Chapter X · - SCIENCE OF BEING (continued 2)

Standpoints changed

322:3 When understanding changes the standpoints of life and intelligence from a material to a spiritual basis, we shall gain the reality of Life, the control of Soul over 322:6 sense, and we shall perceive Christianity, or Truth, in its divine Principle. This must be the climax before harmonious and immortal man is obtained and his 322:9 capabilities revealed. It is highly important - in view of the immense work to be accomplished before this recog- nition of divine Science can come - to turn our thoughts 322:12 towards divine Principle, that finite belief may be pre- pared to relinquish its error.

Saving the inebriate

Man's wisdom finds no satisfaction in sin, since God 322:15 has sentenced sin to suffer. The necromancy of yester- day foreshadowed the mesmerism and hypno- tism of to-day. The drunkard thinks he enjoys 322:18 drunkenness, and you cannot make the inebriate leave his besottedness, until his physical sense of pleasure yields to a higher sense. Then he turns from his cups, as 322:21 the startled dreamer who wakens from an incubus in- curred through the pains of distorted sense. A man who likes to do wrong - finding pleasure in it and refraining 322:24 from it only through fear of consequences - is neither a temperate man nor a reliable religionist.

Uses of suffering

The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life 322:27 of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless woes, turn us like tired children to the arms of divine Love. Then we begin to learn Life 322:30 in divine Science. Without this process of weaning, "Canst thou by searching find out God?" It is easier to desire Truth than to rid one's self of error. Mortals 323:1 may seek the understanding of Christian Science, but they will not be able to glean from Christian Science the facts 323:3 of being without striving for them. This strife consists in the endeavor to forsake error of every kind and to pos- sess no other consciousness but good.

A bright outlook

323:6 Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, we are helped onward in the march towards righteousness, peace, and purity, which are the landmarks 323:9 of Science. Beholding the infinite tasks of truth, we pause, - wait on God. Then we push onward, until boundless thought walks enraptured, and concep- 323:12 tion unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory.

Need and supply

In order to apprehend more, we must put into prac- tice what we already know. We must recollect that 323:15 Truth is demonstrable when understood, and that good is not understood until demonstrated. If "faithful over a few things," we shall be made rulers 323:18 over many; but the one unused talent decays and is lost. When the sick or the sinning awake to realize their need of what they have not, they will be receptive of divine 323:21 Science, which gravitates towards Soul and away from material sense, removes thought from the body, and ele- vates even mortal mind to the contemplation of some- 323:24 thing better than disease or sin. The true idea of God gives the true understanding of Life and Love, robs the grave of victory, takes away all sin and the delusion that 323:27 there are other minds, and destroys mortality.

Childlike receptivity

The effects of Christian Science are not so much seen as felt. It is the "still, small voice" of Truth 323:30 uttering itself. We are either turning away from this utterance, or we are listening to it and going up higher. Willingness to become as a little child and 324:1 to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks 324:3 and joy to see them disappear, - this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony. The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress. "Blessed are the 324:6 pure in heart: for they shall see God."

Narrow pathway

Unless the harmony and immortality of man are be- coming more apparent, we are not gaining the true idea 324:9 of God; and the body will reflect what gov- erns it, whether it be Truth or error, understanding or belief, Spirit or matter. Therefore 324:12 "acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace." Be watchful, sober, and vigilant. The way is straight and narrow, which leads to the understanding that God 324:15 is the only Life. It is a warfare with the flesh, in which we must conquer sin, sickness, and death, either here or hereafter, - certainly before we can reach the goal 324:18 of Spirit, or life in God.

Paul's enlightenment

Paul was not at first a disciple of Jesus but a perse- cutor of Jesus' followers. When the truth first appeared 324:21 to him in Science, Paul was made blind, and his blindness was felt; but spiritual light soon enabled him to follow the example and teach- 324:24 ings of Jesus, healing the sick and preaching Christian- ity throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and even in imperial Rome.

