0.0 - Science & Health by Mary Baker Eddy Chapter 14 - Recapitulation - 1910 Edition

Mary Baker Eddy

Chapter 14 ~ Recapitulation

Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy ~ 1910 Final Ed.

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Textbook of Christian Science by Mary Baker Eddy

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What is it that is coming to birth? What is this nature of God? This chapter is a series of questions and answers. The first is, What is God? The whole chapter is an elaboration of the answer, because that basically is the first and last and only real question. So "Recapitulation" is letting God reveal to us what He is. By the answers to these questions we are being taught of God. The answer to this first question is: "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite" and then come these seven capitalized terms which have dominated the book throughout, "Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love."
Every idea that we ever need in the whole of being can be found in those terms. But by having seven capitalized terms, seven names for God, are we not in danger of having seven gods? Therefore the second question asks, "Are these terms synonymous?" The answer in part is, "They are. They refer to one absolute God." (This is why you will notice that so often we refer to `the synonymous terms for God.') But we must go further. The next question is, "Is there more than one God or Principle?" And the answer is: "There is not. Principle and its idea is one, and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Being, and His reflection is man and the universe." It is here that we find this statement on which we build our assurance of the inseparability of God and man as our basis of operation. Principle and its idea is one.
~ DISSOLVING BARRIERS, The Healing Work of Christian Science by John L. MorganSHOW ALL

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Chapter 14 465

Recapitulation

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept;
line upon line, line upon line;
here a little, and there a little. — Isaiah.

1 This chapter is from the first edition of the author's
class-book, copyrighted in 1870. After much labor
3 and increased spiritual understanding, she revised that
treatise for this volume in 1875. Absolute Christian
Science pervades its statements, to elucidate scientific
6 metaphysics.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Question. — What is God?
9 Answer. — God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite
Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.

Question. — Are these terms synonymous?
12 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,
15 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,
18 and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-

Science and Health – Recapitulation 466

1 present Being, and His reflection is man and the universe.
Omni is adopted from the Latin adjective signifying all.
3 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,
6 and have one Principle.

Question. — What are spirits and souls?
Answer. — To human belief, they are personalities
9 constituted of mind and matter, life and death, truth and
error, good and evil; but these contrasting Real versus
pairs of terms represent contraries, as Chris- unreal
12 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
15 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
18 most important to understand.
The term souls or spirits is as improper as the term
gods. Soul or Spirit signifies Deity and nothing else.
21 There is no finite soul nor spirit. Soul or Mankind
Spirit means only one Mind, and cannot be redeemed
rendered in the plural. Heathen mythology and Jewish
24 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
27 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
30 its divine Principle, making mankind better physically,
morally, and spiritually.

Science and Health – Recapitulation 467

1 Question. — What are the demands of the Science of
Soul?
3 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 Two chief
6 have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no commands
truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second
is like unto it, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
9 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
12 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
15 him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, hav-
ing that Mind which was also in Christ.
Science reveals Spirit, Soul, as not in the body, and
18 God as not in man but as reflected by man. The greater
cannot be in the lesser. The belief that the Soul not
greater can be in the lesser is an error that confined in body
21 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-
24 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
27 the true mental idea. We cannot interpret Spirit, Mind,
through matter. Matter neither sees, hears, nor feels.
Reasoning from cause to effect in the Science of Mind,
30 we begin with Mind, which must be under- Sinlessness of
stood through the idea which expresses it and Mind, Soul
cannot be learned from its opposite, matter. Thus we

Science and Health – Recapitulation 468

1 arrive at Truth, or intelligence, which evolves its own
unerring idea and never can be coordinate with human
3 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
6 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?
9 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
12 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
15 man is not material; he is spiritual.

Question. — What is substance?
Answer. — Substance is that which is eternal and inca-
18 pable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are
substance, as the Scriptures use this word in Spiritual
Hebrews: "The substance of things hoped synonyms
21 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-
24 pound idea, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit.

Question. — What is Life?
Answer. — Life is divine Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit.
27 Life is without beginning and without end. Eternity
Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of of Life
Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in
30 proportion as the other is recognized. Time is finite;

Science and Health – Recapitulation 469

1 eternity is forever infinite. Life is neither in nor of mat-
ter. What is termed matter is unknown to Spirit, which
3 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
6 Life ever had a beginning, it would also have an ending.

