Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures
by
Mary Baker Eddy
Part 6 out of 14
The wicked man is not the ruler of his upright
239:12 neighbor. Let it be understood that success in error is
defeat in Truth. The watchword of Christian Science
is Scriptural: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
239:15 unrighteous man his thoughts."
Standpoint revealed
To ascertain our progress, we must learn where our
affections are placed and whom we acknowledge and
239:18 obey as God. If divine Love is becoming
nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is
then submitting to Spirit. The objects we pursue and
239:21 the spirit we manifest reveal our standpoint, and show
what we are winning.
Antagonistic sources
Mortal mind is the acknowledged seat of human mo-
239:24 tives. It forms material concepts and produces every
discordant action of the body. If action pro-
ceeds from the divine Mind, action is harmo-
239:27 nious. If it comes from erring mortal mind, it is discord-
ant and ends in sin, sickness, death. Those two opposite
sources never mingle in fount or stream. The perfect
239:30 Mind sends forth perfection, for God is Mind. Imper-
fect mortal mind sends forth its own resemblances, of
which the wise man said, "All is vanity."
Some lessons from nature
240:1 Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love,
but human belief misinterprets nature. Arctic regions,
240:3 sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds,
mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers,
and glorious heavens, - all point to Mind, the spiritual
240:6 intelligence they reflect. The floral apostles are hiero-
glyphs of Deity. Suns and planets teach grand lessons.
The stars make night beautiful, and the leaflet turns nat-
240:9 urally towards the light.
Perpetual motions
In the order of Science, in which the Principle is above
what it reflects, all is one grand concord. Change this
240:12 statement, suppose Mind to be governed by
matter or Soul in body, and you lose the key-
note of being, and there is continual discord. Mind is
240:15 perpetual motion. Its symbol is the sphere. The rota-
tions and revolutions of the universe of Mind go on
eternally.
Progress demanded
240:18 Mortals move onward towards good or evil as time
glides on. If mortals are not progressive, past failures
will be repeated until all wrong work is ef-
240:21 faced or rectified. If at present satisfied with
wrong-doing, we must learn to loathe it. If at present
content with idleness, we must become dissatisfied with
240:24 it. Remember that mankind must sooner or later, either
by suffering or by Science, be convinced of the error that
is to be overcome.
240:27 In trying to undo the errors of sense one must pay fully
and fairly the utmost farthing, until all error is finally
brought into subjection to Truth. The divine method
240:30 of paying sin's wages involves unwinding one's snarls
and learning from experience how to divide between sense
and Soul.
241:1 "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." He, who
knows God's will or the demands of divine Science and
241:3 obeys them, incurs the hostility of envy; and he who
refuses obedience to God, is chastened by Love.
The doom of sin
Sensual treasures are laid up "where moth and rust
241:6 doth corrupt." Mortality is their doom. Sin breaks in
upon them, and carries off their fleeting joys.
The sensualist's affections are as imaginary,
241:9 whimsical, and unreal as his pleasures. Falsehood, envy,
hypocrisy, malice, hate, revenge, and so forth, steal away
the treasures of Truth. Stripped of its coverings, what
241:12 a mocking spectacle is sin!
Spirit transforms
The Bible teaches transformation of the body by the
renewal of Spirit. Take away the spiritual signification
241:15 of Scripture, and that compilation can do no
more for mortals than can moonbeams to melt
a river of ice. The error of the ages is preaching without
241:18 practice.
The substance of all devotion is the reflection and
demonstration of divine Love, healing sickness and
241:21 destroying sin. Our Master said, "If ye love me, keep
my commandments."
One's aim, a point beyond faith, should be to find the
241:24 footsteps of Truth, the way to health and holiness. We
should strive to reach the Horeb height where God is re-
vealed; and the corner-stone of all spiritual building is
241:27 purity. The baptism of Spirit, washing the body of all
the impurities of flesh, signifies that the pure in heart
see God and are approaching spiritual Life and its
241:30 demonstration.
Spiritual baptism
It is "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle," than for sinful beliefs to enter the kingdom of
242:1 heaven, eternal harmony. Through repentance, spiritual
baptism, and regeneration, mortals put off their material
242:3 beliefs and false individuality. It is only a
question of time when "they shall all know
Me [God], from the least of them unto the greatest."
242:6 Denial of the claims of matter is a great step towards
the joys of Spirit, towards human freedom and the final
triumph over the body.
The one only way
242:9 There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ
in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no
other reality - to have no other conscious-
242:12 ness of life - than good, God and His reflec-
tion, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure
of the senses.
242:15 Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In pa-
tient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dis-
solve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant
242:18 of error, - self-will, self-justification, and self-love, -
which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin
and death.
Divided vestments
242:21 The vesture of Life is Truth. According to the Bible,
the facts of being are commonly misconstrued, for it is
written: "They parted my raiment among
242:24 them, and for my vesture they did cast lots."
The divine Science of man is woven into one web of
consistency without seam or rent. Mere speculation or
242:27 superstition appropriates no part of the divine vesture,
while inspiration restores every part of the Christly gar-
ment of righteousness.