324:27 Paul writes, "If Christ [Truth] be not risen, then is our preaching vain." That is, if the idea of the suprem- acy of Spirit, which is the true conception of being, 324:30 come not to your thought, you cannot be benefited by what I say.

Abiding in Life

Jesus said substantially, "He that believeth in me 325:1 shall not see death." That is, he who perceives the true idea of Life loses his belief in death. He who has 325:3 the true idea of good loses all sense of evil, and by reason of this is being ushered into the undying realities of Spirit. Such a one abideth in Life, - 325:6 life obtained not of the body incapable of supporting life, but of Truth, unfolding its own immortal idea. Jesus gave the true idea of being, which results in infinite bless- 325:9 ings to mortals.

Indestructible being

In Colossians (iii. 4) Paul writes: "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear [be manifested], then shall ye also 325:12 appear [be manifested] with him in glory." When spiritual being is understood in all its perfection, continuity, and might, then shall man be found 325:15 in God's image. The absolute meaning of the apostolic words is this: Then shall man be found, in His likeness, perfect as the Father, indestructible in Life, "hid with 325:18 Christ in God," - with Truth in divine Love, where human sense hath not seen man.

Consecration required

Paul had a clear sense of the demands of Truth upon 325:21 mortals physically and spiritually, when he said: "Pre- sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, ac- ceptable unto God, which is your reasonable 325:24 service." But he, who is begotten of the beliefs of the flesh and serves them, can never reach in this world the divine heights of our Lord. The time cometh when 325:27 the spiritual origin of man, the divine Science which ushered Jesus into human presence, will be understood and demonstrated.

325:30 When first spoken in any age, Truth, like the light, "shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." A false sense of life, substance, and mind 326:1 hides the divine possibilities, and conceals scientific demonstration.

Loving God supremely

326:3 If we wish to follow Christ, Truth, it must be in the way of God's appointing. Jesus said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." 326:6 He, who would reach the source and find the divine remedy for every ill, must not try to climb the hill of Science by some other road. All nature teaches God's 326:9 love to man, but man cannot love God supremely and set his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual.

326:12 We must forsake the foundation of material systems, however time-honored, if we would gain the Christ as our only Saviour. Not partially, but fully, the great 326:15 healer of mortal mind is the healer of the body.

The purpose and motive to live aright can be gained now. This point won, you have started as you should. 326:18 You have begun at the numeration-table of Christian Science, and nothing but wrong intention can hinder your advancement. Working and praying with true motives, 326:21 your Father will open the way. "Who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth?"

Conversion of Saul

Saul of Tarsus beheld the way - the Christ, or Truth 326:24 - only when his uncertain sense of right yielded to a spiritual sense, which is always right. Then the man was changed. Thought assumed a 326:27 nobler outlook, and his life became more spiritual. He learned the wrong that he had done in persecuting Chris- tians, whose religion he had not understood, and in hu- 326:30 mility he took the new name of Paul. He beheld for the first time the true idea of Love, and learned a lesson in divine Science.

327:1 Reform comes by understanding that there is no abid- ing pleasure in evil, and also by gaining an affection for 327:3 good according to Science, which reveals the immortal fact that neither pleasure nor pain, appetite nor passion, can exist in or of matter, while divine Mind can and does 327:6 destroy the false beliefs of pleasure, pain, or fear and all the sinful appetites of the human mind.

Image of the beast

What a pitiful sight is malice, finding pleasure in re- 327:9 venge! Evil is sometimes a man's highest conception of right, until his grasp on good grows stronger. Then he loses pleasure in wickedness, and it 327:12 becomes his torment. The way to escape the misery of sin is to cease sinning. There is no other way. Sin is the image of the beast to be effaced by the sweat of agony. 327:15 It is a moral madness which rushes forth to clamor with midnight and tempest.

