That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life, . . . That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. - JOHN, First Epistle.
Here I stand. I can do no otherwise; so help me God! Amen!
- MARTIN LUTHER.
Materialistic challenge
268:1 In the material world, thought has brought to light
with great rapidity many useful wonders. With
268:3 like activity have thought's swift pinions been rising
towards the realm of the real, to the spiritual
cause of those lower things which give im-
268:6 pulse to inquiry. Belief in a material basis, from
which may be deduced all rationality, is slowly yielding
to the idea of a metaphysical basis, looking away from
268:9 matter to Mind as the cause of every effect. Material-
istic hypotheses challenge metaphysics to meet in final
combat. In this revolutionary period, like the shep-
268:12 herd-boy with his sling, woman goes forth to battle with
Goliath.
Confusion confounded
In this final struggle for supremacy, semi-metaphysi-
268:15 cal systems afford no substantial aid to scientific meta-
physics, for their arguments are based on
the false testimony of the material senses as
268:18 well as on the facts of Mind. These semi-metaphysical
269:1 systems are one and all pantheistic, and savor of Pan-
demonium, a house divided against itself.
269:3 From first to last the supposed coexistence of Mind
and matter and the mingling of good and evil have re-
sulted from the philosophy of the serpent. Jesus' demon-
269:6 strations sift the chaff from the wheat, and unfold the
unity and the reality of good, the unreality, the nothing-
ness, of evil.
Divine metaphysics
269:9 Human philosophy has made God manlike. Christian
Science makes man Godlike. The first is error; the latter
is truth. Metaphysics is above physics, and
269:12 matter does not enter into metaphysical prem-
ises or conclusions. The categories of metaphysics rest
on one basis, the divine Mind. Metaphysics resolves
269:15 things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense
for the ideas of Soul.
These ideas are perfectly real and tangible to spiritual
269:18 consciousness, and they have this, advantage over the ob-
jects and thoughts of material sense, - they are good and
eternal.
Biblical foundations
269:21 The testimony of the material senses is neither abso-
lute nor divine. I therefore plant myself unreservedly
on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of
269:24 the prophets, and on the testimony of the
Science of Mind. Other foundations there are none.
All other systems - systems based wholly or partly on
269:27 knowledge gained through the material senses - are reeds
shaken by the wind, not houses built on the rock.
Rejected theories
The theories I combat are these: (1) that all is matter;
269:30 (2) that matter originates in Mind, and is as
real as Mind, possessing intelligence and life.
The first theory, that matter is everything, is quite as
270:1 reasonable as the second, that Mind and matter coexist
and cooperate. One only of the following statements can
270:3 be true: (1) that everything is matter; (2) that every-
thing is Mind. Which one is it?
Matter and Mind are opposites. One is contrary to
270:6 the other in its very nature and essence; hence both can-
not be real. If one is real, the other must be unreal. Only
by understanding that there is but one power, - not two
270:9 powers, matter and Mind, - are scientific and logical
conclusions reached. Few deny the hypothesis that in-
telligence, apart from man and matter, governs the uni-
270:12 verse; and it is generally admitted that this intelligence
is the eternal Mind or divine principle, Love.
Prophetic ignorance
The prophets of old looked for something higher than
270:15 the systems of their times; hence their fore-
sight of the new dispensation of Truth. But
they knew not what would be the precise nature of the
270:18 teaching and demonstration of God, divine Mind, in His
more infinite meanings, - the demonstration which was
to destroy sin, sickness, and death, establish the definition
270:21 of omnipotence, and maintain the Science of Spirit.
The pride of priesthood is the prince of this world. It
has nothing in Christ. Meekness and charity have divine
270:24 authority. Mortals think wickedly; consequently they
are wicked. They think sickly thoughts, and so become
sick. If sin makes sinners, Truth and Love alone can
270:27 unmake them. If a sense of disease produces suffering
and a sense of ease antidotes suffering, disease is mental,
not material. Hence the fact that the human mind alone
270:30 suffers, is sick, and that the divine Mind alone heals.
The life of Christ Jesus was not miraculous, but it was
indigenous to his spirituality, - the good soil wherein the
271:1 seed of Truth springs up and bears much fruit. Christ's
Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing
271:3 in all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with
the Scriptures and uniting all periods in the design of
God. Neither emasculation, illusion, nor insubordination
271:6 exists in divine Science.
Jesus instructed his disciples whereby to heal the sick
through Mind instead of matter. He knew that the phi-
271:9 losophy, Science, and proof of Christianity were in Truth,
casting out all inharmony.
Studious disciples
In Latin the word rendered /disciple/ signifies student;
271:12 and the word indicates that the power of healing was not
a supernatural gift to those learners, but the
result of their cultivated spiritual understand-
271:15 ing of the divine Science, which their Master demonstrated
by healing the sick and sinning. Hence the universal ap-
plication of his saying: "Neither pray I for these alone,
271:18 but for them also which shall believe on me [understand
me] through their word."
New Testament basis
Our Master said, "But the Comforter . . . shall
271:21 teach you all things." When the Science of Christianity
appears, it will lead you into all truth. The
Sermon on the Mount is the essence of this
271:24 Science, and the eternal life, not the death of Jesus, is
its outcome.
Modern evangel
Those, who are willing to leave their nets or to cast
271:27 them on the right side for Truth, have the opportunity
now, as aforetime, to learn and to practise
Christian healing. The Scriptures contain it.
271:30 The spiritual import of the Word imparts this power.
