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 mortal 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.

Standpoints changed

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

Saving the inebriate

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

Uses of suffering

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

A bright outlook

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

Need and supply

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

Childlike receptivity

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

Narrow pathway

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

Paul's enlightenment

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

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

Abiding in Life

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

Indestructible being

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

Consecration required

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

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

Loving God supremely

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

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

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

Conversion of Saul

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

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

Image of the beast

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

Peremptory demands

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

Moral courage

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

Final destruction of error

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

Promise perpetual

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

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

Imitation of Jesus

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

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

Error destroyed, not pardoned

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

The hopeful outlook

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

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

The deific supremacy

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

The deific definitions

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

Evil obsolete

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

Life the creator

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

Allness of Spirit

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

The universal cause

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

Divine trinity

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

Father-Mother

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

The Son of God

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

Holy Ghost or Comforter

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

Christ Jesus

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

Messiah or Christ

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

The divine Principle and idea

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

Spiritual oneness

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

The Son's duality

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

Eternity of the Christ

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

Infinite Spirit

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

The only substance

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

Soul and Spirit one

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

The one divine Mind

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

The divine Ego

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

The real manhood

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

Indivisibility of the infinite

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

God the parent Mind

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

Man reflects the perfect God

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

Purity the path to perfection

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

True idea of man

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

Truth demonstrated

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

Adam not ideal man

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

Divine pardon

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

Evil not produced by God

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

Basis of health and immortality

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

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

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



CHAPTER XI - SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED

And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? - JESUS.

But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth in you. - PAUL.

341:1 THE strictures on this volume would condemn to oblivion the truth, which is raising up thousands 341:3 from helplessness to strength and elevating them from a theoretical to a practical Christianity. These criticisms are generally based on detached sentences or clauses sep- 341:6 arated from their context. Even the Scriptures, which grow in beauty and consistency from one grand root, ap- pear contradictory when subjected to such usage. Jesus 341:9 said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" [Truth].

Supported by facts

In Christian Science mere opinion is valueless. Proof 341:12 is essential to a due estimate of this subject. Sneers at the application of the word Science to Chris- tianity cannot prevent that from being scien- 341:15 tific which is based on divine Principle, demonstrated ac- cording to a divine given rule, and subjected to proof. The facts are so absolute and numerous in support of 341:18 Christian Science, that misrepresentation and denuncia- 342:1 tion cannot overthrow it. Paul alludes to "doubtful dis- putations." The hour has struck when proof and demon- 342:3 stration, instead of opinion and dogma, are summoned to the support of Christianity, "making wise the simple."

Commands of Jesus

In the result of some unqualified condemnations of 342:6 scientific Mind-healing, one may see with sorrow the sad effects on the sick of denying Truth. He that decries this Science does it presumptuously, 342:9 in the face of Bible history and in defiance of the direct command of Jesus, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel," to which command was added the promise 342:12 that his students should cast out evils and heal the sick. He bade the seventy disciples, as well as the twelve, heal the sick in any town where they should be hospitably 342:15 received.

Christianity scientific

If Christianity is not scientific, and Science is not of God, then there is no invariable law, and truth becomes 342:18 an accident. Shall it be denied that a system which works according to the Scriptures has Scriptural authority?

Argument of good works

342:21 Christian Science awakens the sinner, reclaims the infidel, and raises from the couch of pain the helpless invalid. It speaks to the dumb the words of 342:24 Truth, and they answer with rejoicing. It causes the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the blind to see. Who would be the first to disown the Christli- 342:27 ness of good works, when our Master says, "By their fruits ye shall know them"?

If Christian Scientists were teaching or practising 342:30 pharmacy or obstetrics according to the common theo- ries, no denunciations would follow them, even if their treatment resulted in the death of a patient. The people 343:1 are taught in such cases to say, Amen. Shall I then be smitten for healing and for teaching Truth as the Prin- 343:3 ciple of healing, and for proving my word by my deed? James said: "Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works."

Personal experience

343:6 Is not finite mind ignorant of God's method? This makes it doubly unfair to impugn and misrepresent the facts, although, without this cross-bearing, 343:9 one might not be able to say with the apostle, "None of these things move me." The sick, the halt, and the blind look up to Christian Science with blessings, 343:12 and Truth will not be forever hidden by unjust parody from the quickened sense of the people.

Proof from miracles

Jesus strips all disguise from error, when his teachings 343:15 are fully understood. By parable and argument he ex- plains the impossibility of good producing evil; and he also scientifically demonstrates this great 343:18 fact, proving by what are wrongly called miracles, that sin, sickness, and death are beliefs - illusive errors - which he could and did destroy. 343:21 It would sometimes seem as if truth were rejected be- cause meekness and spirituality are the conditions of its acceptance, while Christendom generally demands so 343:24 much less.