Peremptory demands

To the physical senses, the strict demands of Christian 327:18 Science seem peremptory; but mortals are has- tening to learn that Life is God, good, and that evil has in reality neither place nor power in the human or 327:21 the divine economy.

Moral courage

Fear of punishment never made man truly honest. Moral courage is requisite to meet the wrong and to 327:24 proclaim the right. But how shall we re- form the man who has more animal than moral courage, and who has not the true idea of good? 327:27 Through human consciousness, convince the mortal of his mistake in seeking material means for gaining hap- piness. Reason is the most active human faculty. Let 327:30 that inform the sentiments and awaken the man's dor- mant sense of moral obligation, and by degrees he will learn the nothingness of the pleasures of human sense 328:1 and the grandeur and bliss of a spiritual sense, which silences the material or corporeal. Then he not only will 328:3 be saved, but /is/ saved.

Final destruction of error

Mortals suppose that they can live without goodness, when God is good and the only real Life. What is the 328:6 result? Understanding little about the divine Principle which saves and heals, mortals get rid of sin, sickness, and death only in belief. These errors 328:9 are not thus really destroyed, and must therefore cling to mortals until, here or hereafter, they gain the true un- derstanding of God in the Science which destroys human 328:12 delusions about Him and reveals the grand realities of His allness.

Promise perpetual

This understanding of man's power, when he is 328:15 equipped by God, has sadly disappeared from Christian history. For centuries it has been dormant, a lost element of Christianity. Our missionaries 328:18 carry the Bible to India, but can it be said that they explain it practically, as Jesus did, when hundreds of persons die there annually from serpent-bites? Under- 328:21 standing spiritual law and knowing that there is no mate- rial law, Jesus said: "These signs shall follow them that believe, . . . they shall take up serpents, and if they 328:24 drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." It were well had Christendom believed and obeyed this 328:27 sacred saying.

Jesus' promise is perpetual. Had it been given only to his immediate disciples, the Scriptural passage would 328:30 read you, not /they/. The purpose of his great life-work extends through time and includes universal humanity. Its Principle is infinite, reaching beyond the pale of a 329:1 single period or of a limited following. As time moves on, the healing elements of pure Christianity will be fairly 329:3 dealt with; they will be sought and taught, and will glow in all the grandeur of universal goodness.

Imitation of Jesus

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little under- 329:6 standing of Christian Science proves the truth of all that I say of it. Because you cannot walk on the water and raise the dead, you have no right to 329:9 question the great might of divine Science in these direc- tions. Be thankful that Jesus, who was the true demon- strator of Science, did these things, and left his example for 329:12 us. In Science we can use only what we understand. We must prove our faith by demonstration.

One should not tarry in the storm if the body is freez- 329:15 ing, nor should he remain in the devouring flames. Un- til one is able to prevent bad results, he should avoid their occasion. To be discouraged, is to resemble a pupil in 329:18 addition, who attempts to solve a problem of Euclid, and denies the rule of the problem because he fails in his first effort.

Error destroyed, not pardoned

329:21 There is no hypocrisy in Science. Principle is impera- tive. You cannot mock it by human will. Science is a divine demand, not a human. Always right, 329:24 its divine Principle never repents, but main- tains the claim of Truth by quenching error. The pardon of divine mercy is the destruction of error. If 329:27 men understood their real spiritual source to be all bless- edness, they would struggle for recourse to the spiritual and be at peace; but the deeper the error into which mor- 329:30 tal mind is plunged, the more intense the opposition to spirituality, till error yields to Truth.

The hopeful outlook

Human resistance to divine Science weakens in pro- 330:1 portion as mortals give up error for Truth and the un- derstanding of being supersedes mere belief. Until the 330:3 author of this book learned the vastness of Christian Science, the fixedness of mortal illu- sions, and the human hatred of Truth, she cherished 330:6 sanguine hopes that Christian Science would meet with immiediate and universal acceptance.