But, as Paul says, "How shall they hear without a
preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be
272:1 sent?" If sent, how shall they preach, convert, and heal
multitudes, except the people hear?
Spirituality of Scripture
272:3 The spiritual sense of truth must be gained before
Truth can be understood. This sense is assimilated only
as we are honest, unselfish, loving, and meek.
272:6 In the soil of an "honest and good heart" the
seed must be sown; else it beareth not much fruit, for the
swinish element in human nature uproots it. Jesus said:
272:9 "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures." The spiritual
sense of the Scriptures brings out the scientific sense, and
is the new tongue referred to in the last chapter of Mark's
272:12 Gospel.
Jesus' parable of "the sower" shows the care our
Master took not to impart to dull ears and gross hearts
272:15 the spiritual teachings which dulness and grossness could
not accept. Reading the thoughts of the people, he said:
"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast
272:18 ye your pearls before swine."
Unspiritual contrasts
It is the spiritualization of thought and Christianization
of daily life, in contrast with the results of the ghastly farce
272:21 of material existence; it is chastity and purity,
in contrast with the downward tendencies
and earthward gravitation of sensualism and impurity,
272:24 which really attest the divine origin and operation of Chris-
tian Science. The triumphs of Christian Science are re-
corded in the destruction of error and evil, from which are
272:27 propagated the dismal beliefs of sin, sickness, and death.
God the Principle of all
The divine Principle of the universe must interpret the
universe. God is the divine Principle of all that repre-
272:30 sents Him and of all that really exists. Chris-
tian Science, as demonstrated by Jesus, alone
reveals the natural, divine Principle of Science.
273:1 Matter and its claims of sin, sickness, and death are
contrary to God, and cannot emanate from Him. There
273:3 is no /material/ truth. The physical senses can take no
cognizance of God and spiritual Truth. Human belief
has sought out many inventions, but not one of them
273:6 can solve the problem of being without the divine Prin-
ciple of divine Science. Deductions from material hy-
potheses are not scientific. They differ from real Science
273:9 because they are not based on the divine law.
Science /versus/ sense
Divine Science reverses the false testimony of the ma-
terial senses, and thus tears away the foun-
273:12 dations of error. Hence the enmity between
Science and the senses, and the impossibility
of attaining perfect understanding till the errors of sense
273:15 are eliminated.
The so-called laws of matter and of medical science have
never made mortals whole, harmonious, and immortal.
273:18 Man is harmonious when governed by Soul. Hence the
importance of understanding the truth of being, which
reveals the laws of spiritual existence.
Spiritual law the only law
273:21 God never ordained a material law to annul the spiritual
law. If there were such a material law, it would oppose
the supremacy of Spirit, God, and impugn the
273:24 wisdom of the creator. Jesus walked on the
waves, fed the multitude, healed the sick, and raised the
dead in direct opposition to material laws. His acts were
273:27 the demonstration of Science, overcoming the false claims
of material sense or law.
Material knowledge illusive
Science shows that material, conflicting mortal opin-
273:30 ions and beliefs emit the effects of error at all times, but
this atmosphere of mortal mind cannot be destructive to
morals and health when it is opposed promptly and per-
274:1 sistently by Christian Science. Truth and Love antidote
this mental miasma, and thus invigorate and sustain ex-
274:3 istence. Unnecessary knowledge gained from
the five senses is only temporal, - the concep-
tion of mortal mind, the offspring of sense, not
274:6 of Soul, Spirit, - and symbolizes all that is evil and
perishable. /Natural science/, as it is commonly called, is
not really natural nor scientific, because it is deduced from
274:9 the evidence of the material senses. Ideas, on the con-
trary, are born of Spirit, and are not mere inferences
drawn from material premises.
Five senses deceptive
274:12 The senses of Spirit abide in Love, and they demon-
strate Truth and Life. Hence Christianity and the Sci-
ence which expounds it are based on spiritual
274:15 understanding, and they supersede the so-
called laws of matter. Jesus demonstrated this great
verity. When what we erroneously term the five physical
274:18 senses are misdirected, they are simply the manifested
beliefs of mortal mind, which affirm that life, substance,
and intelligence are material, instead of spiritual. These
274:21 false beliefs and their products constitute the flesh, and
the flesh wars against Spirit.
Impossible partnership
Divine Science is absolute, and permits no half-way
274:24 position in learning its Principle and rule - establishing
it by demonstration. The conventional firm,
called matter and mind, God never formed.
274:27 Science and understanding, governed by the unerring and
eternal Mind, destroy the imaginary copartnership, matter
and mind, formed only to be destroyed in a manner and
274:30 at a period as yet unknown. This suppositional partner-
ship is already obsolete, for matter, examined in the light
of divine metaphysics, disappears.
Spirit the starting-point
275:1 Matter has no life to lose, and Spirit never dies. A
partnership of mind with matter would ignore omnipres-
275:3 ent and omnipotent Mind. This shows that
matter did not originate in God, Spirit, and is
not eternal. Therefore matter is neither substantial, living,
275:6 nor intelligent. The starting-point of divine Science is
that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other
might nor Mind, - that God is Love, and therefore He
275:9 is divine Principle.
Divine synonyms
To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science,
you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle
275:12 of all that really is. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love,
combine as one, - and are the Scriptural names
for God. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, im-
275:15 mortality, cause, and effect belong to God. These are
His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite
divine Principle, Love. No wisdom is wise but His
275:18 wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life
but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows.
The divine completeness
Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understand-
275:21 ing, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is
God, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience,
- that is, all power, all presence, all Science.