242:30 The finger-posts of divine Science show the way our
Master trod, and require of Christians the proof which
he gave, instead of mere profession. We may hide
243:1 spiritual ignorance from the world, but we can never
succeed in the Science and demonstration of spiritual
243:3 good through ignorance or hypocrisy.
Ancient and modern miracles
The divine Love, which made harmless the poisonous
viper, which delivered men from the boiling oil, from
243:6 the fiery furnace, from the jaws of the lion,
can heal the sick in every age and triumph
over sin and death. It crowned the demon-
243:9 strations of Jesus with unsurpassed power and love. But
the same "Mind . . . which was also in Christ Jesus"
must always accompany the letter of Science in order to
243:12 confirm and repeat the ancient demonstrations of prophets
and apostles. That those wonders are not more com-
monly repeated to-day, arises not so much from lack of
243:15 desire as from lack of spiritual growth.
Mental telegraphy
The clay cannot reply to the potter. The head, heart,
lungs, and limbs do not inform us that they are dizzy,
243:18 diseased, consumptive, or lame. If this in-
formation is conveyed, mortal mind conveys
it. Neither immortal and unerring Mind nor matter,
243:21 the inanimate substratum of mortal mind, can carry
on such telegraphy; for God is "of purer eyes than
to behold evil," and matter has neither intelligence nor
243:24 sensation.
Annihilation of error
Truth has no consciousness of error. Love has no
sense of hatred. Life has no partnership
243:27 with death. Truth, Life, and Love are a law
of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because
they declare nothing except God.
Deformity and perfection
243:30 Sickness, sin, and death are not the fruits of Life.
They are inharmonies which Truth destroys. Perfection
does not animate imperfection. Inasmuch as God is
244:1 good and the fount of all being, He does not produce
moral or physical deformity; therefore such deformity is
244:3 not real, but is illusion, the mirage of error.
Divine Science reveals these grand facts. On
their basis Jesus demonstrated Life, never
244:6 fearing nor obeying error in any form.
If we were to derive all our conceptions of man from
what is seen between the cradle and the grave, happi-
244:9 ness and goodness would have no abiding-place in man,
and the worms would rob him of the flesh; but Paul
writes: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
244:12 made me free from the law of sin and death."
Man never less than man
Man undergoing birth, maturity, and decay is like the
beasts and vegetables, - subject to laws of decay. If
244:15 man were dust in his earliest stage of exist-
ence, we might admit the hypothesis that he
returns eventually to his primitive condition;
244:18 but man was never more nor less than man.
If man flickers out in death or springs from matter into
being, there must be an instant when God is without His
244:21 entire manifestation, - when there is no full reflection
of the infinite Mind.
Man not evolved
Man in Science is neither young nor old. He has
244:24 neither birth nor death. He is not a beast, a vegetable,
nor a migratory mind. He does not pass from
matter to Mind, from the mortal to the im-
244:27 mortal, from evil to good, or from good to evil. Such
admissions cast us headlong into darkness and dogma.
Even Shakespeare's poetry pictures age as infancy, as
244:30 helplessness and decadence, instead of assigning to man
the everlasting grandeur and immortality of development,
power, and prestige.
245:1 The error of thinking that we are growing old, and the
benefits of destroying that illusion, are illustrated in a
245:3 sketch from the history of an English woman, published
in the London medical magazine called The Lancet.
Perpetual youth
Disappointed in love in her early years, she became
245:6 insane and lost all account of time. Believing that she
was still living in the same hour which parted
her from her lover, taking no note of years,
245:9 she stood daily before the window watching for her
lover's coming. In this mental state she remained young.
Having no consciousness of time, she literally grew no
245:12 older. Some American travellers saw her when she was
seventy-four, and supposed her to be a young woman.
She had no care-lined face, no wrinkles nor gray hair, but
245:15 youth sat gently on cheek and brow. Asked to guess her
age, those unacquainted with her history conjectured that
she must be under twenty.
245:18 This instance of youth preserved furnishes a useful
hint, upon which a Franklin might work with more cer-
tainty than when he coaxed the enamoured lightning
245:21 from the clouds. Years had not made her old, because
she had taken no cognizance of passing time nor thought
of herself as growing old. The bodily results of her belief
245:24 that she was young manifested the influence of such a be-
lief. She could not age while believing herself young, for
the mental state governed the physical.
245:27 Impossibilities never occur. One instance like the
foregoing proves it possible to be young at seventy-four;
and the primary of that illustration makes it plain that
245:30 decrepitude is not according to law, nor is it a necessity of
nature, but an illusion.
Man reflects God
The infinite never began nor will it ever end. Mind
246:1 and its formations can never be annihilated. Man is not
a pendulum, swinging between evil and good, joy and
246:3 sorrow, sickness and health, life and death.
Life and its faculties are not measured by
calendars. The perfect and immortal are the eternal
246:6 likeness of their Maker. Man is by no means a material
germ rising from the imperfect and endeavoring to reach
Spirit above his origin. The stream rises no higher than
246:9 its source.