When the following platform is understood and the 330:9 letter and the spirit bear witness, the infallibility of divine metaphysics will be demonstrated.

The deific supremacy

I. God is infinite, the only Life, substance, Spirit, or 330:12 Soul, the only intelligence of the universe, including man. Eye hath neither seen God nor His image and likeness. Neither God nor the perfect man 330:15 can be discerned by the material senses. The individ- uality of Spirit, or the infinite, is unknown, and thus a knowledge of it is left either to human conjecture or to the 330:18 revelation of divine Science.

The deific definitions

II. God is what the Scriptures declare Him to be, - Life, Truth, Love. Spirit is divine Principle, and divine 330:21 Principle is Love, and Love is Mind, and Mind is not both good and bad, for God is Mind; therefore there is in reality one Mind only, be- 330:24 cause there is one God.

Evil obsolete

III. The notion that both evil and good are real is a delusion of material sense, which Science annihilates. 330:27 Evil is nothing, no thing, mind, nor power. As manifested by mankind it stands for a lie, nothing claiming to be something, - for lust, dishonesty, 330:30 selfishness, envy, hypocrisy, slander, hate, theft, adultery, murder, dementia, insanity, inanity, devil, hell, with all the etceteras that word includes.

Life the creator

331:1 IV. God is divine Life, and Life is no more confined to the forms which reflect it than substance is in its 331:3 shadow. If life were in mortal man or mate- rial things, it would be subject to their limi- tations and would end in death. Life is Mind, the creator 331:6 reflected in His creations. If He dwelt within what He creates, God would not be reflected but absorbed, and the Science of being would be forever lost through a mortal 331:9 sense, which falsely testifies to a beginning and an end.

Allness of Spirit

V. The Scriptures imply that God is All-in-all. From 331:12 this it follows that nothing possesses reality nor existence except the divine Mind and His ideas. The Scriptures also declare that God is Spirit. 331:15 Therefore in Spirit all is harmony, and there can be no discord; all is Life, and there is no death. Everything in God's universe expresses Him.

The universal cause

331:18 VI. God is individual, incorporeal. He is divine Prin- ciple, Love, the universal cause, the only creator, and there is no other self-existence. He is all- 331:21 inclusive, and is reflected by all that is real and eternal and by nothing else. He fills all space, and it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and in- 331:24 dividuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind. Hence all is Spirit and spiritual.

Divine trinity

VII. Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune Person 331:27 called God, - that is, the triply divine Principle, Love. They represent a trinity in unity, three in one, - the same in essence, though multi- 331:30 form in office: God the Father-Mother; Christ the spirit- ual idea of sonship; divine Science or the Holy Comforter. These three express in divine Science the threefold, essen- 332:1 tial nature of the infinite. They also indicate the divine Principle of scientific being, the intelligent relation of God 332:3 to man and the universe.

Father-Mother

VIII. Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which in- dicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation. 332:6 As the apostle expressed it in words which he quoted with approbation from a classic poet: "For we are also His offspring."

The Son of God

332:9 IX. Jesus was born of Mary. Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speak- ing to the human consciousness. The Christ 332:12 is incorporeal, spiritual, - yea, the divine image and likeness, dispelling the illusions of the senses; the Way, the Truth, and the Life, healing the sick and 332:15 casting out evils, destroying sin, disease, and death. As Paul says: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." The corporeal 332:18 man Jesus was human.

Holy Ghost or Comforter

X. Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ is the divine idea of God - the Holy Ghost, 332:21 or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth.

Christ Jesus

XI. Jesus was the son of a virgin. He was appointed 332:24 to speak God's word and to appear to mortals in such a form of humanity as they could understand as well as perceive. Mary's conception of 332:27 him was spiritual, for only purity could reflect Truth and Love, which were plainly incarnate in the good and pure Christ Jesus. He expressed the highest type of 332:30 divinity, which a fleshly form could express in that age. Into the real and ideal man the fleshly element cannot enter. Thus it is that Christ illustrates the coincidence, 333:1 or spiritual agreement, between God and man in His image.