275:24 Hence all is in reality the manifestation of Mind.
Our material human theories are destitute of Science.
The true understanding of God is spiritual. It robs the
275:27 grave of victory. It destroys the false evidence that mis-
leads thought and points to other gods, or other so-called
powers, such as matter, disease, sin, and death, superior
275:30 or contrary to the one Spirit.
Truth, spiritually discerned, is scientifically understood.
It casts out error and heals the sick.
Universal brotherhood
276:1 Having one God, one Mind, unfolds the power that
heals the sick, and fulfils these sayings of Scripture, "I
276:3 am the Lord that healeth thee," and "I have
found a ransom." When the divine precepts
are understood, they unfold the foundation of fellowship,
276:6 in which one mind is not at war with another, but all have
one Spirit, God, one intelligent source, in accordance with
the Scriptural command: "Let this Mind be in you,
276:9 which was also in Christ Jesus." Man and his Maker
are correlated in divine Science, and real consciousness
is cognizant only of the things of God.
276:12 The realization that all inharmony is unreal brings
objects and thoughts into human view in their true light,
and presents them as beautiful and immortal. Harmony
276:15 in man is as real and immortal as in music. Discord is
unreal and mortal.
Perfection requisite
If God is admitted to be the only Mind and Life,
276:18 there ceases to be any opportunity for sin and death.
When we learn in Science how to be perfect
even as our Father in heaven is perfect,
276:21 thought is turned into new and healthy channels, -
towards the contemplation of things immortal and away
from materiality to the Principle of the universe, includ-
276:24 ing harmonious man.
Material beliefs and spiritual understanding never
mingle. The latter destroys the former. Discord is the
276:27 /nothingness/ named error. Harmony is the /somethingness/
named Truth.
Like evolving like
Nature and revelation inform us that like produces
276:30 like. Divine Science does not gather grapes
from thorns nor figs from thistles. Intelli-
gence never produces non-intelligence; but matter is
277:1 ever non-intelligent and therefore cannot spring from
intelligence. To all that is unlike unerring and eternal
277:3 Mind, this Mind saith, "Thou shalt surely die;" and else-
where the Scripture says that dust returns to dust. The
non-intelligent relapses into its own unreality. Matter
277:6 never produces mind. The immortal never produces the
mortal. Good cannot result in evil. As God Himself is
good and is Spirit, goodness and spirituality must be im-
277:9 mortal. Their opposites, evil and matter, are mortal
error, and error has no creator. If goodness and spirit-
uality are real, evil and materiality are unreal and can-
277:12 not be the outcome of an infinite God, good.
Natural history presents vegetables and animals as preserving their original species, - like reproducing like. 277:15 A mineral is not produced by a vegetable nor the man by the brute. In reproduction, the order of genus and species is preserved throughout the entire round of nature. 277:18 This points to the spiritual truth and Science of being. Error relies upon a reversal of this order, asserts that Spirit produces matter and matter produces all the ills 277:21 of flesh, and therefore that good is the origin of evil. These suppositions contradict even the order of material so-called science.
Material error
277:24 The realm of the real is Spirit. The unlikeness of Spirit
is matter, and the opposite of the real is not divine, - it is
a human concept. Matter is an error of state-
277:27 ment. This error in the premise leads to errors
in the conclusion in every statement into which it enters.
Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is immor-
277:30 tal, for matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phe-
nomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always
erroneous.
Substance /versus/ supposition
278:1 Is Spirit the source or creator of matter? Science re-
veals nothing in Spirit out of which to create matter.
278:3 Divine metaphysics explains away matter.
Spirit is the only substance and consciousness
recognized by divine Science. The material
278:6 senses oppose this, but there are no material senses, for
matter has no mind. In Spirit there is no matter, even
as in Truth there is no error, and in good no evil. It is
278:9 a false supposition, the notion that there is real substance-
matter, the opposite of Spirit. Spirit, God, is infinite,
all. Spirit can have no opposite.
One cause supreme
278:12 That matter is substantial or has life and sensation, is
one of the false beliefs of mortals, and exists only in a
supposititious mortal consciousness. Hence,
278:15 as we approach Spirit and Truth, we lose the
consciousness of matter. The admission that there can
be material substance requires another admission, -
278:18 namely, that Spirit is not infinite and that matter is self-
creative, self-existent, and eternal. From this it would
follow that there are two eternal causes, warring forever
278:21 with each other; and yet we say that Spirit is supreme
and all-presence.
The belief of the eternity of matter contradicts the
278:24 demonstration of life as Spirit, and leads to the conclu-
sion that if man is material, he originated in matter and
must return to dust, - logic which would prove his an-
278:27 nihilation.
Substance is Spirit
All that we term sin, sickness, and death is a mortal
belief. We define matter as error, because it is the oppo-
278:30 site of life, substance, and intelligence. Mat-
ter, with its mortality, cannot be substantial
if Spirit is substantial and eternal. Which ought to
279:1 be substance to us, - the erring, changing, and dying,
the mutable and mortal, or the unerring, immutable,
279:3 and immortal? A New Testament writer plainly de-
scribes faith, a quality of mind, as "the /substance/ of things
hoped for."
Material mortality
279:6 The doom of matter establishes the conclusion that
matter, slime, or protoplasm never originated
in the immortal Mind, and is therefore not
279:9 eternal. Matter is neither created by Mind nor for the
manifestation and support of Mind.
Spiritual tangibility
Ideas are tangible and real to immortal consciousness,
279:12 and they have the advantage of being eternal.
