sickness and sin through Christian Science, and attributes 473:12 all power to God. Jesus is the name of the man who, more than all other men, has presented Christ, the true idea of God, healing the sick and the sinning and destroy- 473:15 ing the power of death. Jesus is the human man, and Christ is the divine idea; hence the duality of Jesus the Christ.
Jesus not God
473:18 In an age of ecclesiastical despotism, Jesus introduced the teaching and practice of Christianity, affording the proof of Christianity's truth and love; but to 473:21 reach his example and to test its unerring Sci- ence according to his rule, healing sickness, sin, and death, a better understanding of God as divine Prin- 473:24 ciple, Love, rather than personality or the man Jesus, is required.
Jesus not understood
Jesus established what he said by demonstration, 473:27 thus making his acts of higher importance than his words. He proved what he taught. This is the Science of Christianity. Jesus /proved/ 473:30 the Principle, which heals the sick and casts out error, to be divine. Few, however, except his students un- derstood in the least his teachings and their glorious 474:1 proofs, - namely, that Life, Truth, and Love (the Prin- ciple of this unacknowledged Science) destroy all error, 474:3 evil, disease, and death.
Miracles rejected
The reception accorded to Truth in the early Chris- tian era is repeated to-day. Whoever introduces the 474:6 Science of Christianity will be scoffed at and scourged with worse cords than those which cut the flesh. To the ignorant age in which it first 474:9 appears, Science seems to be a mistake, - hence the misinterpretation and consequent maltreatment which it receives. Christian marvels (and /marvel/ is the sim- 474:12 ple meaning of the Greek word rendered /miracle/ in the New Testament) will be misunderstood and misused by many, until the glorious Principle of these marvels is 474:15 gained.
Divine fulfilment
If sin, sickness, and death are as real as Life, Truth, and Love, then they must all be from the same source; 474:18 God must be their author. Now Jesus came to destroy sin, sickness, and death yet the Scriptures aver, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." 474:21 Is it possible, then, to believe that the evils which Jesus lived to destroy are real or the offspring of the divine will?
Truth destroys falsity
474:24 Despite the hallowing influence of Truth in the de- struction of error, must error still be immortal? Truth spares all that is true. If evil is real, Truth 474:27 must make it so; but error, not Truth, is the author of the unreal, and the unreal vanishes, while all that is real is eternal. The apostle says that 474:30 the mission of Christ is to "destroy the works of the devil." Truth destroys falsity and error, for light and darkness cannot dwell together. Light extinguishes the 475:1 darkness, and the Scripture declares that there is "no night there." To Truth there is no error, - all is Truth. 475:3 To infinite Spirit there is no matter, - all is Spirit, divine Principle and its idea.
Fleshly factors unreal
/Question/. - What is man? 475:6 /Answer/. - Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in 475:9 the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and be- 475:12 cause he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so under- stood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of 475:15 God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is 475:18 the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which 475:21 possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker.
And God said: "Let us make man in our image, after 475:24 our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that 475:27 creepeth upon the earth."
Man unfallen
Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor 475:30 can God, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not 476:1 God's man. Mortals are the counterfeits of immortals. They are the children of the wicked one, or the one evil, 476:3 which declares that man begins in dust or as a material embryo. In divine Science, God and the real man are inseparable as divine Principle and idea.
Mortals are not immortals
476:6 Error, urged to its final limits, is self-destroyed. Error will cease to claim that soul is in body, that life and intelligence are in matter, and that 476:9 this matter is man. God is the Principle of man, and man is the idea of God. Hence man is not mortal nor material. Mortals will disappear, and im- 476:12 mortals, or the children of God, will appear as the only and eternal verities of man. Mortals are not fallen chil- dren of God. They never had a perfect state of being, 476:15 which may subsequently be regained. They were, from the beginning of mortal history, "conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity." Mortality is finally swallowed 476:18 up in immortality. Sin, sickness, and death must dis- appear to give place to the facts which belong to immortal man.
Imperishable identity
476:21 Learn this, O mortal, and earnestly seek the spiritual status of man, which is outside of all material selfhood. Remember that the Scriptures say of mortal 476:24 man: "As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall 476:27 know it no more."
The kingdom within
When speaking of God's children, not the children of men, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you;" 476:30 that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the per- 477:1 fect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour 477:3 saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy. 477:6 Man is not a material habitation for Soul; he is himself spiritual. Soul, being Spirit, is seen in nothing imperfect nor material.
Material body never God's idea
477:9 Whatever is material is mortal. To the five corporeal senses, man appears to be matter and mind united; but Christian Science reveals man as the idea of 477:12 God, and declares the corporeal senses to be mortal and erring illusions. Divine Science shows it to be impossible that a material body, though 477:15 interwoven with matter's highest stratum, misnamed mind, should be man, - the genuine and perfect man, the immortal idea of being, indestructible and eternal. 477:18 Were it otherwise, man would be annihilated.
Reflection of Spirit
/Question/. - What are body and Soul? /Answer/. - Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the re- 477:21 flection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love. Soul is the substance, Life, and intelli- gence of man, which is individualized, but not 477:24 in matter. Soul can never reflect anything inferior to Spirit.
Man inseparable from Spirit
Man is the expression of Soul. The Indians caught 477:27 some glimpses of the underlying reality, when they called a certain beautiful lake "the smile of the Great Spirit." Separated from man, 477:30 who expresses Soul, Spirit would be a nonentity; man, divorced from Spirit, would lose his entity. But there is, 478:1 there can be, no such division, for man is coexistent with God.
A vacant domicile
478:3 What evidence of Soul or of immortality have you within mortality? Even according to the teachings of natural science, man has never beheld Spirit 478:6 or Soul leaving a body or entering it. What basis is there for the theory of indwelling spirit, except the claim of mortal belief? What would be thought of 478:9 the declaration that a house was inhabited, and by a cer- tain class of persons, when no such persons were ever seen to go into the house or to come out of it, nor were they 478:12 even visible through the windows? Who can see a soul in the body?
Harmonious functions
/Question/. - Does brain think, and do nerves feel, and 478:15 is there intelligence in matter? /Answer/. - No, not if God is true and mortal man a liar. The assertion that there can be pain or pleasure 478:18 in matter is erroneous. That body is most harmonious in which the discharge of the nat- ural functions is least noticeable. How can intelligence 478:21 dwell in matter when matter is non-intelligent and brain-lobes cannot think? Matter cannot perform the functions of Mind. Error says, "I am man;" but this 478:24 belief is mortal and far from actual. From beginning to end, whatever is mortal is composed of material hu- man beliefs and of nothing else. That only is real which 478:27 reflects God. St. Paul said, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, . . . I conferred not with flesh and blood."
Immortal birthright
478:30 /Mortal man/ is really a self-contradictory phrase, for man is not mortal, "neither indeed can be;" man is im- 479:1 mortal. If a child is the offspring of physical sense and not of Soul, the child must have a material, not a spirit- 479:3 ual origin. With what truth, then, could the Scriptural rejoicing be uttered by any mother, "I have gotten a man from the Lord"? On the con- 479:6 trary, if aught comes from God, it cannot be mortal and material; it must be immortal and spiritual.
Matter's supposed selfhood
Matter is neither self-existent nor a product of Spirit. 479:9 An image of mortal thought, reflected on the retina, is all that the eye beholds. Matter cannot see, feel, hear, taste, nor smell. It is not self- 479:12 cognizant, - cannot feel itself, see itself, nor understand itself. Take away so-called mortal mind, which constitutes matter's supposed selfhood, and matter 479:15 can take no cognizance of matter. Does that which we call dead ever see, hear, feel, or use any of the physical senses?
Chaos and darkness
479:18 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." 479:21 (Genesis i. 1, 2.) In the vast forever, in the Science and truth of being, the only facts are Spirit and its innumerable creations. Darkness and chaos 479:24 are the imaginary opposites of light, understanding, and eternal harmony, and they are the elements of nothingness.
Spiritual reflection
479:27 We admit that black is not a color, because it reflects no light. So evil should be denied identity or power, because it has none of the divine hues. Paul 479:30 says: "For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being under- stood by the things that are made." (Romans i. 20.) 480:1 When the substance of Spirit appears in Christian Sci- ence, the nothingness of matter is recognized. Where 480:3 the spirit of God is, and there is no place where God is not, evil becomes nothing, - the opposite of the some- thing of Spirit. If there is no spiritual reflection, then 480:6 there remains only the darkness of vacuity and not a trace of heavenly tints.
Harmony from Spirit
Nerves are an element of the belief that there is sensa- 480:9 tion in matter, whereas matter is devoid of sensation. Consciousness, as well as action, is governed by Mind, - is in God, the origin and gov- 480:12 ernor of all that Science reveals. Material sense has its realm apart from Science in the unreal. Harmonious action proceeds from Spirit, God. inharmony has no 480:15 Principle; its action is erroneous and presupposes man to be in matter. Inharmony would make matter the cause as well as the effect of intelligence, or Soul, thus 480:18 attempting to separate Mind from God.
Evil non-existent
Man is not God, and God is not man. Again, God, or good, never made man capable of sin. It is the oppo- 480:21 site of good - that is, evil - which seems to make men capable of wrong-doing. Hence, evil is but an illusion, and it has no real basis. Evil is a 480:24 false belief. God is not its author. The supposititious parent of evil is a lie.
Vapor and nothingness
The Bible declares: "All things were made by Him 480:27 [the divine Word]; and without Him was not anything, made that was made." This is the eternal verity of divine Science. If sin, sickness, 480:30 death were understood as nothingness, they would dis- appear. As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the 481:1 other. How important, then, to choose good as the reality! Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing 481:3 else. God's being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Like the archpriests of yore, man is 481:6 free "to enter into the holiest," - the realm of God.
The fruit forbidden
Material sense never helps mortals to understand Spirit, God. Through spiritual sense only, man com- 481:9 prehends and loves Deity. The various con- tradictions of the Science of Mind by the ma- terial senses do not change the unseen Truth, which re- 481:12 mains forever intact. The forbidden fruit of knowledge, against which wisdom warns man, is the testimony of error, declaring existence to be at the mercy of death, 481:15 and good and evil to be capable of commingling. This is the significance of the Scripture concerning this "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," - this growth of 481:18 material belief, of which it is said: "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Human hypotheses first assume the reality of sickness, sin, and death, and 481:21 then assume the necessity of these evils because of their admitted actuality. These human verdicts are the pro- curers of all discord.
Sense and pure Soul
481:24 If Soul sins, it must be mortal. Sin has the elements of self-destruction. It cannot sustain itself. If sin is supported, God must uphold it, and this is 481:27 impossible, since Truth cannot support error. Soul is the divine Principle of man and never sins, - hence the immortality of Soul. In Science we learn that 481:30 it is material sense, not Soul, which sins; and it will be found that it is the sense of sin which is lost, and not a sinful soul. When reading the Scriptures, the substitu- 482:1 tion of the word /sense/ for /soul/ gives the exact meaning in a majority of cases.
Soul defined
482:3 Human thought has adulterated the meaning of the word /soul/ through the hypothesis that soul is both an evil and a good intelligence, resident in matter. 482:6 The proper use of the word /soul/ can always be gained by substituting the word /God/, where the deific meaning is required. In other cases, use the word /sense/, 482:9 and you will have the scientific signification. As used in Christian Science, Soul is properly the synonym of Spirit, or God; but out of Science, soul is identical with 482:12 sense, with material sensation.
Sonship of Jesus
/Question/. - Is it important to understand these ex- planations in order to heal the sick? 482:15 /Answer/. - It is, since Christ is "the way" and the truth casting out all error. Jesus called himself " the Son of man," but not the son of Joseph. As 482:18 woman is but a species of the genera, he was literally the Son of Man. Jesus was the highest human concept of the perfect man. He was inseparable from 482:21 Christ, the Messiah, - the divine idea of God outside the flesh. This enabled Jesus to demonstrate his con- trol over matter. Angels announced to the Wisemen of 482:24 old this dual appearing, and angels whisper it, through faith, to the hungering heart in every age.
Sickness erroneous
Sickness is part of the error which Truth casts out. 482:27 Error will not expel error. Christian Science is the law of Truth, which heals the sick, on the basis of the one Mind or God. It can heal in no 482:30 other way, since the human, mortal mind so-called is not a healer, but causes the belief in disease.
True healing transcendent
483:1 Then comes the question, how do drugs, hygiene, and animal magnetism heal? It may be affirmed that they 483:3 do not heal, but only relieve suffering tempo- rarily, exchanging one disease for another. We classify disease as error, which nothing but Truth or 483:6 Mind can heal, and this Mind must be divine, not human. Mind transcends all other power, and will ultimately su- persede all other means in healing. In order to heal by 483:9 Science, you must not be ignorant of the moral and spir- itual demands of Science nor disobey them. Moral igno- rance or sin affects your demonstration, and hinders its 483:12 approach to the standard in Christian Science.
