CHAPTER XIV - RECAPITULATION

PAGE 465

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon

line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little. - ISAIAH.

THIS chapter is from the first edition of the author's

class-book, copyrighted in 1870. After much labor

and increased spiritual understanding, she revised that

treatise for this volume in 1875. Absolute Christian

Science pervades its statements, to elucidate scientific

metaphysics.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Question. - What is God?

Answer. - God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite

Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.

Question. - Are these terms synonymous?

Answer. - They are. They refer to one absolute God.

They are also intended to express the nature, essence, and

wholeness of Deity. The attributes of God are justice,

mercy, wisdom, goodness, and so on.

Question. - Is there more than one God or Principle?

Answer. - There is not. Principle and its idea is one,

and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-

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present Being, and His reflection is man and the universe.

Omni is adopted from the Latin adjective signifying all.

Hence God combines all-power or potency, all-science

or true knowledge, all-presence. The varied manifesta-

tions of Christian Science indicate Mind, never matter,

and have one Principle.

Real versus unreal

Question. - What are spirits and souls?

Answer. - To human belief, they are personalities

constituted of mind and matter, life and death, truth and

error, good and evil; but these contrasting

pairs of terms represent contraries, as Chris-

tian Science reveals, which neither dwell together nor

assimilate. Truth is immortal; error is mortal. Truth

is limitless; error is limited. Truth is intelligent; error

is non-intelligent. Moreover, Truth is real, and error is

unreal. This last statement contains the point you will

most reluctantly admit, although first and last it is the

most important to understand.

Mankind redeemed

The term souls or spirits is as improper as the term

gods. Soul or Spirit signifies Deity and nothing else.

There is no finite soul nor spirit. Soul or

Spirit means only one Mind, and cannot be

rendered in the plural. Heathen mythology and Jewish

theology have perpetuated the fallacy that intelligence,

soul, and life can be in matter; and idolatry and ritualism

are the outcome of all man-made beliefs. The Science

of Christianity comes with fan in hand to separate the

chaff from the wheat. Science will declare God aright,

and Christianity will demonstrate this declaration and

its divine Principle, making mankind better physically,

morally, and spiritually.

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Two chief commands

Question. - What are the demands of the Science of

Soul?

Answer. - The first demand of this Science is, " Thou

shalt have no other gods before me." This me is Spirit.

Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt

have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no

truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second

is like unto it, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one

Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love.

Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact

becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brother-

hood of man will be established. Having no other gods,

turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide

him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, hav-

ing that Mind which was also in Christ.

Soul not confined in body

Science reveals Spirit, Soul, as not in the body, and

God as not in man but as reflected by man. The greater

cannot be in the lesser. The belief that the

greater can be in the lesser is an error that

works ill. This is a leading point in the Science of Soul,

that Principle is not in its idea. Spirit, Soul, is not

confined in man, and is never in matter. We reason im-

perfectly from effect to cause, when we conclude that

matter is the effect of Spirit; but a priori reasoning

shows material existence to be enigmatical. Spirit gives

the true mental idea. We cannot interpret Spirit, Mind,

through matter. Matter neither sees, hears, nor feels.

Sinlessness of Mind, Soul

Reasoning from cause to effect in the Science of Mind,

we begin with Mind, which must be under-

stood through the idea which expresses it and

cannot be learned from its opposite, matter. Thus we

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arrive at Truth, or intelligence, which evolves its own

unerring idea and never can be coordinate with human

illusions. If Soul sinned, it would be mortal, for sin is

mortality's self, because it kills itself. If Truth is im-

mortal, error must be mortal, because error is unlike

Truth. Because Soul is immortal, Soul cannot sin, for

sin is not the eternal verity of being.

Question. - What is the scientific statement of being?

Answer. - There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor sub-

stance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite

manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal

Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and

eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is

God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore

man is not material; he is spiritual.

Spiritual synonyms

Question. - What is substance?

Answer. - Substance is that which is eternal and inca-

pable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are

substance, as the Scriptures use this word in

Hebrews: "The substance of things hoped

for, the evidence of things not seen." Spirit, the synonym

of Mind, Soul, or God, is the only real substance. The

spiritual universe, including individual man, is a com-

pound idea, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit.

Eternity of Life

Question. - What is Life?

Answer. - Life is divine Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit.

Life is without beginning and without end.

Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of

Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in

proportion as the other is recognized. Time is finite;

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eternity is forever infinite. Life is neither in nor of mat-

ter. What is termed matter is unknown to Spirit, which

includes in itself all substance and is Life eternal. Mat-

ter is a human concept. Life is divine Mind. Life is not

limited. Death and finiteness are unknown to Life. If

Life ever had a beginning, it would also have an ending.

Question. - What is intelligence?

Answer. - Intelligence is omniscience, omnipresence,

and omnipotence. It is the primal and eternal quality

of infinite Mind, of the triune Principle, - Life, Truth,

and Love, - named God.

True sense of infinitude

Question. - What is Mind?

Answer. - Mind is God. The exterminator of error

is the great truth that God, good, is the only Mind, and

that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind

- called devil or evil - is not Mind, is not

Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality. There

can be but one Mind, because there is but one God; and

if mortals claimed no other Mind and accepted no other,

sin would be unknown. We can have but one Mind, if

that one is infinite. We bury the sense of infinitude,

when we admit that, although God is infinite, evil has a

place in this infinity, for evil can have no place, where all

space is filled with God.