Spirit and matter can neither coexist nor co-
operate, and one can no more create the other than
279:15 Truth can create error, or /vice versa/.
In proportion as the belief disappears that life and in-
telligence are in or of matter, the immortal facts of
279:18 being are seen, and their only idea or intelligence is
in God. Spirit is reached only through the understand-
ing and demonstration of eternal Life and Truth and
279:21 Love.
Pantheistic tendencies
Every system of human philosophy, doctrine, and
medicine is more or less infected with the pantheistic
279:24 belief that there is mind in matter; but this
belief contradicts alike revelation and right
reasoning. A logical and scientific conclusion is reached
279:27 only through the knowledge that there are not two
bases of being, matter and mind, but one alone, -
Mind.
279:30 Pantheism, starting from a material sense of God, seeks cause in effect, Principle in its idea, and life and intelligence in matter.
The things of God are beautiful
280:1 In the infinitude of Mind, matter must be unknown.
Symbols and elements of discord and decay are not prod-
280:3 ucts of the infinite, perfect, and eternal /All/.
From Love and from the light and harmony
which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections
280:6 of good can come. All things beautiful and harmless are
ideas of Mind. Mind creates and multiplies them, and
the product must be mental.
280:9 Finite belief can never do justice to Truth in any direc-
tion. Finite belief limits all things, and would compress
Mind, which is infinite, beneath a skull bone. Such be-
280:12 lief can neither apprehend nor worship the infinite; and
to accommodate its finite sense of the divisibility of Soul
and substance, it seeks to divide the one Spirit into per-
280:15 sons and souls.
Belief in many gods
Through this error, human belief comes to have "gods
many and lords many." Moses declared as Jehovah's
280:18 first command of the Ten: "Thou shalt have
no other gods before me!" But behold the
zeal of belief to establish the opposite error of many
280:21 minds. The argument of the serpent in the allegory, "Ye
shall be as gods," urges through every avenue the belief
that Soul is in body, and that infinite Spirit, and Life, is
280:24 in finite forms.
Sensationless body
Rightly understood, instead of possessing a sentient
material form, man has a sensationless body; and God,
280:27 the Soul of man and of all existence, being
perpetual in His own individuality, harmony,
and immortality, imparts and perpetuates these qualities
280:30 in man, - through Mind, not matter. The only excuse
for entertaining human opinions and rejecting the Science
of being is our mortal ignorance of Spirit, - ignorance
281:1 which yields only to the understanding of divine Science,
the understanding by which we enter into the kingdom
281:3 of Truth on earth and learn that Spirit is infinite and
supreme. Spirit and matter no more commingle than
light and darkness. When one appears, the other dis-
281:6 appears.
God and His image
Error presupposes man to be both mind and matter.
Divine Science contradicts the corporeal senses, rebukes
281:9 mortal belief, and asks: What is the Ego,
whence its origin and what its destiny? The
Ego-man is the reflection of the Ego-God; the Ego-man
281:12 is the image and likeness of perfect Mind, Spirit, divine
Principle.
The one Ego, the one Mind or Spirit called God, is
281:15 infinite individuality, which supplies all form and come-
liness and which reflects reality and divinity in individual
spiritual man and things.
281:18 The mind supposed to exist in matter or beneath a
skull bone is a myth, a misconceived sense and false
conception as to man and Mind. When we put off the
281:21 false sense for the true, and see that sin and mortality
have neither Principle nor permanency, we shall learn
that sin and mortality are without actual origin or right-
281:24 ful existence. They are native nothingness, out of which
error would simulate creation through a man formed from
dust.
The true new idea
281:27 Divine Science does not put new wine into old bottles,
Soul into matter, nor the infinite into the finite. Our
false views of matter perish as we grasp
281:30 the facts of Spirit. The old belief must be
cast out or the new idea will be spilled, and the in-
spiration, which is to change our standpoint, will be
282:1 lost. Now, as of old, Truth casts out evils and heals
the sick.
Figures of being
282:3 The real Life, or Mind, and its opposite, the so-called
material life and mind, are figured by two geometrical
symbols, a circle or sphere and a straight
282:6 line. The circle represents the infinite with-
out beginning or end; the straight line represents the
finite, which has both beginning and end. The sphere
282:9 represents good, the self-existent and eternal individuality
or Mind; the straight line represents evil, a belief in
a self-made and temporary material existence. Eternal
282:12 Mind and temporary material existence never unite in
figure or in fact.
Opposite symbols
A straight line finds no abiding-place in a curve, and a
282:15 curve finds no adjustment to a straight line. Similarly,
matter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has
no place in matter. Truth has no home in
282:18 error, and error has no foothold in Truth. Mind cannot
pass into non-intelligence and matter, nor can non-intel-
ligence become Soul. At no point can these opposites
282:21 mingle or unite. Even though they seem to touch, one
is still a curve and the other a straight line.
There is no inherent power in matter; for all that is
282:24 material is a material, human, mortal thought, always
governing itself erroneously.
Truth is the intelligence of immortal Mind. Error is
282:27 the so-called intelligence of mortal mind.
Truth is not inverted
Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of
God or God's absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither
282:30 Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the
Father. The rule of inversion infers from
error its opposite, Truth; but Truth is the light which
283:1 dispels error. As mortals begin to understand Spirit,
they give up the belief that there is any true existence
283:3 apart from God.
Source of all life and action
Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no
inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious
283:6 action. Mind is the same Life, Love, and wis-
dom "yesterday, and to-day, and forever."