Terms adopted by the author
After the author's sacred discovery, she affixed the name "Science" to Christianity, the name "error" to 483:15 corporeal sense, and the name "substance" to Mind. Science has called the world to battle over this issue and its demonstration, which 483:18 heals the sick, destroys error, and reveals the universal harmony. To those natural Christian Scientists, the an- cient worthies, and to Christ Jesus, God certainly revealed 483:21 the spirit of Christian Science, if not the absolute letter.
Science the way
Because the Science of Mind seems to bring into dis- honor the ordinary scientific schools, which wrestle with 483:24 material observations alone, this Science has met with opposition; but if any system honors God, it ought to receive aid, not opposition, from all think- 483:27 ing persons. And Christian Science does honor God as no other theory honors Him, and it does this in the way of His appointing, by doing many wonderful works 483:30 through the divine name and nature. One must fulfil one's mission without timidity or dissimulation, for to be well done, the work must be done unselfishly. Christianity 484:1 will never be based on a divine Principle and so found to be unerring, until its absolute Science is reached. When 484:3 this is accomplished, neither pride, prejudice, bigotry, nor envy can wash away its foundation, for it is built upon the rock, Christ.
Mindless methods
484:6 /Question/. - Does Christian Science, or metaphysical healing, include medication, material hygiene, mesmer- ism, hypnotism, theosophy, or spiritualism? 484:9 /Answer/. - Not one of them is included in it. In di- vine Science, the supposed laws of matter yield to the law of Mind. What are termed natural 484:12 science and material laws are the objective states of mortal mind. The physical universe expresses the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals. 484:15 Physical force and mortal mind are one. Drugs and hygiene oppose the supremacy of the divine Mind. Drugs and inert matter are unconscious, mindless. Cer- 484:18 tain results, supposed to proceed from drugs, are really caused by the faith in them which the false human con- sciousness is educated to feel.
Animal magnetism error
484:21 Mesmerism is mortal, material illusion. Animal mag- netism is the voluntary or involuntary action of error in all its forms; it is the human antipode 484:24 of divine Science. Science must triumph over material sense, and Truth over error, thus putting an end to the hypotheses involved in all false theories 484:27 and practices.
Error only ephemeral
/Question/. - Is materiality the concomitant of spirit- uality, and is material sense a necessary preliminary to 484:30 the understanding and expression of Spirit? 485:1 /Answer/. - If error is necessary to define or to reveal Truth, the answer is yes; but not otherwise. /Material 485:3 sense/ is an absurd phrase, for matter has no sensation. Science declares that Mind, not matter, sees, hears, feels, speaks. Whatever contradicts 485:6 this statement is the false sense, which ever betrays mortals into sickness, sin, and death. If the unimpor- tant and evil appear, only soon to disappear because 485:9 of their uselessness or their iniquity, then these ephem- eral views of error ought to be obliterated by Truth. Why malign Christian Science for instructing mortals how 485:12 to make sin, disease, and death appear more and more unreal?
Scientific translations
Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not 485:15 to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come naturally into Spirit through better health and morals and as the result of spiritual growth. 485:18 Not death, but the understanding of Life, makes man im- mortal. The belief that life can be in matter or soul in body, and that man springs from dust or from an egg, 485:21 is the result of the mortal error which Christ, or Truth, destroys by fulfilling the spiritual law of being, in which man is perfect, even as the "Father which is in heaven 485:24 is perfect." If thought yields its dominion to other ' powers, it cannot outline on the body its own beautiful images, but it effaces them and delineates foreign agents, 485:27 called disease and sin.
Material beliefs
The heathen gods of mythology controlled war and agriculture as much as nerves control sensation or 485:30 muscles measure strength. To say that strength is in matter, is like saying that the power is in the lever. The notion of any life or intelli- 486:1 gence in matter is without foundation in fact, and you can have no faith in falsehood when you have learned 486:3 falsehood's true nature.
Sense /versus/ Soul
Suppose one accident happens to the eye, another to the ear, and so on, until every corporeal sense is quenched. 486:6 What is man's remedy? To die, that he may regain these senses? Even then he must gain spiritual understanding and spiritual sense in order to 486:9 possess immortal consciousness. Earth's preparatory school must be improved to the utmost. In reality man never dies. The belief that he dies will not establish his 486:12 scientific harmony. Death is not the result of Truth but of error, and one error will not correct another.
Death an error
Jesus proved by the prints of the nails, that his body 486:15 was the same immediately after death as before. If death restores sight, sound, and strength to man, then death is not an enemy but a better friend 486:18 than Life. Alas for the blindness of belief, which makes harmony conditional upon death and matter, and yet supposes Mind unable to produce harmony! So long 486:21 as this error of belief remains, mortals will continue mor- tal in belief and subject to chance and change.
Permanent sensibility
Sight, hearing, all the spiritual senses of man, are 486:24 eternal. They cannot be lost. Their reality and immor- tality are in Spirit and understanding, not in matter, - hence their permanence. If this 486:27 were not so, man would be speedily annihilated. If the five corporeal senses were the medium through which to understand God, then palsy, blindness, and deafness 486:30 would place man in a terrible situation, where he would be like those "having no hope, and without God in the world;" but as a matter of fact, these calamities often 487:1 drive mortals to seek and to find a higher sense of happi- ness and existence.
Exercise of Mind-faculties
487:3 Life is deathless. Life is the origin and ultimate of man, never attainable through death, but gained by walk- ing in the pathway of Truth both before and 487:6 after that which is called death. There is more Christianity in seeing and hearing spiritually than materially. There is more Science in the perpetual 487:9 exercise of the Mind-faculties than in their loss. Lost they cannot be, while Mind remains. The apprehension of this gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf cen- 487:12 turies ago, and it will repeat the wonder.
Understanding /versus/ belief
/Question/. - You speak of belief. Who or what is it that believes? 487:15 /Answer/. - Spirit is all-knowing; this precludes the need of believing. Matter cannot believe, and Mind understands. The body cannot believe. The 487:18 believer and belief are one and are mortal. Christian evidence is founded on Science or demonstrable Truth, flowing from immortal Mind, and 487:21 there is in reality no such thing as /mortal/ mind. Mere belief is blindness without Principle from which to ex- plain the reason of its hope. The belief that life is sen- 487:24 tient and intelligent matter is erroneous.
The Apostle James said, "Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works." 487:27 The understanding that Life is God, Spirit, lengthens our days by strengthening our trust in the deathless reality of Life, its almightiness and immortality.
Confirmation by healing
487:30 This faith relies upon an understood Principle. This Principle makes whole the diseased, and brings out the 488:1 enduring and harmonious phases of things. The result of our teachings is their sufficient confirmation. When, 488:3 on the strength of these instructions, you are able to banish a severe malady, the cure shows that you understand this teaching, and therefore you re- 488:6 ceive the blessing of Truth.
Belief and firm trust
The Hebrew and Greek words often translated /belief/ differ somewhat in meaning from that conveyed by the 488:9 English verb /believe/; they have more the sig- nificance of faith, understanding, trust, con- stancy, firmness. Hence the Scriptures often appear in 488:12 our common version to approve and endorse belief, when they mean to enforce the necessity of understanding.
All faculties from Mind
/Question/. - Do the five corporeal senses constitute 488:15 man? /Answer/. - Christian Science sustains with immortal proof the impossibility of any material sense, and defines 488:18 these so-called senses as /mortal beliefs/, the testimony of which cannot be true either of man or of his Maker. The corporeal senses can take no 488:21 cognizance of spiritual reality and immortality. Nerves have no more sensation, apart from what belief be- stows upon them, than the fibres of a plant. Mind alone 488:24 possesses all faculties, perception, and comprehension. Therefore mental endowments are not at the mercy of organization and decomposition, - otherwise the very 488:27 worms could unfashion man. If it were possible for the real senses of man to be injured, Soul could reproduce them in all their perfection; but they cannot be dis- 488:30 turbed nor destroyed, since they exist in immortal Mind, not in matter.
Possibilities of Life
489:1 The less mind there is manifested in matter the better. When the unthinking lobster loses its claw, the claw grows 489:3 again. If the Science of Life were understood, it would be found that the senses of Mind are never lost and that matter has no sensation. Then the 489:6 human limb would be replaced as readily as the lobster's claw, - not with an artificial limb, but with the genuine one. Any hypothesis which supposes life to be in matter 489:9 is an educated belief. In infancy this belief is not equal to guiding the hand to the mouth; and as consciousness develops, this belief goes out, - yields to the reality of 489:12 everlasting Life.
Decalogue disregarded
Corporeal sense defrauds and lies; it breaks all the commands of the Mosaic Decalogue to meet its own de- 489:15 mands. How then can this sense be the God- given channel to man of divine blessings or understanding? How can man, reflecting God, be de- 489:18 pendent on material means for knowing, hearing, seeing? Who dares to say that the senses of man can be at one time the medium for sinning against God, at another the me- 489:21 dium for obeying God? An affirmative reply would con- tradict the Scripture, for the same fountain sendeth not forth sweet waters and bitter.
Organic construction valueless
489:24 The corporeal senses are the only source of evil or error. Christian Science shows them to be false, be- cause matter has no sensation, and no organic 489:27 construction can give it hearing and sight nor make it the medium of Mind. Outside the material sense of things, all is harmony. A wrong sense 489:30 of God, man, and creation is /non-sense/, want of sense. Mortal belief would have the material senses sometimes good and sometimes bad. It assures mortals that there 490:1 is real pleasure in sin; but the grand truths of Christian Science dispute this error.
Will-power an animal propensity
490:3 Will-power is but a product of belief, and this belief commits depredations on harmony. Human will is an animal propensity, not a faculty of Soul. 490:6 Hence it cannot govern man aright. Chris- tian Science reveals Truth and Love as the motive-powers of man. Will - blind, stubborn, and head- 490:9 long - cooperates with appetite and passion. From this cooperation arises its evil. From this also comes its pow- erlessness, since all power belongs to God, good.
Theories helpless
490:12 The Science of Mind needs to be understood. Until it is understood, mortals are more or less deprived of Truth. Human theories are helpless to make 490:15 man harmonious or immortal, since he is so already, according to Christian Science. Our only need is to know this and reduce to practice the real man's di- 490:18 vine Principle, Love
True nature and origin
"Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings." Human belief - or knowledge gained from the so-called 490:21 material senses - would, by fair logic, anni- hilate man along with the dissolving elements of clay. The scientifically Christian explanations of the 490:24 nature and origin of man destroy all material sense with immortal testimony. This immortal testimony ushers in the spiritual sense of being, which can be obtained 490:27 in no other way.
Sleep an illusion
Sleep and mesmerism explain the mythical nature of material sense. Sleep shows material sense as either 490:30 oblivion, nothingness, or an illusion or dream. Under the mesmeric illusion of belief, a man will think that he is freezing when he is warm, and that he 491:1 is swimming when he is on dry land. Needle-thrusts will not hurt him. A delicious perfume will seem intolerable. 491:3 Animal magnetism thus uncovers material sense, and shows it to be a belief without actual foundation or va- lidity. Change the belief, and the sensation changes. 491:6 Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears.
Man linked with Spirit
Material man is made up of involuntary and voluntary error, of a negative right and a positive wrong, the latter 491:9 calling itself right. Man's spiritual individual- ity is never wrong. It is the likeness of man's Maker. Matter cannot connect mortals with the true 491:12 origin and facts of being, in which all must end. It is only by acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annuls the claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and 491:15 find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator.
Material man as a dream
The belief that matter and mind are one, - that mat- 491:18 ter is awake at one time and asleep at another, some- times presenting no appearance of mind, - this belief culminates in another belief, that 491:21 man dies. Science reveals material man as never the real being. The dream or belief goes on, whether our eyes are closed or open. In sleep, memory and consciousness are 491:24 lost from the body, and they wander whither they will apparently with their own separate embodiment. Per- sonality is not the individuality of man. A wicked man 491:27 may have an attractive personality.
Spiritual existence the one fact
When we are awake, we dream of the pains and pleas- ures of matter. Who will say, even though he 491:30 does not understand Christian Science, that this dream - rather than the dreamer - may not be mortal man? Who can rationally say otherwise, 492:1 when the dream leaves mortal man intact in body and thought, although the so-called dreamer is unconscious? 492:3 For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its 492:6 unlikeness, mortality.