Example of the disciples

Anciently those apostles who were Jesus' students, as well as Paul who was not one of his students, healed 343:27 the sick and reformed the sinner by their religion. Hence the mistake which allows words, rather than works, to follow such examples! 343:30 Whoever is the first meekly and conscientiously to press along the line of gospel-healing, is often accounted a heretic.

Strong position

344:1 It is objected to Christian Science that it claims God as the only absolute Life and Soul, and man to be His 344:3 idea, - that is, His image. It should be added that this is claimed to represent the normal, healthful, and sinless condition of man in divine 344:6 Science, and that this claim is made because the Scrip- tures say that God has created man in His own image and after His likeness. Is it sacrilegious to assume that 344:9 God's likeness is not found in matter, sin, sickness, and death?

Efficacy may be attested

Were it more fully understood that Truth heals and 344:12 that error causes disease, the opponents of a demonstrable Science would perhaps mercifully withhold their misrepresentations, which harm the sick; 344:15 and until the enemies of Christian Science test its efficacy according to the rules which disclose its merits or de- merits, it would be just to observe the Scriptural precept, 344:18 "Judge not."

The one divine method

There are various methods of treating disease, which are not included in the commonly accepted systems; but 344:21 there is only one which should be presented to the whole world, and that is the Christian Science which Jesus preached and practised and left to us 344:24 as his rich legacy.

Why should one refuse to investigate this method of treating disease? Why support the popular systems 344:27 of medicine, when the physician may perchance be an infidel and may lose ninety-and-nine patients, while Christian Science cures its hundred? Is it because 344:30 allopathy and homoeopathy are more fashionable and less spiritual?

Omnipotence set forth

In the Bible the word Spirit is so commonly applied 345:1 to Deity, that Spirit and God are often regarded as syn- onymous terms; and it is thus they are uniformly used 345:3 and understood in Christian Science. As it is evident that the likeness of Spirit cannot be material, does it not follow that God cannot be in His 345:6 unlikeness and work through drugs to heal the sick? When the omnipotence of God is preached and His ab- soluteness is set forth, Christian sermons will heal the 345:9 sick.

Contradictions not found

It is sometimes said, in criticising Christian Science, that the mind which contradicts itself neither knows 345:12 itself nor what it is saying. It is indeed no small matter to know one's self; but in this volume of mine there are no contradictory 345:15 statements, - at least none which are apparent to those who understand its propositions well enough to pass judgment upon them. One who understands Christian 345:18 Science can heal the sick on the divine Principle of Chris- tian Science, and this practical proof is the only feasible evidence that one does understand this Science.

345:21 Anybody, who is able to perceive the incongruity be- tween God's idea and poor humanity, ought to be able to discern the distinction (made by Christian Science) 345:24 between God's man, made in His image, and the sinning race of Adam.

The apostle says: "For if a man think himself to be 345:27 something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." This thought of human, material nothingness, which Science inculcates, enrages the carnal mind and is the 345:30 main cause of the carnal mind's antagonism.

God's idea the ideal man

It is not the purpose of Christian Science to "educate the idea of God, or treat it for disease," as is alleged 346:1 by one critic. I regret that such criticism confounds man with Adam. When man is spoken of as made in God's 346:3 image, it is not sinful and sickly mortal man who is referred to, but the ideal man, reflecting God's likeness.

Nothingness of error

346:6 It is sometimes said that Christian Science teaches the nothingness of sin, sickness, and death, and then teaches how this nothingness is to be saved and healed. 346:9 The nothingness of nothing is plain; but we need to understand that error is nothing, and that its nothingness is not saved, but must be demonstrated in 346:12 order to prove the somethingness - yea, the allness - of Truth. It is self-evident that we are harmonious only as we cease to manifest evil or the belief that we suffer 346:15 from the sins of others. Disbelief in error destroys error, and leads to the discernment of Truth. There are no vacuums. How then can this demonstration be "fraught 346:18 with falsities painful to behold"?

Truth antidotes error

We treat error through the understanding of Truth, because Truth is error's antidote. If a dream ceases, it 346:21 is self-destroyed, and the terror is over. When a sufferer is convinced that there is no reality in his belief of pain, - because matter has no sensation, 346:24 hence pain in matter is a false belief, - how can he suffer longer? Do you feel the pain of tooth-pulling, when you believe that nitrous-oxide gas has made you unconscious? 346:27 Yet, in your concept, the tooth, the operation, and the forceps are unchanged.

Serving two masters

Material beliefs must be expelled to make room for 346:30 spiritual understanding. We cannot serve both God and mammon at the same time; but is not this what frail mortals are trying to do? Paul says: 347:1 "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." Who is ready to admit this?