Question. — What is intelligence?
Answer. — Intelligence is omniscience, omnipresence,
9 and omnipotence. It is the primal and eternal quality
of infinite Mind, of the triune Principle, — Life, Truth,
and Love, — named God.

12 Question. — What is Mind?
Answer. — Mind is God. The exterminator of error
is the great truth that God, good, is the only Mind, and
15 that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind True sense of
— called devil or evil — is not Mind, is not infinitude
Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality. There
18 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
21 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
24 space is filled with God.
We lose the high signification of omnipotence, when
after admitting that God, or good, is omnipresent and
27 has all-power, we still believe there is another The sole
power, named evil. This belief that there governor
is more than one mind is as pernicious to divine theology
30 as are ancient mythology and pagan idolatry. With

Science and Health – Recapitulation 470

1 one Father, even God, the whole family of man would
be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good,
3 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
6 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
9 unlikeness, and the loss of Love as ever present and
universal.
Divine Science explains the abstract statement that
12 there is one Mind by the following self-evident propo-
sition: If God, or good, is real, then evil, the The divine
unlikeness of God, is unreal. And evil can standard of
15 only seem to be real by giving reality to the perfection
unreal. The children of God have but one Mind. How
can good lapse into evil, when God, the Mind of man,
18 never sins? The standard of perfection was originally
God and man. Has God taken down His own standard,
and has man fallen?
21 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 Indestructible
24 of God's being. If there ever was a moment relationship
when man did not express the divine perfec-
tion, then there was a moment when man did not express
27 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
30 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

Science and Health – Recapitulation 471

1 idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows
no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine
3 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.
6 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 Celestial
9 facts of being; even as these so-called senses evidence
receive no intimation of the earth's motions or of the
science of astronomy, but yield assent to astronomical
12 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
15 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-
18 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
21 God be true, but every [material] man a liar."

Question. — Are doctrines and creeds a benefit to man?
Answer. — The author subscribed to an orthodox
24 creed in early youth, and tried to adhere to it until she
caught the first gleam of that which inter- The test of
prets God as above mortal sense. This experience
27 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
30 been divine Science, which, reduced to human apprehen-
sion, she has named Christian Science. This Science

Science and Health – Recapitulation 472

1 teaches man that God is the only Life, and that this Life
is Truth and Love; that God is to be understood, adored,
3 and demonstrated; that divine Truth casts out supposi-
tional error and heals the sick.
The way which leads to Christian Science is straight
6 and narrow. God has set His signet upon Science, mak-
ing it coordinate with all that is real and only God's law
with that which is harmonious and eternal. destroys evil
9 Sickness, sin, and death, being inharmonious, do not
originate in God nor belong to His government. His
law, rightly understood, destroys them. Jesus furnished
12 proofs of these statements.

Question. — What is error?
Answer. — Error is a supposition that pleasure and
15 pain, that intelligence, substance, life, are existent in mat-
ter. Error is neither Mind nor one of Mind's Evanescent
faculties. Error is the contradiction of Truth. materiality
18 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
21 have a self-evident absurdity — namely, erroneous truth.
Thus we should continue to lose the standard of Truth.

Question. — Is there no sin?
24 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 Unrealities
27 the only reality of sin, sickness, or death is that seem real
the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human, erring
belief, until God strips off their disguise. They are not
30 true, because they are not of God. We learn in Christian

Science and Health – Recapitulation 473

1 Science that all inharmony of mortal mind or body is illu-
sion, possessing neither reality nor identity though seeming
3 to be real and identical.
The Science of Mind disposes of all evil. Truth, God,
is not the father of error. Sin, sickness, and death are
6 to be classified as effects of error. Christ Christ the
came to destroy the belief of sin. The God- ideal Truth
principle is omnipresent and omnipotent. God is every-
9 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
12 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-
15 ing the power of death. Jesus is the human man, and
Christ is the divine idea; hence the duality of Jesus the
Christ.
18 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 Jesus not
21 reach his example and to test its unerring Sci- God
ence according to his rule, healing sickness, sin, and
death, a better understanding of God as divine Prin-
24 ciple, Love, rather than personality or the man Jesus, is
required.
Jesus established what he said by demonstration,
27 thus making his acts of higher importance than his
words. He proved what he taught. This Jesus not
is the Science of Christianity. Jesus proved understood
30 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

