Chapter X · - SCIENCE OF BEING

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life, . . . That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. - JOHN, First Epistle.

Here I stand. I can do no otherwise; so help me God! Amen! - MARTIN LUTHER.

Materialistic challenge

268:1 In the material world, thought has brought to light with great rapidity many useful wonders. With 268:3 like activity have thought's swift pinions been rising towards the realm of the real, to the spiritual cause of those lower things which give im- 268:6 pulse to inquiry. Belief in a material basis, from which may be deduced all rationality, is slowly yielding to the idea of a metaphysical basis, looking away from 268:9 matter to Mind as the cause of every effect. Material- istic hypotheses challenge metaphysics to meet in final combat. In this revolutionary period, like the shep- 268:12 herd-boy with his sling, woman goes forth to battle with Goliath.

Confusion confounded

In this final struggle for supremacy, semi-metaphysi- 268:15 cal systems afford no substantial aid to scientific meta- physics, for their arguments are based on the false testimony of the material senses as 268:18 well as on the facts of Mind. These semi-metaphysical 269:1 systems are one and all pantheistic, and savor of Pan- demonium, a house divided against itself.

269:3 From first to last the supposed coexistence of Mind and matter and the mingling of good and evil have re- sulted from the philosophy of the serpent. Jesus' demon- 269:6 strations sift the chaff from the wheat, and unfold the unity and the reality of good, the unreality, the nothing- ness, of evil.

Divine metaphysics

269:9 Human philosophy has made God manlike. Christian Science makes man Godlike. The first is error; the latter is truth. Metaphysics is above physics, and 269:12 matter does not enter into metaphysical prem- ises or conclusions. The categories of metaphysics rest on one basis, the divine Mind. Metaphysics resolves 269:15 things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul.

These ideas are perfectly real and tangible to spiritual 269:18 consciousness, and they have this, advantage over the ob- jects and thoughts of material sense, - they are good and eternal.

Biblical foundations

269:21 The testimony of the material senses is neither abso- lute nor divine. I therefore plant myself unreservedly on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of 269:24 the prophets, and on the testimony of the Science of Mind. Other foundations there are none. All other systems - systems based wholly or partly on 269:27 knowledge gained through the material senses - are reeds shaken by the wind, not houses built on the rock.

Rejected theories

The theories I combat are these: (1) that all is matter; 269:30 (2) that matter originates in Mind, and is as real as Mind, possessing intelligence and life. The first theory, that matter is everything, is quite as 270:1 reasonable as the second, that Mind and matter coexist and cooperate. One only of the following statements can 270:3 be true: (1) that everything is matter; (2) that every- thing is Mind. Which one is it?

Matter and Mind are opposites. One is contrary to 270:6 the other in its very nature and essence; hence both can- not be real. If one is real, the other must be unreal. Only by understanding that there is but one power, - not two 270:9 powers, matter and Mind, - are scientific and logical conclusions reached. Few deny the hypothesis that in- telligence, apart from man and matter, governs the uni- 270:12 verse; and it is generally admitted that this intelligence is the eternal Mind or divine principle, Love.

Prophetic ignorance

The prophets of old looked for something higher than 270:15 the systems of their times; hence their fore- sight of the new dispensation of Truth. But they knew not what would be the precise nature of the 270:18 teaching and demonstration of God, divine Mind, in His more infinite meanings, - the demonstration which was to destroy sin, sickness, and death, establish the definition 270:21 of omnipotence, and maintain the Science of Spirit.

The pride of priesthood is the prince of this world. It has nothing in Christ. Meekness and charity have divine 270:24 authority. Mortals think wickedly; consequently they are wicked. They think sickly thoughts, and so become sick. If sin makes sinners, Truth and Love alone can 270:27 unmake them. If a sense of disease produces suffering and a sense of ease antidotes suffering, disease is mental, not material. Hence the fact that the human mind alone 270:30 suffers, is sick, and that the divine Mind alone heals.

The life of Christ Jesus was not miraculous, but it was indigenous to his spirituality, - the good soil wherein the 271:1 seed of Truth springs up and bears much fruit. Christ's Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing 271:3 in all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with the Scriptures and uniting all periods in the design of God. Neither emasculation, illusion, nor insubordination 271:6 exists in divine Science.

Jesus instructed his disciples whereby to heal the sick through Mind instead of matter. He knew that the phi- 271:9 losophy, Science, and proof of Christianity were in Truth, casting out all inharmony.

Studious disciples

In Latin the word rendered /disciple/ signifies student; 271:12 and the word indicates that the power of healing was not a supernatural gift to those learners, but the result of their cultivated spiritual understand- 271:15 ing of the divine Science, which their Master demonstrated by healing the sick and sinning. Hence the universal ap- plication of his saying: "Neither pray I for these alone, 271:18 but for them also which shall believe on me [understand me] through their word."

New Testament basis

Our Master said, "But the Comforter . . . shall 271:21 teach you all things." When the Science of Christianity appears, it will lead you into all truth. The Sermon on the Mount is the essence of this 271:24 Science, and the eternal life, not the death of Jesus, is its outcome.

Modern evangel

Those, who are willing to leave their nets or to cast 271:27 them on the right side for Truth, have the opportunity now, as aforetime, to learn and to practise Christian healing. The Scriptures contain it. 271:30 The spiritual import of the Word imparts this power. But, as Paul says, "How shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be 272:1 sent?" If sent, how shall they preach, convert, and heal multitudes, except the people hear?

Spirituality of Scripture

272:3 The spiritual sense of truth must be gained before Truth can be understood. This sense is assimilated only as we are honest, unselfish, loving, and meek. 272:6 In the soil of an "honest and good heart" the seed must be sown; else it beareth not much fruit, for the swinish element in human nature uproots it. Jesus said: 272:9 "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures." The spiritual sense of the Scriptures brings out the scientific sense, and is the new tongue referred to in the last chapter of Mark's 272:12 Gospel.

Jesus' parable of "the sower" shows the care our Master took not to impart to dull ears and gross hearts 272:15 the spiritual teachings which dulness and grossness could not accept. Reading the thoughts of the people, he said: "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast 272:18 ye your pearls before swine."

Unspiritual contrasts

It is the spiritualization of thought and Christianization of daily life, in contrast with the results of the ghastly farce 272:21 of material existence; it is chastity and purity, in contrast with the downward tendencies and earthward gravitation of sensualism and impurity, 272:24 which really attest the divine origin and operation of Chris- tian Science. The triumphs of Christian Science are re- corded in the destruction of error and evil, from which are 272:27 propagated the dismal beliefs of sin, sickness, and death.

God the Principle of all

The divine Principle of the universe must interpret the universe. God is the divine Principle of all that repre- 272:30 sents Him and of all that really exists. Chris- tian Science, as demonstrated by Jesus, alone reveals the natural, divine Principle of Science.

273:1 Matter and its claims of sin, sickness, and death are contrary to God, and cannot emanate from Him. There 273:3 is no /material/ truth. The physical senses can take no cognizance of God and spiritual Truth. Human belief has sought out many inventions, but not one of them 273:6 can solve the problem of being without the divine Prin- ciple of divine Science. Deductions from material hy- potheses are not scientific. They differ from real Science 273:9 because they are not based on the divine law.

Science /versus/ sense

Divine Science reverses the false testimony of the ma- terial senses, and thus tears away the foun- 273:12 dations of error. Hence the enmity between Science and the senses, and the impossibility of attaining perfect understanding till the errors of sense 273:15 are eliminated.

The so-called laws of matter and of medical science have never made mortals whole, harmonious, and immortal. 273:18 Man is harmonious when governed by Soul. Hence the importance of understanding the truth of being, which reveals the laws of spiritual existence.

Spiritual law the only law

273:21 God never ordained a material law to annul the spiritual law. If there were such a material law, it would oppose the supremacy of Spirit, God, and impugn the 273:24 wisdom of the creator. Jesus walked on the waves, fed the multitude, healed the sick, and raised the dead in direct opposition to material laws. His acts were 273:27 the demonstration of Science, overcoming the false claims of material sense or law.

Material knowledge illusive

Science shows that material, conflicting mortal opin- 273:30 ions and beliefs emit the effects of error at all times, but this atmosphere of mortal mind cannot be destructive to morals and health when it is opposed promptly and per- 274:1 sistently by Christian Science. Truth and Love antidote this mental miasma, and thus invigorate and sustain ex- 274:3 istence. Unnecessary knowledge gained from the five senses is only temporal, - the concep- tion of mortal mind, the offspring of sense, not 274:6 of Soul, Spirit, - and symbolizes all that is evil and perishable. /Natural science/, as it is commonly called, is not really natural nor scientific, because it is deduced from 274:9 the evidence of the material senses. Ideas, on the con- trary, are born of Spirit, and are not mere inferences drawn from material premises.

Five senses deceptive

274:12 The senses of Spirit abide in Love, and they demon- strate Truth and Life. Hence Christianity and the Sci- ence which expounds it are based on spiritual 274:15 understanding, and they supersede the so- called laws of matter. Jesus demonstrated this great verity. When what we erroneously term the five physical 274:18 senses are misdirected, they are simply the manifested beliefs of mortal mind, which affirm that life, substance, and intelligence are material, instead of spiritual. These 274:21 false beliefs and their products constitute the flesh, and the flesh wars against Spirit.