The sole governor

We lose the high signification of omnipotence, when

after admitting that God, or good, is omnipresent and

has all-power, we still believe there is another

power, named evil. This belief that there

is more than one mind is as pernicious to divine theology

as are ancient mythology and pagan idolatry. With

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one Father, even God, the whole family of man would

be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good,

the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth,

and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which

constitute divine Science. The supposed existence of

more than one mind was the basic error of idolatry. This

error assumed the loss of spiritual power, the loss of the

spiritual presence of Life as infinite Truth without an

unlikeness, and the loss of Love as ever present and

universal.

The divine standard of perfection

Divine Science explains the abstract statement that

there is one Mind by the following self-evident propo-

sition: If God, or good, is real, then evil, the

unlikeness of God, is unreal. And evil can

only seem to be real by giving reality to the

unreal. The children of God have but one Mind. How

can good lapse into evil, when God, the Mind of man,

never sins? The standard of perfection was originally

God and man. Has God taken down His own standard,

and has man fallen?

Indestructible relationship

God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle

of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection,

man, remains perfect. Man is the expression

of God's being. If there ever was a moment

when man did not express the divine perfec-

tion, then there was a moment when man did not express

God, and consequently a time when Deity was unex-

pressed - that is, without entity. If man has lost per-

fection, then he has lost his perfect Principle, the divine

Mind. If man ever existed without this perfect Principle

or Mind, then man's existence was a myth.

The relations of God and man, divine Principle and

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idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows

no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine

order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He cre-

ates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged

in its eternal history.

Celestial evidence

The unlikeness of Truth, - named error, - the op-

posite of Science, and the evidence before the five cor-

poreal senses, afford no indication of the grand

facts of being; even as these so-called senses

receive no intimation of the earth's motions or of the

science of astronomy, but yield assent to astronomical

propositions on the authority of natural science.

The facts of divine Science should be admitted, -

although the evidence as to these facts is not supported

by evil, by matter, or by material sense, - because the

evidence that God and man coexist is fully sustained by

spiritual sense. Man is, and forever has been, God's re-

flection. God is infinite, therefore ever present, and

there is no other power nor presence. Hence the spirit-

uality of the universe is the only fact of creation. "Let

God be true, but every [material] man a liar."

The test of experience

Question. - Are doctrines and creeds a benefit to man?

Answer. - The author subscribed to an orthodox

creed in early youth, and tried to adhere to it until she

caught the first gleam of that which inter-

prets God as above mortal sense. This

view rebuked human beliefs, and gave the spiritual im-

port, expressed through Science, of all that proceeds

from the divine Mind. Since then her highest creed has

been divine Science, which, reduced to human apprehen-

sion, she has named Christian Science. This Science

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teaches man that God is the only Life, and that this Life

is Truth and Love; that God is to be understood, adored,

and demonstrated; that divine Truth casts out supposi-

tional error and heals the sick.

God's law destroys evil

The way which leads to Christian Science is straight

and narrow. God has set His signet upon Science, mak-

ing it coordinate with all that is real and only

with that which is harmonious and eternal.

Sickness, sin, and death, being inharmonious, do not

originate in God nor belong to His government. His

law, rightly understood, destroys them. Jesus furnished

proofs of these statements.

Evanescent materiality

Question. - What is error?

Answer. - Error is a supposition that pleasure and

pain, that intelligence, substance, life, are existent in mat-

ter. Error is neither Mind nor one of Mind's

faculties. Error is the contradiction of Truth.

Error is a belief without understanding. Error is unreal

because untrue. It is that which seemeth to be and is not.

If error were true, its truth would be error, and we should

have a self-evident absurdity - namely, erroneous truth.

Thus we should continue to lose the standard of Truth.

Unrealities that seem real

Question. - Is there no sin?

Answer. - All reality is in God and His creation, har-

monious and eternal. That which He creates is good,

and He makes all that is made. Therefore

the only reality of sin, sickness, or death is

the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human, erring

belief, until God strips off their disguise. They are not

true, because they are not of God. We learn in Christian

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Science that all inharmony of mortal mind or body is illu-

sion, possessing neither reality nor identity though seeming

to be real and identical.

Christ the ideal Truth

The Science of Mind disposes of all evil. Truth, God,

is not the father of error. Sin, sickness, and death are

to be classified as effects of error. Christ

came to destroy the belief of sin. The God-

principle is omnipresent and omnipotent. God is every-

where, and nothing apart from Him is present or has

power. Christ is the ideal Truth, that comes to heal

sickness and sin through Christian Science, and attributes

all power to God. Jesus is the name of the man who,

more than all other men, has presented Christ, the true

idea of God, healing the sick and the sinning and destroy-

ing the power of death. Jesus is the human man, and

Christ is the divine idea; hence the duality of Jesus the

Christ.

Jesus not God

In an age of ecclesiastical despotism, Jesus introduced

the teaching and practice of Christianity, affording the

proof of Christianity's truth and love; but to

reach his example and to test its unerring Sci-

ence according to his rule, healing sickness, sin, and

death, a better understanding of God as divine Prin-

ciple, Love, rather than personality or the man Jesus, is

required.