347:3 It is said by one critic, that to verify this wonderful philosophy Christian Science declares that whatever is mortal or discordant has no origin, existence, nor real- 347:6 ness. Nothing really has Life but God, who is infinite Life; hence all is Life, and death has no dominion. This writer infers that if anything needs to be doctored, it 347:9 must be the one God, or Mind. Had he stated his syllo- gism correctly, the conclusion would be that there is noth- ing left to be doctored.

Essential element of Christianity

347:12 Critics should consider that the so-called mortal man is not the reality of man. Then they would behold the signs of Christ's coming. Christ, as the spir- 347:15 itual or true idea of God, comes now as of old, preaching the gospel to the poor, heal- ing the sick, and casting out evils. Is it error which 347:18 is restoring an essential element of Christianity, - namely, apostolic, divine healing? No; it is the Science of Christianity which is restoring it, and is the light 347:21 shining in darkness, which the darkness comprehends not.

If Christian Science takes away the popular gods, - 347:24 sin, sickness, and death, - it is Christ, Truth, who de- stroys these evils, and so proves their nothingness.

The dream that matter and error are something 347:27 must yield to reason and revelation. Then mortals will behold the nothingness of sickness and sin, and sin and sickness will disappear from consciousness. 347:30 The harmonious will appear real, and the inharmo- nious unreal. These critics will then see that error is indeed the nothingness, which they chide us for 348:1 naming nothing and which we desire neither to honor nor to fear.

348:3 Medical theories virtually admit the nothingness of hallucinations, even while treating them as disease; and who objects to this? Ought we not, then, to approve 348:6 any cure, which is effected by making the disease appear to be - what it really is - an illusion?

All disease a delusion

Here is the difficulty: it is not generally understood how 348:9 one disease can be just as much a delusion as another. It is a pity that the medical faculty and clergy have not learned this, for Jesus established 348:12 this foundational fact, when devils, delusions, were cast out and the dumb spake.

Elimination of sickness

Are we irreverent towards sin, or imputing too much 348:15 power to God, when we ascribe to Him almighty Life and Love? I deny His cooperation with evil, because I desire to have no faith in evil or in 348:18 any power but God, good. Is it not well to eliminate from so-called mortal mind that which, so long as it remains in mortal mind, will show itself in forms of sin, sickness, and 348:21 death? Instead of tenaciously defending the supposed rights of disease, while complaining of the suffering dis- ease brings, would it not be well to abandon the defence, 348:24 especially when by so doing our own condition can be im- proved and that of other persons as well?

Full fruitage yet to come

I have never supposed the world would immediately 348:27 witness the full fruitage of Christian Science, or that sin, disease, and death would not be believed for an indefinite time; but this I do aver, that, 348:30 as a result of teaching Christian Science, ethics and temperance have received all impulse, health has been restored, and longevity increased. If such are the pres- 349:1 ent fruits, what will the harvest be, when this Science is more generally understood?

Law and gospel

349:3 As Paul asked of the unfaithful in ancient days, so the rabbis of the present day ask concerning our heal- ing and teaching, "Through breaking the law, 349:6 dishonorest thou God?" We have the gospel, however, and our Master annulled material law by heal- ing contrary to it. We propose to follow the Master's 349:9 example. We should subordinate material law to spirit- ual law. Two essential points of Christian Science are, that neither Life nor man dies, and that God is not the 349:12 author of sickness.

Language inadequate

The chief difficulty in conveying the teachings of divine Science accurately to human thought lies in this, that like 349:15 all other languages, English is inadequate to the expression of spiritual conceptions and propositions, because one is obliged to use material terms 349:18 in dealing with spiritual ideas. The elucidation of Chris- tian Science lies in its spiritual sense, and this sense must be gained by its disciples in order to grasp the meaning of 349:21 this Science. Out of this condition grew the prophecy concerning the Christian apostles, "They shall speak with new tongues."

349:24 Speaking of the things of Spirit while dwelling on a material plane, material terms must be generally em- ployed. Mortal thought does not at once catch the 349:27 higher meaning, and can do so only as thought is edu- cated up to spiritual apprehension. To a certain extent this is equally true of all learning, even that which is 349:30 wholly material.

Substance spiritual

In Christian Science, substance is understood to be Spirit, while the opponents of Christian Science believe 350:1 substance to be matter. They think of matter as some- thing and almost the only thing, and of the things which 350:3 pertain to Spirit as next to nothing, or as very far removed from daily experience. Christian Science takes exactly the opposite view.

Both words and works

350:6 To understand all our Master's sayings as recorded in the New Testament, sayings infinitely important, his followers must grow into that stature of 350:9 manhood in Christ Jesus which enables them to interpret his spiritual meaning. Then they know how Truth casts out error and heals the sick. His 350:12 words were the offspring of his deeds, both of which must be understood. Unless the works are com- prehended which his words explained, the words are 350:15 blind.