0.0 – Christian Science Publication Contents

QA 21 of 24. The subtitles for this question are listed below. 

1. Question. — Do the five corporeal senses constitute man? 
2. Faculties - All faculties from Mind
3. Possibilities of Life
4. Decalogue disregarded
5. Organic construction valueless
6. Will-power an animal propensity
7. Theories helpless
8. Nature - True nature and origin
9. Illusion - Sleep an illusion
10. Man linked with Spirit
11. Dream - Material man as a dream
12. Existence - Spiritual existence the one fact
13. Mind one and all
14. Scientific ultimatum
15. Victory for Truth

QUESTION for this SUBTITLE

  	Question. — Do the five corporeal senses constitute
15	man? 

SUBTITLE for above Question

  	Question. — Do the five corporeal senses constitute
15	man? 
  	Answer. — Christian Science sustains with immortal
  	proof the impossibility of any material sense, and defines
18	these so-called senses as mortal beliefs, the	                                             All faculties
  	testimony of which cannot be true either of	                                             from Mind 
  	man or of his Maker. The corporeal senses can take no
21	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
24	possesses all faculties, perception, and comprehension. 
  	Therefore mental endowments are not at the mercy of
  	organization and decomposition, — otherwise the very
27	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-
30	turbed nor destroyed, since they exist in immortal Mind,
  	not in matter. 
 1	    The less mind there is manifested in matter the better. 
  	When the unthinking lobster loses its claw, the claw grows
 3	again. If the Science of Life were understood,	                                     Possibilities
  	it would be found that the senses of Mind are	                       ...              of Life 
  	never lost and that matter has no sensation. Then the
 6	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
 9	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
12	everlasting Life. 
  	    Corporeal sense defrauds and lies; it breaks all the
  	commands of the Mosaic Decalogue to meet its own de-
15	mands. How then can this sense be the God-	                                 Decalogue
  	given channel to man of divine blessings or	                                         disregarded 
  	understanding? How can man, reflecting God, be de-
18	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-
21	dium for obeying God? An affirmative reply would con-
  	tradict the Scripture, for the same fountain sendeth not
  	forth sweet waters and bitter. 
24	    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	                                      Organic
27	construction can give it hearing and sight nor	                                              construction
  	make it the medium of Mind. Outside the	                                              valueless 
  	material sense of things, all is harmony. A wrong sense
30	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
 1	is real pleasure in sin; but the grand truths of Christian
  	Science dispute this error. 
 3	    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. 	                                          Will-power
 6	Hence it cannot govern man aright. Chris-	                                          an animal
  	tian Science reveals Truth and Love as the	                                          propensity 
  	motive-powers of man. Will — blind, stubborn, and head-
 9	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. 
12	    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	                                    Theories
15	man harmonious or immortal, since he is so	                                    helpless 
  	already, according to Christian Science. Our only need
  	is to know this and reduce to practice the real man's di-
18	vine Principle, Love. 
  	    "Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings." 
  	Human belief — or knowledge gained from the so-called
21	material senses — would, by fair logic, anni-	                                        True nature
  	hilate man along with the dissolving elements	                                and origin 
  	of clay. The scientifically Christian explanations of the
24	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
27	in no other way. 
  	    Sleep and mesmerism explain the mythical nature of
  	material sense. Sleep shows material sense as either
30	oblivion, nothingness, or an illusion or dream. 	                                 Sleep an
  	Under the mesmeric illusion of belief, a man	                                         illusion 
  	will think that he is freezing when he is warm, and that he
 1	is swimming when he is on dry land. Needle-thrusts will
  	not hurt him. A delicious perfume will seem intolerable. 
 3	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. 
 6	Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears. 
	    Material man is made up of involuntary and voluntary
  	error, of a negative right and a positive wrong, the latter
 9	calling itself right. Man's spiritual individual-	                                           Man linked
  	ity is never wrong. It is the likeness of man's	                                           with Spirit 
  	Maker. Matter cannot connect mortals with the true
12	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
15	find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man
  	forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator. 
  	    The belief that matter and mind are one, — that mat-
18	ter is awake at one time and asleep at another, some-
  	times presenting no appearance of mind, — 	                                           Material man
  	this belief culminates in another belief, that	                                           as a dream 
21	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
24	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
27	may have an attractive personality. 
  	    When we are awake, we dream of the pains and pleas-
  	ures of matter. Who will say, even though he	                                                Spiritual
30	does not understand Christian Science, that	                                                existence the
  	this dream — rather than the dreamer — may	                                        one fact 
  	not be mortal man? Who can rationally say otherwise,
1	when the dream leaves mortal man intact in body and
  	thought, although the so-called dreamer is unconscious? 
 3	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
 6	unlikeness, mortality. 
  	    Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already
  	proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree,
 9	will uplift the physical and moral standard	                                       Mind one
  	of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify	                                       and all 
  	and elevate character. Thus progress will finally destroy
12	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
15	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-
18	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
21	line. Matter can afford you no aid. 
  	    The notion that mind and matter commingle in the
  	human illusion as to sin, sickness, and death must even-
24	tually submit to the Science of Mind, which	                                      Scientific
  	denies this notion. God is Mind, and God is	                                      ultimatum 
  	infinite; hence all is Mind. On this statement rests the
27	Science of being, and the Principle of this Science is di-
  	vine, demonstrating harmony and immortality. 
  	    The conservative theory, long believed, is that there
30	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. 
 1	On the other hand, Christian Science speedily shows
  	Truth to be triumphant. To corporeal sense, the sun
 3	appears to rise and set, and the earth to stand	                                   Victory
  	still; but astronomical science contradicts this,	                                   for Truth 
  	and explains the solar system as working on a differ-
 6	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. 
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