Jesus not understood

Jesus established what he said by demonstration,

thus making his acts of higher importance than his

words. He proved what he taught. This

is the Science of Christianity. Jesus proved

the Principle, which heals the sick and casts out error,

to be divine. Few, however, except his students un-

derstood in the least his teachings and their glorious

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proofs, - namely, that Life, Truth, and Love (the Prin-

ciple of this unacknowledged Science) destroy all error,

evil, disease, and death.

Miracles rejected

The reception accorded to Truth in the early Chris-

tian era is repeated to-day. Whoever introduces the

Science of Christianity will be scoffed at and

scourged with worse cords than those which

cut the flesh. To the ignorant age in which it first

appears, Science seems to be a mistake, - hence the

misinterpretation and consequent maltreatment which

it receives. Christian marvels (and marvel is the sim-

ple meaning of the Greek word rendered miracle in the

New Testament) will be misunderstood and misused

by many, until the glorious Principle of these marvels is

gained.

Divine fulfilment

If sin, sickness, and death are as real as Life, Truth,

and Love, then they must all be from the same source;

God must be their author. Now Jesus came

to destroy sin, sickness, and death yet the

Scriptures aver, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."

Is it possible, then, to believe that the evils which Jesus

lived to destroy are real or the offspring of the divine

will?

Truth destroys falsity

Despite the hallowing influence of Truth in the de-

struction of error, must error still be immortal? Truth

spares all that is true. If evil is real, Truth

must make it so; but error, not Truth, is

the author of the unreal, and the unreal vanishes,

while all that is real is eternal. The apostle says that

the mission of Christ is to "destroy the works of the

devil." Truth destroys falsity and error, for light and

darkness cannot dwell together. Light extinguishes the

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darkness, and the Scripture declares that there is "no

night there." To Truth there is no error, - all is Truth.

To infinite Spirit there is no matter, - all is Spirit, divine

Principle and its idea.

Fleshly factors unreal

Question. - What is man?

Answer. - Man is not matter; he is not made up of

brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The

Scriptures inform us that man is made in

the image and likeness of God. Matter is

not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so

unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and be-

cause he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so under-

stood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of

Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of

God, including all right ideas; the generic term for

all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious

identity of being as found in Science, in which man is

the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal;

that which has no separate mind from God; that which

has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which

possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his

own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker.

And God said: "Let us make man in our image, after

our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish

of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,

and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that

creepeth upon the earth."

Man unfallen

Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The

real man cannot depart from holiness, nor

can God, by whom man is evolved, engender

the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not

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God's man. Mortals are the counterfeits of immortals.

They are the children of the wicked one, or the one evil,

which declares that man begins in dust or as a material

embryo. In divine Science, God and the real man are

inseparable as divine Principle and idea.

Mortals are not immortals

Error, urged to its final limits, is self-destroyed.

Error will cease to claim that soul is in body, that life

and intelligence are in matter, and that

this matter is man. God is the Principle of

man, and man is the idea of God. Hence man is not

mortal nor material. Mortals will disappear, and im-

mortals, or the children of God, will appear as the only

and eternal verities of man. Mortals are not fallen chil-

dren of God. They never had a perfect state of being,

which may subsequently be regained. They were, from

the beginning of mortal history, "conceived in sin and

brought forth in iniquity." Mortality is finally swallowed

up in immortality. Sin, sickness, and death must dis-

appear to give place to the facts which belong to immortal

man.

Imperishable identity

Learn this, O mortal, and earnestly seek the spiritual

status of man, which is outside of all material selfhood.

Remember that the Scriptures say of mortal

man: "As for man, his days are as grass: as

a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind

passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall

know it no more."

The kingdom within

When speaking of God's children, not the children of

men, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you;"

that is, Truth and Love reign in the real

man, showing that man in God's image is

unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the per-

PAGE 477

fect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal

man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour

saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man

healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom

of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.

Man is not a material habitation for Soul; he is himself

spiritual. Soul, being Spirit, is seen in nothing imperfect

nor material.

Material body never God's idea

Whatever is material is mortal. To the five corporeal

senses, man appears to be matter and mind united; but

Christian Science reveals man as the idea of

God, and declares the corporeal senses to be

mortal and erring illusions. Divine Science

shows it to be impossible that a material body, though

interwoven with matter's highest stratum, misnamed

mind, should be man, - the genuine and perfect man,

the immortal idea of being, indestructible and eternal.

Were it otherwise, man would be annihilated.

Reflection of Spirit

Question. - What are body and Soul?

Answer. - Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the re-

flection in multifarious forms of the living Principle,

Love. Soul is the substance, Life, and intelli-

gence of man, which is individualized, but not

in matter. Soul can never reflect anything inferior to

Spirit.

Man inseparable from Spirit

Man is the expression of Soul. The Indians caught

some glimpses of the underlying reality, when

they called a certain beautiful lake "the smile

of the Great Spirit." Separated from man,

who expresses Soul, Spirit would be a nonentity; man,

divorced from Spirit, would lose his entity. But there is,

PAGE 478

there can be, no such division, for man is coexistent with

God.