Mind one and all
Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree, 492:9 will uplift the physical and moral standard of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify and elevate character. Thus progress will finally destroy 492:12 all error, and bring immortality to light. We know that a statement proved to be good must be correct. New thoughts are constantly obtaining the floor. These two 492:15 contradictory theories - that matter is something, or that all is Mind - will dispute the ground, until one is acknowledged to be the victor. Discussing his cam- 492:18 paign, General Grant said: "I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer." Science says: All is Mind and Mind's idea. You must fight it out on this 492:21 line. Matter can afford you no aid.
Scientific ultimatum
The notion that mind and matter commingle in the human illusion as to sin, sickness, and death must even- 492:24 tually submit to the Science of Mind, which denies this notion. /God is Mind, and God is infinite; hence all is Mind/. On this statement rests the 492:27 Science of being, and the Principle of this Science is di- vine, demonstrating harmony and immortality.
Victory for Truth
The conservative theory, long believed, is that there 492:30 are two factors, matter and mind, uniting on some im- possible basis. This theory would keep truth and error always at war. Victory would perch on neither banner. 493:1 On the other hand, Christian Science speedily shows Truth to be triumphant. To corporeal sense, the sun 493:3 appears to rise and set, and the earth to stand still; but astronomical science contradicts this, and explains the solar system as working on a differ- 493:6 ent plan. All the evidence of physical sense and all the knowledge obtained from physical sense must yield to Science, to the immortal truth of all things.
Mental preparation
493:9 /Question/, - Will you explain sickness and show how it is to be healed? /Answer/. - The method of Christian Science Mind-heal- 493:12 ing is touched upon in a previous chapter entitled Christian Science Practice. A full answer to the above question involves teaching, which enables the 493:15 healer to demonstrate and prove for himself the Principle and rule of Christian Science or metaphysical healing.
Mind destroys all ills
Mind must be found superior to all the beliefs of the 493:18 five corporeal senses, and able to destroy all ills. Sick- ness is a belief, which must be annihilated by the divine Mind. Disease is an experience of 493:21 so-called mortal mind. It is fear made manifest on the body. Christian Science takes away this physical sense of discord, just as it removes any other sense of moral or 493:24 mental inharmony. That man is material, and that mat- ter suffers, - these propositions can only seem real and natural in illusion. Any sense of soul in matter is not the 493:27 reality of being.
If Jesus awakened Lazarus from the dream, illusion, of death, this proved that the Christ could improve on a false 493:30 sense. Who dares to doubt this consummate test of the power and willingness of divine Mind to hold man forever 494:1 intact in his perfect state, and to govern man's entire action? Jesus said: "Destroy this temple [body], and 494:3 in three days I [Mind] will raise it up;" and he did this for tired humanity's reassurance.
Inexhaustible divine Love
Is it not a species of infidelity to believe that so great 494:6 a work as the Messiah's was done for himself or for God, who needed no help from Jesus' example to preserve the eternal harmony? But mortals 494:9 did need this help, and Jesus pointed the way for them. Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demon- 494:12 strated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.
Reason and Science
494:15 The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love. Jesus demonstrated the inability of corporeality, as well as the infinite ability of Spirit, thus helping erring 494:18 human sense to flee from its own convictions and seek safety in divine Science. Reason, rightly di- rected, serves to correct the errors of corporeal sense; but 494:21 sin, sickness, and death will seem real (even as the ex- periences of the sleeping dream seem real) until the Sci- ence of man's eternal harmony breaks their illusion with 494:24 the unbroken reality of scientific being.
Which of these two theories concerning man are you ready to accept? One is the mortal testimony, changing, 494:27 dying, unreal. The other is the eternal and real evidence, bearing Truth's signet, its lap piled high with immortal fruits.
Followers of Jesus
494:30 Our Master cast out devils (evils) and healed the sick. It should be said of his followers also, that they cast fear and all evil out of themselves and others and heal the sick. 495:1 God will heal the sick through man, whenever man is governed by God. Truth casts out error now 495:3 as surely as it did nineteen centuries ago. All of Truth is not understood; hence its healing power is not fully demonstrated.
Destruction of all evil
495:6 If sickness is true or the idea of Truth, you cannot destroy sickness, and it would be absurd to try. Then classify sickness and error as our Master did, 495:9 when he spoke of the sick, "whom Satan hath bound," and find a sovereign antidote for error in the life- giving power of Truth acting on human belief, a power 495:12 which opens the prison doors to such as are bound, and sets the captive free physically and morally.
Steadfast and calm trust
When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling 495:15 steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and 495:18 calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious - as Life eternally is - can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science, 495:21 instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence dis- 495:24 cord with harmony.
Rudiments and growth
/Question/. - How can I progress most rapidly in the understanding of Christian Science? 495:27 /Answer/. - Study thoroughly the letter and imbibe the spirit. Adhere to the divine Principle of Chris- tian Science and follow the behests of God, 495:30 abiding steadfastly in wisdom, Truth, and Love. In the Science of Mind, you will soon ascertain 496:1 that error cannot destroy error. You will also learn that in Science there is no transfer of evil suggestions 496:3 from one mortal to another, for there is but one Mind, and this ever-present omnipotent Mind is reflected by man and governs the entire universe. You will learn 496:6 that in Christian Science the first duty is to obey God, to have one Mind, and to love another as yourself.
Condition of progress
496:9 We all must learn that Life is God. Ask yourself: Am I living the life that approaches the supreme good? Am I demonstrating the healing power of 496:12 Truth and Love? If so then the way will grow brighter "unto the perfect day." Your fruits will prove what the understanding of God brings to man. 496:15 Hold perpetually this thought, - that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, 496:18 based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, over- lying, and encompassing all true being.
Triumph over death
"The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is 496:21 the law," - the law of mortal belief, at war with the facts of immortal Life, even with the spiritual law which says to the grave, "Where is thy 496:24 victory?" But "when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on im- mortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that 496:27 is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."
/Question/. - Have Christian Scientists any religious creed? 496:30 /Answer/. - They have not, if by that term is meant doctrinal beliefs. The following is a brief exposition of 497:1 the important points, or religious tenets, of Christian Science: -
497:3 1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.
2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and in- 497:6 finite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's image and likeness.
497:9 3. We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is pun- 497:12 ished so long as the belief lasts.
4. We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evi- dence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity 497:15 with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the 497:18 Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.
5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and 497:21 his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eter- nal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the noth- ingness of matter.
497:24 6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and 497:27 to be merciful, just, and pure.
KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES
These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. - REVELATION.
XV. GENESIS
And I appeared unto Abraham,, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty; but by My name Jehovah was I not known to them. - EXODUS.
All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. - JOHN.
Spiritual interpretation
501:1 SCIENTIFIC interpretation of the Scriptures prop- erly starts with the beginning of the Old Testa- 501:3 ment, chiefly because the spiritual import of the Word, in its earliest articulations, often seems so smothered by the immediate context as to 501:6 require explication; whereas the New Testament narra- tives are clearer and come nearer the heart. Jesus il- lumines them, showing the poverty of mortal existence, 501:9 but richly recompensing human want and woe with spiritual gain. The incarnation of Truth, that amplifi- cation of wonder and glory which angels could only 501:12 whisper and which God illustrated by light and har- mony, is consonant with ever-present Love. So-called mystery and miracle, which subserve the end of natural 501:15 good, are explained by that Love for whose rest the weary ones sigh when needing something more native to their immortal cravings than the history of perpetual 501:18 evil.
Spiritual overture
502:1 A second necessity for beginning with Genesis is that the living and real prelude of the older Scriptures is so 502:3 brief that it would almost seem, from the preponderance of unreality in the entire nar- rative, as if reality did not predominate over unreality, 502:6 the light over the dark, the straight line of Spirit over the mortal deviations and inverted images of the creator and His creation.
Deflection of being
502:9 Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the history of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves to 502:12 suggest the proper reflection of God and the spiritual actuality of man, as given in the first chapter of Genesis. Even thus the crude forms of human thought 502:15 take on higher symbols and significations, when scien- tifically Christian views of the universe appear, illuminat- ing time with the glory of eternity.
502:18 In the following exegesis, each text is followed by its spiritual interpretation according to the teachings of Chris- tian Science.
502:21 EXEGESIS
/Genesis/ i. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Ideas and identities
502:24 The infinite has no beginning. This word /beginning/ is employed to signify /the only/, - that is, the eternal ver- ity and unity of God and man, including 502:27 the universe. The creative Principle - Life, Truth, and Love - is God. The universe reflects God. There is but one creator and one creation. This crea- 503:1 tion consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and 503:3 forever reflected. These ideas range from the infini- tesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons and daughters of God.
503:6 /Genesis/ i. 2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Spiritual harmony
503:9 The divine Principle and idea constitute spiritual har- mony, - heaven and eternity. In the universe of Truth, matter is unknown. No supposition of error 503:12 enters there. Divine Science, the Word of God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, "God is All-in-all," and the light of ever-present Love illumines 503:15 the universe. Hence the eternal wonder, - that infinite space is peopled with God's ideas, reflecting Him in countless spiritual forms.
503:18 /Genesis/ i. 3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Mind's idea faultless
Immortal and divine Mind presents the idea of God: 503:21 /first/, in light; /second/, in reflection; /third/, in spiritual and immortal forms of beauty and goodness. But this Mind creates no element nor symbol of 503:24 discord and decay. God creates neither erring thought, mortal life, mutable truth, nor variable love.
/Genesis/ i. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good: 503:27 and God divided the light from the darkness.
God, Spirit, dwelling in infinite light and harmony 504:1 from which emanates the true idea, is never reflected by aught but the good.
504:3 /Genesis/ i. 5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morn- ing were the first day.
Light preceding the sun
504:6 All questions as to the divine creation being both spiritual and material are answered in this passage, for though solar beams are not yet included in 504:9 the record of creation, still there is light. This light is not from the sun nor from volcanic flames, but it is the revelation of Truth and of spiritual ideas. This 504:12 also shows that there is no place where God's light is not seen, since Truth, Life, and Love fill immensity and are ever-present. Was not this a revelation instead of a 504:15 creation?
Evenings and mornings
The successive appearing of God's ideas is represented as taking place on so many /evenings/ and /mornings/, - 504:18 words which indicate, in the absence of solar time, spiritually clearer views of Him, views which are not implied by material darkness and dawn. 504:21 Here we have the explanation of another passage of Scripture, that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years." The rays of infinite Truth, when gathered into 504:24 the focus of ideas, bring light instantaneously, whereas a thousand years of human doctrines, hypotheses, and vague conjectures emit no such effulgence.
Spirit /versus/ darkness
504:27 Did infinite Mind create matter, and call it /light?/ Spirit is light, and the contradiction of Spirit is matter, darkness, and darkness obscures light. Mate- 504:30 rial sense is nothing but a supposition of the absence of Spirit. No solar rays nor planetary revolutions 505:1 form the day of Spirit. Immortal Mind makes its own record, but mortal mind, sleep, dreams, sin, disease, and 505:3 death have no record in the first chapter of Genesis.
/Genesis/ i. 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from 505:6 the waters.
Spiritual firmament
Spiritual understanding, by which human conception, material sense, is separated from Truth, is the firmament. 505:9 The divine Mind, not matter, creates all iden- tities, and they are forms of Mind, the ideas of Spirit apparent only as Mind, never as mindless matter 505:12 nor the so-called material senses.
/Genesis/ i. 7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters 505:15 which were above the firmament: and it was so.
Understanding imparted
Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts con- sciousness and leads into all truth. The Psalmist saith: 505:18 "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual 505:21 good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds Mind, - Life, Truth, and Love, - and demonstrates the 505:24 divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in Christian Science.
Original reflected
This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result 505:27 of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things brought to light. God's ideas reflect the im- mortal, unerring, and infinite. The mortal, 505:30 erring, and finite are human beliefs, which apportion to 506:1 themselves a task impossible for them, that of distinguish- ing between the false and the true. Objects utterly un- 506:3 like the original do not reflect that original. Therefore matter, not being the reflection of Spirit, has no real en- tity. Understanding is a quality of God, a quality which 506:6 separates Christian Science from supposition and makes Truth final.
/Genesis/ i. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven. 506:9 And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Exalted thought
Through divine Science, Spirit, God, unites under- standing to eternal harmony. The calm and exalted 506:12 thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace. Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each successive stage of progress.
506:15 /Genesis/ i. 9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Unfolding of thoughts
506:18 Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose 506:21 in order that the purpose may appear.
/Genesis/ i. 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and 506:24 God saw that it was good.
Spirit names and blesses
Here the human concept and divine idea seem con- fused by the translator, but they are not so in the scien- 506:27 tifically Christian meaning of the text. Upon Adam devolved the pleasurable task of find- ing names for all material things, but Adam has not yet 507:1 appeared in the narrative. In metaphor, the /dry land/ illustrates the absolute formations instituted by Mind, 507:3 while /water/ symbolizes the elements of Mind. Spirit duly feeds and clothes every object, as it appears in the line of spiritual creation, thus tenderly expressing the father- 507:6 hood and motherhood of God. Spirit names and blesses all. Without natures particularly defined, objects and subjects would be obscure, and creation would be full of 507:9 nameless offspring, - wanderers from the parent Mind, strangers in a tangled wilderness.