The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and
gives ugliness to age. The radiant sun of virtue and truth
246:12 coexists with being. Manhood is its eternal noon, un-
dimmed by a declining sun. As the physical and mate-
rial, the transient sense of beauty fades, the radiance of
246:15 Spirit should dawn upon the enraptured sense with bright
and imperishable glories.
Undesirable records
Never record ages. Chronological data are no part
246:18 of the vast forever. Time-tables of birth and death are
so many conspiracies against manhood and
womanhood. Except for the error of meas-
246:21 uring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man
would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and
still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man,
246:24 governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and
grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty,
and holiness.
True life eternal
246:27 Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the
demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal.
Let us then shape our views of existence into
246:30 loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather
than into age and blight.
Acute and chronic beliefs reproduce their own types.
247:1 The acute belief of physical life comes on at a remote
period, and is not so disastrous as the chronic belief.
Eyes and teeth renewed
247:3 I have seen age regain two of the elements it had lost,
sight and teeth. A woman of eighty-five, whom I knew,
had a return of sight. Another woman at
247:6 ninety had new teeth, incisors, cuspids, bi-
cuspids, and one molar. One man at sixty
had retained his full set of upper and lower teeth without
247:9 a decaying cavity.
Eternal beauty
Beauty, as well as truth, is eternal; but the beauty
of material things passes away, fading and fleeting as
247:12 mortal belief. Custom, education, and fashion
form the transient standards of mortals. Im-
mortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its
247:15 own, - the radiance of Soul. Immortal men and women
are models of spiritual sense, drawn by perfect Mind
and reflecting those higher conceptions of loveliness
247:18 which transcend all material sense.
The divine loveliness
Comeliness and grace are independent of matter. Be-
ing possesses its qualities before they are perceived hu-
247:21 manly. Beauty is a thing of life, which
dwells forever in the eternal Mind and re-
flects the charms of His goodness in expression, form,
247:24 outline, and color. It is Love which paints the petal
with myriad hues, glances in the warm sunbeam, arches
the cloud with the bow of beauty, blazons the night with
247:27 starry gems, and covers earth with loveliness.
The embellishments of the person are poor substitutes
for the charms of being, shining resplendent and eternal
247:30 over age and decay.
The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and
more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure
248:1 in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious free-
dom of spiritual harmony.
Love's endowment
248:3 Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon
its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less
than beautiful. Men and women of riper
248:6 years and larger lessons ought to ripen into
health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness
or gloom. Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal
248:9 freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images
of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each
day brings to a nearer tomb.
Mental sculpture
248:12 The sculptor turns from the marble to his model in
order to perfect his conception. We are all sculptors,
working at various forms, moulding and chisel-
248:15 ing thought. What is the model before mortal
mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering?
Have you accepted the mortal model? Are you repro-
248:18 ducing it? Then you are haunted in your work by vicious
sculptors and hideous forms. Do you not hear from all
mankind of the imperfect model? The world is holding
248:21 it before your gaze continually. The result is that you
are liable to follow those lower patterns, limit your life-
work, and adopt into your experience the angular outline
248:24 and deformity of matter models.
Perfect models
To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right
direction, and then walk that way. We must form perfect
248:27 models in thought and look at them continually,
or we shall never carve them out in grand and
noble lives. Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice,
248:30 health, holiness, love - the kingdom of heaven - reign
within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until
they finally disappear.
249:1 Let us accept Science, relinquish all theories based on
sense-testimony, give up imperfect models and illusive
249:3 ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that
one perfect, producing His own models of excellence.
Renewed selfhood
Let the "male and female" of God's creating appear.
249:6 Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into
newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor
material power as able to destroy. Let us re-
249:9 joice that we are subject to the divine "powers that be."
Such is the true Science of being. Any other theory of
Life, or God, is delusive and mythological.
249:12 Mind is not the author of matter, and the creator of
ideas is not the creator of illusions. Either there is no
omnipotence, or omnipotence is the only power. God is
249:15 the infinite, and infinity never began, will never end, and
includes nothing unlike God. Whence then is soulless
matter?
Illusive dreams
249:18 Life is, like Christ, "the same yesterday, and to-day,
and forever." Organization and time have nothing to do
with Life. You say, "I dreamed last night."
249:21 What a mistake is that! The I is Spirit. God
never slumbers, and His likeness never dreams. Mortals
are the Adam dreamers.
249:24 Sleep and apathy are phases of the dream that life, sub-
stance, and intelligence are material. The mortal night-
dream is sometimes nearer the fact of being than are the
249:27 thoughts of mortals when awake. The night-dream has
less matter as its accompaniment. It throws off some
material fetters. It falls short of the skies, but makes its
249:30 mundane flights quite ethereal.
Philosophical blunders
Man is the reflection of Soul. He is the direct oppo-
site of material sensation, and there is but one Ego. We
250:1 run into error when we divide Soul into souls, multiply
Mind into minds and suppose error to be mind, then mind
250:3 to be in matter and matter to be a lawgiver,
unintelligence to act like intelligence, and mor-
tality to be the matrix of immortality.