Impossible partnership

Divine Science is absolute, and permits no half-way 274:24 position in learning its Principle and rule - establishing it by demonstration. The conventional firm, called matter and mind, God never formed. 274:27 Science and understanding, governed by the unerring and eternal Mind, destroy the imaginary copartnership, matter and mind, formed only to be destroyed in a manner and 274:30 at a period as yet unknown. This suppositional partner- ship is already obsolete, for matter, examined in the light of divine metaphysics, disappears.

Spirit the starting-point

275:1 Matter has no life to lose, and Spirit never dies. A partnership of mind with matter would ignore omnipres- 275:3 ent and omnipotent Mind. This shows that matter did not originate in God, Spirit, and is not eternal. Therefore matter is neither substantial, living, 275:6 nor intelligent. The starting-point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other might nor Mind, - that God is Love, and therefore He 275:9 is divine Principle.

Divine synonyms

To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle 275:12 of all that really is. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, combine as one, - and are the Scriptural names for God. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, im- 275:15 mortality, cause, and effect belong to God. These are His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite divine Principle, Love. No wisdom is wise but His 275:18 wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows.

The divine completeness

Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understand- 275:21 ing, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is God, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, - that is, all power, all presence, all Science. 275:24 Hence all is in reality the manifestation of Mind.

Our material human theories are destitute of Science. The true understanding of God is spiritual. It robs the 275:27 grave of victory. It destroys the false evidence that mis- leads thought and points to other gods, or other so-called powers, such as matter, disease, sin, and death, superior 275:30 or contrary to the one Spirit.

Truth, spiritually discerned, is scientifically understood. It casts out error and heals the sick.

Universal brotherhood

276:1 Having one God, one Mind, unfolds the power that heals the sick, and fulfils these sayings of Scripture, "I 276:3 am the Lord that healeth thee," and "I have found a ransom." When the divine precepts are understood, they unfold the foundation of fellowship, 276:6 in which one mind is not at war with another, but all have one Spirit, God, one intelligent source, in accordance with the Scriptural command: "Let this Mind be in you, 276:9 which was also in Christ Jesus." Man and his Maker are correlated in divine Science, and real consciousness is cognizant only of the things of God.

276:12 The realization that all inharmony is unreal brings objects and thoughts into human view in their true light, and presents them as beautiful and immortal. Harmony 276:15 in man is as real and immortal as in music. Discord is unreal and mortal.

Perfection requisite

If God is admitted to be the only Mind and Life, 276:18 there ceases to be any opportunity for sin and death. When we learn in Science how to be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect, 276:21 thought is turned into new and healthy channels, - towards the contemplation of things immortal and away from materiality to the Principle of the universe, includ- 276:24 ing harmonious man.

Material beliefs and spiritual understanding never mingle. The latter destroys the former. Discord is the 276:27 /nothingness/ named error. Harmony is the /somethingness/ named Truth.

Like evolving like

Nature and revelation inform us that like produces 276:30 like. Divine Science does not gather grapes from thorns nor figs from thistles. Intelli- gence never produces non-intelligence; but matter is 277:1 ever non-intelligent and therefore cannot spring from intelligence. To all that is unlike unerring and eternal 277:3 Mind, this Mind saith, "Thou shalt surely die;" and else- where the Scripture says that dust returns to dust. The non-intelligent relapses into its own unreality. Matter 277:6 never produces mind. The immortal never produces the mortal. Good cannot result in evil. As God Himself is good and is Spirit, goodness and spirituality must be im- 277:9 mortal. Their opposites, evil and matter, are mortal error, and error has no creator. If goodness and spirit- uality are real, evil and materiality are unreal and can- 277:12 not be the outcome of an infinite God, good.

Natural history presents vegetables and animals as preserving their original species, - like reproducing like. 277:15 A mineral is not produced by a vegetable nor the man by the brute. In reproduction, the order of genus and species is preserved throughout the entire round of nature. 277:18 This points to the spiritual truth and Science of being. Error relies upon a reversal of this order, asserts that Spirit produces matter and matter produces all the ills 277:21 of flesh, and therefore that good is the origin of evil. These suppositions contradict even the order of material so-called science.

Material error

277:24 The realm of the real is Spirit. The unlikeness of Spirit is matter, and the opposite of the real is not divine, - it is a human concept. Matter is an error of state- 277:27 ment. This error in the premise leads to errors in the conclusion in every statement into which it enters. Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is immor- 277:30 tal, for matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phe- nomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always erroneous.

Substance /versus/ supposition

278:1 Is Spirit the source or creator of matter? Science re- veals nothing in Spirit out of which to create matter. 278:3 Divine metaphysics explains away matter. Spirit is the only substance and consciousness recognized by divine Science. The material 278:6 senses oppose this, but there are no material senses, for matter has no mind. In Spirit there is no matter, even as in Truth there is no error, and in good no evil. It is 278:9 a false supposition, the notion that there is real substance- matter, the opposite of Spirit. Spirit, God, is infinite, all. Spirit can have no opposite.

One cause supreme

278:12 That matter is substantial or has life and sensation, is one of the false beliefs of mortals, and exists only in a supposititious mortal consciousness. Hence, 278:15 as we approach Spirit and Truth, we lose the consciousness of matter. The admission that there can be material substance requires another admission, - 278:18 namely, that Spirit is not infinite and that matter is self- creative, self-existent, and eternal. From this it would follow that there are two eternal causes, warring forever 278:21 with each other; and yet we say that Spirit is supreme and all-presence.

The belief of the eternity of matter contradicts the 278:24 demonstration of life as Spirit, and leads to the conclu- sion that if man is material, he originated in matter and must return to dust, - logic which would prove his an- 278:27 nihilation.

Substance is Spirit

All that we term sin, sickness, and death is a mortal belief. We define matter as error, because it is the oppo- 278:30 site of life, substance, and intelligence. Mat- ter, with its mortality, cannot be substantial if Spirit is substantial and eternal. Which ought to 279:1 be substance to us, - the erring, changing, and dying, the mutable and mortal, or the unerring, immutable, 279:3 and immortal? A New Testament writer plainly de- scribes faith, a quality of mind, as "the /substance/ of things hoped for."

Material mortality

279:6 The doom of matter establishes the conclusion that matter, slime, or protoplasm never originated in the immortal Mind, and is therefore not 279:9 eternal. Matter is neither created by Mind nor for the manifestation and support of Mind.

Spiritual tangibility

Ideas are tangible and real to immortal consciousness, 279:12 and they have the advantage of being eternal. Spirit and matter can neither coexist nor co- operate, and one can no more create the other than 279:15 Truth can create error, or /vice versa/.

In proportion as the belief disappears that life and in- telligence are in or of matter, the immortal facts of 279:18 being are seen, and their only idea or intelligence is in God. Spirit is reached only through the understand- ing and demonstration of eternal Life and Truth and 279:21 Love.

Pantheistic tendencies

Every system of human philosophy, doctrine, and medicine is more or less infected with the pantheistic 279:24 belief that there is mind in matter; but this belief contradicts alike revelation and right reasoning. A logical and scientific conclusion is reached 279:27 only through the knowledge that there are not two bases of being, matter and mind, but one alone, - Mind.

279:30 Pantheism, starting from a material sense of God, seeks cause in effect, Principle in its idea, and life and intelligence in matter.

The things of God are beautiful

280:1 In the infinitude of Mind, matter must be unknown. Symbols and elements of discord and decay are not prod- 280:3 ucts of the infinite, perfect, and eternal /All/. From Love and from the light and harmony which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections 280:6 of good can come. All things beautiful and harmless are ideas of Mind. Mind creates and multiplies them, and the product must be mental.

280:9 Finite belief can never do justice to Truth in any direc- tion. Finite belief limits all things, and would compress Mind, which is infinite, beneath a skull bone. Such be- 280:12 lief can neither apprehend nor worship the infinite; and to accommodate its finite sense of the divisibility of Soul and substance, it seeks to divide the one Spirit into per- 280:15 sons and souls.

Belief in many gods

Through this error, human belief comes to have "gods many and lords many." Moses declared as Jehovah's 280:18 first command of the Ten: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me!" But behold the zeal of belief to establish the opposite error of many 280:21 minds. The argument of the serpent in the allegory, "Ye shall be as gods," urges through every avenue the belief that Soul is in body, and that infinite Spirit, and Life, is 280:24 in finite forms.

Sensationless body

Rightly understood, instead of possessing a sentient material form, man has a sensationless body; and God, 280:27 the Soul of man and of all existence, being perpetual in His own individuality, harmony, and immortality, imparts and perpetuates these qualities 280:30 in man, - through Mind, not matter. The only excuse for entertaining human opinions and rejecting the Science of being is our mortal ignorance of Spirit, - ignorance 281:1 which yields only to the understanding of divine Science, the understanding by which we enter into the kingdom 281:3 of Truth on earth and learn that Spirit is infinite and supreme. Spirit and matter no more commingle than light and darkness. When one appears, the other dis- 281:6 appears.

God and His image

Error presupposes man to be both mind and matter. Divine Science contradicts the corporeal senses, rebukes 281:9 mortal belief, and asks: What is the Ego, whence its origin and what its destiny? The Ego-man is the reflection of the Ego-God; the Ego-man 281:12 is the image and likeness of perfect Mind, Spirit, divine Principle.

The one Ego, the one Mind or Spirit called God, is 281:15 infinite individuality, which supplies all form and come- liness and which reflects reality and divinity in individual spiritual man and things.

281:18 The mind supposed to exist in matter or beneath a skull bone is a myth, a misconceived sense and false conception as to man and Mind. When we put off the 281:21 false sense for the true, and see that sin and mortality have neither Principle nor permanency, we shall learn that sin and mortality are without actual origin or right- 281:24 ful existence. They are native nothingness, out of which error would simulate creation through a man formed from dust.

