0.0 – Science & Health by Mary Baker Eddy Chapter 10 – Section 1 of 3 – Science of Being – 1910 Edition

The phrase, Science of being, is always spelt with a capital S for Science because it is God's Science, and with a little b for being, because, you might say, it is our being. (The textbook always reserves the capitalized letter for God and the uncapitalized for man as the activity of God.) If Science is the truth of our being and all comes from God, this is the Science of our being God's Being. God's Being is our very  being.
This is a long chapter full of beautiful details of how the divine comes with Christ power to illuminate, and to transform, and to redeem all the details of our human sense of being. It finishes with thirty-two numbered sections, called "the platform." Mrs Eddy introduces this by saying, "When the following platform is understood and the letter and the spirit bear witness, the infallibility of divine metaphysics will be demonstrated" (330:8). The word platform is derived from two words, plat and form, and plat is an interweaving. So the platform offers  us interwoven spiritual precepts about the nature of God, the nature of Christ, the nature of the human, and the resolving of the problem of evil. This therefore must be something on which we can safely stand. 
~ DISSOLVING BARRIERS, The Healing Work of Christian Science by John L. MorganSHOW ALL

     Chapter 10                                                                           268

  	Science of Being 

  	That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
  	which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon,
  	and our hands have handled, of the Word of life, . . . 
  	That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you,
  	that ye also may have fellowship with us:
  	and truly our fellowship is with the Father,
  	and with His Son Jesus Christ. — John, First Epistle. 

  	Here I stand. I can do no otherwise;
  	so help me God! Amen! — Martin Luther. 

 1	    In the material world, thought has brought to light
   	with great rapidity many useful wonders. With
 3	like activity have thought's swift pinions been rising
  	towards the realm of the real, to the spiritual	Materialistic
  	cause of those lower things which give im-	challenge 
 6	pulse to inquiry. Belief in a material basis, from
  	which may be deduced all rationality, is slowly yielding
  	to the idea of a metaphysical basis, looking away from
 9	matter to Mind as the cause of every effect. Material-
  	istic hypotheses challenge metaphysics to meet in final
  	combat. In this revolutionary period, like the shep-
12	herd-boy with his sling, woman goes forth to battle with
  	Goliath. 
  	    In this final struggle for supremacy, semi-metaphysi-
15	cal systems afford no substantial aid to scientific meta-
  	physics, for their arguments are based on	Confusion
  	the false testimony of the material senses as	confounded 
18	well as on the facts of Mind. These semi-metaphysical
 
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 1	systems are one and all pantheistic, and savor of Pan-
  	demonium, a house divided against itself. 
 3	    From first to last the supposed coexistence of Mind
  	and matter and the mingling of good and evil have re-
  	sulted from the philosophy of the serpent. Jesus' demon-
 6	strations sift the chaff from the wheat, and unfold the
  	unity and the reality of good, the unreality, the nothing-
  	ness, of evil. 
 9	    Human philosophy has made God manlike. Christian
  	Science makes man Godlike. The first is error; the latter
  	is truth. Metaphysics is above physics, and	Divine
12	matter does not enter into metaphysical prem-	metaphysics 
  	ises or conclusions. The categories of metaphysics rest
  	on one basis, the divine Mind. Metaphysics resolves
15	things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense
  	for the ideas of Soul. 
  	    These ideas are perfectly real and tangible to spiritual
18	consciousness, and they have this advantage over the ob-
  	jects and thoughts of material sense, — they are good and
  	eternal. 
21	    The testimony of the material senses is neither abso-
  	lute nor divine. I therefore plant myself unreservedly
  	on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of	Biblical
24	the prophets, and on the testimony of the	foundations 
  	Science of Mind. Other foundations there are none. 
  	All other systems — systems based wholly or partly on
27	knowledge gained through the material senses — are reeds
  	shaken by the wind, not houses built on the rock. 
  	    The theories I combat are these: (1) that all is matter;
30	(2) that matter originates in Mind, and is as	Rejected
  	real as Mind, possessing intelligence and life. 	theories 
  	The first theory, that matter is everything, is quite as
 