A vacant domicile

What evidence of Soul or of immortality have you

within mortality? Even according to the teachings of

natural science, man has never beheld Spirit

or Soul leaving a body or entering it. What

basis is there for the theory of indwelling spirit, except

the claim of mortal belief? What would be thought of

the declaration that a house was inhabited, and by a cer-

tain class of persons, when no such persons were ever seen

to go into the house or to come out of it, nor were they

even visible through the windows? Who can see a soul

in the body?

Harmonious functions

Question. - Does brain think, and do nerves feel, and

is there intelligence in matter?

Answer. - No, not if God is true and mortal man a

liar. The assertion that there can be pain or pleasure

in matter is erroneous. That body is most

harmonious in which the discharge of the nat-

ural functions is least noticeable. How can intelligence

dwell in matter when matter is non-intelligent and

brain-lobes cannot think? Matter cannot perform the

functions of Mind. Error says, "I am man;" but this

belief is mortal and far from actual. From beginning

to end, whatever is mortal is composed of material hu-

man beliefs and of nothing else. That only is real which

reflects God. St. Paul said, "But when it pleased God,

who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me

by His grace, . . . I conferred not with flesh and blood."

Immortal birthright

Mortal man is really a self-contradictory phrase, for

man is not mortal, "neither indeed can be;" man is im-

PAGE 479

mortal. If a child is the offspring of physical sense and

not of Soul, the child must have a material, not a spirit-

ual origin. With what truth, then, could the

Scriptural rejoicing be uttered by any mother,

"I have gotten a man from the Lord"? On the con-

trary, if aught comes from God, it cannot be mortal and

material; it must be immortal and spiritual.

Matter's supposed selfhood

Matter is neither self-existent nor a product of Spirit.

An image of mortal thought, reflected on the retina, is

all that the eye beholds. Matter cannot see,

feel, hear, taste, nor smell. It is not self-

cognizant, - cannot feel itself, see itself, nor

understand itself. Take away so-called mortal mind,

which constitutes matter's supposed selfhood, and matter

can take no cognizance of matter. Does that which we

call dead ever see, hear, feel, or use any of the physical

senses?

Chaos and darkness

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the

earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and

darkness was upon the face of the deep."

(Genesis i. 1, 2.) In the vast forever, in the

Science and truth of being, the only facts are Spirit

and its innumerable creations. Darkness and chaos

are the imaginary opposites of light, understanding,

and eternal harmony, and they are the elements of

nothingness.

Spiritual reflection

We admit that black is not a color, because it reflects

no light. So evil should be denied identity or power,

because it has none of the divine hues. Paul

says: "For the invisible things of Him, from

the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being under-

stood by the things that are made." (Romans i. 20.)

PAGE 480

When the substance of Spirit appears in Christian Sci-

ence, the nothingness of matter is recognized. Where

the spirit of God is, and there is no place where God is

not, evil becomes nothing, - the opposite of the some-

thing of Spirit. If there is no spiritual reflection, then

there remains only the darkness of vacuity and not a trace

of heavenly tints.

Harmony from Spirit

Nerves are an element of the belief that there is sensa-

tion in matter, whereas matter is devoid of sensation.

Consciousness, as well as action, is governed

by Mind, - is in God, the origin and gov-

ernor of all that Science reveals. Material sense has

its realm apart from Science in the unreal. Harmonious

action proceeds from Spirit, God. inharmony has no

Principle; its action is erroneous and presupposes man

to be in matter. Inharmony would make matter the

cause as well as the effect of intelligence, or Soul, thus

attempting to separate Mind from God.

Evil non-existent

Man is not God, and God is not man. Again, God,

or good, never made man capable of sin. It is the oppo-

site of good - that is, evil - which seems to

make men capable of wrong-doing. Hence,

evil is but an illusion, and it has no real basis. Evil is a

false belief. God is not its author. The supposititious

parent of evil is a lie.

Vapor and nothingness

The Bible declares: "All things were made by Him

[the divine Word]; and without Him was not anything,

made that was made." This is the eternal

verity of divine Science. If sin, sickness,

death were understood as nothingness, they would dis-

appear. As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would

vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the

PAGE 481

other. How important, then, to choose good as the

reality! Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing

else. God's being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and

boundless bliss. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is,

there is liberty." Like the archpriests of yore, man is

free "to enter into the holiest," - the realm of God.

The fruit forbidden

Material sense never helps mortals to understand

Spirit, God. Through spiritual sense only, man com-

prehends and loves Deity. The various con-

tradictions of the Science of Mind by the ma-

terial senses do not change the unseen Truth, which re-

mains forever intact. The forbidden fruit of knowledge,

against which wisdom warns man, is the testimony of

error, declaring existence to be at the mercy of death,

and good and evil to be capable of commingling. This

is the significance of the Scripture concerning this "tree

of the knowledge of good and evil," - this growth of

material belief, of which it is said: "In the day that thou

eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Human hypotheses

first assume the reality of sickness, sin, and death, and

then assume the necessity of these evils because of their

admitted actuality. These human verdicts are the pro-

curers of all discord.

Sense and pure Soul

If Soul sins, it must be mortal. Sin has the elements

of self-destruction. It cannot sustain itself. If sin is

supported, God must uphold it, and this is

impossible, since Truth cannot support error.