The true new idea

281:27 Divine Science does not put new wine into old bottles, Soul into matter, nor the infinite into the finite. Our false views of matter perish as we grasp 281:30 the facts of Spirit. The old belief must be cast out or the new idea will be spilled, and the in- spiration, which is to change our standpoint, will be 282:1 lost. Now, as of old, Truth casts out evils and heals the sick.

Figures of being

282:3 The real Life, or Mind, and its opposite, the so-called material life and mind, are figured by two geometrical symbols, a circle or sphere and a straight 282:6 line. The circle represents the infinite with- out beginning or end; the straight line represents the finite, which has both beginning and end. The sphere 282:9 represents good, the self-existent and eternal individuality or Mind; the straight line represents evil, a belief in a self-made and temporary material existence. Eternal 282:12 Mind and temporary material existence never unite in figure or in fact.

Opposite symbols

A straight line finds no abiding-place in a curve, and a 282:15 curve finds no adjustment to a straight line. Similarly, matter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has no place in matter. Truth has no home in 282:18 error, and error has no foothold in Truth. Mind cannot pass into non-intelligence and matter, nor can non-intel- ligence become Soul. At no point can these opposites 282:21 mingle or unite. Even though they seem to touch, one is still a curve and the other a straight line.

There is no inherent power in matter; for all that is 282:24 material is a material, human, mortal thought, always governing itself erroneously.

Truth is the intelligence of immortal Mind. Error is 282:27 the so-called intelligence of mortal mind.

Truth is not inverted

Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of God or God's absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither 282:30 Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the Father. The rule of inversion infers from error its opposite, Truth; but Truth is the light which 283:1 dispels error. As mortals begin to understand Spirit, they give up the belief that there is any true existence 283:3 apart from God.

Source of all life and action

Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious 283:6 action. Mind is the same Life, Love, and wis- dom "yesterday, and to-day, and forever." Matter and its effects - sin, sickness, and 283:9 death - are states of mortal mind which act, react, and then come to a stop. They are not facts of Mind. They are not ideas, but illusions. Principle is absolute. It 283:12 admits of no error, but rests upon understanding.

But what say prevalent theories? They insist that Life, or God, is one and the same with material life so- 283:15 called. They speak of both Truth and error as /mind/, and of good and evil as /spirit/. They claim that to be life which is but the objective state of material sense, - 283:18 such as the structural life of the tree and of material man, - and deem this the manifestation of the one Life, God.

Spiritual structure

283:21 This false belief as to what really constitutes life so detracts from God's character and nature, that the true sense of His power is lost to all who cling to 283:24 this falsity. The divine Principle, or Life, can- not be practically demonstrated in length of days, as it was by the patriarchs, unless its Science be accurately 283:27 stated. We must receive the divine Principle in the under- standing, and live it in daily life; and unless we so do, we can no more demonstrate Science, than we can teach and 283:30 illustrate geometry by calling a curve a straight line or a straight line a sphere.

Are mentality, immortality, consciousness, resident in 284:1 matter? It is not rational to say that Mind is infinite, but dwells in finiteness, - in matter, - or that matter is 284:3 infinite and the medium of Mind.

Mind never limited

If God were limited to man or matter, or if the infinite could be circumscribed within the finite, God would be 284:6 corporeal, and unlimited Mind would seem to spring from a limited body; but this is an impossibility. Infinite Mind can have no starting-point, 284:9 and can return to no limit. It can never be in bonds, nor be fully manifested through corporeality.

Material recognition impossible

Is God's image or likeness matter, or a mortal, sin, 284:12 sickness, and death? Can matter recognize Mind? Can infinite Mind recognize matter? Can the infinite dwell in the finite or know aught un- 284:15 like the infinite? Can Deity be known through the material senses? Can the material senses, which re- ceive no direct evidence of Spirit, give correct testimony 284:18 as to spiritual life, truth, and love?

The answer to all these questions must forever be in the negative.

Our physical insensibility to Spirit

284:21 The physical senses can obtain no proof of God. They can neither see Spirit through the eye nor hear it through the ear, nor can they feel, taste, or smell Spirit. 284:24 Even the more subtile and misnamed ma- terial elements are beyond the cognizance of these senses, and are known only by the effects com- 284:27 monly attributed to them.

According to Christian Science, the only real senses of man are spiritual, emanating from divine Mind. 284:30 Thought passes from God to man, but neither sensation nor report goes from material body to Mind. The in- tercommunication is always from God to His idea, man. 285:1 Matter is not sentient and cannot be cognizant of good or of evil, of pleasure or of pain. Man's individu- 285:3 ality is not material. This Science of being obtains not alone hereafter in what men call Paradise, but here and now; it is the great fact of being for time and 285:6 eternity.

The human counterfeit

What, then, is the material personality which suffers, sins, and dies? It is not man, the image and likeness 285:9 of God, but man's counterfeit, the inverted likeness, the /unlikeness/ called sin, sickness, and death. The unreality of the claim that a mortal is 285:12 the true image of God is illustrated by the opposite na- tures of Spirit and matter, Mind and body, for one is intelligence while the other is non-intelligence.

Material misconceptions

285:15 Is God a physical personality? Spirit is not physical. The belief that a material body is man is a false con- ception of man. The time has come for a 285:18 finite conception of the infinite and of a ma- terial body as the seat of Mind to give place to a diviner sense of intelligence and its manifestations, 285:21 to the better understanding that Science gives of the Supreme Being, or divine Principle, and idea.

Salvation is through reform

By interpreting God as a corporeal Saviour but not as 285:24 the saving Principle, or divine Love, we shall continue to seek salvation through pardon and not through reform, and resort to matter instead 285:27 of Spirit for the cure of the sick. As mortals reach, through knowledge of Christian Science, a higher sense, they will seek to learn, not from matter, but from 285:30 the divine Principle, God, how to demonstrate the Christ, Truth, as the healing and saving power.

It is essential to understand, instead of believe, what 286:1 relates most nearly to the happiness of being. To seek Truth through belief in a human doctrine is not to un- 286:3 derstand the infinite. We must not seek the immutable and immortal through the finite, mutable, and mortal, and so depend upon belief instead of demonstration, for 286:6 this is fatal to a knowledge of Science. The understand- ing of Truth gives full faith in Truth, and spiritual un- derstanding is better than all burnt offerings.

286:9 The Master said, "No man cometh unto the Father [the divine Principle of being] but by me," Christ, Life, Truth, Love; for Christ says, "I am the way." 286:12 Physical causation was put aside from first to last by this original man, Jesus. He knew that the divine. Principle, Love, creates and governs all that 286:15 is real.

Goodness a portion of God

In the Saxon and twenty other tongues /good/ is the term for God. The Scriptures declare all that He 286:18 made to be good, like Himself, - good in Principle and in idea. Therefore the spiritual universe is good, and reflects God as He is.

Spiritual thoughts

286:21 God's thoughts are perfect and eternal, are substance and Life. Material and temporal thoughts are human, involving error, and since God, Spirit, is the 286:24 only cause, they lack a divine cause. The temporal and material are not then creations of Spirit. They are but counterfeits of the spiritual and eternal. 286:27 Transitory thoughts are the antipodes of everlasting Truth, though (by the supposition of opposite qualities) error must also say, "I am true." But by this saying 286:30 error, the lie, destroys itself.

Sin, sickness, and death are comprised in human ma- terial belief, and belong not to the divine Mind. They 287:1 are without a real origin or existence. They have neither Principle nor permanence, but belong, with all that is 287:3 material and temporal, to the nothingness of error, which simulates the creations of Truth. All creations of Spirit are eternal; but creations of matter must return to dust. 287:6 Error supposes man to be both mental and material. Divine Science contradicts this postulate and maintains man's spiritual identity.

Divine allness

287:9 We call the absence of Truth, /error/. Truth and error are unlike. In Science, Truth is divine, and the /infinite/ God can have no unlikeness. Did God, Truth, 287:12 create error? No! "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?" God being everywhere and all-inclusive, how can He be absent 287:15 or suggest the absence of omnipresence and omnipotence? How can there be more than /all/?

Neither understanding nor truth accompanies error, 287:18 nor is error the offshoot of Mind. Evil calls itself some- thing, when it is nothing. It saith, "I am man, but I am not the image and likeness of God;" whereas the Scrip- 287:21 tures declare that man was made in God's likeness.

Error unveiled

Error is false, mortal belief; it is illusion, without spir- itual identity or foundation, and it has no real existence. 287:24 The supposition that life, substance, and in- telligence are /in/ matter, or /of/ it, is an error. Matter is neither a thing nor a person, but merely the 287:27 objective supposition of Spirit's opposite. The five mate- rial senses testify to truth and error as united in a mind both good and evil. Their false evidence will finally 287:30 yield to Truth, - to the recognition of Spirit and of the spiritual creation.

Truth cannot be contaminated by error. The state- 288:1 ment that /Truth is real/ necessarily includes the correlated statement, that /error, Truth's unlikeness, is unreal/.

The great conflict

288:3 The suppositional warfare between truth and error is only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spir- itual senses and the testimony of the material 288:6 senses, and this warfare between the Spirit and flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the un- derstanding of divine Love. 288:9 Superstition and understanding can never combine. When the final physical and moral effects of Christian Science are fully apprehended, the conflict between truth 288:12 and error, understanding and belief, Science and material sense, foreshadowed by the prophets and inaugurated by Jesus, will cease, and spiritual harmony reign. The 288:15 lightnings and thunderbolts of error may burst and flash till the cloud is cleared and the tumult dies away in the distance. Then the raindrops of divinity refresh the 288:18 earth. As St. Paul says: "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (of Spirit).