Messiah or Christ

333:3 XII. The word /Christ/ is not properly a synonym for Jesus, though it is commonly so used. Jesus was a human name, which belonged to him in common with 333:6 other Hebrew boys and men, for it is identical with the name Joshua, the renowned Hebrew leader. On the other hand, Christ is not a name so much as the divine 333:9 title of Jesus. Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal nature. The name is synonymous with Messiah, and al- ludes to the spirituality which is taught, illustrated, and 333:12 demonstrated in the life of which Christ Jesus was the embodiment. The proper name of our Master in the Greek was Jesus the Christ; but Christ Jesus better sig- 333:15 nifies the Godlike.

The divine Principle and idea

XIII. The advent of Jesus of Nazareth marked the first century of the Christian era, but the Christ is 333:18 without beginning of years or end of days. Throughout all generations both before and after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spirit- 333:21 ual idea, - the reflection of God, - has come with some measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive Christ, Truth. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets 333:24 caught glorious glimpses of the Messiah, or Christ, which baptized these seers in the divine nature, the essence of Love. The divine image, idea, or Christ was, is, and 333:27 ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God. Jesus referred to this unity of his spiritual identity thus: "Before Abraham was, I am;" "I and my Father are 333:30 one;" "My Father is greater than I." The one Spirit includes all identities.

Spiritual oneness

XIV. By these sayings Jesus meant, not that the hu- 334:1 man Jesus was or is eternal, but that the divine idea or Christ was and is so and therefore antedated Abraham; 334:3 not that the corporeal Jesus was one with the Father, but that the spiritual idea, Christ, dwells forever in the bosom of the Father, God, from 334:6 which it illumines heaven and earth; not that the Father is greater than Spirit, which is God, but greater, infinitely greater, than the fleshly Jesus, whose earthly career was 334:9 brief.

The Son's duality

XV. The invisible Christ was imperceptible to the so-called personal senses, whereas Jesus appeared as a 334:12 bodily existence. This dual personality of the unseen and the seen, the spiritual and mate- rial, the eternal Christ and the corporeal Jesus manifest 334:15 in flesh, continued until the Master's ascension, when the human, material concept, or Jesus, disappeared, while the spiritual self, or Christ, continues to exist in 334:18 the eternal order of divine Science, taking away the sins of the world, as the Christ has always done, even before the human Jesus was incarnate to mortal eyes.

Eternity of the Christ

334:21 XVI. This was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," - slain, that is, according to the testi- mony of the corporeal senses, but undying in 334:24 the deific Mind. The Revelator represents the Son of man as saying (Revelation i. 17, 18): "I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead 334:27 [not understood]; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, [Science has explained me]." This is a mystical state- ment of the eternity of the Christ, and is also a reference 334:30 to the human sense of Jesus crucified.

Infinite Spirit

XVII. Spirit being God, there is but one Spirit, for there can be but one infinite and therefore one God. 335:1 There are neither spirits many nor gods many. There is no evil in Spirit, because God is Spirit. The theory, 335:3 that Spirit is distinct from matter but must pass through it, or into it, to be individualized, would reduce God to dependency on matter, and establish 335:6 a basis for pantheism.

The only substance

XVIII. Spirit, God, has created all in and of Him- self. Spirit never created matter. There is nothing in 335:9 Spirit out of which matter could be made, for, as the Bible declares, without the Logos, the AEon or Word of God, "was not anything made 335:12 that was made." Spirit is the only substance, the in- visible and indivisible infinite God. Things spiritual and eternal are substantial. Things material and temporal 335:15 are insubstantial.