Soul is the divine Principle of man and never sins, -

hence the immortality of Soul. In Science we learn that

it is material sense, not Soul, which sins; and it will be

found that it is the sense of sin which is lost, and not a

sinful soul. When reading the Scriptures, the substitu-

PAGE 482

tion of the word sense for soul gives the exact meaning in

a majority of cases.

Soul defined

Human thought has adulterated the meaning of the

word soul through the hypothesis that soul is both an evil

and a good intelligence, resident in matter.

The proper use of the word soul can always

be gained by substituting the word God, where the deific

meaning is required. In other cases, use the word sense,

and you will have the scientific signification. As used

in Christian Science, Soul is properly the synonym of

Spirit, or God; but out of Science, soul is identical with

sense, with material sensation.

Sonship of Jesus

Question. - Is it important to understand these ex-

planations in order to heal the sick?

Answer. - It is, since Christ is "the way" and the

truth casting out all error. Jesus called himself " the

Son of man," but not the son of Joseph. As

18 woman is but a species of the genera, he was

literally the Son of Man. Jesus was the highest human

concept of the perfect man. He was inseparable from

Christ, the Messiah, - the divine idea of God outside

the flesh. This enabled Jesus to demonstrate his con-

trol over matter. Angels announced to the Wisemen of

old this dual appearing, and angels whisper it, through

faith, to the hungering heart in every age.

Sickness erroneous

Sickness is part of the error which Truth casts out.

Error will not expel error. Christian Science is the law

of Truth, which heals the sick, on the basis

of the one Mind or God. It can heal in no

other way, since the human, mortal mind so-called is not

a healer, but causes the belief in disease.

PAGE 483

True healing transcendent

Then comes the question, how do drugs, hygiene, and

animal magnetism heal? It may be affirmed that they

do not heal, but only relieve suffering tempo-

rarily, exchanging one disease for another.

We classify disease as error, which nothing but Truth or

Mind can heal, and this Mind must be divine, not human.

Mind transcends all other power, and will ultimately su-

persede all other means in healing. In order to heal by

Science, you must not be ignorant of the moral and spir-

itual demands of Science nor disobey them. Moral igno-

rance or sin affects your demonstration, and hinders its

approach to the standard in Christian Science.

Terms adopted by the author

After the author's sacred discovery, she affixed the

name "Science" to Christianity, the name "error" to

corporeal sense, and the name "substance" to

Mind. Science has called the world to battle

over this issue and its demonstration, which

heals the sick, destroys error, and reveals the universal

harmony. To those natural Christian Scientists, the an-

cient worthies, and to Christ Jesus, God certainly revealed

the spirit of Christian Science, if not the absolute letter.

Science the way

Because the Science of Mind seems to bring into dis-

honor the ordinary scientific schools, which wrestle with

material observations alone, this Science has

met with opposition; but if any system honors

God, it ought to receive aid, not opposition, from all think-

ing persons. And Christian Science does honor God as

no other theory honors Him, and it does this in the way

of His appointing, by doing many wonderful works

through the divine name and nature. One must fulfil

one's mission without timidity or dissimulation, for to be

well done, the work must be done unselfishly. Christianity

PAGE 484

will never be based on a divine Principle and so found to

be unerring, until its absolute Science is reached. When

this is accomplished, neither pride, prejudice, bigotry,

nor envy can wash away its foundation, for it is built upon

the rock, Christ.

Mindless methods

Question. - Does Christian Science, or metaphysical

healing, include medication, material hygiene, mesmer-

ism, hypnotism, theosophy, or spiritualism?

Answer. - Not one of them is included in it. In di-

vine Science, the supposed laws of matter yield to the

law of Mind. What are termed natural

science and material laws are the objective

states of mortal mind. The physical universe expresses

the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals.

Physical force and mortal mind are one. Drugs and

hygiene oppose the supremacy of the divine Mind.

Drugs and inert matter are unconscious, mindless. Cer-

tain results, supposed to proceed from drugs, are really

caused by the faith in them which the false human con-

sciousness is educated to feel.

Animal magnetism error

Mesmerism is mortal, material illusion. Animal mag-

netism is the voluntary or involuntary action of error

in all its forms; it is the human antipode

of divine Science. Science must triumph

over material sense, and Truth over error, thus putting

an end to the hypotheses involved in all false theories

and practices.

Error only ephemeral

Question. - Is materiality the concomitant of spirit-

uality, and is material sense a necessary preliminary to

the understanding and expression of Spirit?

PAGE 485

Answer. - If error is necessary to define or to reveal

Truth, the answer is yes; but not otherwise. Material

sense is an absurd phrase, for matter has no

sensation. Science declares that Mind, not

matter, sees, hears, feels, speaks. Whatever contradicts

this statement is the false sense, which ever betrays

mortals into sickness, sin, and death. If the unimpor-

tant and evil appear, only soon to disappear because

of their uselessness or their iniquity, then these ephem-

eral views of error ought to be obliterated by Truth.

Why malign Christian Science for instructing mortals how

to make sin, disease, and death appear more and more

unreal?

Scientific translations

Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not

to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come

naturally into Spirit through better health and

morals and as the result of spiritual growth.