The chief stones in the temple

The chief stones in the temple of Christian Science are 288:21 to be found in the following postulates: that Life is God, good, and not evil; that Soul is sinless, not to be found in the body; that Spirit is not, and 288:24 cannot be, materialized; that Life is not subject to death; that the spiritual real man has no birth, no ma- terial life, and no death.

The Christ-element

288:27 Science reveals the glorious possibilities of immortal man, forever unlimited by the mortal senses. The Christ-element in the Messiah made him 288:30 the Way-shower, Truth and Life.

The eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem to have learned from error, and man's real existence as a child 289:1 of God comes to light. Truth demonstrated is eternal life. Mortal man can never rise from the temporal /debris/ 289:3 of error, belief in sin, sickness, and death, until he learns that God is the only Life. The belief that life and sensa- tion are in the body should be overcome by the under- 289:6 standing of what constitutes man as the image of God. Then Spirit will have overcome the flesh.

Wickedness is not man

A wicked mortal is not the idea of God. He is little 289:9 else than the expression of error. To suppose that sin, lust, hatred, envy, hypocrisy, revenge, have life abiding in them, is a terrible mistake. Life 289:12 and life's idea, Truth and Truth's idea, never make men sick, sinful, or mortal.

Death but an illusion

The fact that the Christ, or Truth, overcame and still 289:15 overcomes death proves the "king of terrors" to be but a mortal belief, or error, which Truth destroys with the spiritual evidences of Life; and this 289:18 shows that what appears to the senses to be death is but a mortal illusion, for to the real man and the real universe there is no death-process.

289:21 The belief that matter has life results, by the universal law of mortal mind, in a belief in death. So man, tree, and flower are supposed to die; but the fact remains, 289:24 that God's universe is spiritual and immortal.

Spiritual offspring

The spiritual fact and the material belief of things are contradictions; but the spiritual is true, and therefore the 289:27 material must be untrue. Life is not in matter. Therefore it cannot be said to pass out of mat- ter. Matter and death are mortal illusions. Spirit and 289:30 all things spiritual are the real and eternal.

Man is not the offspring of flesh, but of Spirit, - of Life, not of matter. Because Life is God, Life must be 290:1 eternal, self-existent. Life is the everlasting I AM, the Be- ing who was and is and shall be, whom nothing can erase.

Death no advantage

290:3 If the Principle, rule, and demonstration of man's being are not in the least understood before what is termed death overtakes mortals, they will rise no higher spir- 290:6 itually in the scale of existence on account of that single experience, but will remain as material as be- fore the transition, still seeking happiness through a ma- 290:9 terial, instead of through a spiritual sense of life, and from selfish and inferior motives. That Life or Mind is finite and physical or is manifested through brain and nerves, 290:12 is false. Hence Truth comes to destroy this error and its effects, - sickness, sin, and death. To the spiritual class, relates the Scripture: "On such the second death 290:15 hath no power."

Future purification

If the change called /death/ destroyed the belief in sin, sickness, and death, happiness would be won at the mo- 290:18 ment of dissolution, and be forever permanent; but this is not so. Perfection is gained only by perfection. They who are unrighteous shall be un- 290:21 righteous still, until in divine Science Christ, Truth, re- moves all ignorance and sin.

Sin is punished

The sin and error which possess us at the instant of 290:24 death do not cease at that moment, but endure until the death of these errors. To be wholly spiritual, man must be sinless, and he becomes thus only 290:27 when he reaches perfection. The murderer, though slain in the act, does not thereby forsake sin. He is no more spiritual for believing that his body died and learning that 290:30 his cruel mind died not. His thoughts are no purer until evil is disarmed by good. His body is as material as his mind, and /vice versa/.

291:1 The suppositions that sin is pardoned while unfor- saken, that happiness can be genuine in the midst of 291:3 sin, that the so-called death of the body frees from sin, and that God's pardon is aught but the destruction of sin, - these are grave mistakes. We know that all will 291:6 be changed "in the twinkling of an eye," when the last trump shall sound; but this last call of wisdom cannot come till mortals have already yielded to each lesser call 291:9 in the growth of Christian character. Mortals need not fancy that belief in the experience of death will awaken them to glorified being.

Salvation and probation

291:12 Universal salvation rests on progression and probation, and is unattainable without them. Heaven is not a local- ity, but a divine state of Mind in which all the 291:15 manifestations of Mind are harmonious and immortal, because sin is not there and man is found having no righteousness of his own, but in posses- 291:18 sion of "the mind of the Lord," as the Scripture says.

"In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be." So we read in Ecclesiastes. This text has been 291:21 transformed into the popular proverb, "As the tree falls, so it must lie." As man falleth asleep, so shall he awake. As death findeth mortal man, so shall he be 291:24 after death, until probation and growth shall effect the needed change. Mind never becomes dust. No resur- rection from the grave awaits Mind or Life, for the grave 291:27 has no power over either.

Day of judgment

No final judgment awaits mortals, for the judgment- day of wisdom comes hourly and continually, 291:30 even the judgment by which mortal man is di- vested of all material error. As for spiritual error there is none.

292:1 When the last mortal fault is destroyed, then the final trump will sound which will end the battle of Truth with 292:3 error and mortality; "but of that day and hour, knoweth no man." Here prophecy pauses. Divine Science alone can compass the heights and depths of being and reveal 292:6 the infinite.

Primitive error

Truth will be to us "the resurrection and the life" only as it destroys all error and the belief that Mind, the only 292:9 immortality of man, can be fettered by the body, and Life be controlled by death. A sin- ful, sick, and dying mortal is not the likeness of God, the 292:12 perfect and eternal.

Matter is the primitive belief of mortal mind, because this so-called mind has no cognizance of Spirit. To 292:15 mortal mind, matter is substantial, and evil is real. The so-called senses of mortals are material. Hence the so-called life of mortals is dependent on 292:18 matter.

Explaining the origin of material man and mortal mind, Jesus said: "Why do ye not understand my speech? 292:21 Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father, the devil [evil], and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode 292:24 not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."

Immortal man

292:27 This carnal material mentality, misnamed /mind/, is mortal. Therefore man would be annihilated, were it not for the spiritual real man's indissoluble 292:30 connection with his God, which Jesus brought to light. In his resurrection and ascension, Jesus showed that a mortal man is not the real essence of manhood, and 293:1 that this unreal material mortality disappears in presence of the reality.

Elementary electricity

293:3 Electricity is not a vital fluid, but the least material form of illusive consciousness, - the material mindless- ness, which forms no link between matter and 293:6 Mind, and which destroys itself. Matter and mortal mind are but different strata of human belief. The grosser substratum is named matter or body; the more 293:9 ethereal is called mind. This so-called mind and body is the illusion called a mortal, a mind in matter. In reality and in Science, both strata, mortal mind and mortal body, 293:12 are false representatives of man.

The material so-called gases and forces are counter- feits of the spiritual forces of divine Mind, whose potency 293:15 is Truth, whose attraction is Love, whose adhesion and cohesion are Life, perpetuating the eternal facts of being. Electricity is the sharp surplus of materiality which coun- 293:18 terfeits the true essence of spirituality or truth, - the great difference being that electricity is not intelligent, while spiritual truth is Mind.

The counterfeit forces

293:21 There is no vapid fury of mortal mind - expressed in earthquake, wind, wave, lightning, fire, bestial ferocity - and this so-called mind is self-destroyed. 293:24 The manifestations of evil, which counterfeit divine justice, are called in the Scriptures, "The anger of the Lord." In reality, they show the self-destruction 293:27 of error or matter and point to matter's opposite, the strength and permanency of Spirit. Christian Science brings to light Truth and its supremacy, universal har- 293:30 mony, the entireness of God, good, and the nothingness of evil.

Instruments of error

The five physical senses are the avenues and instru- 294:1 ments of human error, and they correspond with error. These senses indicate the common human belief, that life, 294:3 substance, and intelligence are a unison of matter with Spirit. This is pantheism, and carries within itself the seeds of all error.

294:6 If man is both mind and matter, the loss of one finger would take away some quality and quantity of the man, for matter and man would be one.

Mortal verdict

294:9 The belief that matter thinks, sees, or feels is not more real than the belief that matter enjoys and suffers. This mortal belief, misnamed /man/, is error, saying: 294:12 "Matter has intelligence and sensation. Nerves feel. Brain thinks and sins. The stomach can make a man cross. Injury can cripple and matter can kill man." 294:15 This verdict of the so-called material senses victimizes mortals, taught, as they are by physiology and pathology, to revere false testimony, even the errors that are destroyed 294:18 by Truth through spiritual sense and Science.

Mythical pleasure

The lines of demarcation between immortal man, repre- senting Spirit, and mortal man, representing the error that 294:21 life and intelligence are in matter, show the pleasures and pains of matter to be myths, and human belief in them to be the father of mythology, in 294:24 which matter is represented as divided into intelligent gods. Man's genuine selfhood is recognizable only in what is good and true. Man is neither self-made nor made by 294:27 mortals. God created man.

Severed members

The inebriate believes that there is pleasure in intoxica- tion. The thief believes that he gains something by steal- 294:30 ing, and the hypocrite that he is hiding himself. The Science of Mind corrects such mistakes, for Truth demon- strates the falsity of error.

