0.0 – Christian Science Publication Contents

This chapter #3 is comprised of 90 questions and answers.

18	    Are material things real when they are harmonious, and
  	do they disappear only to the natural sense? Does this
  	Scripture, "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have
21	need of all these things," imply that Spirit takes note of
  	matter? 

  	    The Science of Mind, as well as the material uni-
24	verse, shows that nothing which is material is in
  	perpetual harmony. Matter is manifest mortal mind,
  	and it exists only to material sense. Real sensation
27	is not material; it is, and must be, mental: and Mind
  	is not mortal, it is immortal. Being is God, infinite
  	Spirit; therefore it cannot cognize aught material, or
30	outside of infinity. 
  	    The Scriptural passage quoted affords no evidence of
 
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Questions and Answers                      
  page 73

  1	the reality of matter, or that God is conscious of it. 
  	The so-called material body is said to suffer, but this
 3	supposition is proven erroneous when Mind casts out
  	the suffering. The Scripture saith, "Whom the Lord
  	loveth He chasteneth;" and again, "He doth not
 6	afflict willingly." Interpreted materially, these pas-
  	sages conflict; they mingle the testimony of immor-
  	tal Science with mortal sense; but once discern their
 9	spiritual meaning, and it separates the false sense from
  	the true, and establishes the reality of what is spiritual,
  	and the unreality of materiality. 
12	    Law is never material:  it is al...ways mental and moral,
  	and a commandment to the wise. The foolish disobey
  	moral law, and are punished. Human wisdom therefore
15	can get no farther than to say, He knoweth that we have
  	need of experience. Belief fulfils the conditions of a be-
  	lief, and these conditions destroy the belief. Hence the
18	verdict of experience:  We have need of these things; we
  	have need to know that the so-called pleasures and pains
  	of matter — yea, that all subjective states of false sensa-
21	tion — are unreal. 
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