Not death, but the understanding of Life, makes man im-

mortal. The belief that life can be in matter or soul in

body, and that man springs from dust or from an egg,

is the result of the mortal error which Christ, or Truth,

destroys by fulfilling the spiritual law of being, in which

man is perfect, even as the "Father which is in heaven

is perfect." If thought yields its dominion to other '

powers, it cannot outline on the body its own beautiful

images, but it effaces them and delineates foreign agents,

called disease and sin.

Material beliefs

The heathen gods of mythology controlled war and

agriculture as much as nerves control sensation or

muscles measure strength. To say that

strength is in matter, is like saying that the

power is in the lever. The notion of any life or intelli-

PAGE 486

gence in matter is without foundation in fact, and you

can have no faith in falsehood when you have learned

falsehood's true nature.

Sense versus Soul

Suppose one accident happens to the eye, another to

the ear, and so on, until every corporeal sense is quenched.

What is man's remedy? To die, that he may

regain these senses? Even then he must gain

spiritual understanding and spiritual sense in order to

possess immortal consciousness. Earth's preparatory

school must be improved to the utmost. In reality man

never dies. The belief that he dies will not establish his

scientific harmony. Death is not the result of Truth but

of error, and one error will not correct another.

Death an error

Jesus proved by the prints of the nails, that his body

was the same immediately after death as before. If death

restores sight, sound, and strength to man,

then death is not an enemy but a better friend

than Life. Alas for the blindness of belief, which makes

harmony conditional upon death and matter, and yet

supposes Mind unable to produce harmony! So long

as this error of belief remains, mortals will continue mor-

tal in belief and subject to chance and change.

Permanent sensibility

Sight, hearing, all the spiritual senses of man, are

eternal. They cannot be lost. Their reality and immor-

tality are in Spirit and understanding, not in

matter, - hence their permanence. If this

were not so, man would be speedily annihilated. If the

five corporeal senses were the medium through which

to understand God, then palsy, blindness, and deafness

would place man in a terrible situation, where he would

be like those "having no hope, and without God in the

world;" but as a matter of fact, these calamities often

PAGE 487

drive mortals to seek and to find a higher sense of happi-

ness and existence.

Exercise of Mind-faculties

Life is deathless. Life is the origin and ultimate of

man, never attainable through death, but gained by walk-

ing in the pathway of Truth both before and

after that which is called death. There is more

Christianity in seeing and hearing spiritually

than materially. There is more Science in the perpetual

exercise of the Mind-faculties than in their loss. Lost

they cannot be, while Mind remains. The apprehension

of this gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf cen-

turies ago, and it will repeat the wonder.

Understanding versus belief

Question. - You speak of belief. Who or what is it

that believes?

Answer. - Spirit is all-knowing; this precludes the

need of believing. Matter cannot believe, and Mind

understands. The body cannot believe. The

believer and belief are one and are mortal.

Christian evidence is founded on Science or

demonstrable Truth, flowing from immortal Mind, and

there is in reality no such thing as mortal mind. Mere

belief is blindness without Principle from which to ex-

plain the reason of its hope. The belief that life is sen-

tient and intelligent matter is erroneous.

The Apostle James said, "Show me thy faith without

thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works."

The understanding that Life is God, Spirit, lengthens

our days by strengthening our trust in the deathless

reality of Life, its almightiness and immortality.

Confirmation by healing

This faith relies upon an understood Principle. This

Principle makes whole the diseased, and brings out the

PAGE 488

enduring and harmonious phases of things. The result

of our teachings is their sufficient confirmation. When,

on the strength of these instructions, you are

able to banish a severe malady, the cure shows

that you understand this teaching, and therefore you re-

ceive the blessing of Truth.

Belief and firm trust

The Hebrew and Greek words often translated belief

differ somewhat in meaning from that conveyed by the

English verb believe; they have more the sig-

nificance of faith, understanding, trust, con-

stancy, firmness. Hence the Scriptures often appear in

our common version to approve and endorse belief, when

they mean to enforce the necessity of understanding.

All faculties from Mind

Question. - Do the five corporeal senses constitute

man?

Answer. - Christian Science sustains with immortal

proof the impossibility of any material sense, and defines

these so-called senses as mortal beliefs, the

testimony of which cannot be true either of

man or of his Maker. The corporeal senses can take no

cognizance of spiritual reality and immortality. Nerves

have no more sensation, apart from what belief be-

stows upon them, than the fibres of a plant. Mind alone

possesses all faculties, perception, and comprehension.

Therefore mental endowments are not at the mercy of

organization and decomposition, - otherwise the very

worms could unfashion man. If it were possible for the

real senses of man to be injured, Soul could reproduce

them in all their perfection; but they cannot be dis-

turbed nor destroyed, since they exist in immortal Mind,

not in matter.

PAGE 489

Possibilities of Life

The less mind there is manifested in matter the better.

When the unthinking lobster loses its claw, the claw grows

again. If the Science of Life were understood,

it would be found that the senses of Mind are

never lost and that matter has no sensation. Then the

human limb would be replaced as readily as the lobster's

claw, - not with an artificial limb, but with the genuine

one. Any hypothesis which supposes life to be in matter

is an educated belief. In infancy this belief is not equal

to guiding the hand to the mouth; and as consciousness

develops, this belief goes out, - yields to the reality of

everlasting Life.