Severed members

295:1 The belief that a severed limb is aching in the old loca- tion, the sensation seeming to be in nerves which 295:3 are no longer there, is an added proof of the un- reliability of physical testimony.

Mortals unlike immortals

God creates and governs the universe, including man. 295:6 The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them. Mortal mind would trans- 295:9 form the spiritual into the material, and then recover man's original self in order to escape from the mortality of this error. Mortals are not like immortals, 295:12 created in God's own image; but infinite Spirit being all, mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact and disappear, and the real sense of being, perfect and 295:15 forever intact, will appear.

Goodness transparent

The manifestation of God through mortals is as light passing through the window-pane. The light and the 295:18 glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass is less opaque than the walls. The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that 295:21 one which has lost much materiality - much error - in order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then, like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides 295:24 the sun.

Brainology a myth

All that is called mortal thought is made up of error. The theoretical mind is matter, named /brain/, or /mate/- 295:27 /rial consciousness/, the exact opposite of real Mind, or Spirit. Brainology teaches that mortals are created to suffer and die. It further 295:30 teaches that when man is dead, his immortal soul is resurrected from death and mortality. Thus error the- orizes that spirit is born of matter and returns to mat- 296:1 ter, and that man has a resurrection from dust; whereas Science unfolds the eternal verity, that man is the spiritual, 296:3 eternal reflection of God.

Scientific purgation

Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for 296:6 the immortal. Either here or hereafter, suf- fering or Science must destroy all illusions regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense 296:9 and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off. Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic 296:12 matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real, and eternal.

The so-called pleasures and pains of matter perish, 296:15 and they must go out under the blaze of Truth, spiritual sense, and the actuality of being. Mortal belief must lose all satisfaction in error and sin in order to part with 296:18 them.

Whether mortals will learn this sooner or later, and how long they will suffer the pangs of destruction, de- 296:21 pends upon the tenacity of error.

Mixed testimony

The knowledge obtained from the corporeal senses leads to sin and death. When the evidence of Spirit 296:24 and matter, Truth and error, seems to com- mingle, it rests upon foundations which time is wearing away. Mortal mind judges by the testimony 296:27 of the material senses, until Science obliterates this false testimony. An improved belief is one step out of error, and aids in taking the next step and in understanding 296:30 the situation in Christian Science.

Belief an autocrat

Mortal belief is a liar from the beginning, not deserving power. It says to mortals, "You are wretched!" and they 297:1 think they are so; and nothing can change this state, until the belief changes. Mortal belief says, "You are happy!" 297:3 and mortals are so; and no circumstance can alter the situation, until the belief on this sub- ject changes. Human belief says to mortals, "You are 297:6 sick!" and this testimony manifests itself on the body as sickness. It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into 297:9 the understanding of what constitutes health; for a change in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the physical condition.

Self-improvement

297:12 Erroneous belief is destroyed by truth. Change the evidence, and that disappears which before seemed real to this false belief, and the human conscious- 297:15 ness rises higher. Thus the reality of being is attained and man found to be immortal. The only fact concerning any material concept is, that it is neither 297:18 scientific nor eternal, but subject to change and dis- solution.

Faith higher than belief

Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is 297:21 a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual evidence, contradicting the testimony of mate- rial sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the 297:24 ever-present, is becoming understood. Human thoughts have their degrees of comparison. Some thoughts are better than others. A belief in Truth is better than a 297:27 belief in error, but no mortal testimony is founded on the divine rock. Mortal testimony can be shaken. Until belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual under- 297:30 standing, human thought has little relation to the actual or divine.

A mortal belief fulfils its own conditions. Sickness, 298:1 sin, and death are the vague realities of human conclu- sions. Life, Truth, and Love are the realities of divine 298:3 Science. They dawn in faith and glow full-orbed in spiritual understanding. As a cloud hides the sun it cannot extinguish, so false belief silences for a while the 298:6 voice of immutable harmony, but false belief cannot de- stroy Science armed with faith, hope, and fruition.

Truth's witness

What is termed material sense can report only a mor- 298:9 tal temporary sense of things, whereas spiritual sense can bear witness only to Truth. To material sense, the unreal is the real until this sense is corrected 298:12 by Christian Science.

Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, in- volves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, real- 298:15 ity. Material sense expresses the belief that mind is in matter. This human belief, alternating between a sense of pleasure and pain, hope and fear, life and death, never 298:18 reaches beyond the boundary of the mortal or the unreal. When the real is attained, which is announced by Science, joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat. Spirit- 298:21 ual ideas, like numbers and notes, start from Principle, and admit no materialistic beliefs. Spiritual ideas lead up to their divine origin, God, and to the spiritual sense 298:24 of being.

Thought-angels

Angels are not etherealized human beings, evolving animal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial 298:27 visitants, flying on spiritual, not material, pinions. Angels are pure thoughts from God, winged with Truth and Love, no matter what their indi- 298:30 vidualism may be. Human conjecture confers upon angels its own forms of thought, marked with superstitious out- lines, making them human creatures with suggestive 299:1 feathers; but this is only fancy. It has behind it no more reality than has the sculptor's thought when he carves 299:3 his "Statue of Liberty," which embodies his concep- tion of an unseen quality or condition, but which has no physical antecedent reality save in the artist's own ob- 299:6 servation and "chambers of imagery."

Our Angelic messengers

My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried 299:9 its fondest earthly hopes. With white fin- gers they point upward to a new and glo- rified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels 299:12 are God's representatives. These upward-soaring beings never lead towards self, sin, or materiality, but guide to the divine Principle of all good, whither every real indi- 299:15 viduality, image, or likeness of God, gathers. By giving earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us, and we entertain "angels unawares."

Knowledge and Truth

299:18 Knowledge gained from material sense is figuratively represented in Scripture as a tree, bearing the fruits of sin, sickness, and death. Ought we not then 299:21 to judge the knowledge thus obtained to be untrue and dangerous, since "the tree is known by his fruit"?

299:24 Truth never destroys God's idea. Truth is spiritual, eternal substance, which cannot destroy the right reflec- tion. Corporeal sense, or error, may seem to hide Truth, 299:27 health, harmony, and Science, as the mist obscures the sun or the mountain; but Science, the sunshine of Truth, will melt away the shadow and reveal the celestial 299:30 peaks.

Old and new man

If man were solely a creature of the material senses, he would have no eternal Principle and would be mutable 300:1 and mortal. Human logic is awry when it attempts to draw correct spiritual conclusions regarding life from 300:3 matter. Finite sense has no true apprecia- tion of infinite Principle, God, or of His infi- nite image or reflection, man. The mirage, which makes 300:6 trees and cities seem to be where they are not, illustrates the illusion of material man, who cannot be the image of God.

300:9 So far as the scientific statement as to man is under- stood, it can be proved and will bring to light the true reflection of God - the real man, or the /new/ man (as 300:12 St. Paul has it).

The tares and wheat

The temporal and unreal never touch the eternal and real. The mutable and imperfect never touch the im- 300:15 mutable and perfect. The inharmonious and self-destructive never touch the harmonious and self-existent. These opposite qualities are the tares 300:18 and wheat, which never really mingle, though (to mortal sight) they grow side by side until the harvest; then, Sci- ence separates the wheat from the tares, through the real- 300:21 ization of God as ever present and of man as reflecting the divine likeness.

The divine reflection

Spirit is God, Soul; therefore Soul is not in matter. If 300:24 Spirit were in matter, God would have no representative, and matter would be identical with God. The theory that soul, spirit, intelligence, in- 300:27 habits matter is taught by the schools. This theory is unscientific. The universe reflects and expresses the di- vine substance or Mind; therefore God is seen only in the 300:30 spiritual universe and spiritual man, as the sun is seen in the ray of light which goes out from it. God is re- vealed only in that which reflects Life, Truth, Love, - 301:1 yea, which manifests God's attributes and power, even as the human likeness thrown upon the mirror, repeats 301:3 the color, form, and action of the person in front of the mirror.

Few persons comprehend what Christian Science 301:6 means by the word /reflection. /To himself, mortal and material man seems to be substance, but his sense of substance involves error and therefore is material, 301:9 temporal.

On the other hand, the immortal, spiritual man is really substantial, and reflects the eternal substance, or Spirit, 301:12 which mortals hope for. He reflects the divine, which constitutes the only real and eternal entity. This reflection seems to mortal sense transcendental, because the spiritual 301:15 man's substantiality transcends mortal vision and is re- vealed only through divine Science.

Inverted images and ideas

As God is substance and man is the divine image and 301:18 likeness, man should wish for, and in reality has, only the substance of good, the substance of Spirit, not matter. The belief that man has any other 301:21 substance, or mind, is not spiritual and breaks the First Commandment, Thou shalt have one God, one Mind. Mortal man seems to himself to be material sub- 301:24 stance, while man is "image" (idea). Delusion, sin, dis- ease, and death arise from the false testimony of material sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the 301:27 focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image of Mind and substance with everything turned upside down.

301:30 This falsity presupposes soul to be an unsubstantial dweller in material forms, and man to be material instead of spiritual. Immortality is not bounded by mortality. 302:1 Soul is not compassed by finiteness. Principle is not to be found in fragmentary ideas.

Identity not lost

302:3 The material body and mind are temporal, but the real man is spiritual and eternal. The identity of the real man is not lost, but found through this 302:6 explanation; for the conscious infinitude of existence and of all identity is thereby discerned and re- mains unchanged. It is impossible that man should lose 302:9 aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his. The notion that mind is in matter, and that the so-called pleas- ures and pains, the birth, sin, sickness, and death of 302:12 matter, are real, is a mortal belief; and this belief is all that will ever be lost.