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 1	reasonable as the second, that Mind and matter coexist
  	and cooperate. One only of the following statements can
 3	be true: (1) that everything is matter; (2) that every-
  	thing is Mind. Which one is it? 
  	    Matter and Mind are opposites. One is contrary to
 6	the other in its very nature and essence; hence both can-
  	not be real. If one is real, the other must be unreal. Only
  	by understanding that there is but one power, — not two
 9	powers, matter and Mind, — are scientific and logical
  	conclusions reached. Few deny the hypothesis that in-
  	telligence, apart from man and matter, governs the uni-
12	verse; and it is generally admitted that this intelligence
  	is the eternal Mind or divine Principle, Love. 
  	    The prophets of old looked for something higher than
15	the systems of their times; hence their fore-	Prophetic
  	sight of the new dispensation of Truth. But	ignorance 
  	they knew not what would be the precise nature of the
18	teaching and demonstration of God, divine Mind, in His
  	more infinite meanings, — the demonstration which was
  	to destroy sin, sickness, and death, establish the definition
21	of omnipotence, and maintain the Science of Spirit. 
  	    The pride of priesthood is the prince of this world. It
  	has nothing in Christ. Meekness and charity have divine
24	authority. Mortals think wickedly; consequently they
  	are wicked. They think sickly thoughts, and so become
  	sick. If sin makes sinners, Truth and Love alone can
27	unmake them. If a sense of disease produces suffering
  	and a sense of ease antidotes suffering, disease is mental,
  	not material. Hence the fact that the human mind alone
30	suffers, is sick, and that the divine Mind alone heals. 
  	    The life of Christ Jesus was not miraculous, but it was
  	indigenous to his spirituality, — the good soil wherein the
 
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 1	seed of Truth springs up and bears much fruit. Christ's
  	Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing
 3	in all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with
  	the Scriptures and uniting all periods in the design of
  	God. Neither emasculation, illusion, nor insubordination
 6	exists in divine Science. 
  	    Jesus instructed his disciples whereby to heal the sick
  	through Mind instead of matter. He knew that the phi-
 9	losophy, Science, and proof of Christianity were in Truth,
  	casting out all inharmony. 
  	    In Latin the word rendered disciple signifies student;
12	and the word indicates that the power of healing was not
  	a supernatural gift to those learners, but the	Studious
  	result of their cultivated spiritual understand-	disciples 
15	ing of the divine Science, which their Master demonstrated
  	by healing the sick and sinning. Hence the universal ap-
  	plication of his saying: "Neither pray I for these alone,
18	but for them also which shall believe on me [understand
  	me] through their word." 
  	    Our Master said, "But the Comforter . . . shall
21	teach you all things." When the Science of Christianity
  	appears, it will lead you into all truth. The	New
  	Sermon on the Mount is the essence of this	Testament
24	Science, and the eternal life, not the death of Jesus, is	basis 
  	its outcome. 
  	    Those, who are willing to leave their nets or to cast
27	them on the right side for Truth, have the opportunity
  	now, as aforetime, to learn and to practise	Modern
  	Christian healing. The Scriptures contain it. 	evangel 
30	The spiritual import of the Word imparts this power. 
  	But, as Paul says, "How shall they hear without a
  	preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be
 
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 1	sent?" If sent, how shall they preach, convert, and heal
  	multitudes, except the people hear? 
 3	    The spiritual sense of truth must be gained before
  	Truth can be understood. This sense is assimilated only
  	as we are honest, unselfish, loving, and meek. 	Spirituality
 6	In the soil of an "honest and good heart" the	of Scripture 
  	seed must be sown; else it beareth not much fruit, for the
  	swinish element in human nature uproots it. Jesus said:
 9	"Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures." The spiritual
  	sense of the Scriptures brings out the scientific sense, and
  	is the new tongue referred to in the last chapter of Mark's
12	Gospel. 
  	    Jesus' parable of "the sower" shows the care our
  	Master took not to impart to dull ears and gross hearts
15	the spiritual teachings which dulness and grossness could
  	not accept. Reading the thoughts of the people, he said:
  	"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast
18	ye your pearls before swine." 
  	    It is the spiritualization of thought and Christianization
  	of daily life, in contrast with the results of the ghastly farce
21	of material existence; it is chastity and purity,	Unspiritual
  	in contrast with the downward tendencies	contrasts 
  	and earthward gravitation of sensualism and impurity,
24	which really attest the divine origin and operation of Chris-
  	tian Science. The triumphs of Christian Science are re-
  	corded in the destruction of error and evil, from which are
27	propagated the dismal beliefs of sin, sickness, and death. 
  	    The divine Principle of the universe must interpret the
  	universe. God is the divine Principle of all that repre-
30	sents Him and of all that really exists. Chris-	God the
  	tian Science, as demonstrated by Jesus, alone	Principle of all 
  	reveals the natural, divine Principle of Science. 
 