/Genesis/ i. 11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth 507:12 grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Divine propagation
507:15 The universe of Spirit reflects the creative power of the divine Principle, or Life, which reproduces the multi- tudinous forms of Mind and governs the mul- 507:18 tiplication of the compound idea man. The tree and herb do not yield fruit because of any propagat- ing power of their own, but because they reflect the Mind 507:21 which includes all. A material world implies a mortal mind and man a creator. The scientific divine creation declares immortal Mind and the universe created by God.
Ever-appearing creation
507:24 Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the men- tal molecule to infinity. This divine Principle of all expresses Science and art throughout His 507:27 creation, and the immortality of man and the universe. Creation is ever appearing, and must ever con- tinue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source. 507:30 Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas mate- rial. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall 508:1 to the level of a human or material belief, called mortal man. But the seed is in itself, only as the divine Mind 508:3 is All and reproduces all - as Mind is the multiplier, and Mind's infinite idea, man and the universe, is the product. The only intelligence or substance of a thought, 508:6 a seed, or a flower is God, the creator of it. Mind is the Soul of all. Mind is Life, Truth, and Love which gov- erns all.
508:9 /Genesis/ i. 12. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw 508:12 that it was good.
Mind's pure thought
God determines the gender of His own ideas. Gen- der is mental, not material. The seed within itself is 508:15 the pure thought emanating from divine Mind. The feminine gender is not yet ex- pressed in the text. /Gender/ means simply /kind/ or /sort/, 508:18 and does not necessarily refer either to masculinity or femininity. The word is not confined to sexuality, and grammars always recognize a neuter gender, neither 508:21 male nor female. The Mind or intelligence of produc- tion names the female gender last in the ascending order of creation. The intelligent individual idea, be it male 508:24 or female, rising from the lesser to the greater, unfolds the infinitude of Love.
/Genesis/ i. 13. And the evening and the morning were 508:27 the third day.
Rising to the light
The third stage in the order of Christian Science is an important one to the human thought, letting in the light 509:1 of spiritual understanding. This period corresponds to the resurrection, when Spirit is discerned to be the Life of 509:3 all, and the deathless Life, or Mind, dependent upon no material organization. Our Master reappeared to his students, - to their apprehension he 509:6 rose from the grave, - on the third day of his ascending thought, and so presented to them the certain sense of eternal Life.
509:9 /Genesis/ i. 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, 509:12 and years.
Rarefaction of thought
Spirit creates no other than heavenly or celestial bodies, but the stellar universe is no more celestial than our earth. 509:15 This text gives the idea of the rarefaction of thought as it ascends higher. God forms and peoples the universe. The light of spiritual understand- 509:18 ing gives gleams of the infinite only, even as nebulae indi- cate the immensity of space.
Divine nature appearing
So-called mineral, vegetable, and animal substances 509:21 are no more contingent now on time or material struc- ture than they were when "the morning stars sang together." Mind made the "plant of 509:24 the field before it was in the earth." The periods of spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind's creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness 509:27 - yea, the divine nature - appear in man and the uni- verse never to disappear.
Spiritual ideas apprehended
Knowing the Science of creation, in which all is Mind 509:30 and its ideas, Jesus rebuked the material thought of his fellow-countrymen: "Ye can discern the face of the 510:1 sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" How much more should we seek to apprehend the spirit- 510:3 ual ideas of God, than to dwell on the objects of sense! To discern the rhythm of Spirit and to be holy, thought must be purely spiritual.
510:6 /Genesis/ i. 15. And let them be for lights in the firma- ment of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
510:9 Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose "light shall we see light;" and this illumination is re- flected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn 510:12 away from a false material sense.
/Genesis/ i. 16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the 510:15 night: He made the stars also.
Geology a failure
The sun is a metaphorical representation of Soul out- side the body, giving existence and intelligence to the 510:18 universe. Love alone can impart the limit- less idea of infinite Mind. Geology has never explained the earth's formations; it cannot explain them. 510:21 There is no Scriptural allusion to solar light until time has been already divided into evening and morning; and the allusion to fluids (Genesis i. 2) indicates a supposed for- 510:24 mation of matter by the resolving of fluids into solids, analogous to the suppositional resolving of thoughts into material things.
Spiritual subdivision
510:27 Light is a symbol of Mind, of Life, Truth, and Love, and not a vitalizing property of matter. Sci- ence reveals only one Mind, and this one shin- 510:30 ing by its own light and governing the universe, including 511:1 man, in perfect harmony. This Mind forms ideas, its own images, subdivides and radiates their borrowed light, 511:3 intelligence, and so explains the Scripture phrase, "whose seed is in itself." Thus God's ideas "multiply and re- plenish the earth." The divine Mind supports the sub- 511:6 limity, magnitude, and infinitude of spiritual creation.
/Genesis/ i. 17, 18. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over 511:9 the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
Darkness scattered
In divine Science, which is the seal of Deity and has 511:12 the impress of heaven, God is revealed as in- finite light. In the eternal Mind, no night is there.
511:15 /Genesis/ i. 19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
The changing glow and full effulgence of God's infi- 511:18 nite ideas, images, mark the periods of progress.
/Genesis/ i. 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl 511:21 that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Soaring aspirations
To mortal mind, the universe is liquid, solid, and aeri- 511:24 form. Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains stand for solid and grand ideas. Animals and mor- tals metaphorically present the gradation of 511:27 mortal thought, rising in the scale of intelligence, taking form in masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. The fowls, which fly above the earth in the open firmament 512:1 of heaven, correspond to aspirations soaring beyond and above corporeality to the understanding of the incorporeal 512:3 and divine Principle, Love.
/Genesis/ i. 21. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth 512:6 abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Seraphic symbols
Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power, 512:9 and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These an- gels of His presence, which have the holiest charge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of 512:12 Mind, and consequently reproduce their own character- istics. Their individual forms we know not, but we do know that their natures are allied to God's nature; and 512:15 spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the externalized, yet subjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding.
/Genesis/ i. 22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruit- 512:18 ful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let fowl multiply in the earth.
Multiplication of pure ideas
Spirit blesses the multiplication of its own pure and 512:21 perfect ideas. From the infinite elements of the one Mind emanate all form, color, quality, and quantity, and these are mental, both primarily 512:24 and secondarily. Their spiritual nature is discerned only through the spiritual senses. Mortal mind inverts the true likeness, and confers animal names and natures upon its 512:27 own misconceptions. Ignorant of the origin and opera- tions of mortal mind, - that is, ignorant of itself, - this so-called mind puts forth its own qualities, and claims 512:30 God as their author; albeit God is ignorant of the ex- 513:1 istence of both this mortal mentality, so-called, and its claim, for the claim usurps the deific prerogatives and is 513:3 an attempted infringement on infinity.
/Genesis/ i. 23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Spiritual spheres
513:6 Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. To material sense, this divine universe is dim and 513:9 distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight; but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light. In the record, time is not yet measured by solar revolutions, 513:12 and the motions and reflections of deific power cannot be apprehended until divine Science becomes the interpreter.
/Genesis/ i. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth 513:15 the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Continuity of thoughts
Spirit diversifies, classifies, and individualizes all 513:18 thoughts, which are as eternal as the Mind conceiving them; but the intelligence, exist- ence, and continuity of all individuality remain in God, 513:21 who is the divinely creative Principle thereof.
/Genesis/ i. 25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that 513:24 creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
God's thoughts are spiritual realities
God creates all forms of reality. His thoughts are 513:27 spiritual realities. So-called mortal mind - being non- existent and consequently not within the range of im- 514:1 mortal existence - could not by simulating deific power invert the divine creation, and afterwards recreate per- 514:3 sons or things upon its own plane, since noth- ing exists beyond the range of all-inclusive infinity, in which and of which God is the 514:6 sole creator. Mind, joyous in strength, dwells in the realm of Mind. Mind's infinite ideas run and dis- port themselves. In humility they climb the heights of 514:9 holiness.
Qualities of thought
Moral courage is "the lion of the tribe of Juda," the king of the mental realm. Free and fearless it roams in 514:12 the forest. Undisturbed it lies in the open field, or rests in "green pastures, . . . beside the still waters." In the figurative transmission from the 514:15 divine thought to the human, diligence, promptness, and perseverance are likened to "the cattle upon a thousand hills." They carry the baggage of stern resolve, and 514:18 keep pace with highest purpose. Tenderness accompa- nies all the might imparted by Spirit. The individ- uality created by God is not carnivorous, as witness the 514:21 millennial estate pictured by Isaiah: -
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, And the leopard shall lie down with the kid; 514:24 And the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them.
Creatures of God useful
Understanding the control which Love held over all, 514:27 Daniel felt safe in the lions' den, and Paul proved the viper to be harmless. All of God's creatures moving in the harmony of Science, are harm- 514:30 less, useful, indestructible. A realization of this grand verity was a source of strength to the ancient worthies. 515:1 It supports Christian healing, and enables its possessor to emulate the example of Jesus. "And God saw that 515:3 it was good."
The serpent harmless
Patience is symbolized by the tireless worm, creeping over lofty summits, persevering in its intent. The ser- 515:6 pent of God's creating is neither subtle nor poisonous, but is a wise idea, charming in its adroitness, for Love's ideas are subject to the Mind which 515:9 forms them, - the power which changeth the serpent into a staff.
/Genesis/ i. 26. And God said, Let us make man in our 515:12 image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping 515:15 thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Elohistic plurality
The eternal Elohim includes the forever universe. The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of 515:18 Spirit does not imply more than one God, nor does it imply three persons in one. It relates to the oneness, the triunity of Life, Truth, and Love. 515:21 "Let /them/ have dominion." Man is the family name for all ideas, - the sons and daughters of God. All that God imparts moves in accord with Him, reflecting good- 515:24 ness and power.
Reflected likeness
Your mirrored reflection is your own image or like- ness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also. 515:27 If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in accord with yours. Now compare man before the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror 515:30 divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note 516:1 how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in 516:3 the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of God. The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; 516:6 and when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere.
Love imparts beauty
516:9 God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in goodness, which impart their own peace and 516:12 permanence. Love, redolent with unselfish- ness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneath our feet silently exclaims, "The meek shall inherit the 516:15 earth." The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath to heaven. The great rock gives shadow and shelter. The sunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the 516:18 prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth. Man, made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God's domin- 516:21 ion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God.
516:24 /Genesis/ i. 27. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
Ideal man and woman
516:27 To emphasize this momentous thought, it is repeated that God made man in His own image, to reflect the divine Spirit. It follows that man is a generic 516:30 term. Masculine, feminine, and neuter gen- ders are human concepts. In one of the ancient lan- 517:1 guages the word for /man/ is used also as the synonym of /mind/. This definition has been weakened by anthropo- 517:3 morphism, or a humanization of Deity. The word /an- thropomorphic/, in such a phrase as "an anthropomorphic God," is derived from two Greek words, signifying /man/ 517:6 and /form/, and may be defined as a mortally mental at- tempt to reduce Deity to corporeality. The life-giving quality of Mind is Spirit, not matter. The ideal man 517:9 corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth. The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love. In divine Science, we have not as much authority for con- 517:12 sidering God masculine, as we have for considering Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of Deity.
Divine personality
517:15 The world believes in many persons; but if God is per- sonal, there is but one person, because there is but one God. His personality can only be reflected, 517:18 not transmitted. God has countless ideas, and they all have one Principle and parentage. The only proper symbol of God as person is Mind's infinite ideal. 517:21 What is this ideal? Who shall behold it? This ideal is God's own image, spiritual and infinite. Even eternity can never reveal the whole of God, since there is no limit 517:24 to infinitude or to its reflections.
/Genesis/ i. 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, 517:27 and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Birthright of man
517:30 Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to multiply, - to manifest His power. Man is not made 518:1 to till the soil. His birthright is dominion, not sub- jection. He is lord of the belief in earth 518:3 and heaven, - himself subordinate alone to his Maker. This is the Science of being.
/Genesis/ i. 29, 30. And God said, Behold, I have given 518:6 you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every 518:9 beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it 518:12 was so.
Assistance in brotherhood
God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a link to the greater, and in return, the higher always protects the 518:15 lower. The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all leaving the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth 518:18 his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good. Love giveth to the least spiritual idea might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through 518:21 all as the blossom shines through the bud. All the varied expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality - infinite Life, Truth, and Love.