Science and Health – Recapitulation 474

1 proofs, — namely, that Life, Truth, and Love (the Prin-
ciple of this unacknowledged Science) destroy all error,
3 evil, disease, and death.
The reception accorded to Truth in the early Chris-
tian era is repeated to-day. Whoever introduces the
6 Science of Christianity will be scoffed at and Miracles
scourged with worse cords than those which rejected
cut the flesh. To the ignorant age in which it first
9 appears, Science seems to be a mistake, — hence the
misinterpretation and consequent maltreatment which
it receives. Christian marvels (and marvel is the sim-
12 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
15 gained.
If sin, sickness, and death are as real as Life, Truth,
and Love, then they must all be from the same source;
18 God must be their author. Now Jesus came Divine
to destroy sin, sickness, and death; yet the fulfilment
Scriptures aver, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."
21 Is it possible, then, to believe that the evils which Jesus
lived to destroy are real or the offspring of the divine
will?
24 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 Truth destroys
27 must make it so; but error, not Truth, is falsity
the author of the unreal, and the unreal vanishes,
while all that is real is eternal. The apostle says that
30 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

Science and Health – Recapitulation 475

1 darkness, and the Scripture declares that there is "no
night there." To Truth there is no error, — all is Truth.
3 To infinite Spirit there is no matter, — all is Spirit, divine
Principle and its idea.

Question. — What is man?
6 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 Fleshly
9 the image and likeness of God. Matter is factors unreal
not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so
unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and be-
12 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
15 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
18 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
21 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
24 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
27 creepeth upon the earth."
Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The
real man cannot depart from holiness, nor Man
30 can God, by whom man is evolved, engender unfallen
the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not

Science and Health – Recapitulation 476

1 God's man. Mortals are the counterfeits of immortals.
They are the children of the wicked one, or the one evil,
3 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.
6 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 Mortals are
9 this matter is man. God is the Principle of not immortals
man, and man is the idea of God. Hence man is not
mortal nor material. Mortals will disappear, and im-
12 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,
15 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
18 up in immortality. Sin, sickness, and death must dis-
appear to give place to the facts which belong to immortal
man.
21 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 Imperishable
24 man: "As for man, his days are as grass: as identity
a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind
passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall
27 know it no more."
When speaking of God's children, not the children of
men, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you;"
30 that is, Truth and Love reign in the real The kingdom
man, showing that man in God's image is within
unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the per-

Science and Health – Recapitulation 477

1 fect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal
man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour
3 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.
6 Man is not a material habitation for Soul; he is himself
spiritual. Soul, being Spirit, is seen in nothing imperfect
nor material.
9 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 Material
12 God, and declares the corporeal senses to be body never
mortal and erring illusions. Divine Science God's idea
shows it to be impossible that a material body, though
15 interwoven with matter's highest stratum, misnamed
mind, should be man, — the genuine and perfect man,
the immortal idea of being, indestructible and eternal.
18 Were it otherwise, man would be annihilated.

Question. — What are body and Soul?
Answer. — Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the re-
21 flection in multifarious forms of the living Principle,
Love. Soul is the substance, Life, and intelli- Reflection
gence of man, which is individualized, but not of Spirit
24 in matter. Soul can never reflect anything inferior to
Spirit.
Man is the expression of Soul. The Indians caught
27 some glimpses of the underlying reality, when Man
they called a certain beautiful lake "the smile inseparable
of the Great Spirit." Separated from man, from Spirit
30 who expresses Soul, Spirit would be a nonentity; man,
divorced from Spirit, would lose his entity. But there is,

Science and Health – Recapitulation 478

1 there can be, no such division, for man is coexistent with
God.
3 What evidence of Soul or of immortality have you
within mortality? Even according to the teachings of
natural science, man has never beheld Spirit A vacant
6 or Soul leaving a body or entering it. What domicile
basis is there for the theory of indwelling spirit, except
the claim of mortal belief? What would be thought of
9 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
12 even visible through the windows? Who can see a soul
in the body?