Spirit the one Ego
250:6 Mortal existence is a dream; mortal existence has no
real entity, but saith "It is I." Spirit is the Ego which
never dreams, but understands all things;
250:9 which never errs, and is ever conscious; which
never believes, but knows; which is never born and
never dies. Spiritual man is the likeness of this Ego.
250:12 Man is not God, but like a ray of light which comes from
the sun, man, the outcome of God, reflects God.
Mortal existence a dream
Mortal body and mind are one, and that one is called
250:15 man; but a mortal is not man, for man is immortal. A
mortal may be weary or pained, enjoy or suffer,
according to the dream he entertains in sleep.
250:18 When that dream vanishes, the mortal finds himself
experiencing none of these dream-sensations. To the
observer, the body lies listless, undisturbed, and sensa-
250:21 tionless, and the mind seems to be absent.
Now I ask, Is there any more reality in the waking
dream of mortal existence than in the sleeping dream?
250:24 There cannot be, since whatever appears to be a mortal
man is a mortal dream. Take away the mortal mind,
and matter has no more sense as a man than it has as
250:27 a tree. But the spiritual, real man is immortal.
Upon this stage of existence goes on the dance of mortal
mind. Mortal thoughts chase one another like snowflakes,
250:30 and drift to the ground. Science reveals Life as not being
at the mercy of death, nor will Science admit that happi-
ness is ever the sport of circumstance.
Error self-destroyed
251:1 Error is not real, hence it is not more imperative
as it hastens towards self-destruction. The so-called
251:3 belief of mortal mind apparent as an abscess
should not grow more painful before it suppu-
rates neither should a fever become more severe before
251:6 it ends.
Illusion of death
Fright is so great at certain stages of mortal belief
as to drive belief into new paths. In the illusion of
251:9 death, mortals wake to the knowledge of two
facts: (1) that they are not dead; (2) that
they have but passed the portals of a new belief. Truth
251:12 works out the nothingness of error in just these ways.
Sickness, as well as sin, is an error that Christ, Truth,
alone can destroy.
Mortal mind's disappearance
251:15 We must learn how mankind govern the body, -
whether through faith in hygiene, in drugs, or in will-
power. We should learn whether they govern
251:18 the body through a belief in the necessity of
sickness and death, sin and pardon, or govern
it from the higher understanding that the divine Mind
251:21 makes perfect, acts upon the so-called human mind
through truth, leads the human mind to relinquish all
error, to find the divine Mind to be the only Mind,
251:24 and the healer of sin, disease, death. This process of
higher spiritual understanding improves mankind until
error disappears, and nothing is left which deserves to
251:27 perish or to be punished.
Spiritual ignorance
Ignorance, like intentional wrong, is not Science.
Ignorance must be seen and corrected before we can at-
251:30 tain harmony. Inharmonious beliefs, which
rob Mind, calling it matter, and deify their
own notions, imprison themselves in what they create.
252:1 They are at war with Science, and as our Master said,
"If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom
252:3 cannot stand."
Human ignorance of Mind and of the recuperative
energies of Truth occasions the only skepticism regard-
252:6 ing the pathology and theology of Christian Science.
Eternal man recognized
When false human beliefs learn even a little of their
own falsity, they begin to disappear. A knowledge of
252:9 error and of its operations must precede that
understanding of Truth which destroys error,
until the entire mortal, material error finally disappears,
252:12 and the eternal verity, man created by and of Spirit,
is understood and recognized as the true likeness of his
Maker.
252:15 The false evidence of material sense contrasts strikingly
with the testimony of Spirit. Material sense lifts its voice
with the arrogance of reality and says:
Testimony of sense
252:18 I am wholly dishonest, and no man knoweth it. I can
cheat, lie, commit adultery, rob, murder, and I elude
detection by smooth-tongued villainy. Ani-
252:21 mal in propensity, deceitful in sentiment,
fraudulent in purpose, I mean to make my short span
of life one gala day. What a nice thing is sin! How
252:24 sin succeeds, where the good purpose waits! The world
is my kingdom. I am enthroned in the gorgeousness
of matter. But a touch, an accident, the law of God,
252:27 may at any moment annihilate my peace, for all my
fancied joys are fatal. Like bursting lava, I expand but
to my own despair, and shine with the resplendency of
252:30 consuming fire.
Testimony of Soul
Spirit, bearing opposite testimony, saith:
I am Spirit. Man, whose senses are spiritual, is my
253:1 likeness. He reflects the infinite understanding, for I am
Infinity. The beauty of holiness, the perfection of being,
253:3 imperishable glory, - all are Mine, for I am
God. I give immortality to man, for I am
Truth. I include and impart all bliss, for I am Love.
253:6 I give life, without beginning and without end, for I am
Life. I am supreme and give all, for I am Mind. I am
the substance of all, because I AM THAT I AM.
Heaven-bestowed prerogative
253:9 I hope, dear reader, I am leading you into the under-
standing of your divine rights, your heaven-bestowed har-
mony, - that, as you read, you see there is no
253:12 cause (outside of erring, mortal, material sense
which is not power) able to make you sick or
sinful; and I hope that you are conquering this false sense.