518:24 /Genesis/ i. 31. And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Perfection of creation
518:27 The divine Principle, or Spirit, comprehends and ex- presses all, and all must therefore be as perfect is the divine Principle is perfect. Nothing is new to Spirit. 519:1 Nothing can be novel to eternal Mind, the author of all things, who from all eternity knoweth His own ideas. 519:3 Deity was satisfied with His work. How could He be otherwise, since the spiritual creation was the outgrowth, the emanation, of His infinite self- 519:6 containment and immortal wisdom?
/Genesis/ ii. 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Infinity measureless
519:9 Thus the ideas of God in universal being are complete and forever expressed, for Science reveals infinity and the fatherhood and motherhood of Love. Hu- 519:12 man capacity is slow to discern and to grasp God's creation and the divine power and presence which go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin. Mortals 519:15 can never know the infinite, until they throw off the old man and reach the spiritual image and likeness. What can fathom infinity! How shall we declare Him, till, 519:18 in the language of the apostle, "we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the ful- 519:21 ness of Christ"?
/Genesis/ ii. 2. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh 519:24 day from all His work which He had made.
Resting in holy work
God rests in action. Imparting has not impoverished, can never impoverish, the divine Mind. No 519:27 exhaustion follows the action of this Mind, according to the apprehension of divine Science. The 520:1 highest and sweetest rest, even from a human standpoint, is in holy work.
Love and man coexistent
520:3 Unfathomable Mind is expressed. The depth, breadth, height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all space. That is enough! Human language 520:6 can repeat only an infinitesimal part of what exists. The absolute ideal, man, is no more seen nor comprehended by mortals, than is His infinite Principle, 520:9 Love. Principle and its idea, man, are coexistent and eternal. The numerals of infinity, called /seven days/, can never be reckoned according to the calendar of time. 520:12 These days will appear as mortality disappears, and they will reveal eternity, newness of Life, in which all sense of error forever disappears and thought accepts the divine 520:15 infinite calculus.
/Genesis/ ii. 4, 5. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the 520:18 Lord God [Jehovah] made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God [Jehovah] 520:21 had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
Growth is from Mind
Here is the emphatic declaration that God creates all 520:24 through Mind, not through matter, - that the plant grows, not because of seed or soil, but because growth is the eternal mandate of Mind. Mor- 520:27 tal thought drops into the ground, but the immortal creat- ing thought is from above, not from beneath. Because Mind makes all, there is nothing left to be made by a 520:30 lower power. Spirit acts through the Science of Mind, never causing man to till the ground, but making him 521:1 superior to the soil. Knowledge of this lifts man above the sod, above earth and its environments, to conscious 521:3 spiritual harmony and eternal being.
Spiritual narrative
Here the inspired record closes its narrative of being that is without beginning or end. All that is made is 521:6 the work of God, and all is good. We leave this brief, glorious history of spiritual creation (as stated in the first chapter of Genesis) in the hands of 521:9 God, not of man, in the keeping of Spirit, not matter, - joyfully acknowledging now and forever God's supremacy, omnipotence, and omnipresence.
521:12 The harmony and immortality of man are intact. We should look away from the opposite supposition that man is created materially, and turn our gaze to the spiritual 521:15 record of creation, to that which should be engraved on the understanding and heart "with the point of a diamond" and the pen of an angel.
521:18 The reader will naturally ask if there is nothing more about creation in the book of Genesis. Indeed there is, but the continued account is mortal and material.
521:21 /Genesis/ ii. 6. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
The story of error
The Science and truth of the divine creation have been 521:24 presented in the verses already considered, and now the opposite error, a material view of creation, is to be set forth. The second chapter of Gene- 521:27 sis contains a statement of this material view of God and the universe, a statement which is the exact opposite of scientific truth as before recorded. The history of error 521:30 or matter, if veritable, would set aside the omnipotence 522:1 of Spirit; but it is the false history in contradistinction to the true.
The two records
522:3 The Science of the first record proves the falsity of the second. If one is true, the other is false, for they are antagonistic. The first record assigns all 522:6 might and government to God, and endows man out of God's perfection and power. The second record chronicles man as mutable and mortal, - as hav- 522:9 ing broken away from Deity and as revolving in an orbit of his own. Existence, separate from divinity, Science explains as impossible.
522:12 This second record unmistakably gives the history of error in its externalized forms, called life and intelli- gence in matter. It records pantheism, opposed to the 522:15 supremacy of divine Spirit; but this state of things is declared to be temporary and this man to be mortal, - dust returning to dust.
Erroneous representation
522:18 In this erroneous theory, matter takes the place of Spirit. Matter is represented as the life-giving principle of the earth. Spirit is represented as entering mat- 522:21 ter in order to create man. God's glowing denunciations of man when not found in His image, the likeness of Spirit, convince reason and coincide 522:24 with revelation in declaring this material creation false.
Hypothetical reversal
This latter part of the second chapter of Genesis, which portrays Spirit as supposedly cooperating with matter in 522:27 constructing the universe, is based on some hypothesis of error, for the Scripture just pre- ceding declares God's work to be finished. Does Life, 522:30 Truth, and Love produce death, error, and hatred? Does the creator condemn His own creation? Does the un- erring Principle of divine law change or repent? It can- 523:1 not be so. Yet one might so judge from an unintelligent perusal of the Scriptural account now under comment.
Mist, or false claim
523:3 Because of its false basis, the mist of obscurity evolved by error deepens the false claim, and finally declares that God knows error and that error can improve 523:6 His creation. Although presenting the exact opposite of Truth, the lie claims to be truth. The crea- tions of matter arise from a mist or false claim, or from 523:9 mystification, and not from the firmament, or under- standing, which God erects between the true and false. In error everything comes from beneath, not from above. 523:12 All is material myth, instead of the reflection of Spirit.
Distinct documents
It may be worth while here to remark that, according 523:15 to the best scholars, there are clear evidences of two dis- tinct documents in the early part of the book of Genesis. One is called the Elohistic, because 523:18 the Supreme Being is therein called Elohim. The other document is called the Jehovistic, because Deity therein is always called Jehovah, - or Lord God, as our common 523:21 version translates it.
Jehovah or Elohim
Throughout the first chapter of Genesis and in three verses of the second, - in what we understand to be the 523:24 spiritually scientific account of creation, - it is Elohim (God) who creates. From the fourth verse of chapter two to chapter five, the creator is called 523:27 Jehovah, or the Lord. The different accounts become more and more closely intertwined to the end of chapter twelve, after which the distinction is not definitely trace- 523:30 able. In the historic parts of the Old Testament, it is usually Jehovah, peculiarly the divine sovereign of the Hebrew people, who is referred to.
Gods of the heathen
524:1 The idolatry which followed this material mythology is seen in the Phoenician worship of Baal, in the Moabitish 524:3 god Chemosh, in the Moloch of the Amorites, in the Hindoo Vishnu, in the Greek Aphro- dite, and in a thousand other so-called deities.
Jehovah a tribal deity
524:6 It was also found among the Israelites, who constantly went after "strange gods." They called the Supreme Being by the national name of Jehovah. In 524:9 that name of Jehovah, the true idea of God seems almost lost. God becomes "a man of war," a tribal god to be worshipped, rather than Love, the divine 524:12 Principle to be lived and loved.
/Genesis/ ii. 7. And the Lord God [Jehovah] formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils 524:15 the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Creation reversed
Did the divine and infinite Principle become a finite deity, that he should now be called Jehovah? With l8 a single command, Mind had made man, both male and female. How then could a material organization become the basis of man? How 524:21 could the non-intelligent become the medium of Mind, and error be the enunciator of Truth? Matter is not the reflection of Spirit, yet God is reflected in all His 524:24 creation. Is this addition to His creation real or un- real? Is it the truth, or is it a lie concerning man and God?
524:27 It must be a lie, for God presently curses the ground. Could Spirit evolve its opposite, matter, and give matter ability to sin and suffer? Is Spirit, God, injected into 524:30 dust, and eventually ejected at the demand of matter? Does Spirit enter dust, and lose therein the divine nature 525:1 and omnipotence? Does Mind, God, enter matter to be- come there a mortal sinner, animated by the breath of 525:3 God? In this narrative, the validity of matter is opposed, not the validity of Spirit or Spirit's creations. Man re- flects God; /mankind/ represents the Adamic race, and is 525:6 a human, not a divine, creation.
Definitions of man
The following are some of the equivalents of the term /man/ in different languages. In the Saxon, /mankind, a 525:9 /woman, any one/; in the Welsh, /that which rises up/, - the primary sense being /image, form/; in the Hebrew, /image, similitude/; in the Icelandic, /mind/. 525:12 The following translation is from the Icelandic: -
And God said, Let us make man after our mind and our likeness; and God shaped man after His mind; after 525:15 God's mind shaped He Him; and He shaped them male and female.
No baneful creation
In the Gospel of John, it is declared that all things were 525:18 made through the Word of God, "and without Him [the /logos/, or /word/] was not anything made that was made." Everything good or worthy, God 525:21 made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not make, - hence its unreality. In the Science of Genesis we read that He saw everything which He had made, 525:24 "and, behold, it was very good." The corporeal senses declare otherwise; and if we give the same heed to the history of error as to the records of truth, the Scriptural 525:27 record of sin and death favors the false conclusion of the material senses. Sin, sickness, and death must be deemed as devoid of reality as they are of good, God.
525:30 /Genesis/ ii. 9. And out of the ground made the Lord God [Jehovah] to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, 526:1 and good for food; the tree of life also, in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Contradicting first creation
526:3 The previous and more scientific record of creation declares that God made "every plant of the field be- fore it was in the earth." This opposite 526:6 declaration, this statement that life issues from matter, contradicts the teaching of the first chap- ter, - namely, that all Life is God. Belief is less than 526:9 understanding. Belief involves theories of material hear- ing, sight, touch, taste, and smell, termed the five senses. The appetites and passions, sin, sickness, and death, 526:12 follow in the train of this error of a belief in intelligent matter.
Record of error
The first mention of evil is in the legendary Scriptural 526:15 text in the second chapter of Genesis. God pronounced good all that He created, and the Scriptures declare that He created all. The "tree of 526:18 life" stands for the idea of Truth, and the sword which guards it is the type of divine Science. The "tree of knowledge" stands for the erroneous doctrine that the 526:21 knowledge of evil is as real, hence as God-bestowed, as the knowledge of good. Was evil instituted through God, Love? Did He create this fruit-bearer of sin in contra- 526:24 diction of the first creation? This second biblical account is a picture of error throughout.
/Genesis/ ii. 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] took the 526:27 man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it.
Garden of Eden
The name Eden, according to Cruden, means /pleasure/, 526:30 /delight./ In this text Eden stands for the mortal, mate- 527:1 rial body. God could not put Mind into matter nor in- finite Spirit into finite form to dress it and 527:3 keep it, - to make it beautiful or to cause it to live and grow. Man is God's reflection, needing no cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete.
527:6 /Genesis/ ii. 16, 17. And the Lord God [Jehovah] com- manded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good 527:9 and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
No temptation from God
Here the metaphor represents God, Love, as tempting 527:12 man, but the Apostle James says: "God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man." It is true that a knowledge of evil would 527:15 make man mortal. It is plain also that mate- rial perception, gathered from the corporeal senses, consti- tutes evil and mortal knowledge. But is it true that God, 527:18 good, made "the tree of life" to be the tree of death to His own creation? Has evil the reality of good? Evil is un- real because it is a lie, - false in every statement.
527:21 /Genesis/ ii. 19. And out of the ground the Lord God [Jehovah] formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he 527:24 would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
Creation's counterfeit
Here the lie represents God as repeating creation, but 527:27 doing so materially, not spiritually, and ask- ing a prospective sinner to help Him. Is the Supreme Being retrograding, and is man giving up his 527:30 dignity? Was it requisite for the formation of man 528:1 that dust should become sentient, when all being is the reflection of the eternal Mind, and the record declares 528:3 that God has already created man, both male and female? That Adam gave the name and nature of animals, is solely mythological and material. It can- 528:6 not be true that man was ordered to create man anew in partnership with God; this supposition was a dream, a myth.
528:9 /Genesis/ ii. 21, 22. And the Lord God [Jehovah, Yawah] caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead 528:12 thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God [Jehovah] had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Hypnotic surgery
528:15 Here falsity, error, credits Truth, God, with inducing a sleep or hypnotic state in Adam in order to perform a surgical operation on him and thereby create 528:18 woman. This is the first record of magnet- ism. Beginning creation with darkness instead of light, - materially rather than spiritually, - error now simu- 528:21 lates the work of Truth, mocking Love and declar- ing what great things error has done. Beholding the creations of his own dream and calling them real and 528:24 God-given, Adam - /alias/ error - gives them names. Afterwards he is supposed to become the basis of the creation of woman and of his own kind, calling them 528:27 /mankind/, - that is, a kind of man.