Soul and Spirit one

XIX. Soul and Spirit being one, God and Soul are one, and this one never included in a limited mind or a 335:18 limited body. Spirit is eternal, divine. Noth- ing but Spirit, Soul, can evolve Life, for Spirit is more than all else. Because Soul is immortal, it does 335:21 not exist in mortality. Soul must be incorporeal to be Spirit, for Spirit is not finite. Only by losing the false sense of Soul can we gain the eternal unfolding of Life as 335:24 immortality brought to light.

The one divine Mind

XX. Mind is the divine Principle, Love, and can pro- duce nothing unlike the eternal Father-Mother, God. 335:27 Reality is spiritual, harmonious, immutable, immortal, divine, eternal. Nothing unspirit- ual can be real, harmonious, or eternal. Sin, sickness, 335:30 and mortality are the suppositional antipodes of Spirit, and must be contradictions of reality.

The divine Ego

XXI. The Ego is deathless and limitless, for limits 336:1 would imply and impose ignorance. Mind is the I AM, or infinity. Mind never enters the finite. Intelligence 336:3 never passes into non-intelligence, or matter. Good never enters into evil the unlimited into the limited, the eternal into the temporal, nor the im- 336:6 mortal into mortality. The divine Ego, or individuality, is reflected in all spiritual individuality from the infini- tesimal to the infinite.

The real manhood

336:9 XXII. Immortal man was and is God's image or idea, even the infinite expression of infinite Mind, and immor- tal man is coexistent and coeternal with that 336:12 Mind. He has been forever in the eternal Mind, God; but infinite Mind can never be in man, but is reflected by man. The spiritual man's consciousness 336:15 and individuality are reflections of God. They are the emanations of Him who is Life, Truth, and Love. Im- mortal man is not and never was material, but always 336:18 spiritual and eternal.

Indivisibility of the infinite

XXIII. God is indivisible. A portion of God could not enter man; neither could God's fulness be reflected 336:21 by a single man, else God would be manifestly finite, lose the deific character, and become less than God. Allness is the measure of the infinite, and 336:24 nothing less can express God.

God the parent Mind

XXIV. God, the divine Principle of man, and man in God's likeness are inseparable, harmonious, and eternal. 336:27 The Science of being furnishes the rule of per- fection, and brings immortality to light. God and man are not the same, but in the order of divine Sci- 336:30 ence, God and man coexist and are eternal. God is the parent Mind, and man is God's spiritual offspring.

Man reflects the perfect God

XXV. God is individual and personal in a scientific 337:1 sense, but not in any anthropomorphic sense. Therefore man, reflecting God, cannot lose his individuality; but as 337:3 material sensation, or a soul in the body, blind mortals do lose sight of spiritual individuality. Material personality is not realism; it is not 337:6 the reflection or likeness of Spirit, the perfect God. Sen- sualism is not bliss, but bondage. For true happiness, man must harmonize with his Principle, divine Love; the 337:9 Son must be in accord with the Father, in conformity with Christ. According to divine Science, man is in a degree as perfect as the Mind that forms him. The truth of be- 337:12 ing makes man harmonious and immortal, while error is mortal and discordant.

Purity the path to perfection

XXVI. Christian Science demonstrates that none but 337:15 the pure in heart can see God, as the gospel teaches. In proportion to his purity is man perfect; and perfection is the order of celestial 337:18 being which demonstrates Life in Christ, Life's spiritual ideal.

True idea of man

XXVII. The true idea of man, as the reflection of the 337:21 invisible God, is as incomprehensible to the limited senses as is man's infinite Principle. The visible uni- verse and material man are the poor counter- 337:24 feits of the invisible universe and spiritual man. Eternal things (verities) are God's thoughts as they exist in the spiritual realm of the real. Temporal things are the 337:27 thoughts of mortals and are the unreal, being the oppo- site of the real or the spiritual and eternal.