Matter and its effects - sin, sickness, and
283:9 death - are states of mortal mind which act, react, and
then come to a stop. They are not facts of Mind. They
are not ideas, but illusions. Principle is absolute. It
283:12 admits of no error, but rests upon understanding.
But what say prevalent theories? They insist that
Life, or God, is one and the same with material life so-
283:15 called. They speak of both Truth and error as /mind/,
and of good and evil as /spirit/. They claim that to be
life which is but the objective state of material sense, -
283:18 such as the structural life of the tree and of material
man, - and deem this the manifestation of the one Life,
God.
Spiritual structure
283:21 This false belief as to what really constitutes life so
detracts from God's character and nature, that the true
sense of His power is lost to all who cling to
283:24 this falsity. The divine Principle, or Life, can-
not be practically demonstrated in length of days, as it
was by the patriarchs, unless its Science be accurately
283:27 stated. We must receive the divine Principle in the under-
standing, and live it in daily life; and unless we so do, we
can no more demonstrate Science, than we can teach and
283:30 illustrate geometry by calling a curve a straight line or a
straight line a sphere.
Are mentality, immortality, consciousness, resident in
284:1 matter? It is not rational to say that Mind is infinite,
but dwells in finiteness, - in matter, - or that matter is
284:3 infinite and the medium of Mind.
Mind never limited
If God were limited to man or matter, or if the infinite
could be circumscribed within the finite, God would be
284:6 corporeal, and unlimited Mind would seem
to spring from a limited body; but this is an
impossibility. Infinite Mind can have no starting-point,
284:9 and can return to no limit. It can never be in bonds,
nor be fully manifested through corporeality.
Material recognition impossible
Is God's image or likeness matter, or a mortal, sin,
284:12 sickness, and death? Can matter recognize Mind?
Can infinite Mind recognize matter? Can the
infinite dwell in the finite or know aught un-
284:15 like the infinite? Can Deity be known through
the material senses? Can the material senses, which re-
ceive no direct evidence of Spirit, give correct testimony
284:18 as to spiritual life, truth, and love?
The answer to all these questions must forever be in
the negative.
Our physical insensibility to Spirit
284:21 The physical senses can obtain no proof of God. They
can neither see Spirit through the eye nor hear it through
the ear, nor can they feel, taste, or smell Spirit.
284:24 Even the more subtile and misnamed ma-
terial elements are beyond the cognizance
of these senses, and are known only by the effects com-
284:27 monly attributed to them.
According to Christian Science, the only real senses
of man are spiritual, emanating from divine Mind.
284:30 Thought passes from God to man, but neither sensation
nor report goes from material body to Mind. The in-
tercommunication is always from God to His idea, man.
285:1 Matter is not sentient and cannot be cognizant of good
or of evil, of pleasure or of pain. Man's individu-
285:3 ality is not material. This Science of being obtains not
alone hereafter in what men call Paradise, but here
and now; it is the great fact of being for time and
285:6 eternity.
The human counterfeit
What, then, is the material personality which suffers,
sins, and dies? It is not man, the image and likeness
285:9 of God, but man's counterfeit, the inverted
likeness, the /unlikeness/ called sin, sickness,
and death. The unreality of the claim that a mortal is
285:12 the true image of God is illustrated by the opposite na-
tures of Spirit and matter, Mind and body, for one is
intelligence while the other is non-intelligence.
Material misconceptions
285:15 Is God a physical personality? Spirit is not physical.
The belief that a material body is man is a false con-
ception of man. The time has come for a
285:18 finite conception of the infinite and of a ma-
terial body as the seat of Mind to give place
to a diviner sense of intelligence and its manifestations,
285:21 to the better understanding that Science gives of the
Supreme Being, or divine Principle, and idea.
Salvation is through reform
By interpreting God as a corporeal Saviour but not as
285:24 the saving Principle, or divine Love, we shall continue
to seek salvation through pardon and not
through reform, and resort to matter instead
285:27 of Spirit for the cure of the sick. As mortals
reach, through knowledge of Christian Science, a higher
sense, they will seek to learn, not from matter, but from
285:30 the divine Principle, God, how to demonstrate the Christ,
Truth, as the healing and saving power.
It is essential to understand, instead of believe, what
286:1 relates most nearly to the happiness of being. To seek
Truth through belief in a human doctrine is not to un-
286:3 derstand the infinite. We must not seek the immutable
and immortal through the finite, mutable, and mortal,
and so depend upon belief instead of demonstration, for
286:6 this is fatal to a knowledge of Science. The understand-
ing of Truth gives full faith in Truth, and spiritual un-
derstanding is better than all burnt offerings.
286:9 The Master said, "No man cometh unto the Father
[the divine Principle of being] but by me," Christ,
Life, Truth, Love; for Christ says, "I am the way."
286:12 Physical causation was put aside from first to
last by this original man, Jesus. He knew that the
divine. Principle, Love, creates and governs all that
286:15 is real.
Goodness a portion of God
In the Saxon and twenty other tongues /good/ is the term
for God. The Scriptures declare all that He
286:18 made to be good, like Himself, - good in
Principle and in idea. Therefore the spiritual
universe is good, and reflects God as He is.
Spiritual thoughts
286:21 God's thoughts are perfect and eternal, are substance
and Life. Material and temporal thoughts are human,
involving error, and since God, Spirit, is the
286:24 only cause, they lack a divine cause. The
temporal and material are not then creations of Spirit.
They are but counterfeits of the spiritual and eternal.