Question. — Does brain think, and do nerves feel, and
15 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
18 in matter is erroneous. That body is most Harmonious
harmonious in which the discharge of the nat- functions
ural functions is least noticeable. How can intelligence
21 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
24 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
27 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."
30 Mortal man is really a self-contradictory phrase, for
man is not mortal, "neither indeed can be;" man is im-

Science and Health – Recapitulation 479

1 mortal. If a child is the offspring of physical sense and
not of Soul, the child must have a material, not a spirit-
3 ual origin. With what truth, then, could the Immortal
Scriptural rejoicing be uttered by any mother, birthright
"I have gotten a man from the Lord"? On the con-
6 trary, if aught comes from God, it cannot be mortal and
material; it must be immortal and spiritual.
Matter is neither self-existent nor a product of Spirit.
9 An image of mortal thought, reflected on the retina, is
all that the eye beholds. Matter cannot see, Matter's
feel, hear, taste, nor smell. It is not self- supposed
12 cognizant, — cannot feel itself, see itself, nor selfhood
understand itself. Take away so-called mortal mind,
which constitutes matter's supposed selfhood, and matter
15 can take no cognizance of matter. Does that which we
call dead ever see, hear, feel, or use any of the physical
senses?
18 "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." Chaos and
21 (Genesis i. 1, 2.) In the vast forever, in the darkness
Science and truth of being, the only facts are Spirit
and its innumerable creations. Darkness and chaos
24 are the imaginary opposites of light, understanding,
and eternal harmony, and they are the elements of
nothingness.
27 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 Spiritual
30 says: "For the invisible things of Him, from reflection
the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being under-
stood by the things that are made." (Romans i. 20.)

Science and Health – Recapitulation 480

1 When the substance of Spirit appears in Christian Sci-
ence, the nothingness of matter is recognized. Where
3 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
6 there remains only the darkness of vacuity and not a trace
of heavenly tints.
Nerves are an element of the belief that there is sensa-
9 tion in matter, whereas matter is devoid of sensation.
Consciousness, as well as action, is governed Harmony
by Mind, — is in God, the origin and gov- from Spirit
12 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
15 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
18 attempting to separate Mind from God.
Man is not God, and God is not man. Again, God,
or good, never made man capable of sin. It is the oppo-
21 site of good — that is, evil — which seems to Evil
make men capable of wrong-doing. Hence, non-existent
evil is but an illusion, and it has no real basis. Evil is a
24 false belief. God is not its author. The supposititious
parent of evil is a lie.
The Bible declares: "All things were made by Him
27 [the divine Word]; and without Him was not anything
made that was made." This is the eternal Vapor and
verity of divine Science. If sin, sickness, and nothingness
30 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

Science and Health – Recapitulation 481

1 other. How important, then, to choose good as the
reality! Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing
3 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
6 free "to enter into the holiest," — the realm of God.
Material sense never helps mortals to understand
Spirit, God. Through spiritual sense only, man com-
9 prehends and loves Deity. The various con- The fruit
tradictions of the Science of Mind by the ma- forbidden
terial senses do not change the unseen Truth, which re-
12 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,
15 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
18 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
21 then assume the necessity of these evils because of their
admitted actuality. These human verdicts are the pro-
curers of all discord.
24 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 Sense and
27 impossible, since Truth cannot support error. pure Soul
Soul is the divine Principle of man and never sins, —
hence the immortality of Soul. In Science we learn that
30 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-

Science and Health – Recapitulation 482

1 tion of the word sense for soul gives the exact meaning in
a majority of cases.
3 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. Soul
6 The proper use of the word soul can always defined
be gained by substituting the word God, where the deific
meaning is required. In other cases, use the word sense,
9 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
12 sense, with material sensation.

Question. — Is it important to understand these ex-
planations in order to heal the sick?
15 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 Sonship
18 woman is but a species of the genera, he was of Jesus
literally the Son of Man. Jesus was the highest human
concept of the perfect man. He was inseparable from
21 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
24 old this dual appearing, and angels whisper it, through
faith, to the hungering heart in every age.
Sickness is part of the error which Truth casts out.
27 Error will not expel error. Christian Science is the law
of Truth, which heals the sick on the basis Sickness
of the one Mind or God. It can heal in no erroneous
30 other way, since the human, mortal mind so-called is not
a healer, but causes the belief in disease.