Definition of man

Continuing our definition of/ man/, let us remember that 302:15 harmonious and immortal man has existed forever, and is always beyond and above the mortal illu- sion of any life, substance and intelligence 302:18 as existent in matter. This statement is based on fact, not fable. The Science of being reveals man as perfect, even as the Father is perfect, because the Soul, or Mind, 302:21 of the spiritual man is God, the divine Principle of all being, and because this real man is governed by Soul instead of sense, by the law of Spirit, not by the so-called 302:24 laws of matter.

God is Love. He is therefore the divine, infinite Prin- ciple, called Person or God. Man's true consciousness 302:27 is in the mental, not in any bodily or personal likeness to Spirit. Indeed, the body presents no proper likeness of divinity, though mortal sense would fain have us so 302:30 believe.

Mental propagation

Even in Christian Science, reproduction by Spirit's individual ideas is but the reflection of the creative power 303:1 of the divine Principle of those ideas. The reflection, through mental manifestation, of the multitudinous 303:3 forms of Mind which people the realm of the real is controlled by Mind, the Principle governing the reflection. Multiplication of God's chil- 303:6 dren comes from no power of propagation in matter, it is the reflection of Spirit.

The minutiae of lesser individualities reflect the one di- 303:9 vine individuality and are comprehended in and formed by Spirit, not by material sensation. Whatever reflects Mind, Life, Truth, and Love, is spiritually conceived and 303:12 brought forth; but the statement that man is conceived and evolved both spiritually and materially, or by both God and man, contradicts this eternal truth. All the 303:15 vanity of the ages can never make both these contraries true. Divine Science lays the axe at the root of the illu- sion that life, or mind, is formed by or is in the material 303:18 body, and Science will eventually destroy this illusion through the self-destruction of all error and the beatified understanding of the Science of Life.

Error defined

303:21 The belief that pain and pleasure, life and death, holi- ness and unholiness, mingle in man, - that mortal, material man is the likeness of God 303:24 and is himself a creator, - is a fatal error.

Man's entity spiritual

God, without the image and likeness of Himself, would be a nonentity, or Mind unexpressed. He would be 303:27 without a witness or proof of His own na- ture. Spiritual man is the image or idea of God, an idea which cannot be lost nor sep- 303:30 arated from its divine Principle. When the evidence before the material senses yielded to spiritual sense, the apostle declared that nothing could alienate him from 304:1 God, from the sweet sense and presence of Life and Truth.

Man inseparable from Love

304:3 It is ignorance and false belief, based on a material sense of things, which hide spiritual beauty and good- ness. Understanding this, Paul said: "Nei- 304:6 ther death, nor life, . . . nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from 304:9 the love of God." This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into 304:12 sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind nor life result in death. The perfect man - governed 304:15 by God, his perfect Principle - is sinless and eternal.

Harmony natural

Harmony is produced by its Principle, is controlled by it and abides with it. Divine Principle is the Life 304:18 of man. Man's happiness is not, therefore, at the disposal of physical sense. Truth is not contaminated by error. Harmony in man is as beautiful 304:21 as in music, and discord is unnatural, unreal.

The science of music governs tones. If mortals caught harmony through material sense, they would lose har- 304:24 mony, if time or accident robbed them of material sense. To be master of chords and discords, the science of music must be understood. Left to the decisions 304:27 of material sense, music is liable to be misappre- hended and lost in confusion. Controlled by belief, instead of understanding, music is, must be, imper- 304:30 fectly expressed. So man, not understanding the Sci- ence of being, - thrusting aside his divine Principle as incomprehensible, - is abandoned to conjectures, left in 305:1 the hands of ignorance, placed at the disposal of illusions, subjected to material sense which is discord. A discon- 305:3 tented, discordant mortal is no more a /man/ than discord is music.

Human reflection

A picture in the camera or a face reflected in the mirror 305:6 is not the original, though resembling it. Man, in the likeness of his Maker, reflects the central light of being, the invisible God. As there is no cor- 305:9 poreality in the mirrored form, which is but a reflection, so man, like all things real, reflects God, his divine Prin- ciple, not in a mortal body.

305:12 Gender also is a quality, not of God, but a character- istic of mortal mind. The verity that God's image is not a creator, though he reflects the creation of Mind, God, 305:15 constitutes the underlying reality of reflection. "Then answered Jesus and said unto them: Verily, verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he 305:18 seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."

Inverted images

The inverted images presented by the senses, the de- 305:21 flections of matter as opposed to the Science of spirit- ual reflection, are all unlike Spirit, God. In the illusion of life that is here to-day and 305:24 gone to-morrow, man would be wholly mortal, were it not that Love, the divine Principle that obtains in divine Science, destroys all error and brings immor- 305:27 tality to light. Because man is the reflection of his Maker, he is not subject to birth, growth, maturity, de- cay. These mortal dreams are of human origin, not 305:30 divine.

Jewish traditions

The Sadducees reasoned falsely about the resurrec- tion, but not so blindly as the Pharisees, who believed 306:1 error to be as immortal as Truth. The Pharisees thought that they could raise the spiritual from the material. They 306:3 would first make life result in death, and then resort to death to reproduce spiritual life. Jesus taught them how death was to be overcome by 306:6 spiritual Life, and demonstrated this beyond cavil.

Divinity not childless

Life demonstrates Life. The immortality of Soul makes man immortal. If God, who is Life, were parted for a 306:9 moment from His reflection, man, during that moment there would be no divinity reflected. The Ego would be unexpressed, and the Father would be 306:12 childless, - no Father.

If Life or Soul and its representative, man, unite for a period and then are separated as by a law of divorce to 306:15 be brought together again at some uncertain future time and in a manner unknown, - and this is the general religious opinion of mankind, - we are left without a 306:18 rational proof of immortality. But man cannot be sep- arated for an instant from God, if man reflects God. Thus Science proves man's existence to be intact.

Thought-forms

306:21 The myriad forms of mortal thought, made manifest as matter, are not more distinct nor real to the mate- rial senses than are the Soul-created forms 306:24 to spiritual sense, which cognizes Life as per- manent. Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding 306:27 to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle, - is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and eternal.

306:30 God's man, spiritually created, is not material and mortal.

The serpent's whisper

The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream, 307:1 the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter. 307:3 This pantheistic error, or so-called /serpent/, in- sists still upon the opposite of Truth, saying, "Ye shall be as gods;" that is, I will make error as real 307:6 and eternal as Truth.

Evil still affirms itself to be mind, and declares that there is more than one intelligence or God. It says: 307:9 "There shall be lords and gods many. I declare that God makes evil minds and evil spirits, and that I aid Him. Truth shall change sides and be unlike Spirit. I will 307:12 put spirit into what I call matter, and matter shall seem to have life as much as God, Spirit, who /is/ the only life."

Bad results from error

This error has proved itself to be error. Its life is found 307:15 to be not Life, but only a transient, false sense of an ex- istence which ends in death. Error charges its lie to Truth and says: "The Lord knows 307:18 it. He has made man immortal and material, out of mat- ter instead of Spirit." Thus error partakes of its own nature and utters its own falsities. If we regard matter 307:21 as intelligent, and Mind as both good and evil, every sin or supposed material pain and pleasure seems normal, a part of God's creation, and so weighs against our course 307:24 Spiritward.

Higher statutes

Truth has no beginning. The divine Mind is the Soul of man, and gives man dominion over all things. Man 307:27 was not created from a material basis, nor bidden to obey material laws which Spirit never made; his province is in spiritual statutes, in the higher 307:30 law of Mind.

The great question

Above error's awful din, blackness, and chaos, the voice of Truth still calls: "Adam, where art thou? Conscious- 308:1 ness, where art thou? Art thou dwelling in the belief that mind is in matter, and that evil is mind, or art thou 308:3 in the living faith that there is and can be but one God, and keeping His commandment?" Until the lesson is learned that God is the only Mind gov- 308:6 erning man, mortal belief will be afraid as it was in the beginning, and will hide from the demand, "Where art thou?" This awful demand, "Adam, where art thou?" 308:9 is met by the admission from the head, heart, stomach, blood, nerves, etc.: "Lo, here I am, looking for happiness and life in the body, but finding only an illusion, a blend- 308:12 ing of false claims, false pleasure, pain, sin, sickness, and death."

The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth, 308:15 and talked with God as consciously as man talks with man.

Wrestling of Jacob

Jacob was /alone/, wrestling with error, - struggling with a mortal sense of life, substance, and intelligence 308:18 as existent in matter with its false pleasures and pains, - when an angel, a message from Truth and Love, appeared to him and smote the sinew, 308:21 or strength, of his error, till he saw its unreality; and Truth, being thereby understood, gave him spiritual strength in this Peniel of divine Science. Then said 308:24 the spiritual evangel: "Let me go, for the day breaketh;" that is, the light of Truth and Love dawns upon thee. But the patriarch, perceiving his error and his need 308:27 of help, did not loosen his hold upon this glorious light until his nature was transformed. When Jacob was asked, "What is thy name?" he straightway answered; 308:30 and then his name was changed to Israel, for "as a prince" had he prevailed and had "power with God and with men." Then Jacob questioned his deliverer, "Tell me, 309:1 I pray thee, /thy/ name;" but this appellation was withheld, for the messenger was not a corporeal being, but a name- 309:3 less, incorporeal impartation of divine Love to man, which, to use the word of the Psalmist, /restored /his Soul, - gave him the spiritual sense of being and rebuked his material 309:6 sense.