286:27 Transitory thoughts are the antipodes of everlasting
Truth, though (by the supposition of opposite qualities)
error must also say, "I am true." But by this saying
286:30 error, the lie, destroys itself.
Sin, sickness, and death are comprised in human ma-
terial belief, and belong not to the divine Mind. They
287:1 are without a real origin or existence. They have neither
Principle nor permanence, but belong, with all that is
287:3 material and temporal, to the nothingness of error, which
simulates the creations of Truth. All creations of Spirit
are eternal; but creations of matter must return to dust.
287:6 Error supposes man to be both mental and material.
Divine Science contradicts this postulate and maintains
man's spiritual identity.
Divine allness
287:9 We call the absence of Truth, /error/. Truth and error
are unlike. In Science, Truth is divine, and the /infinite/
God can have no unlikeness. Did God, Truth,
287:12 create error? No! "Doth a fountain send
forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?" God
being everywhere and all-inclusive, how can He be absent
287:15 or suggest the absence of omnipresence and omnipotence?
How can there be more than /all/?
Neither understanding nor truth accompanies error,
287:18 nor is error the offshoot of Mind. Evil calls itself some-
thing, when it is nothing. It saith, "I am man, but I am
not the image and likeness of God;" whereas the Scrip-
287:21 tures declare that man was made in God's likeness.
Error unveiled
Error is false, mortal belief; it is illusion, without spir-
itual identity or foundation, and it has no real existence.
287:24 The supposition that life, substance, and in-
telligence are /in/ matter, or /of/ it, is an error.
Matter is neither a thing nor a person, but merely the
287:27 objective supposition of Spirit's opposite. The five mate-
rial senses testify to truth and error as united in a mind
both good and evil. Their false evidence will finally
287:30 yield to Truth, - to the recognition of Spirit and of the
spiritual creation.
Truth cannot be contaminated by error. The state-
288:1 ment that /Truth is real/ necessarily includes the correlated
statement, that /error, Truth's unlikeness, is unreal/.
The great conflict
288:3 The suppositional warfare between truth and error is
only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spir-
itual senses and the testimony of the material
288:6 senses, and this warfare between the Spirit and
flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the un-
derstanding of divine Love.
288:9 Superstition and understanding can never combine.
When the final physical and moral effects of Christian
Science are fully apprehended, the conflict between truth
288:12 and error, understanding and belief, Science and material
sense, foreshadowed by the prophets and inaugurated
by Jesus, will cease, and spiritual harmony reign. The
288:15 lightnings and thunderbolts of error may burst and flash
till the cloud is cleared and the tumult dies away in the
distance. Then the raindrops of divinity refresh the
288:18 earth. As St. Paul says: "There remaineth therefore
a rest to the people of God" (of Spirit).
The chief stones in the temple
The chief stones in the temple of Christian Science are
288:21 to be found in the following postulates: that Life is God,
good, and not evil; that Soul is sinless, not
to be found in the body; that Spirit is not, and
288:24 cannot be, materialized; that Life is not subject
to death; that the spiritual real man has no birth, no ma-
terial life, and no death.
The Christ-element
288:27 Science reveals the glorious possibilities of immortal
man, forever unlimited by the mortal senses.
The Christ-element in the Messiah made him
288:30 the Way-shower, Truth and Life.
The eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem to have
learned from error, and man's real existence as a child
289:1 of God comes to light. Truth demonstrated is eternal
life. Mortal man can never rise from the temporal /debris/
289:3 of error, belief in sin, sickness, and death, until he learns
that God is the only Life. The belief that life and sensa-
tion are in the body should be overcome by the under-
289:6 standing of what constitutes man as the image of God.
Then Spirit will have overcome the flesh.
Wickedness is not man
A wicked mortal is not the idea of God. He is little
289:9 else than the expression of error. To suppose that sin,
lust, hatred, envy, hypocrisy, revenge, have life
abiding in them, is a terrible mistake. Life
289:12 and life's idea, Truth and Truth's idea, never make men
sick, sinful, or mortal.
Death but an illusion
The fact that the Christ, or Truth, overcame and still
289:15 overcomes death proves the "king of terrors" to be but
a mortal belief, or error, which Truth destroys
with the spiritual evidences of Life; and this
289:18 shows that what appears to the senses to be death is but a
mortal illusion, for to the real man and the real universe
there is no death-process.
289:21 The belief that matter has life results, by the universal
law of mortal mind, in a belief in death. So man, tree,
and flower are supposed to die; but the fact remains,
289:24 that God's universe is spiritual and immortal.
Spiritual offspring
The spiritual fact and the material belief of things are
contradictions; but the spiritual is true, and therefore the
289:27 material must be untrue. Life is not in matter.
Therefore it cannot be said to pass out of mat-
ter. Matter and death are mortal illusions. Spirit and
289:30 all things spiritual are the real and eternal.
Man is not the offspring of flesh, but of Spirit, - of
Life, not of matter. Because Life is God, Life must be
290:1 eternal, self-existent. Life is the everlasting I AM, the Be-
ing who was and is and shall be, whom nothing can erase.
Death no advantage
290:3 If the Principle, rule, and demonstration of man's being
are not in the least understood before what is termed death
overtakes mortals, they will rise no higher spir-
290:6 itually in the scale of existence on account of
that single experience, but will remain as material as be-
fore the transition, still seeking happiness through a ma-
290:9 terial, instead of through a spiritual sense of life, and from
selfish and inferior motives. That Life or Mind is finite
and physical or is manifested through brain and nerves,
290:12 is false. Hence Truth comes to destroy this error and
its effects, - sickness, sin, and death. To the spiritual
class, relates the Scripture: "On such the second death
290:15 hath no power."