253:15 Knowing the falsity of so-called material sense, you can
assert your prerogative to overcome the belief in sin, dis-
ease, or death.
Right endeavor possible
253:18 If you believe in and practise wrong knowingly, you
can at once change your course and do right. Matter can
make no opposition to right endeavors against
253:21 sin or sickness, for matter is inert, mindless.
Also, if you believe yourself diseased, you can
alter this wrong belief and action without hindrance from
253:24 the body.
Do not believe in any supposed necessity for sin, dis-
ease, or death, knowing (as you ought to know) that God
253:27 never requires obedience to a so-called material law, for
no such law exists. The belief in sin and death is de-
stroyed by the law of God, which is the law of Life in-
253:30 stead of death, of harmony instead of discord, of Spirit
instead of the flesh.
Patience and final perfection
The divine demand, "Be ye therefore perfect," is sci-
254:1 entific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are
indispensable. Individuals are consistent who, watching
254:3 and praying, can "run, and not be weary; . . .
walk, and not faint," who gain good rapidly
and hold their position, or attain slowly and
254:6 yield not to discouragement. God requires perfection,
but not until the battle between Spirit and flesh is fought
and the victory won. To stop eating, drinking, or being
254:9 clothed materially before the spiritual facts of existence
are gained step by step, is not legitimate. When we wait
patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs
254:12 our path. Imperfect mortals grasp the ultimate of spir-
itual perfection slowly; but to _begin_ aright and to con-
tinue the strife of demonstrating the great problem of
254:15 being, is doing much.
During the sensual ages, absolute Christian Science
may not be achieved prior to the change called death,
254:18 for we have not the power to demonstrate what we do
not understand. But the human self must be evangel-
ized. This task God demands us to accept lovingly
254:21 to-day, and to abandon so fast as practical the material,
and to work out the spiritual which determines the out-
ward and actual.
254:24 If you venture upon the quiet surface of error and are
in sympathy with error, what is there to disturb the waters?
What is there to strip off error's disguise?
The cross and crown
254:27 If you launch your bark upon the ever-agitated but
healthful waters of truth, you will encounter storms.
Your good will be evil spoken of. This is the
254:30 cross. Take it up and bear it, for through it
you win and wear the crown. Pilgrim on earth, thy home
is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God.
CHAPTER IX - CREATION
Thy throne is established of old
Thou art from everlasting. - PSALMS.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth
in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves
also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we
ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption,
to wit, the redemption of our body. - PAUL.
Inadequate theories of creation
255:1 ETERNAL Truth is changing the universe. As mor-
tals drop off their mental swaddling-clothes, thought
255:3 expands into expression. "Let there be light,"
is the perpetual demand of Truth and Love,
changing chaos into order and discord into the
255:6 music of the spheres. The mythical human theories of
creation, anciently classified as the higher criticism, sprang
from cultured scholars in Rome and in Greece, but they
255:9 afforded no foundation for accurate views of creation by
the divine Mind.
Finite views of Deity
Mortal man has made a covenant with his eyes to be-
255:12 little Deity with human conceptions. In league
with material sense, mortals take limited views
of all things. That God is corporeal or material, no man
255:15 should affirm.
The human form, or physical finiteness, cannot be
made the basis of any true idea of the infinite Godhead.
255:18 Eye hath not seen Spirit, nor hath ear heard His voice.
No material creation
256:1 Progress takes off human shackles. The finite must
yield to the infinite. Advancing to a higher plane of ac-
256:3 tion, thought rises from the material sense to
the spiritual, from the scholastic to the in-
spirational, and from the mortal to the immortal. All
256:6 things are created spiritually. Mind, not matter, is the
creator. Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and
Mother of the universe, including man.
Tritheism impossible
256:9 The theory of three persons in one God (that is, a per-
sonal Trinity or Tri-unity) suggests polythe-
ism, rather than the one ever-present I AM.
256:12 "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord."
No divine corporeality
The everlasting I AM is not bounded nor compressed
within the narrow limits of physical humanity, nor can
256:15 He be understood aright through mortal con-
cepts. The precise form of God must be of
small importance in comparison with the sublime ques-
256:18 tion, What is infinite Mind or divine Love?
Who is it that demands our obedience? He who, in
the language of Scripture, "doeth according to His will
256:21 in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the
earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him,
What doest Thou?"
256:24 No form nor physical combination is adequate to rep-
resent infinite Love. A finite and material sense of God
leads to formalism and narrowness; it chills the spirit of
256:27 Christianity.
Limitless Mind
A limitless Mind cannot proceed from physical limita-
tions. Finiteness cannot present the idea or the vast-
256:30 ness of infinity. A mind originating from a
finite or material source must be limited and
finite. Infinite Mind is the creator, and creation is the
257:1 infinite image or idea emanating from this Mind. If
Mind is within and without all things, then all is Mind;
257:3 and this definition is scientific.
Matter is not substance
If matter, so-called, is substance, then Spirit, matter's
unlikeness, must be shadow; and shadow cannot produce
257:6 substance. The theory that Spirit is not the
only substance and creator is pantheistic het-
erodoxy, which ultimates in sickness, sin, and death; it is
257:9 the belief in a bodily soul and a material mind, a soul
governed by the body and a mind in matter. This be-
lief is shallow pantheism.