Mental midwifery
But according to this narrative, surgery was first per- formed mentally and without instruments; 528:30 and this may be a useful hint to the medical faculty. Later in human history, when the forbidden 529:1 fruit was bringing forth fruit of its own kind, there came a suggestion of change in the /modus operandi/, - 529:3 that man should be born of woman, not woman again taken from man. It came about, also, that instruments were needed to assist the birth of mortals. The first 529:6 system of suggestive obstetrics has changed. Another change will come as to the nature and origin of man, and this revelation will destroy the /dream/ of existence, 529:9 reinstate reality, usher in Science and the glorious fact of creation, that both man and woman proceed from God and are His eternal children, belonging to no lesser 529:12 parent.
/Genesis/ iii. 1-3. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God [Jehovah] had 529:15 made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of 529:18 the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Mythical serpent
529:21 Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the children of divine Love? The serpent enters into the metaphor only as evil. We have nothing in the 529:24 animal kingdom which represents the species described, - a talking serpent, - and should rejoice that evil, by whatever figure presented, contradicts itself and 529:27 has neither origin nor support in Truth and good. Seeing this, we should have faith to fight all claims of evil, be- cause we know that they are worthless and unreal.
Error or Adam
529:30 Adam, the synonym for error, stands for a belief of material mind. He begins his reign over man some- 530:1 what mildly, but he increases in falsehood and his days become shorter. In this development, the im- 530:3 mortal, spiritual law of Truth is made manifest as forever opposed to mortal, material sense.
Divine providence
In divine Science, man is sustained by God, the divine 530:6 Principle of being. The earth, at God's command, brings forth food for man's use. Knowing this, Jesus once said, "Take no thought for your life, 530:9 what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink," - presuming not on the prerogative of his creator, but recognizing God, the Father and Mother of all, as able to feed and clothe 530:12 man as He doth the lilies.
/Genesis/ iii. 4, 5. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day 530:15 ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Error's assumption
This myth represents error as always asserting its su- 530:18 periority over truth, giving the lie to divine Science and saying, through the material senses: "I can open your eyes. I can do what God has not 530:21 done for you. Bow down to me and have another god. Only admit that I am real, that sin and sense are more pleasant to the eyes than spiritual Life, more to be de- 530:24 sired than Truth, and I shall know you, and you will be mine." Thus Spirit and flesh war.
Scriptural allegory
The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream 530:27 has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the dreamer and dream are one, for neither is true nor real. /First/, this narrative supposes 530:30 that something springs from nothing, that matter pre- cedes mind. /Second/, it supposes that mind enters matter, 531:1 and matter becomes living, substantial, and intelligent. The order of this allegory - the belief that everything 531:3 springs from dust instead of from Deity - has been main- tained in all the subsequent forms of belief. This is the error, - that mortal man starts materially, that non- 531:6 intelligence becomes intelligence, that mind and soul are both right and wrong.
Higher hope
It is well that the upper portions of the brain represent 531:9 the higher moral sentiments, as if hope were ever prophe- sying thus: The human mind will sometime rise above all material and physical sense, ex- 531:12 changing it for spiritual perception, and exchanging hu- man concepts for the divine consciousness. Then man will recognize his God-given dominion and being.
Biological inventions
531:15 If, in the beginning, man's body originated in non- intelligent dust, and mind was afterwards put into body by the creator, why is not this divine order 531:18 still maintained by God in perpetuating the species? Who will say that minerals, vegetables, and animals have a propagating property of their own? 531:21 Who dares to say either that God is in matter or that matter exists without God? Has man sought out other creative inventions, and so changed the method of his 531:24 Maker?
Which institutes Life, - matter or Mind? Does Life begin with Mind or with matter? Is Life sustained by 531:27 matter or by Spirit? Certainly not by both, since flesh wars against Spirit and the corporeal senses can take no cognizance of Spirit. The mythologic theory of mate- 531:30 rial life at no point resembles the scientifically Christian record of man as created by Mind in the image and like- ness of God and having dominion over all the earth. Did 532:1 God at first create one man unaided, - that is, Adam, - but afterwards require the union of the two sexes in order 532:3 to create the rest of the human family? No! God makes and governs all.
Progeny cursed
All human knowledge and material sense must be 532:6 gained from the five corporeal senses. Is this knowledge safe, when eating its first fruits brought death? "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt 532:9 surely die," was the prediction in the story under consid- eration. Adam and his progeny were cursed, not blessed; and this indicates that the divine Spirit, or Father, con- 532:12 demns material man and remands him to dust.
/Genesis/ iii. 9, 10. And the Lord God [Jehovah] called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he 532:15 said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Shame the effect of sin
Knowledge and pleasure, evolved through material 532:18 sense, produced the immediate fruits of fear and shame. Ashamed before Truth, error shrank abashed from the divine voice calling out to the cor- 532:21 poreal senses. Its summons may be thus paraphrased: "Where art thou, man? Is Mind in matter? Is Mind capable of error as well as of truth, of evil as well as of 532:24 good, when God is All and He is Mind and there is but one God, hence one Mind?"
Fear comes of error
Fear was the first manifestation of the error of mate- 532:27 rial sense. Thus error began and will end the dream of matter, In the allegory the body had been naked, and Adam knew it not; but now error 532:30 demands that /mind/ shall see and feel through matter, the five senses. The first impression material man had of 533:1 himself was one of nakedness and shame. Had he lost man's rich inheritance and God's behest, dominion over 533:3 all the earth? No! This had never been bestowed on Adam.
/Genesis/ iii. 11, 12. And He said, Who told thee that 533:6 thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave 533:9 me of the tree, and I did eat.
The beguiling first lie
Here there is an attempt to trace all human errors directly or indirectly to God, or good, as if He were the 533:12 creator of evil. The allegory shows that the snake-talker utters the first voluble lie, which beguiles the woman and demoralizes the man. Adam, 533:15 /alias mortal error/, charges God and woman with his own dereliction, saying, "The woman, whom Thou gavest me, is responsible." According to this belief, the rib taken 533:18 from Adam's side has grown into an evil mind, named /woman/, who aids man to make sinners more rapidly than he can alone. Is this an help meet for man?
533:21 Materiality, so obnoxious to God, is already found in the rapid deterioration of the bone and flesh which came from Adam to form Eve. The belief in material life and in- 533:24 telligence is growing worse at every step, but error has its suppositional day and multiplies until the end thereof.
False womanhood
Truth, cross-questioning man as to His knowledge of 533:27 error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She says, " The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat;" as much as to say in meek penitence, 533:30 "Neither man nor God shall father my fault." She has already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence 534:1 she is first to abandon the belief in the material origin of man and to discern spiritual creation. This hereafter 534:3 enabled woman to be the mother of Jesus and to behold at the sepulchre the risen Saviour, who was soon to mani- fest the deathless man of God's creating. This enabled 534:6 woman to be first to interpret the Scriptures in their true sense, which reveals the spiritual origin of man.
/Genesis/ iii. 14, 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said 534:9 unto the serpent, . . . I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Spirit and flesh
534:12 This prophecy has been fulfilled. The Son of the Virgin- mother unfolded the remedy for Adam, or error; and the Apostle Paul explains this warfare between the 534:15 idea of divine power, which Jesus presented, and mythological material intelligence called /energy/ and opposed to Spirit.
534:18 Paul says in his epistle to the Romans: "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that 534:21 are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you."
Bruising sin's head
534:24 There will be greater mental opposition to the spirit- ual, scientific meaning of the Scriptures than there has ever been since the Christian era began. The 534:27 serpent, material sense, will bite the heel of the woman, - will struggle to destroy the spiritual idea of Love; and the woman, this idea, will bruise the head 534:30 of lust. The spiritual idea has given the understanding 535:1 a foothold in Christian Science. The seed of Truth and the seed of error, of belief and of understanding, - yea, 535:3 the seed of Spirit and the seed of matter, - are the wheat and tares which time will separate, the one to be burned, the other to be garnered into heavenly places.
535:6 /Genesis/ iii. 16. Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy 535:9 husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Judgment on error
Divine Science deals its chief blow at the supposed ma- terial foundations of life and intelligence. It dooms idol- 535:12 atry. A belief in other gods, other creators, and other creations must go down before Chris- tian Science. It unveils the results of sin as shown in 535:15 sickness and death. When will man pass through the open gate of Christian Science into the heaven of Soul, into the heritage of the first born among men? Truth is 535:18 indeed " the way."
/Genesis/ iii. 17-19. And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast 535:21 eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns 535:24 also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it 535:27 wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
New earth and no more sea
In the first chapter of Genesis we read: "And God 535:30 called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together 536:1 of the waters called He Seas." In the Apocalypse it is written: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for 536:3 the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." In St. John's vision, heaven and earth stand for spir- 536:6 itual ideas, and the sea, as a symbol of tempest-tossed human concepts advancing and receding, is represented as having passed away. The divine understanding reigns, 536:9 is /all/ and there is no other consciousness.
The fall of error
The way of error is awful to contemplate. The illu- sion of sin is without hope or God. If man's spiritual 536:12 gravitation and attraction to one Father, in whom we " live, and move, and have our be- ing," should be lost, and if man should be governed by 536:15 corporeality instead of divine Principle, by body instead of by Soul, man would be annihilated. Created by flesh instead of by Spirit, starting from matter instead of from 536:18 God, mortal man would be governed by himself. The blind leading the blind, both would fall.
True attainment
Passions and appetites must end in pain. They are 536:21 "of few days, and full of trouble." Their supposed joys are cheats. Their narrow limits belittle their gratifica- tions, and hedge about their achievements with thorns. 536:24 Mortal mind accepts the erroneous, material concep- tion of life and joy, but the true idea is gained from the immortal side. Through toil, struggle, and sor- 536:27 row, what do mortals attain? They give up their belief in perishable life and happiness; the mortal and material return to dust, and the immortal is reached.
536:30 /Genesis/ iii. 22-24. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good 537:1 and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore 537:3 the Lord God [Jehovah] sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east 537:6 of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Justice and recompense
537:9 A knowledge of evil was never the essence of divin- ity or manhood. In the first chapter of Genesis, evil has no local habitation nor name. Crea- 537:12 tion is there represented as spiritual, entire, and good. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Error excludes itself from harmony. Sin 537:15 is its own punishment. Truth guards the gateway to harmony. Error tills its own barren soil and buries itself in the ground, since ground and dust stand for 537:18 nothingness.
Inspired interpretation
No one can reasonably doubt that the purpose of this allegory - this second account in Genesis - is to depict 537:21 the falsity of error and the effects of error. Subsequent Bible revelation is coordinate with the Science of creation recorded in the 537:24 first chapter of Genesis. Inspired writers interpret the Word spiritually, while the ordinary historian interprets it literally. Literally taken, the text is made to appear 537:27 contradictory in some places, and divine Love, which blessed the earth and gave it to man for a possession, is represented as changeable. The literal meaning would 537:30 imply that God withheld from man the opportunity to reform, lest man should improve it and become better; but this is not the nature of God, who is Love always, - 538:1 Love infinitely wise and altogether lovely, who "seeketh not her own."
Spiritual gateway
538:3 Truth should, and does, drive error out of all selfhood. Truth is a two-edged sword, guarding and guiding. Truth places the cherub wisdom at the gate 538:6 of understanding to note the proper guests. Radiant with mercy and justice, the sword of Truth gleams afar and indicates the infinite distance between 538:9 Truth and error, between the material and spiritual, - the unreal and the real.
Contrasted testimony
The sun, giving light and heat to the earth, is a figure 538:12 of divine Life and Love, enlightening and sustaining the universe. The "tree of life" is significant of eternal reality or being. The "tree of knowl- 538:15 edge" typifies unreality. The testimony of the serpent is significant of the illusion of error, of the false claims that misrepresent God, good. Sin, sickness, and death have 538:18 no record in the Elohistic introduction of Genesis, in which God creates the heavens, earth, and man. Until that which contradicts the truth of being enters into the arena, 538:21 evil has no history, and evil is brought into view only as the unreal in contradistinction to the real and eternal.
/Genesis/ iv. 1. And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she 538:24 conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord [Jehovah].
Erroneous conception
This account is given, not of immortal man, but of mor- 538:27 tal man, and of sin which is temporal. As both mortal man and sin have a beginning, they must consequently have an end, while the sinless, 538:30 real man is eternal. Eve's declaration, "I have gotten a man from the Lord," supposes God to be the author 539:1 of sin and sin's progeny. This false sense of existence is fratricidal. In the words of Jesus, it (evil, devil) is 539:3 "a murderer from the beginning." Error begins by reckoning life as separate from Spirit, thus sapping the foundations of immortality, as if life and immortality 539:6 were something which matter can both give and take away.