Israel the new name

The result of Jacob's struggle thus appeared. He had conquered material error with the understanding of Spirit 309:9 and of spiritual power. This changed the man. He was no longer called Jacob, but Israel, - a prince of God, or a soldier of God, who had fought 309:12 a good fight. He was to become the father of those, who through earnest striving followed his demonstration of the power of Spirit over the material senses; and the children 309:15 of earth who followed his example were to be called the children of Israel, until the Messiah should rename them. If these children should go astray, and forget that Life 309:18 is God, good, and that good is not in elements which are not spiritual, - thus losing the divine power which heals the sick and sinning, - they were to be brought back 309:21 through great tribulation, to be renamed in Christian Science and led to deny material sense, or mind in matter, even as the gospel teaches.

Life never structural

309:24 The Science of being shows it to be impossible for in- finite Spirit or Soul to be in a finite body or for man to have an intelligence separate from his Maker. 309:27 It is a self-evident error to suppose that there can be such a reality as organic animal or vegetable life, when such so-called life always ends in death. Life is 309:30 never for a moment extinct. Therefore it is never struc- tural nor organic, and is never absorbed nor limited by its own formations.

Thought seen as substance

310:1 The artist is not in his painting. The picture is the artist's thought objectified. The human belief fancies 310:3 that it delineates thought on matter, but what is matter? Did it exist prior to thought? Matter is made up of supposititious mortal mind-force; 310:6 but all might is divine Mind. Thought will finally be understood and seen in all form, substance, and color, but without material accompaniments. The potter is not in 310:9 the clay; else the clay would have power over the potter. God is His own infinite Mind, and expresses all.

The central intelligence

Day may decline and shadows fall, but darkness flees 310:12 when the earth has again turned upon its axis. The sun is not affected by the revolution of the earth. So Science reveals Soul as God, untouched 310:15 by sin and death, - as the central life and intelligence around which circle harmoniously all things in the sys- tems of Mind.

Soul imperishable

310:18 Soul changeth not. We are commonly taught that there is a human soul which sins and is spiritually lost, - that soul may be lost, and yet be immortal. If 310:21 Soul could sin, Spirit, Soul, would be flesh in- stead of Spirit. It is the belief of the flesh and of mate- rial sense which sins. If Soul sinned, Soul would die. 310:24 Sin is the element of self-destruction, and spiritual death is oblivion. If there was sin in Soul, the annihilation of Spirit would be inevitable. The only Life is Spirit, and 310:27 if Spirit should lose Life as God, good, then Spirit, which has no other existence, would be annihilated.

Mind is God, and God is not seen by material sense, 310:30 because Mind is Spirit, which material sense cannot dis- cern. There is neither growth, maturity, nor decay in Soul. These changes are the mutations of material sense, 311:1 the varying clouds of mortal belief, which hide the truth of being.

311:3 What we term mortal mind or carnal mind, dependent on matter for manifestation, is not Mind. God is Mind: all that Mind, God, is, or hath made, is good, and He 311:6 made all. Hence evil is not made and is not real.

Sin only of the flesh

Soul is immortal because it is Spirit, which has no ele- ment of self-destruction. is man lost spiritually? No, 311:9 he can only lose a sense material. All sin is of the flesh. It cannot be spiritual. Sin exists here or hereafter only so long as the illusion of mind in 311:12 matter remains. It is a sense of sin, and not a sinful soul, which is lost. Evil is destroyed by the sense of good.

Soul impeccable

Through false estimates of soul as dwelling in sense 311:15 and of mind as dwelling in matter, belief strays into a sense of temporary loss or absence of soul, spir- itual truth. This state of error is the mortal 311:18 dream of life and substance as existent in matter, and is directly opposite to the immortal reality of being. So long as we believe that soul can sin or that immortal Soul is in 311:21 mortal body, we can never understand the Science of be- ing. When humanity does understand this Science, it will become the law of Life to man, - even the higher law 311:24 of Soul, which prevails over material sense through har- mony and immortality.

The objects cognized by the physical senses have not 311:27 the reality of substance. They are only what mortal belief calls them. Matter, sin, and mortality lose all supposed consciousness or claim to life or existence, as 311:30 mortals lay off a false sense of life, substance, and intelli- gence. but the spiritual, eternal man is not touched by these phases of mortality.

Sense-dreams

312:1 How true it is that whatever is learned through material sense must be lost because such so-called knowledge is 312:3 reversed by the spiritual facts of being in Science. That which material sense calls intangible, is found to be substance. What to material 312:6 sense seems substance, becomes nothingness, as the sense- dream vanishes and reality appears.

The senses regard a corpse, not as man, but simply as 312:9 matter. People say, "Man is dead;" but this death is the departure of a mortal's mind, not of matter. The matter is still there. The belief of that mortal that he 312:12 must die occasioned his departure; yet you say that matter has caused his death.

Vain ecstasies

People go into ecstasies over the sense of a corporeal 312:15 Jehovah, though with scarcely a spark of love in their hearts; yet God /is/ love, and without Love, God, immortality cannot appear. Mortals try 312:18 to believe without understanding Truth; yet God /is/ Truth. Mortals claim that death is inevitable; but man's eternal Principle is ever-present life. Mortals believe in 312:21 a finite personal God; while God is infinite Love, which must be unlimited.

Man-made theories

Our theories are based on finite premises, which can- 312:24 not penetrate beyond matter. A personal sense of God and of man's capabilities necessarily limits faith and hinders spiritual understanding. It 312:27 divides faith and understanding between matter and Spirit, the finite and the infinite, and so turns away from the intelligent and divine healing Principle to the inanimate 312:30 drug.

The one anointed

Jesus' spiritual origin and his demonstration of divine Principle richly endowed him and entitled him to sonship 313:1 in Science. He was the son of a virgin. The term Christ Jesus, or Jesus the Christ (to give the full and 313:3 proper translation of the Greek), may be ren- dered "Jesus the anointed," Jesus the God- crowned or the divinely royal man, as it is said of him in 313:6 the first chapter of Hebrews: - Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee With the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

313:9 With this agrees another passage in the same chapter, which refers to the Son as "the brightness of His [God's] glory, and the express [expressed] image of His person 313:12 [infinite Mind]." It is noteworthy that the phrase "ex- press image" in the Common Version is, in the Greek Testament, /character/. Using this word in its higher mean- 313:15 ing, we may assume that the author of this remarkable epistle regarded Christ as the Son of God, the royal reflection of the infinite; and the cause given for the ex- 313:18 altation of Jesus, Mary's son, was that he "loved right- eousness and hated iniquity." The passage is made even clearer in the translation of the late George R. 313:21 Noyes, D.D.: "Who, being a brightness from His glory, and an image of His being."

Jesus the Scientist

Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that 313:24 ever trod the globe. He plunged beneath the material surface of things, and found the spiritual cause. To accommodate himself to imma- 313:27 ture ideas of spiritual power, - for spirituality was pos sessed only in a limited degree even by his disciples, - Jesus called the body, which by spiritual power he 313:30 raised from the grave, "flesh and bones." To show that the substance of himself was Spirit and the body 314:1 no more perfect because of death and no less material until the ascension (his further spiritual exaltation), 314:3 Jesus waited until the mortal or fleshly sense had re- linquished the belief of substance-matter, and spiritual sense had quenched all earthly yearnings. Thus he found 314:6 the eternal Ego, and proved that he and the Father were inseparable as God and His reflection or spiritual man. Our Master gained the solution of being, demonstrating 314:9 the existence of but one Mind without a second or equal.

The bodily resurrection

The Jews, who sought to kill this man of God, showed plainly that their material views were the parents of their 314:12 wicked deeds. When Jesus spoke of repro- ducing his body, - knowing, as he did, that Mind was the builder, - and said, "Destroy this temple, 314:15 and in three days I will raise it up," they thought that he meant their material temple instead of his body. To such materialists, the real man seemed a spectre, unseen and 314:18 unfamiliar, and the body, which they laid in a sepulchre, seemed to be substance. This materialism lost sight of the true Jesus; but the faithful Mary saw him, and he 314:21 presented to her, more than ever before, the true idea of Life and substance.

Opposition of materialists

Because of mortals' material and sinful belief, the 314:24 spiritual Jesus was imperceptible to them. The higher his demonstration of divine Science carried the problem of being, and the more dis- 314:27 tinctly he uttered the demands of its divine Principle, Truth and Love, the more odious he became to sinners and to those who, depending on doctrines and material 314:30 laws to save them from sin and sickness, were submis- sive to death as being in supposed accord with the inevitable law of life. Jesus proved them wrong by 315:1 his resurrection, and said: "Whosoever liveth and be- lieveth in me shall never die."

Hebrew theology

315:3 That saying of our Master, "I and my Father are one," separated him from the scholastic theology of the rabbis. His better understanding of God was a rebuke 315:6 to them. He knew of but one Mind and laid no claim to any other. He knew that the Ego was Mind instead of body and that matter, sin, and evil were not 315:9 Mind; and his understanding of this divine Science brought upon him the anathemas of the age.

The true sonship

The opposite and false views of the people hid from 315:12 their sense Christ's sonship with God. They could not discern his spiritual existence. Their carnal minds were at enmity with it. Their thoughts 315:15 were filled with mortal error, instead of with God's spirit- ual idea as presented by Christ Jesus. The likeness of God we lose sight of through sin, which beclouds the spir- 315:18 itual sense of Truth; and we realize this likeness only when we subdue sin and prove man's heritage, the liberty of the sons of God.