257:12 Mind creates His own likeness in ideas, and the sub-
stance of an idea is very far from being the supposed sub-
stance of non-intelligent matter. Hence the Father Mind
257:15 is not the father of matter. The material senses and
human conceptions would translate spiritual ideas into
material beliefs, and would say that an anthropomorphic
257:18 God, instead of infinite Principle, - in other words, divine
Love, - is the father of the rain, "who hath begotten the
drops of dew," who bringeth "forth Mazzaroth in his sea-
257:21 son," and guideth "Arcturus with his sons."
Inexhaustible divine Love
Finite mind manifests all sorts of errors, and thus
proves the material theory of mind in matter to be the
257:24 antipode of Mind. Who hath found finite life
or love sufficient to meet the demands of human
want and woe, - to still the desires, to satisfy the aspira-
257:27 tions? Infinite Mind cannot be limited to a finite form,
or Mind would lose its infinite character as inexhaustible
Love, eternal Life, omnipotent Truth.
Infinite physique impossible
257:30 It would require an infinite form to contain infinite
Mind. Indeed, the phrase _infinite form_ involves a con-
tradiction of terms. Finite man cannot be the image and
258:1 likeness of the infinite God. A mortal, corporeal, or
finite conception of God cannot embrace the glories of
258:3 limitless, incorporeal Life and Love. Hence
the unsatisfied human craving for something
better, higher, holier, than is afforded by a
258:6 material belief in a physical God and man. The insuffi-
ciency of this belief to supply the true idea proves the
falsity of material belief.
Infinity's reflection
258:9 Man is more than a material form with a mind inside,
which must escape from its environments in
order to be immortal. Man reflects infinity,
258:12 and this reflection is the true idea of God.
God expresses in man the infinite idea forever develop-
ing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from
258:15 a boundless basis. Mind manifests all that exists in
the infinitude of Truth. We know no more of man as
the true divine image and likeness, than we know of
258:18 God.
The infinite Principle is reflected by the infinite idea
and spiritual individuality, but the material so-called senses
258:21 have no cognizance of either Principle or its idea. The
human capacities are enlarged and perfected in propor-
tion as humanity gains the true conception of man and
258:24 God.
Individual permanency
Mortals have a very imperfect sense of the spiritual
man and of the infinite range of his thought. To him
258:27 belongs eternal Life. Never born and
never dying, it were impossible for man, under
the government of God in eternal Science, to fall from his
258:30 high estate.
God's man discerned
Through spiritual sense you can discern the heart of
divinity, and thus begin to comprehend in Science the
259:1 generic term _man. _Man is not absorbed in Deity, and
man cannot lose his individuality, for he re-
259:3 flects eternal Life; nor is he an isolated, soli-
tary idea, for he represents infinite Mind, the sum of all
substance.
259:6 In divine Science, man is the true image of God. The
divine nature was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who
threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted
259:9 their lives higher than their poor thought-models would
allow, - thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick,
sinning, and dying. The Christlike understanding of
259:12 scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Prin-
ciple and idea, - perfect God and perfect man, - as the
basis of thought and demonstration.
The divine image not lost
259:15 If man was once perfect but has now lost his perfection,
then mortals have never beheld in man the reflex image
of God. The _lost_ image is no image. The
259:18 true likeness cannot be lost in divine reflection.
Understanding this, Jesus said: "Be ye there-
fore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
259:21 perfect."
Immortal models
Mortal thought transmits its own images, and forms
its offspring after human illusions. God, Spirit, works
259:24 spiritually, not materially. Brain or matter
never formed a human concept. Vibration is
not intelligence; hence it is not a creator. Immortal
259:27 ideas, pure, perfect, and enduring, are transmitted by
the divine Mind through divine Science, which corrects
error with truth and demands spiritual thoughts, divine
259:30 concepts, to the end that they may produce harmonious
results.
Deducing one's conclusions as to man from imperfec-
260:1 tion instead of perfection, one can no more arrive at the
true conception or understanding of man, and make him-
260:3 self like it, than the sculptor can perfect his outlines from
an imperfect model, or the painter can depict the form
and face of Jesus, while holding in thought the character
260:6 of Judas.
Spiritual discovery
The conceptions of mortal, erring thought must give
way to the ideal of all that is perfect and eternal. Through
260:9 many generations human beliefs will be attain-
ing diviner conceptions, and the immortal and
perfect model of God's creation will finally be seen as
260:12 the only true conception of being.
Science reveals the possibility of achieving all good,
and sets mortals at work to discover what God has already
260:15 done; but distrust of one's ability to gain the goodness
desired and to bring out better and higher results, often
hampers the trial of one's wings and ensures failure at the
260:18 outset.
Requisite change of our ideals
Mortals must change their ideals in order to improve
their models. A sick body is evolved from
260:21 sick thoughts. Sickness, disease, and death
proceed from fear. Sensualism evolves bad
physical and moral conditions.