Decalogue disregarded

Corporeal sense defrauds and lies; it breaks all the

commands of the Mosaic Decalogue to meet its own de-

mands. How then can this sense be the God-

given channel to man of divine blessings or

understanding? How can man, reflecting God, be de-

pendent on material means for knowing, hearing, seeing?

Who dares to say that the senses of man can be at one time

the medium for sinning against God, at another the me-

dium for obeying God? An affirmative reply would con-

tradict the Scripture, for the same fountain sendeth not

forth sweet waters and bitter.

Organic construction valueless

The corporeal senses are the only source of evil or

error. Christian Science shows them to be false, be-

cause matter has no sensation, and no organic

construction can give it hearing and sight nor

make it the medium of Mind. Outside the

material sense of things, all is harmony. A wrong sense

of God, man, and creation is non-sense, want of sense.

Mortal belief would have the material senses sometimes

good and sometimes bad. It assures mortals that there

PAGE 490

is real pleasure in sin; but the grand truths of Christian

Science dispute this error.

Will-power an animal propensity

Will-power is but a product of belief, and this belief

commits depredations on harmony. Human will is an

animal propensity, not a faculty of Soul.

Hence it cannot govern man aright. Chris-

tian Science reveals Truth and Love as the

motive-powers of man. Will - blind, stubborn, and head-

long - cooperates with appetite and passion. From this

cooperation arises its evil. From this also comes its pow-

erlessness, since all power belongs to God, good.

Theories helpless

The Science of Mind needs to be understood. Until

it is understood, mortals are more or less deprived of

Truth. Human theories are helpless to make

man harmonious or immortal, since he is so

already, according to Christian Science. Our only need

is to know this and reduce to practice the real man's di-

vine Principle, Love

True nature and origin

"Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings."

Human belief - or knowledge gained from the so-called

material senses - would, by fair logic, anni-

hilate man along with the dissolving elements

of clay. The scientifically Christian explanations of the

nature and origin of man destroy all material sense with

immortal testimony. This immortal testimony ushers

in the spiritual sense of being, which can be obtained

in no other way.

Sleep an illusion

Sleep and mesmerism explain the mythical nature of

material sense. Sleep shows material sense as either

oblivion, nothingness, or an illusion or dream.

Under the mesmeric illusion of belief, a man

will think that he is freezing when he is warm, and that he

PAGE 491

is swimming when he is on dry land. Needle-thrusts will

not hurt him. A delicious perfume will seem intolerable.

Animal magnetism thus uncovers material sense, and

shows it to be a belief without actual foundation or va-

lidity. Change the belief, and the sensation changes.

Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears.

Man linked with Spirit

Material man is made up of involuntary and voluntary

error, of a negative right and a positive wrong, the latter

calling itself right. Man's spiritual individual-

ity is never wrong. It is the likeness of man's

Maker. Matter cannot connect mortals with the true

origin and facts of being, in which all must end. It is only

by acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annuls

the claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and

find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man

forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator.

Material man as a dream

The belief that matter and mind are one, - that mat-

ter is awake at one time and asleep at another, some-

times presenting no appearance of mind, -

this belief culminates in another belief, that

man dies. Science reveals material man as never the real

being. The dream or belief goes on, whether our eyes are

closed or open. In sleep, memory and consciousness are

lost from the body, and they wander whither they will

apparently with their own separate embodiment. Per-

sonality is not the individuality of man. A wicked man

may have an attractive personality.

Spiritual existence the one fact

When we are awake, we dream of the pains and pleas-

ures of matter. Who will say, even though he

does not understand Christian Science, that

this dream - rather than the dreamer - may

not be mortal man? Who can rationally say otherwise,

PAGE 492

when the dream leaves mortal man intact in body and

thought, although the so-called dreamer is unconscious?

For right reasoning there should be but one fact before

the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there

is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its

unlikeness, mortality.

Mind one and all

Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already

proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree,

will uplift the physical and moral standard

of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify

and elevate character. Thus progress will finally destroy

all error, and bring immortality to light. We know that

a statement proved to be good must be correct. New

thoughts are constantly obtaining the floor. These two

contradictory theories - that matter is something, or

that all is Mind - will dispute the ground, until one is

acknowledged to be the victor. Discussing his cam-

paign, General Grant said: "I propose to fight it out on

this line, if it takes all summer." Science says: All is

Mind and Mind's idea. You must fight it out on this

line. Matter can afford you no aid.

Scientific ultimatum

The notion that mind and matter commingle in the

human illusion as to sin, sickness, and death must even-

tually submit to the Science of Mind, which

denies this notion. God is Mind, and God is

infinite; hence all is Mind. On this statement rests the

Science of being, and the Principle of this Science is di-

vine, demonstrating harmony and immortality.

Victory for Truth

The conservative theory, long believed, is that there

are two factors, matter and mind, uniting on some im-

possible basis. This theory would keep truth and error

always at war. Victory would perch on neither banner.

PAGE 493

On the other hand, Christian Science speedily shows

Truth to be triumphant. To corporeal sense, the sun

appears to rise and set, and the earth to stand

still; but astronomical science contradicts this,

and explains the solar system as working on a differ-

ent plan. All the evidence of physical sense and all the

knowledge obtained from physical sense must yield to

Science, to the immortal truth of all things.