Only one standard
What can be the standard of good, of Spirit, of Life, 539:9 or of Truth, if they produce their opposites, such as evil, matter, error, and death? God could never impart an element of evil, and man possesses 539:12 nothing which he has not derived from God. How then has man a basis for wrong-doing? Whence does he obtain the propensity or power to do evil? Has Spirit 539:15 resigned to matter the government of the universe?
A type of falsehood
The Scriptures declare that God condemned this lie as to man's origin and character by condemning its symbol, 539:18 the serpent, to grovel beneath all the beasts of the field. It is false to say that Truth and error commingle in creation. In parable and argument, 539:21 this falsity is exposed by our Master as self-evidently wrong. Disputing these points with the Pharisees and arguing for the Science of creation, Jesus said: "Do men 539:24 gather grapes of thorns?" Paul asked: "What com- munion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?"
Scientific offspring
539:27 The divine origin of Jesus gave him more than human power to expound the facts of creation, and demonstrate the one Mind which makes and governs man 539:30 and the universe. The Science of creation, so conspicuous in the birth of Jesus inspired his wisest and least-understood sayings, and was the basis of his 540:1 marvellous demonstrations. Christ is the offspring of Spirit, and spiritual existence shows that Spirit creates 540:3 neither a wicked nor a mortal man, lapsing into sin, sick- ness, and death.
Cleansing upheaval
In Isaiah we read: "I make peace, and create evil. I 540:6 the Lord do all these things;" but the prophet referred to divine law as stirring up the belief in evil to its utmost, when bringing it to the surface and re- 540:9 ducing it to its common denominator, nothingness. The muddy river-bed must be stirred in order to purify the stream. In moral chemicalization, when the symptoms 540:12 of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our igno- rance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought to know that God's law uncovers so-called sin and its 540:15 effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil and all power to sin.
Allegiance to Spirit
Science renders "unto Caesar the things which are 540:18 Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." It saith to the human sense of sin, sickness, and death, "God never made you, and you are a 540:21 false sense which hath no knowledge of God." The pur- pose of the Hebrew allegory, representing error as assum- ing a divine character, is to teach mortals never to believe 540:24 a lie.
/Genesis/ iv. 3, 4. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And Abel, he also 540:27 brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.
Spiritual and material
Cain is the type of mortal and material man, conceived in sin and "shapen in iniquity;" he is not the 540:30 type of Truth and Love. Material in origin and sense, he brings a material offering to God. Abel 541:1 takes his offering from the firstlings of the flock. A lamb is a more animate form of existence, and more nearly re- 541:3 sembles a mind-offering than does Cain's fruit. Jealous of his brother's gift, Cain seeks Abel's life, instead of mak- ing his own gift a higher tribute to the Most High.
541:6 /Genesis/ iv. 4, 5. And the Lord [Jehovah] had respect unto Abel, and to his offering: but unto Cain, and to his offering, He had not respect.
541:9 Had God more respect for the homage bestowed through a gentle animal than for the worship expressed by Cain's fruit? No; but the lamb was a more spiritual type of 541:12 even the human concept of Love than the herbs of the ground could be.
/Genesis/ iv. 8. Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and 541:15 slew him.
The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelli- gence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood 541:18 of man at the very outset.
/Genesis/ iv. 9. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am 541:21 I my brother's keeper?
Brotherhood repudiated
Here the serpentine lie invents new forms. At first it usurps divine power. It is supposed to say 541:24 in the first instance, "Ye shall be as gods." Now it repudiates even the human duty of man towards his brother.
541:27 /Genesis/ iv. 10, 11. And He [Jehovah] said, . . . The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth.
Murder brings its curse
542:1 The belief of life in matter sins at every step. It in- curs divine displeasure, and it would kill Jesus that it 542:3 might be rid of troublesome Truth. Material beliefs would slay the spiritual idea when- ever and wherever it appears. Though error hides 542:6 behind a lie and excuses guilt, error cannot forever be concealed. Truth, through her eternal laws, unveils error. Truth causes sin to betray itself, and sets upon 542:9 error the mark of the beast. Even the disposition to excuse guilt or to conceal it is punished. The avoidance of justice and the denial of truth tend to perpetuate sin, 542:12 invoke crime, jeopardize self-control, and mock divine mercy.
/Genesis/ iv. 15. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him 542:15 Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord [Jehovah] set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
Retribution and remorse
542:18 "They that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God's own way, and let human justice pattern the 542:21 divine. Sin will receive its full penalty, both for what it is and for what it does. Justice marks the sinner, and teaches mortals not to remove the 542:24 waymarks of God. To envy's own hell, justice con- signs the lie which, to advance itself, breaks God's commandments.
542:27 /Genesis/ iv. 16. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord [Jehovah], and dwelt in the land of Nod.
Climax of suffering
The sinful misconception of Life as something less 543:1 than God, having no truth to support it, falls back upon itself. This error, after reaching the climax of suffering, 543:3 yields to Truth and returns to dust; but it is only mortal man and not the real man, who dies. The image of Spirit cannot be effaced, since it 543:6 is the idea of Truth and changes not, but becomes more beautifully apparent at error's demise.
Dwelling in dreamland
In divine Science, the material man is shut out from 543:9 the presence of God. The five corporeal senses cannot take cognizance of Spirit. They cannot come into His presence, and must dwell in dream- 543:12 land, until mortals arrive at the understanding that ma- terial life, with all its sin, sickness, and death, is an illu- sion, against which divine Science is engaged in a warfare 543:15 of extermination. The great verities of existence are never excluded by falsity.
Man springs from Mind
All error proceeds from the evidence before the mate- 543:18 rial senses. If man is material and originates in an egg, who shall say that he is not primarily dust? May not Darwin be right in think- 543:21 ing that apehood preceded mortal manhood? Minerals and vegetables are found, according to divine Science, to be the creations of erroneous thought, not of matter. 543:24 Did man, whom God created with a word, originate in an egg? When Spirit made all, did it leave aught for matter to create? Ideas of Truth alone are reflected 543:27 in the myriad manifestations of Life, and thus it is seen that man springs solely from Mind. The belief that matter supports life would make Life, or God, 543:30 mortal.
Material inception
The text, "In the day that the Lord God [Jehovah God] made the earth and the heavens," introduces the 544:1 record of a material creation which followed the spiritual, - a creation so wholly apart from God's, that Spirit 544:3 had no participation in it. In God's creation ideas became productive, obedient to Mind. There was no rain and "not a man to till the ground." 544:6 Mind, instead of matter, being the producer, Life was self-sustained. Birth, decay, and death arise from the material sense of things, not from the spiritual, for in 544:9 the latter Life consisteth not of the things which a man eateth. Matter cannot change the eternal fact that man exists because God exists. Nothing is new to the 544:12 infinite Mind.
First evil suggestion
In Science, Mind neither produces matter nor does matter produce mind. No mortal mind has the might 544:15 or right or wisdom to create or to destroy. All is under the control of the one Mind, even God. The first statement about evil, - the first 544:18 suggestion of more than the one Mind, - is in the fable of the serpent. The facts of creation, as previously re- corded, include nothing of the kind.
Material personality
544:21 The serpent is supposed to say, "Ye shall be as gods," but these gods must be evolved from materiality and be the very antipodes of immortal and spiritual 544:24 being. Man is the likeness of Spirit, but a material personality is not this likeness. Therefore man, in this allegory, is neither a lesser god nor the image and 544:27 likeness of the one God.
Material, erroneous belief reverses understanding and truth. It declares mind to be in and of matter, so-called 544:30 mortal life to be Life, infinity to enter man's nostrils so that matter becomes spiritual. Error begins with corporeality as the producer instead of divine Prin- 545:1 ciple, and explains Deity through mortal and finite con- ceptions.
545:3 "Behold, the man is become as one of us." This could not be the utterance of Truth or Science, for according to the record, material man was fast degenerating and 545:6 never had been divinely conceived.
Mental tillage
The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means this, - that mortals should so improve material belief 545:9 by thought tending spiritually upward as to destroy materiality. Man, created by God, was given dominion over the whole earth. The notion 545:12 of a material universe is utterly opposed to the theory of man as evolved from Mind. Such fundamental errors send falsity into all human doctrines and conclusions, 545:15 and do not accord infinity to Deity. Error tills the whole ground in this material theory, which is entirely a false view, destructive to existence and happiness. Out- 545:18 side of Christian Science all is vague and hypothetical, the opposite of Truth; yet this opposite, in its false view of God and man, impudently demands a blessing.
Erroneous standpoint
545:21 The translators of this record of scientific creation entertained a false sense of being. They believed in the existence of matter, its propagation and 545:24 power. From that standpoint of error, they could not apprehend the nature and operation of Spirit. Hence the seeming contradiction in that Scripture, which 545:27 is so glorious in its spiritual signification. Truth has but one reply to all error, - to sin, sickness, and death: "Dust [nothingness] thou art, and unto dust [nothingness] 545:30 shalt thou return."
Mortality mythical
"As in Adam [error] all die, even so in Christ [Truth] shall all be made alive." The mortality of man is a 546:1 myth, for man is immortal. The false belief that spirit is now submerged in matter, at some future time to be eman- 546:3 cipated from it, - this belief alone is mortal. Spirit, God, never germinates, but is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." If Mind, God, cre- 546:6 ates error, that error must exist in the divine Mind, and this assumption of error would dethrone the perfection of Deity.
No truth from a material basis
546:9 Is Christian Science contradictory? Is the divine Principle of creation misstated? Has God no Science to declare Mind, while matter is governed by un- 546:12 erring intelligence? "There went up a mist from the earth." This represents error as starting from an idea of good on a material basis. It 546:15 supposes God and man to be manifested only through the corporeal senses, although the material senses can take no cognizance of Spirit or the spiritual idea. 546:18 Genesis and the Apocalypse seem more obscure than other portions of the Scripture, because they cannot possibly be interpreted from a material standpoint. To 546:21 the author, they are transparent, for they contain the deep divinity of the Bible.
Dawning of spiritual facts
Christian Science is dawning upon a material age. 546:24 The great spiritual facts of being, like rays of light, shine in the darkness, though the darkness, com- prehending them not, may deny their reality. 546:27 The proof that the system stated in this book is Chris- tianly scientific resides in the good this system accom- plishes, for it cures on a divine demonstrable Principle 546:30 which all may understand.
Proof given in healing
If mathematics should present a thousand different examples of one rule, the proving of one example would 547:1 authenticate all the others. A simple statement of Chris- tian Science, if demonstrated by healing, contains the 547:3 proof of all here said of Christian Science. If one of the statements in this book is true, every one must be true, for not one departs from the stated sys- 547:6 tem and rule. You can prove for yourself, dear reader, the Science of healing, and so ascertain if the author has given you the correct interpretation of Scripture.
Embryonic evolution
547:9 The late Louis Agassiz, by his microscopic examination of a vulture's ovum, strengthens the thinker's conclusions as to the scientific theory of creation. Agassiz 547:12 was able to see in the egg the earth's atmos- phere, the gathering clouds, the moon and stars, while the germinating speck of so-called embryonic life seemed a 547:15 small sun. In its history of mortality, Darwin's theory of evolution from a material basis is more consistent than most theories. Briefly, this is Darwin's theory, - that 547:18 Mind produces its opposite, matter, and endues matter with power to recreate the universe, including man. Ma- terial evolution implies that the great First Cause must 547:21 become material, and afterwards must either return to Mind or go down into dust and nothingness.
True theory of the universe
The Scriptures are very sacred. Our aim must be to 547:24 have them understood spiritually, for only by this under- standing can truth be gained. The true the- ory of the universe, including man, is not in 547:27 material history but in spiritual development. Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and 547:30 immortal.
Scriptural perception
It is this spiritual perception of Scripture, which lifts humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith. 548:1 "The Spirit and the bride say, Come! . . . and whoso- ever will, let him take the water of life freely." Christian 548:3 Science separates error from truth, and breathes through the sacred pages the spiritual sense of life, substance, and intelligence. In this Science, we dis- 548:6 cover man in the image and likeness of God. We see that man has never lost his spiritual estate and his eternal harmony.
The clouds dissolving
548:9 How little light or heat reach our earth when clouds cover the sun's face! So Christian Science can be seen only as the clouds of corporeal sense roll away. 548:12 Earth has little light or joy for mortals before Life is spiritually learned. Every agony of mortal error helps error to destroy error, and so aids the apprehension 548:15 of immortal Truth. This is the new birth going on hourly, by which men may entertain angels, the true ideas of God, the spiritual sense of being.