Truth demonstrated

XXVIII. Subject sickness, sin, and death to the rule 337:30 of health and holiness in Christian Science, and you ascertain that this Science is demon- strably true, for it heals the sick and sinning as no 338:1 other system can. Christian Science, rightly under- stood, leads to eternal harmony. It brings to light the 338:3 only living and true God and man as made in His like- ness; whereas the opposite belief - that man originates in matter and has beginning and end, that he is both 338:6 soul and body, both good and evil, both spiritual and material - terminates in discord and mortality, in the error which must be destroyed by Truth. The mortality 338:9 of material man proves that error has been ingrafted into the premises and conclusions of material and mortal humanity.

Adam not ideal man

338:12 XXIX. The word /Adam /is from the Hebrew /adamah/, signifying the /red color of the ground, dust, nothingness/. Divide the name Adam into two syllables, 338:15 and it reads, /a dam/, or obstruction. This suggests the thought of something fluid, of mortal mind in solution. It further suggests the thought of that 338:18 " darkness . . . upon the face of the deep," when mat- ter or dust was deemed the agent of Deity in creating man, - when matter, as that which is accursed, stood 338:21 opposed to Spirit. Here /a dam/ is not a mere play upon words; it stands for obstruction, error, even the sup- posed separation of man from God, and the obstacle 338:24 which the serpent, sin, would impose between man and his creator. The dissection and definition of words, aside from their metaphysical derivation, is not scien- 338:27 tific. Jehovah declared the ground was accursed; and from this ground, or matter, sprang Adam, notwith- standing God had blessed the earth "for man's sake." 338:30 From this it follows that Adam was not the ideal man for whom the earth was blessed. The ideal man was revealed in due time, and was known as Christ Jesus.

Divine pardon

339:1 XXX. The destruction of sin is the divine method of pardon. Divine Life destroys death, Truth destroys 339:3 error, and Love destroys hate. Being de- stroyed, sin needs no other form of forgiveness. Does not God's pardon, destroying any one sin, prophesy 339:6 and involve the final destruction of all sin?

Evil not produced by God

XXXI. Since God is All, there is no room for His unlikeness. God, Spirit, alone created all, and called it 339:9 good. Therefore evil, being contrary to good, is unreal, and cannot be the product of God. A sinner can receive no encouragement from the fact that 339:12 Science demonstrates the unreality of evil, for the sinner would make a reality of sin, - would make that real which is unreal, and thus heap up "wrath against the 339:15 day of wrath." He is joining in a conspiracy against himself, - against his own awakening to the awful un- reality by which he has been deceived. Only those, who 339:18 repent of sin and forsake the unreal, can fully understand the unreality of evil.

Basis of health and immortality

XXXII. As the mythology of pagan Rome has yielded 339:21 to a more spiritual idea of Deity, so will our material theories yield to spiritual ideas, until the finite gives place to the infinite, sickness to health, 339:24 sin to holiness, and God's kingdom comes "in earth, as it is in heaven." The basis of all health, sin- lessness, and immortality is the great fact that God is 339:27 the only Mind; and this Mind must be not merely be- lieved, but it must be understood. To get rid of sin through Science, is to divest sin of any supposed mind 339:30 or reality, and never to admit that sin can have intelli- gence or power, pain or pleasure. You conquer error by denying its verity. Our various theories will never lose 340:1 their imaginary power for good or evil, until we lose our faith in them and make life its own proof of harmony 340:3 and God.

This text in the book of Ecclesiastes conveys the Christian Science thought, especially when the word 340:6 /duty/, which is not in the original, is omitted: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole 340:9 duty of man." In other words: Let us hear the con- clusion of the whole matter: love God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole of man in His 340:12 image and likeness. Divine Love is infinite. Therefore all that really exists is in and of God, and manifests His love.

340:15 "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus xx. 3.) The First Commandment is my favorite text. It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the tri- 340:18 unity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and that all men shall have one Mind. The divine Principle 340:21 of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal. One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; con- 340:24 stitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, - whatever is wrong in 340:27 social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.