260:24 Selfishness and sensualism are educated in mortal
mind by the thoughts ever recurring to one's self, by
conversation about the body, and by the expectation of
260:27 perpetual pleasure or pain from it; and this education
is at the expense of spiritual growth. If we array
thought in mortal vestures, it must lose its immortal
260:30 nature.
Thoughts are things
If we look to the body for pleasure, we find pain; for
Life, we find death; for Truth, we find error; for Spirit,
261:1 we find its opposite, matter. Now reverse this action.
Look away from the body into Truth and Love,
261:3 the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and
immortality. Hold thought steadfastly to the endur-
ing, the good, and the true, and you will bring these
261:6 into your experience proportionably to their occupancy
of your thoughts.
Unreality of pain
The effect of mortal mind on health and happiness is
261:9 seen in this: If one turns away from the body with such
absorbed interest as to forget it, the body
experiences no pain. Under the strong im-
261:12 pulse of a desire to perform his part, a noted actor was
accustomed night after night to go upon the stage and
sustain his appointed task, walking about as actively
261:15 as the youngest member of the company. This old man
was so lame that he hobbled every day to the theatre, and
sat aching in his chair till his cue was spoken, - a signal
261:18 which made him as oblivious of physical infirmity as if
he had inhaled chloroform, though he was in the full pos-
session of his so-called senses.
Immutable identity of man
261:21 Detach sense from the body, or matter, which is only
a form of human belief, and you may learn the meaning
of God, or good, and the nature of the immu-
261:24 table and immortal. Breaking away from the
mutations of time and sense, you will neither
lose the solid objects and ends of life nor your own iden-
261:27 tity. Fixing your gaze on the realities supernal, you will
rise to the spiritual consciousness of being, even as the bird
which has burst from the egg and preens its wings for a
261:30 skyward flight.
Forgetfulness of self
We should forget our bodies in remembering good and
the human race. Good demands of man every hour, in
262:1 which to work out the problem of being. Consecration
to good does not lessen man's dependence on God, but
262:3 heightens it. Neither does consecration di-
minish man's obligations to God, but shows
the paramount necessity of meeting them. Christian
262:6 Science takes naught from the perfection of God, but it
ascribes to Him the entire glory. By putting "off the old
man with his deeds," mortals "put on immortality."
262:9 We cannot fathom the nature and quality of God's
creation by diving into the shallows of mortal belief. We
must reverse our feeble flutterings - our efforts to find
262:12 life and truth in matter - and rise above the testimony
of the material senses, above the mortal to the immortal
idea of God. These clearer, higher views inspire the God-
262:15 like man to reach the absolute centre and circumference
of his being.
The true sense
Job said: "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the
262:18 ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee." Mortals will echo
Job's thought, when the supposed pain and
pleasure of matter cease to predominate. They
262:21 will then drop the false estimate of life and happiness, of
joy and sorrow, and attain the bliss of loving unselfishly,
working patiently, and conquering all that is unlike God.
262:24 Starting from a higher standpoint, one rises spontane-
ously, even as light emits light without effort; for "where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Mind the only cause
262:27 The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of
man's origin. To begin rightly is to end rightly. Every
concept which seems to begin with the brain
262:30 begins falsely. Divine Mind is the only cause
or Principle of existence. Cause does not exist in matter,
in mortal mind, or in physical forms.
Human egotism
263:1 Mortals are egotists. They believe themselves to be
independent workers, personal authors, and even privi-
263:3 leged originators of something which Deity
would not or could not create. The creations
of mortal mind are material. Immortal spiritual man
263:6 alone represents the truth of creation.
Mortal man a mis-creator
When mortal man blends his thoughts of existence
with the spiritual and works only as God works,
263:9 he will no longer grope in the dark and cling
to earth because he has not tasted heaven.
Carnal beliefs defraud us. They make man an involun-
263:12 tary hypocrite, - producing evil when he would create
good, forming deformity when he would outline grace
and beauty, injuring those whom he would bless. He
263:15 becomes a general mis-creator, who believes he is a
semi-god. His "touch turns hope to dust, the dust we
all have trod." He might say in Bible language: "The
263:18 good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would
not, _that I do._"
No new creation
There can be but one creator, who has created all.
263:21 Whatever seems to be a new creation, is but the discovery
of some distant idea of Truth; else it is a
new multiplication or self-division of mor-
263:24 tal thought, as when some finite sense peers from its
cloister with amazement and attempts to pattern the
infinite.
263:27 The multiplication of a human and mortal sense of per-
sons and things is not creation. A sensual thought, like
an atom of dust thrown into the face of spiritual im-
263:30 mensity, is dense blindness instead of a scientific eternal
consciousness of creation.
Mind's true camera
The fading forms of matter, the mortal body and ma-
264:1 terial earth, are the fleeting concepts of the human mind.
They have their day before the permanent facts and their
264:3 perfection in Spirit appear. The crude crea-
tions of mortal thought must finally give place
to the glorious forms which we sometimes behold in the
264:6 camera of divine Mind, when the mental picture is spir-
itual and eternal. Mortals must look beyond fading,
finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things.