Science and Health – Recapitulation 483

1 Then comes the question, how do drugs, hygiene, and
animal magnetism heal? It may be affirmed that they
3 do not heal, but only relieve suffering tempo- True healing
rarily, exchanging one disease for another. transcendent
We classify disease as error, which nothing but Truth or
6 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
9 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
12 approach to the standard in Christian Science.
After the author's sacred discovery, she affixed the
name "Science" to Christianity, the name "error" to
15 corporeal sense, and the name "substance" to Terms
Mind. Science has called the world to battle adopted by
over this issue and its demonstration, which the author
18 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
21 the spirit of Christian Science, if not the absolute letter.
Because the Science of Mind seems to bring into dis-
honor the ordinary scientific schools, which wrestle with
24 material observations alone, this Science has Science
met with opposition; but if any system honors the way
God, it ought to receive aid, not opposition, from all think-
27 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
30 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

Science and Health – Recapitulation 484

1 will never be based on a divine Principle and so found to
be unerring, until its absolute Science is reached. When
3 this is accomplished, neither pride, prejudice, bigotry,
nor envy can wash away its foundation, for it is built upon
the rock, Christ.

6 Question. — Does Christian Science, or metaphysical
healing, include medication, material hygiene, mesmer-
ism, hypnotism, theosophy, or spiritualism?
9 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 Mindless
12 science and material laws are the objective methods
states of mortal mind. The physical universe expresses
the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals.
15 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-
18 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.
21 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 Animal
24 of divine Science. Science must triumph magnetism error
over material sense, and Truth over error, thus putting
an end to the hypotheses involved in all false theories
27 and practices.

Question. — Is materiality the concomitant of spirit-
uality, and is material sense a necessary preliminary to
30 the understanding and expression of Spirit?

Science and Health – Recapitulation 485

1 Answer. — If error is necessary to define or to reveal
Truth, the answer is yes; but not otherwise. Material
3 sense is an absurd phrase, for matter has no Error only
sensation. Science declares that Mind, not ephemeral
matter, sees, hears, feels, speaks. Whatever contradicts
6 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
9 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
12 to make sin, disease, and death appear more and more
unreal?
Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not
15 to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come
naturally into Spirit through better health and Scientific
morals and as the result of spiritual growth. translations
18 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,
21 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
24 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,
27 called disease and sin.
The heathen gods of mythology controlled war and
agriculture as much as nerves control sensation or
30 muscles measure strength. To say that Material
strength is in matter, is like saying that the beliefs
power is in the lever. The notion of any life or intelli-

Science and Health – Recapitulation 486

1 gence in matter is without foundation in fact, and you
can have no faith in falsehood when you have learned
3 falsehood's true nature.
Suppose one accident happens to the eye, another to
the ear, and so on, until every corporeal sense is quenched.
6 What is man's remedy? To die, that he may Sense versus
regain these senses? Even then he must gain Soul
spiritual understanding and spiritual sense in order to
9 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
12 scientific harmony. Death is not the result of Truth but
of error, and one error will not correct another.
Jesus proved by the prints of the nails, that his body
15 was the same immediately after death as before. If death
restores sight, sound, and strength to man, Death
then death is not an enemy but a better friend an error
18 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
21 as this error of belief remains, mortals will continue mor-
tal in belief and subject to chance and change.
Sight, hearing, all the spiritual senses of man, are
24 eternal. They cannot be lost. Their reality and immor-
tality are in Spirit and understanding, not in Permanent
matter, — hence their permanence. If this sensibility
27 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
30 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

Science and Health – Recapitulation 487

1 drive mortals to seek and to find a higher sense of happi-
ness and existence.
3 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 Exercise of
6 after that which is called death. There is more Mind-faculties
Christianity in seeing and hearing spiritually
than materially. There is more Science in the perpetual
9 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-
12 turies ago, and it will repeat the wonder.

Question. — You speak of belief. Who or what is it
that believes?
15 Answer. — Spirit is all-knowing; this precludes the
need of believing. Matter cannot believe, and Mind
understands. The body cannot believe. The Understanding
18 believer and belief are one and are mortal. versus belief
Christian evidence is founded on Science or
demonstrable Truth, flowing from immortal Mind, and
21 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-
24 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."
27 The understanding that Life is God, Spirit, lengthens
our days by strengthening our trust in the deathless
reality of Life, its almightiness and immortality.
30 This faith relies upon an understood Principle. This
Principle makes whole the diseased, and brings out the

Science and Health – Recapitulation 488

1 enduring and harmonious phases of things. The result
of our teachings is their sufficient confirmation. When,
3 on the strength of these instructions, you are Confirmation
able to banish a severe malady, the cure shows by healing
that you understand this teaching, and therefore you re-
6 ceive the blessing of Truth.
The Hebrew and Greek words often translated belief
differ somewhat in meaning from that conveyed by the
9 English verb believe; they have more the sig- Belief and
nificance of faith, understanding, trust, con- firm trust
stancy, firmness. Hence the Scriptures often appear in
12 our common version to approve and endorse belief, when
they mean to enforce the necessity of understanding.