Prediction of a naturalist
548:18 Speaking of the origin of mortals, a famous naturalist says: "It is very possible that many general statements now current, about birth and generation, will 548:21 be changed with the progress of information." Had the naturalist, through his tireless researches, gained the diviner side in Christian Science, - so far apart from 548:24 his material sense of animal growth and organization, - he would have blessed the human race more abundantly.
Methods of reproduction
Natural history is richly endowed by the labors and 548:27 genius of great men. Modern discoveries have brought to light important facts in regard to so-called embryonic life. Agassiz declares ("Methods 548:30 of Study in Natural History,") "Certain ani- mals, besides the ordinary process of generation, also increase their numbers naturally and constantly by self- 549:1 division." This discovery is corroborative of the Science of Mind, for this discovery shows that the multiplication 549:3 of certain animals takes place apart from sexual condi- tions. The supposition that life germinates in eggs and must decay after it has grown to maturity, if not before, 549:6 is shown by divine metaphysics to be a mistake, - a blunder which will finally give place to higher theories and demonstrations.
The three processes
549:9 Creatures of lower forms of organism are supposed to have, as classes, three different methods of reproduc- tion and to multiply their species sometimes 549:12 through eggs, sometimes through buds, and sometimes through self-division. According to recent lore, successive generations do not begin with the /birth/ of 549:15 new individuals, or personalities, but with the formation of the nucleus, or egg, from which one or more individu- alities subsequently emerge; and we must therefore look 549:18 upon the simple ovum as the germ, the starting-point, of the most complicated corporeal structures, including those which we call human. Here these material researches 549:21 culminate in such vague hypotheses as must necessarily attend false systems, which rely upon physics and are de- void of metaphysics.
Deference to material law
549:24 In one instance a celebrated naturalist, Agassiz, dis- covers the pathway leading to divine Science, and beards the lion of materialism in its den. At that 549:27 point, however, even this great observer mis- takes nature, forsakes Spirit as the divine origin of creative Truth, and allows matter and material law to 549:30 usurp the prerogatives of omnipotence. He absolutely drops from his summit, coming down to a belief in the material origin of man, for he virtually affirms that 550:1 the germ of humanity is in a circumscribed and non- intelligent egg.
Deep-reaching interrogations
550:3 If this be so, whence cometh Life, or Mind, to the human race? Matter surely does not possess Mind. God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms 550:6 and preserves the individuality and identity of animals as well as of men. God cannot become finite, and be limited within material bounds. 550:9 Spirit cannot become matter, nor can Spirit be developed through its opposite. Of what avail is it to investigate what is miscalled material life, which ends, even as it be- 550:12 gins, in nameless nothingness? The true sense of being and its eternal perfection should appear now, even as it will hereafter.
Stages of existence
550:15 Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The continual contemplation of existence as material and cor- poreal - as beginning and ending, and with 550:18 birth, decay, and dissolution as its component stages - hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes our standard to trail in the dust. If Life has any starting- 550:21 point whatsoever, then the great I AM is a myth. If Life is God, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embry- onic, it is infinite. An egg is an impossible enclosure for 550:24 Deity.
Embryology supplies no instance of one species pro- ducing its opposite. A serpent never begets a bird, nor 550:27 does a lion bring forth a lamb. Amalgamation is deemed monstrous and is seldom fruitful, but it is not so hideous and absurd as the supposition that Spirit - the pure and 550:30 holy, the immutable and immortal - can originate the impure and mortal and dwell in it. As Christian Science repudiates self-evident impossibilities, the material senses 551:1 must father these absurdities, for both the material senses and their reports are unnatural, impossible, and unreal.
The real producer
551:3 Either Mind produces, or it is produced. If Mind is first, it cannot produce its opposite in quality and quantity, called matter. If matter is first, it cannot pro- 551:6 duce Mind. Like produces like. In natural history, the bird is not the product of a beast. In spiritual history, matter is not the progenitor of Mind.
The ascent of species
551:9 One distinguished naturalist argues that mortals spring from eggs and in races. Mr. Darwin admits this, but he adds that mankind has ascended through all 551:12 the lower grades of existence. Evolution de- scribes the gradations of human belief, but it does not acknowledge the method of divine Mind, nor see that ma- 551:15 terial methods are impossible in divine Science and that all Science is of God, not of man.
Transmitted peculiarities
Naturalists ask: "What can there be, of a material 551:18 nature, transmitted through these bodies called eggs, - themselves composed of the simplest material elements, - by which all peculiarities of an- 551:21 cestry, belonging to either sex, are brought down from generation to generation?" The question of the natu- ralist amounts to this: How can matter originate or trans- 551:24 mit mind? We answer that it cannot. Darkness and doubt encompass thought, so long as it bases creation on materiality. From a material standpoint, "Canst thou 551:27 by searching find out God?" All must be Mind, or else all must be matter. Neither can produce the other. Mind is immortal; but error declares that the material 551:30 seed must decay in order to propagate its species, and the resulting germ is doomed to the same routine.
Causation not in matter
The ancient and hypothetical question, Which is first, 552:1 the egg or the bird? is answered, if the egg produces the parent. But we cannot stop here. Another question 552:3 follows: Who or what produces the parent of the egg? That the earth was hatched from the "egg of night" was once an accepted theory. Heathen 552:6 philosophy, modern geology, and all other material hy- potheses deal with causation as contingent on matter and as necessarily apparent to the corporeal senses, even 552:9 where the proof requisite to sustain this assumption is un- discovered. Mortal theories make friends of sin, sickness, and death; whereas the spiritual scientific facts of exist- 552:12 ence include no member of this dolorous and fatal triad.
Emergence of mortals
Human experience in mortal life, which starts from an egg, corresponds with that of Job, when he says, "Man 552:15 that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble." Mortals must emerge from this notion of material life as all-in-all. They must peck 552:18 open their shells with Christian Science, and look outward and upward. But thought, loosened from a material basis but not yet instructed by Science, may become wild 552:21 with freedom and so be self-contradictory.
Persistence of species
From a material source flows no remedy for sorrow, sin, and death, for the redeeming power, from the ills 552:24 they occasion, is not in egg nor in dust. The blending tints of leaf and flower show the order of matter to be the order of mortal mind. The 552:27 intermixture of different species, urged to its utmost limits, results in a return to the original species. Thus it is learned that matter is a manifestation of mortal 552:30 mind, and that matter always surrenders its claims when the perfect and eternal Mind is understood.
Better basis than embryology
Naturalists describe the origin of mortal and material 553:1 existence in the various forms of embryology, and ac- company their descriptions with important observations, 553:3 which should awaken thought to a higher and purer contemplation of man's origin. This clearer consciousness must precede an under- 553:6 standing of the harmony of being. Mortal thought must obtain a better basis, get nearer the truth of being, or health will never be universal, and harmony will never 553:9 become the standard of man.
One of our ablest naturalists has said: "We have no right to assume that individuals have grown or been 553:12 formed under circumstances which made material con- ditions essential to their maintenance and reproduction, or important to their origin and first introduction." 553:15 Why, then, is the naturalist's basis so materialistic, and why are his deductions generally material?
All nativity in thought
Adam was created before Eve. In this instance, it is 553:18 seen that the maternal egg never brought forth Adam. Eve was formed from Adam's rib, not from a foetal ovum. Whatever theory may be adopted 553:21 by general mortal thought to account for human origin, that theory is sure to become the signal for the appear- ance of its method in finite forms and operations. If con- 553:24 sentaneous human belief agrees upon an ovum as the point of emergence for the human race, this potent belief will immediately supersede the more ancient supersti- 553:27 tion about the creation from dust or from the rib of our primeval father.
Being is immortal
You may say that mortals are formed before they 553:30 think or know aught of their origin, and you may also ask how belief can affect a result which precedes the development of that belief. It can 554:1 only be replied, that Christian Science reveals what "eye hath not seen," - even the cause of all that exists, - for 554:3 the universe, inclusive of man, is as eternal as God, who is its divine immortal Principle. There is no such thing as mortality, nor are there properly any mortal beings, 554:6 because being is immortal, like Deity, - or, rather, being and Deity are inseparable.
Our conscious development
Error is always error. It is /no thing/. Any statement 554:9 of life, following from a misconception of life, is errone- ous, because it is destitute of any knowledge of the so-called selfhood of life, destitute of 554:12 any knowledge of its origin or existence. The mortal is unconscious of his foetal and infantile existence; but as he grows up into another false claim, that of self-con- 554:15 scious matter, he learns to say, "I am somebody; but who made me?" Error replies, "God made you." The first effort of error has been and is to impute to God the 554:18 creation of whatever is sinful and mortal; but infinite Mind sets at naught such a mistaken belief.
Mendacity of error
Jesus defined this opposite of God and His creation 554:21 better than we can, when he said, "He is a liar, and the father of it." Jesus also said, "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" 554:24 This he said of Judas, one of Adam's race. Jesus never intimated that God made a devil, but he did say, "Ye are of your father, the devil." All these sayings were to 554:27 show that mind in matter is the author of itself, and is simply a falsity and illusion.
Ailments of animals
It is the general belief that the lower animals are less 554:30 sickly than those possessing higher organiza- tions, especially those of the human form. This would indicate that there is less disease in propor- 555:1 tion as the force of mortal mind is less pungent or sensi- tive, and that health attends the absence of mortal mind. 555:3 A fair conclusion from this might be, that it is the human belief, and not the divine arbitrament, which brings the physical organism under the yoke of disease.
Ignorance the sign of error
555:6 An inquirer once said to the discoverer of Christian Science: "I like your explanations of truth, but I do not comprehend what you say about error." 555:9 This is the nature of error. The mark of igno- rance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor can be understood. Error would have itself received as 555:12 mind, as if it were as real and God-created as truth; but Christian Science attributes to error neither entity nor power, because error is neither mind nor the outcome of 555:15 Mind.
The origin of divinity
Searching for the origin of man, who is the reflection of God, is like inquiring into the origin of God, the self- 555:18 existent and eternal. Only impotent error would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this 555:21 sham unity /man/, as if man were the offspring of both Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Crea- tion rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of 555:24 perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity, when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught that can become imperfect, that God bestows the power 555:27 to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err. Our great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in 555:30 death. Knowing that God was the Life of man, Jesus was able to present himself unchanged after the cruci- fixion. Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be- 556:1 lief in illusion or error. That which is real, is sustained by Spirit.
Genera classified
556:3 Vertebrata, articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mor- tal and material concepts classified, and are supposed to possess life and mind. These false beliefs 556:6 will disappear, when the radiation of Spirit destroys forever all belief in intelligent matter. Then will the new heaven and new earth appear, for the for- 556:9 mer things will have passed away.
The Christian's privilege
Mortal belief infolds the conditions of sin. Mortal belief dies to live again in renewed forms, only to go out 556:12 at last forever; for life everlasting is not to be gained by dying. Christian Science may ab- sorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but 556:15 the Christian alone can fathom it. It is made known most fully to him who understands best the divine Life. Did the origin and the enlightenment of the race come 556:18 from the deep sleep which fell upon Adam? Sleep is darkness, but God's creative mandate was, "Let there be light." In sleep, cause and effect are mere illusions. 556:21 They seem to be something, but are not. Oblivion and dreams, not realities, come with sleep. Even so goes on the Adam-belief, of which mortal and material life is the 556:24 dream.
Ontology /versus/ physiology
Ontology receives less attention than physiology. Why? Because mortal mind must waken to spiritual 556:27 life before it cares to solve the problem of being, hence the author's experience; but when that awakening comes, existence will be on a new stand- 556:30 point.
It is related that a father plunged his infant babe, only a few hours old, into the water for several minutes, and 557:1 repeated this operation daily, until the child could remain under water twenty minutes, moving and playing with- 557:3 out harm, like a fish. Parents should remember this and learn how to develop their children properly on dry land.
The curse removed
557:6 Mind controls the birth-throes in the lower realms of nature, where parturition is without suffering. Vege- tables, minerals, and many animals suffer no 557:9 pain in multiplying; but human propagation has its suffering because it is a false belief. Christian Sci- ence reveals harmony as proportionately increasing as the 557:12 line of creation rises towards spiritual man, - towards enlarged understanding and intelligence; but in the line of the corporeal senses, the less a mortal knows of sin, 557:15 disease, and mortality, the better for him, - the less pain and sorrow are his. When the mist of mortal mind evap- orates, the curse will be removed which says to woman, 557:18 "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." Divine Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as 557:21 never dying, but as coexistent with his creator.
Popular theology takes up the history of man as if he began materially right, but immediately fell into mental 557:24 sin; whereas revealed religion proclaims the Science of Mind and its formations as being in accordance with the first chapter of the Old Testament, when God, Mind, 557:27 spake and it was done.