264:9 Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm
of Mind? We must look where we would walk, and we
must act as possessing all power from Him in whom we
264:12 have our being.
Self-completeness
As mortals gain more correct views of God and man,
multitudinous objects of creation, which before were
264:15 invisible, will become visible. When we
realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of
matter, this understanding will expand into self-com-
264:18 pleteness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other
consciousness.
Spiritual proofs of existence
Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being.
264:21 Matter disappears under the microscope of Spirit. Sin
is unsustained by Truth, and sickness and
death were overcome by Jesus, who proved
264:24 them to be forms of error. Spiritual living
and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can
recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace
264:27 which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love.
When we learn the way in Christian Science and rec-
ognize man's spiritual being, we shall behold and under-
264:30 stand God's creation, - all the glories of earth and heaven
and man.
Godward gravitation
The universe of Spirit is peopled with spiritual beings,
265:1 and its government is divine Science. Man is the off-
spring, not of the lowest, but of the highest qualities of
265:3 Mind. Man understands spiritual existence
in proportion as his treasures of Truth and
Love are enlarged. Mortals must gravitate Godward,
265:6 their affections and aims grow spiritual, - they must near
the broader interpretations of being, and gain some proper
sense of the infinite, - in order that sin and mortality
265:9 may be put off.
This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for
Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity
265:12 and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man en-
larged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action,
a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent
265:15 peace.
Mortal birth and death
The senses represent birth as untimely and death as
irresistible, as if man were a weed growing apace or a
265:18 flower withered by the sun and nipped by
untimely frosts; but this is true only of a
mortal, not of a man in God's image and likeness. The
265:21 truth of being is perennial, and the error is unreal and
obsolete.
Blessings from pain
Who that has felt the loss of human peace has not gained
265:24 stronger desires for spiritual joy? The aspiration after
heavenly good comes even before we discover
what belongs to wisdom and Love. The loss
265:27 of earthly hopes and pleasures brightens the ascending
path of many a heart. The pains of sense quickly inform
us that the pleasures of sense are mortal and that joy is
265:30 spiritual.
Decapitation of error
The pains of sense are salutary, if they wrench away
false pleasurable beliefs and transplant the affections
266:1 from sense to Soul, where the creations of God are good,
"rejoicing the heart." Such is the sword of
266:3 Science, with which Truth decapitates error,
materiality giving place to man's higher individuality and
destiny.
Uses of adversity
266:6 Would existence without personal friends be to you
a blank? Then the time will come when you will be
solitary, left without sympathy; but this
266:9 seeming vacuum is already filled with divine
Love. When this hour of development comes, even if
you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will
266:12 force you to accept what best promotes your growth.
Friends will betray and enemies will slander, until the
lesson is sufficient to exalt you; for "man's extremity
266:15 is God's opportunity." The author has experienced the
foregoing prophecy and its blessings. Thus He teaches
mortals to lay down their fleshliness and gain spirituality.
266:18 This is done through self-abnegation. Universal Love
is the divine way in Christian Science.
The sinner makes his own hell by doing evil, and the
266:21 saint his own heaven by doing right. The opposite per-
secutions of material sense, aiding evil with evil, would
deceive the very elect.
Beatific presence
266:24 Mortals must follow Jesus' sayings and his demonstra-
tions, which dominate the flesh. Perfect and infinite
Mind enthroned is heaven. The evil beliefs
266:27 which originate in mortals are hell. Man is the
idea of Spirit; he reflects the beatific presence, illuming
the universe with light. Man is deathless, spiritual. He
266:30 is above sin or frailty. He does not cross the barriers
of time into the vast forever of Life, but he coexists with
God and the universe.
The infinitude of God
267:1 Every object in material thought will be destroyed, but
the spiritual idea, whose substance is in Mind, is eternal.
267:3 The offspring of God start not from matter
or ephemeral dust. They are in and of Spirit,
divine Mind, and so forever continue. God is one. The
267:6 allness of Deity is His oneness. Generically man is one,
and specifically man means all men.
It is generally conceded that God is Father, eternal, self-
267:9 created, infinite. If this is so, the forever Father must
have had children prior to Adam. The great I AM made
all "that was made." Hence man and the spiritual uni-
267:12 verse coexist with God.
Christian Scientists understand that, in a religious
sense, they have the same authority for the appellative
267:15 mother, as for that of brother and sister. Jesus said:
"For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which
is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and
267:18 mother."
Waymarks to eternal Truth
When examined in the light of divine Science, mortals
present more than is detected upon the surface, since
267:21 inverted thoughts and erroneous beliefs must
be counterfeits of Truth. Thought is bor-
rowed from a higher source than matter, and
267:24 by reversal, errors serve as waymarks to the one Mind,
in which all error disappears in celestial Truth. The
robes of Spirit are "white and glistering," like the raiment
267:27 of Christ. Even in this world, therefore, "let thy gar-
ments be always white." "Blessed is the man that en-
dureth [overcometh] temptation: for when he is tried,
267:30 [proved faithful], he shall receive the crown of life,
which the Lord hath promised to them that love him."
(James i. 12.)
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,
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