Future purification
If the change called /death/ destroyed the belief in sin,
sickness, and death, happiness would be won at the mo-
290:18 ment of dissolution, and be forever permanent;
but this is not so. Perfection is gained only
by perfection. They who are unrighteous shall be un-
290:21 righteous still, until in divine Science Christ, Truth, re-
moves all ignorance and sin.
Sin is punished
The sin and error which possess us at the instant of
290:24 death do not cease at that moment, but endure until the
death of these errors. To be wholly spiritual,
man must be sinless, and he becomes thus only
290:27 when he reaches perfection. The murderer, though slain
in the act, does not thereby forsake sin. He is no more
spiritual for believing that his body died and learning that
290:30 his cruel mind died not. His thoughts are no purer until
evil is disarmed by good. His body is as material as his
mind, and /vice versa/.
291:1 The suppositions that sin is pardoned while unfor-
saken, that happiness can be genuine in the midst of
291:3 sin, that the so-called death of the body frees from sin,
and that God's pardon is aught but the destruction of
sin, - these are grave mistakes. We know that all will
291:6 be changed "in the twinkling of an eye," when the last
trump shall sound; but this last call of wisdom cannot
come till mortals have already yielded to each lesser call
291:9 in the growth of Christian character. Mortals need not
fancy that belief in the experience of death will awaken
them to glorified being.
Salvation and probation
291:12 Universal salvation rests on progression and probation,
and is unattainable without them. Heaven is not a local-
ity, but a divine state of Mind in which all the
291:15 manifestations of Mind are harmonious and
immortal, because sin is not there and man is
found having no righteousness of his own, but in posses-
291:18 sion of "the mind of the Lord," as the Scripture says.
"In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall
be." So we read in Ecclesiastes. This text has been
291:21 transformed into the popular proverb, "As the tree
falls, so it must lie." As man falleth asleep, so shall he
awake. As death findeth mortal man, so shall he be
291:24 after death, until probation and growth shall effect the
needed change. Mind never becomes dust. No resur-
rection from the grave awaits Mind or Life, for the grave
291:27 has no power over either.
Day of judgment
No final judgment awaits mortals, for the judgment-
day of wisdom comes hourly and continually,
291:30 even the judgment by which mortal man is di-
vested of all material error. As for spiritual error there
is none.
292:1 When the last mortal fault is destroyed, then the final
trump will sound which will end the battle of Truth with
292:3 error and mortality; "but of that day and hour, knoweth
no man." Here prophecy pauses. Divine Science alone
can compass the heights and depths of being and reveal
292:6 the infinite.
Primitive error
Truth will be to us "the resurrection and the life" only
as it destroys all error and the belief that Mind, the only
292:9 immortality of man, can be fettered by the
body, and Life be controlled by death. A sin-
ful, sick, and dying mortal is not the likeness of God, the
292:12 perfect and eternal.
Matter is the primitive belief of mortal mind, because
this so-called mind has no cognizance of Spirit. To
292:15 mortal mind, matter is substantial, and evil is
real. The so-called senses of mortals are material.
Hence the so-called life of mortals is dependent on
292:18 matter.
Explaining the origin of material man and mortal mind,
Jesus said: "Why do ye not understand my speech?
292:21 Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your
father, the devil [evil], and the lusts of your father ye will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode
292:24 not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar,
and the father of it."
Immortal man
292:27 This carnal material mentality, misnamed /mind/, is
mortal. Therefore man would be annihilated, were it
not for the spiritual real man's indissoluble
292:30 connection with his God, which Jesus brought
to light. In his resurrection and ascension, Jesus showed
that a mortal man is not the real essence of manhood, and
293:1 that this unreal material mortality disappears in presence
of the reality.
Elementary electricity
293:3 Electricity is not a vital fluid, but the least material
form of illusive consciousness, - the material mindless-
ness, which forms no link between matter and
293:6 Mind, and which destroys itself. Matter and
mortal mind are but different strata of human belief. The
grosser substratum is named matter or body; the more
293:9 ethereal is called mind. This so-called mind and body
is the illusion called a mortal, a mind in matter. In reality
and in Science, both strata, mortal mind and mortal body,
293:12 are false representatives of man.
The material so-called gases and forces are counter-
feits of the spiritual forces of divine Mind, whose potency
293:15 is Truth, whose attraction is Love, whose adhesion and
cohesion are Life, perpetuating the eternal facts of being.
Electricity is the sharp surplus of materiality which coun-
293:18 terfeits the true essence of spirituality or truth, - the
great difference being that electricity is not intelligent,
while spiritual truth is Mind.
The counterfeit forces
293:21 There is no vapid fury of mortal mind - expressed in
earthquake, wind, wave, lightning, fire, bestial ferocity
- and this so-called mind is self-destroyed.
293:24 The manifestations of evil, which counterfeit
divine justice, are called in the Scriptures, "The anger
of the Lord." In reality, they show the self-destruction
293:27 of error or matter and point to matter's opposite, the
strength and permanency of Spirit. Christian Science
brings to light Truth and its supremacy, universal har-
293:30 mony, the entireness of God, good, and the nothingness
of evil.
Instruments of error
The five physical senses are the avenues and instru-
294:1 ments of human error, and they correspond with error.
These senses indicate the common human belief, that life,
294:3 substance, and intelligence are a unison of
matter with Spirit. This is pantheism, and
carries within itself the seeds of all error.