Mental preparation

Question, - Will you explain sickness and show how it

is to be healed?

Answer. - The method of Christian Science Mind-heal-

ing is touched upon in a previous chapter entitled Christian

Science Practice. A full answer to the above

question involves teaching, which enables the

healer to demonstrate and prove for himself the Principle

and rule of Christian Science or metaphysical healing.

Mind destroys all ills

Mind must be found superior to all the beliefs of the

five corporeal senses, and able to destroy all ills. Sick-

ness is a belief, which must be annihilated by

the divine Mind. Disease is an experience of

so-called mortal mind. It is fear made manifest on the

body. Christian Science takes away this physical sense

of discord, just as it removes any other sense of moral or

mental inharmony. That man is material, and that mat-

ter suffers, - these propositions can only seem real and

natural in illusion. Any sense of soul in matter is not the

reality of being.

If Jesus awakened Lazarus from the dream, illusion, of

death, this proved that the Christ could improve on a false

sense. Who dares to doubt this consummate test of the

power and willingness of divine Mind to hold man forever

PAGE 494

intact in his perfect state, and to govern man's entire

action? Jesus said: "Destroy this temple [body], and

in three days I [Mind] will raise it up;" and he did this

for tired humanity's reassurance.

Inexhaustible divine Love

Is it not a species of infidelity to believe that so great

a work as the Messiah's was done for himself or for God,

who needed no help from Jesus' example to

preserve the eternal harmony? But mortals

did need this help, and Jesus pointed the way for them.

Divine Love always has met and always will meet every

human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demon-

strated the divine power to heal only for a select number

or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and

in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.

Reason and Science

The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love. Jesus

demonstrated the inability of corporeality, as well as the

infinite ability of Spirit, thus helping erring

human sense to flee from its own convictions

and seek safety in divine Science. Reason, rightly di-

rected, serves to correct the errors of corporeal sense; but

sin, sickness, and death will seem real (even as the ex-

periences of the sleeping dream seem real) until the Sci-

ence of man's eternal harmony breaks their illusion with

the unbroken reality of scientific being.

Which of these two theories concerning man are you

ready to accept? One is the mortal testimony, changing,

dying, unreal. The other is the eternal and real evidence,

bearing Truth's signet, its lap piled high with immortal

fruits.

Followers of Jesus

Our Master cast out devils (evils) and healed the sick.

It should be said of his followers also, that they cast fear

and all evil out of themselves and others and heal the sick.

PAGE 495

God will heal the sick through man, whenever man is

governed by God. Truth casts out error now

as surely as it did nineteen centuries ago. All

of Truth is not understood; hence its healing power is not

fully demonstrated.

Destruction of all evil

If sickness is true or the idea of Truth, you cannot

destroy sickness, and it would be absurd to try. Then

classify sickness and error as our Master did,

when he spoke of the sick, "whom Satan hath

bound," and find a sovereign antidote for error in the life-

giving power of Truth acting on human belief, a power

which opens the prison doors to such as are bound, and

sets the captive free physically and morally.

Steadfast and calm trust

When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling

steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His

likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither

fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and

calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious - as

Life eternally is - can destroy any painful sense of, or

belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science,

instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of

being, and this understanding will supplant error with

Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence dis-

cord with harmony.

Rudiments and growth

Question. - How can I progress most rapidly in the

understanding of Christian Science?

Answer. - Study thoroughly the letter and imbibe

the spirit. Adhere to the divine Principle of Chris-

tian Science and follow the behests of God,

abiding steadfastly in wisdom, Truth, and

Love. In the Science of Mind, you will soon ascertain

PAGE 496

that error cannot destroy error. You will also learn

that in Science there is no transfer of evil suggestions

from one mortal to another, for there is but one Mind,

and this ever-present omnipotent Mind is reflected by

man and governs the entire universe. You will learn

that in Christian Science the first duty is to obey

God, to have one Mind, and to love another as

yourself.

Condition of progress

We all must learn that Life is God. Ask yourself:

Am I living the life that approaches the supreme good?

Am I demonstrating the healing power of

Truth and Love? If so then the way will

grow brighter "unto the perfect day." Your fruits

will prove what the understanding of God brings to man.

Hold perpetually this thought, - that it is the spiritual

idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to

demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing,

based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, over-

lying, and encompassing all true being.

Triumph over death

"The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is

the law," - the law of mortal belief, at war with the

facts of immortal Life, even with the spiritual

law which says to the grave, "Where is thy

victory?" But "when this corruptible shall have put

on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on im-

mortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that

is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."

Question. - Have Christian Scientists any religious

creed?

Answer. - They have not, if by that term is meant

doctrinal beliefs. The following is a brief exposition of

PAGE 497

the important points, or religious tenets, of Christian

Science: -

1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word

of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.

We acknowledge and adore one supreme and in-

finite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the

Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's

image and likeness.

3. We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the

destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that

casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is pun-

ished so long as the belief lasts.

4. We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evi-

dence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity

with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and

we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ,

through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the

Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming

sin and death.

5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and

his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eter-

nal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the noth-

ingness of matter.

6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for

that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to

do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and

to be merciful, just, and pure.

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