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.

Science and Health – Recapitulation 489

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

Science and Health – Recapitulation 490

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

Science and Health – Recapitulation 491

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,

Science and Health – Recapitulation 492

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.

Science and Health – Recapitulation 493

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.

9 Question. — Will you explain sickness and show how it
is to be healed?
Answer. — The method of Christian Science Mind-heal-
12 ing is touched upon in a previous chapter entitled Christian
Science Practice. A full answer to the above Mental
question involves teaching, which enables the preparation
15 healer to demonstrate and prove for himself the Principle
and rule of Christian Science or metaphysical healing.
Mind must be found superior to all the beliefs of the
18 five corporeal senses, and able to destroy all ills. Sick-
ness is a belief, which must be annihilated by Mind destroys
the divine Mind. Disease is an experience of all ills
21 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
24 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
27 reality of being.
If Jesus awakened Lazarus from the dream, illusion, of
death, this proved that the Christ could improve on a false
30 sense. Who dares to doubt this consummate test of the
power and willingness of divine Mind to hold man forever

Science and Health – Recapitulation 494

1 intact in his perfect state, and to govern man's entire
action? Jesus said: "Destroy this temple [body], and
3 in three days I [Mind] will raise it up;" and he did this
for tired humanity's reassurance.
Is it not a species of infidelity to believe that so great
6 a work as the Messiah's was done for himself or for God,
who needed no help from Jesus' example to Inexhaustible
preserve the eternal harmony? But mortals divine Love
9 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-
12 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.
15 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 Reason
18 human sense to flee from its own convictions and Science
and seek safety in divine Science. Reason, rightly di-
rected, serves to correct the errors of corporeal sense; but
21 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
24 the unbroken reality of scientific being.
Which of these two theories concerning man are you
ready to accept? One is the mortal testimony, changing,
27 dying, unreal. The other is the eternal and real evidence,
bearing Truth's signet, its lap piled high with immortal
fruits.
30 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.

Science and Health – Recapitulation 495

1 God will heal the sick through man, whenever man is
governed by God. Truth casts out error now Followers
3 as surely as it did nineteen centuries ago. All of Jesus
of Truth is not understood; hence its healing power is not
fully demonstrated.
6 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, Destruction
9 when he spoke of the sick, "whom Satan hath of all evil
bound," and find a sovereign antidote for error in the life-
giving power of Truth acting on human belief, a power
12 which opens the prison doors to such as are bound, and
sets the captive free physically and morally.
When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling
15 steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His
likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither Steadfast and
fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust
18 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,
21 instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of
being, and this understanding will supplant error with
Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence dis-
24 cord with harmony.

Question. — How can I progress most rapidly in the
understanding of Christian Science?
27 Answer. — Study thoroughly the letter and imbibe
the spirit. Adhere to the divine Principle of Chris-
tian Science and follow the behests of God, Rudiments
30 abiding steadfastly in wisdom, Truth, and and growth
Love. In the Science of Mind, you will soon ascertain

Science and Health – Recapitulation 496

1 that error cannot destroy error. You will also learn
that in Science there is no transfer of evil suggestions
3 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
6 that in Christian Science the first duty is to obey
God, to have one Mind, and to love another as
yourself.
9 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 Condition
12 Truth and Love? If so, then the way will of progress
grow brighter "unto the perfect day." Your fruits
will prove what the understanding of God brings to man.
15 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,
18 based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, over-
lying, and encompassing all true being.
"The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is
21 the law," — the law of mortal belief, at war with the
facts of immortal Life, even with the spiritual Triumph
law which says to the grave, "Where is thy over death
24 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
27 is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."

Question. — Have Christian Scientists any religious
creed?
30 Answer. — They have not, if by that term is meant
doctrinal beliefs. The following is a brief exposition of

Science and Health – Recapitulation 497

1 the important points, or religious tenets, of Christian
Science: —
3 1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word
of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.
2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and in-
6 finite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the
Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's
image and likeness.
9 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-
12 ished so long as the belief lasts.
4. We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evi-
dence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity
15 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
18 Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming
sin and death.
5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and
21 his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eter-
nal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the noth-
ingness of matter.
24 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
27 to be merciful, just, and pure.SHOW ALL