294:6 If man is both mind and matter, the loss of one finger would take away some quality and quantity of the man, for matter and man would be one.
Mortal verdict
294:9 The belief that matter thinks, sees, or feels is not more
real than the belief that matter enjoys and suffers. This
mortal belief, misnamed /man/, is error, saying:
294:12 "Matter has intelligence and sensation. Nerves
feel. Brain thinks and sins. The stomach can make a
man cross. Injury can cripple and matter can kill man."
294:15 This verdict of the so-called material senses victimizes
mortals, taught, as they are by physiology and pathology,
to revere false testimony, even the errors that are destroyed
294:18 by Truth through spiritual sense and Science.
Mythical pleasure
The lines of demarcation between immortal man, repre-
senting Spirit, and mortal man, representing the error that
294:21 life and intelligence are in matter, show the
pleasures and pains of matter to be myths, and
human belief in them to be the father of mythology, in
294:24 which matter is represented as divided into intelligent gods.
Man's genuine selfhood is recognizable only in what is
good and true. Man is neither self-made nor made by
294:27 mortals. God created man.
Severed members
The inebriate believes that there is pleasure in intoxica-
tion. The thief believes that he gains something by steal-
294:30 ing, and the hypocrite that he is hiding himself. The
Science of Mind corrects such mistakes, for Truth demon-
strates the falsity of error.
Severed members
295:1 The belief that a severed limb is aching in the old loca-
tion, the sensation seeming to be in nerves which
295:3 are no longer there, is an added proof of the un-
reliability of physical testimony.
Mortals unlike immortals
God creates and governs the universe, including man.
295:6 The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He
evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind
that makes them. Mortal mind would trans-
295:9 form the spiritual into the material, and then
recover man's original self in order to escape from the
mortality of this error. Mortals are not like immortals,
295:12 created in God's own image; but infinite Spirit being all,
mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact
and disappear, and the real sense of being, perfect and
295:15 forever intact, will appear.
Goodness transparent
The manifestation of God through mortals is as light
passing through the window-pane. The light and the
295:18 glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass
is less opaque than the walls. The mortal
mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that
295:21 one which has lost much materiality - much error - in
order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then,
like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides
295:24 the sun.
Brainology a myth
All that is called mortal thought is made up of error.
The theoretical mind is matter, named /brain/, or /mate/-
295:27 /rial consciousness/, the exact opposite of real
Mind, or Spirit. Brainology teaches that
mortals are created to suffer and die. It further
295:30 teaches that when man is dead, his immortal soul is
resurrected from death and mortality. Thus error the-
orizes that spirit is born of matter and returns to mat-
296:1 ter, and that man has a resurrection from dust; whereas
Science unfolds the eternal verity, that man is the spiritual,
296:3 eternal reflection of God.
Scientific purgation
Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of
mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for
296:6 the immortal. Either here or hereafter, suf-
fering or Science must destroy all illusions
regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense
296:9 and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off.
Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a
false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic
296:12 matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real,
and eternal.
The so-called pleasures and pains of matter perish,
296:15 and they must go out under the blaze of Truth, spiritual
sense, and the actuality of being. Mortal belief must lose
all satisfaction in error and sin in order to part with
296:18 them.
Whether mortals will learn this sooner or later, and
how long they will suffer the pangs of destruction, de-
296:21 pends upon the tenacity of error.
Mixed testimony
The knowledge obtained from the corporeal senses
leads to sin and death. When the evidence of Spirit
296:24 and matter, Truth and error, seems to com-
mingle, it rests upon foundations which time
is wearing away. Mortal mind judges by the testimony
296:27 of the material senses, until Science obliterates this false
testimony. An improved belief is one step out of error,
and aids in taking the next step and in understanding
296:30 the situation in Christian Science.
Belief an autocrat
Mortal belief is a liar from the beginning, not deserving
power. It says to mortals, "You are wretched!" and they
297:1 think they are so; and nothing can change this state, until
the belief changes. Mortal belief says, "You are happy!"
297:3 and mortals are so; and no circumstance can
alter the situation, until the belief on this sub-
ject changes. Human belief says to mortals, "You are
297:6 sick!" and this testimony manifests itself on the body as
sickness. It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for
an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into
297:9 the understanding of what constitutes health; for a change
in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the
physical condition.
Self-improvement
297:12 Erroneous belief is destroyed by truth. Change the
evidence, and that disappears which before seemed real
to this false belief, and the human conscious-
297:15 ness rises higher. Thus the reality of being
is attained and man found to be immortal. The only
fact concerning any material concept is, that it is neither
297:18 scientific nor eternal, but subject to change and dis-
solution.
Faith higher than belief
Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is
297:21 a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual
evidence, contradicting the testimony of mate-
rial sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the
297:24 ever-present, is becoming understood. Human thoughts
have their degrees of comparison. Some thoughts are
better than others. A belief in Truth is better than a
297:27 belief in error, but no mortal testimony is founded on the
divine rock. Mortal testimony can be shaken. Until
belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual under-
297:30 standing, human thought has little relation to the actual
or divine.
A mortal belief fulfils its own conditions. Sickness,
298:1 sin, and death are the vague realities of human conclu-
sions. Life, Truth, and Love are the realities of divine
298:3 Science. They dawn in faith and glow full-orbed in
spiritual understanding. As a cloud hides the sun it
cannot extinguish, so false belief silences for a while the
298:6 voice of immutable harmony, but false belief cannot de-
stroy Science armed with faith, hope, and fruition.