Immaculate conception

315:21 Jesus' spiritual origin and understanding enabled him to demonstrate the facts of being, - to prove irrefutably how spiritual Truth destroys material error, 315:24 heals sickness, and overcomes death. The divine conception of Jesus pointed to this truth and pre- sented an illustration of creation. The history of Jesus 315:27 shows him to have been more spiritual than all other earthly personalities.

Jesus as mediator

Wearing in part a human form (that is, as it seemed 315:30 to mortal view), being conceived by a human mother, Jesus was the mediator between Spirit and the flesh, between Truth and error. Explaining and demonstrat- 316:1 ing the way of divine Science, he became the way of salvation to all who accepted his word. From him mor- 316:3 tals may learn how to escape from evil. The real man being linked by Science to his Maker, mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal 316:6 selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to God, and to recognize the divine sonship. Christ, Truth, was demonstrated through Jesus to prove the power of 316:9 Spirit over the flesh, - to show that Truth is made manifest by its effects upon the human mind and body, healing sickness and destroying sin.

Spiritual government

316:12 Jesus represented Christ, the true idea of God. Hence the warfare between this spiritual idea and perfunctory religion, between spiritual clear-sightedness 316:15 and the blindness of popular belief, which led to the conclusion that the spiritual idea could be killed by crucifying the flesh. The Christ-idea, or the Christ- 316:18 man, rose higher to human view because of the crucifixion, and thus proved that truth was the master of death. Christ presents the indestructible man, whom Spirit cre- 316:21 ates, constitutes, and governs. Christ illustrates that blending with God, his divine Principle, which gives man dominion over all the earth.

Deadness in sin

316:24 The spiritual idea of God, as presented by Jesus, was scourged in person, and its Principle was rejected. That man was accounted a criminal who could 316:27 prove God's divine power by healing the sick, casting out evils, spiritualizing materialistic beliefs, and raising the dead, - those dead in trespasses and 316:30 sins, satisfied with the flesh, resting on the basis of mat- ter, blind to the possibilities of Spirit and its correla- tive truth. 317:1 Jesus uttered things which had been "secret from the foundation of the world," - since material knowledge 317:3 usurped the throne of the creative divine Principle, insisted on the might of matter, the force of falsity, the insignifi- cance of spirit, and proclaimed an anthropomorphic God.

The cup of Jesus

317:6 Whosoever lives most the life of Jesus in this age and declares best the power of Christian Science, will drink of his Master's cup. Resistance to 317:9 Truth will haunt his steps, and he will in- cur the hatred of sinners, till "wisdom is justified of her children." These blessed benedictions rest upon 317:12 Jesus' followers: "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you;" "Lo, I am with you alway," - that is, not only in all time, but in /all ways/ 317:15 and conditions.

The individuality of man is no less tangible because it is spiritual and because his life is not at the mercy of 317:18 matter. The understanding of his spiritual individuality makes man more real, more formidable in truth, and en- ables him to conquer sin, disease, and death. Our Lord 317:21 and Master presented himself to his disciples after his resurrection from the grave, as the self-same Jesus whom they had loved before the tragedy on Calvary.

Material skepticism

317:24 To the materialistic Thomas, looking for the ideal Saviour in matter instead of in Spirit and to the testi- mony of the material senses and the body, 317:27 more than to Soul, for an earnest of immor- tality, - to him Jesus furnished the proof that he was unchanged by the crucifixion. To this dull and doubt- 317:30 ing disciple Jesus remained a fleshly reality, so long as the Master remained an inhabitant of the earth. Noth- ing but a display of matter could make existence real 318:1 to Thomas. For him to believe in matter was no task, but for him to conceive of the substantiality of Spirit - 318:3 to know that nothing can efface Mind and immortality, in which Spirit reigns - was more difficult.

What the senses originate

Corporeal senses define diseases as realities; but the 318:6 Scriptures declare that God made all, even while the cor- poreal senses are saying that matter causes disease and the divine Mind cannot or will 318:9 not heal it. The material senses originate and support all that is material, untrue, selfish, or debased. They would put soul into soil, life into limbo, and doom 318:12 all things to decay. We must silence this lie of material sense with the truth of spiritual sense. We must cause the error to cease that brought the belief of sin and death 318:15 and would efface the pure sense of omnipotence.

Sickness as discord

Is the sick man sinful above all others? No! but so far as he is discordant, he is not the image of God. 318:18 Weary of their material beliefs, from which comes so much suffering, invalids grow more spiritual, as the error - or belief that life is in matter - 318:21 yields to the reality of spiritual Life.

The Science of Mind denies the error of sensation in matter, and heals with Truth. Medical science treats 318:24 disease as though disease were real, therefore right, and attempts to heal it with matter. If disease is right it is wrong to heal it. Material methods are temporary, and 318:27 are not adapted to elevate mankind.

The governor is not subjected to the governed. In Science man is governed by God, divine Principle, as 318:30 numbers are controlled and proved by His laws. Intelli- gence does not originate in numbers, but is manifested through them. The body does not include soul, but man- 319:1 ifests mortality, a false sense of soul. The delusion that there is life in matter has no kinship with the Life supernal.

Unscientific introspection

319:3 Science depicts disease as error, as matter /versus/ Mind, and error reversed as subserving the facts of health. To calculate one's life-prospects 319:6 from a material basis, would infringe upon spiritual law and misguide human hope. Having faith in the divine Principle of Health and spiritually under- 319:9 standing God, sustains man under all circumstances; whereas the lower appeal to the general faith in material means (commonly called nature) must yield to the all- 319:12 might of infinite Spirit.

Throughout the infinite cycles of eternal existence, Spirit and matter neither concur in man nor in the universe.

God the only Mind

319:15 The varied doctrines and theories which presuppose life and intelligence to exist in matter are so many ancient and modern mythologies. Mystery, miracle, 319:18 sin, and death will disappear when it becomes fairly understood that the divine Mind controls man and man has no Mind but God.

Scriptures misinterpreted

319:21 The divine Science taught in the original language of the Bible came through inspiration, and needs inspi- ration to be understood. Hence the misappre- 319:24 hension of the spiritual meaning of the Bible, and the misinterpretation of the Word in some instances by uninspired writers, who only wrote 319:27 down what an inspired teacher had said. A misplaced word changes the sense and misstates the Science of the Scriptures, as, for instance, to name Love as merely 319:30 an attribute of God; but we can by special and proper capitalization speak of the love of Love, meaning by that what the beloved disciple meant in one of his epistles, 320:1 when he said, "God is love." Likewise we can speak of the truth of Truth and of the life of Life, for Christ plainly 320:3 declared, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

Interior meaning

Metaphors abound in the Bible, and names are often expressive of spiritual ideas. The most distinguished 320:6 theologians in Europe and America agree that the Scriptures have both a spiritual and lit- eral meaning. In Smith's Bible Dictionary it is said: 320:9 "The spiritual interpretation of Scripture must rest upon both the literal and moral;" and in the learned article on Noah in the same work, the familiar text, 320:12 Genesis vi. 3, "And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh," is quoted as follows, from the original Hebrew: "And Jehovah 320:15 said, My spirit shall not forever rule [or be humbled] in men, seeing that they are [or, in their error they are] but flesh." Here the original text declares plainly the 320:18 spiritual fact of being, even man's eternal and harmo- nious existence as image, idea, instead of matter (how- ever transcendental such a thought appears), and avers 320:21 that this fact is not forever to be humbled by the belief that man is flesh and matter, for according to that error man is mortal.

Job, on the resurrection

320:24 The one important interpretation of Scripture is the spiritual. For example, the text, "In my flesh shall I see God," gives a profound idea of the di- 320:27 vine power to heal the ills of the flesh, and encourages mortals to hope in Him who healeth all our diseases; whereas this passage is continually quoted 320:30 as if Job intended to declare that even if disease and worms destroyed his body, yet in the latter days he should stand in celestial perfection before Elohim, still clad 321:1 in material flesh, - an interpretation which is just the op- posite of the true, as may be seen by studying the book 321:3 of Job. As Paul says, in his first epistle to the Corin- thians, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."

Fear of the serpent overcome

321:6 The Hebrew Lawgiver, slow of speech, despaired of making the people understand what should be revealed to him. When, led by wisdom to cast down his 321:9 rod, he saw it become a serpent, Moses fled be- fore it; but wisdom bade him come back and handle the serpent, and then Moses' fear departed. In 321:12 this incident was seen the actuality of Science. Matter was shown to be a belief only. The serpent, evil, under wisdom's bidding, was destroyed through understanding 321:15 divine Science, and this proof was a staff upon which to lean. The illusion of Moses lost its power to alarm him, when he discovered that what he apparently saw was really 321:18 but a phase of mortal belief.

Leprosy healed

It was scientifically demonstrated that leprosy was a creation of mortal mind and not a condition of matter, 321:21 when Moses first put his hand into his bosom and drew it forth white as snow with the dread disease, and presently restored his hand to its natural con- 321:24 dition by the same simple process. God had lessened Moses' fear by this proof in divine Science, and the in- ward voice became to him the voice of God, which said: 321:27 "It shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign." And so it was in the coming 321:30 centuries, when the Science of being was demonstrated by Jesus, who showed his students the power of Mind by changing water into wine, and taught them how to handle 322:1 serpents unharmed, to heal the sick and cast out evils in proof of the supremacy of Mind.