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 1	    Matter and its claims of sin, sickness, and death are
  	contrary to God, and cannot emanate from Him. There
 3	is no material truth. The physical senses can take no
  	cognizance of God and spiritual Truth. Human belief
  	has sought out many inventions, but not one of them
 6	can solve the problem of being without the divine Prin-
  	ciple of divine Science. Deductions from material hy-
  	potheses are not scientific. They differ from real Science
 9	because they are not based on the divine law. 
  	    Divine Science reverses the false testimony of the ma-
  	terial senses, and thus tears away the foun-	Science
12	dations of error. Hence the enmity between	versus
  	Science and the senses, and the impossibility	sense 
  	of attaining perfect understanding till the errors of sense
15	are eliminated. 
  	    The so-called laws of matter and of medical science have
  	never made mortals whole, harmonious, and immortal. 
18	Man is harmonious when governed by Soul. Hence the
  	importance of understanding the truth of being, which
  	reveals the laws of spiritual existence. 
21	    God never ordained a material law to annul the spiritual
  	law. If there were such a material law, it would oppose
  	the supremacy of Spirit, God, and impugn the	Spiritual law
24	wisdom of the creator. Jesus walked on the	the only law 
  	waves, fed the multitude, healed the sick, and raised the
  	dead in direct opposition to material laws. His acts were
27	the demonstration of Science, overcoming the false claims
  	of material sense or law. 
  	    Science shows that material, conflicting mortal opin-
30	ions and beliefs emit the effects of error at all times, but
  	this atmosphere of mortal mind cannot be destructive to
  	morals and health when it is opposed promptly and per-
 
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 1	sistently by Christian Science. Truth and Love antidote
  	this mental miasma, and thus invigorate and sustain ex-
 3	istence. Unnecessary knowledge gained from	Material
  	the five senses is only temporal, — the concep-	knowledge
  	tion of mortal mind, the offspring of sense, not	illusive 
 6	of Soul, Spirit, — and symbolizes all that is evil and
  	perishable. Natural science, as it is commonly called, is
  	not really natural nor scientific, because it is deduced from
 9	the evidence of the material senses. Ideas, on the con-
  	trary, are born of Spirit, and are not mere inferences
  	drawn from material premises. 
12	    The senses of Spirit abide in Love, and they demon-
  	strate Truth and Life. Hence Christianity and the Sci-
  	ence which expounds it are based on spiritual	Five senses
15	understanding, and they supersede the so-	deceptive 
  	called laws of matter. Jesus demonstrated this great
  	verity. When what we erroneously term the five physical
18	senses are misdirected, they are simply the manifested
  	beliefs of mortal mind, which affirm that life, substance,
  	and intelligence are material, instead of spiritual. These
21	false beliefs and their products constitute the flesh, and
  	the flesh wars against Spirit. 
  	    Divine Science is absolute, and permits no half-way
24	position in learning its Principle and rule — establishing
  	it by demonstration. The conventional firm,	Impossible
  	called matter and mind, God never formed. 	partnership 
27	Science and understanding, governed by the unerring and
  	eternal Mind, destroy the imaginary copartnership, matter
  	and mind, formed only to be destroyed in a manner and
30	at a period as yet unknown. This suppositional partner-
  	ship is already obsolete, for matter, examined in the light
  	of divine metaphysics, disappears. 
 

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 1	    Matter has no life to lose, and Spirit never dies. A
  	partnership of mind with matter would ignore omnipres-
 3	ent and omnipotent Mind. This shows that	Spirit the
  	matter did not originate in God, Spirit, and is	starting-point 
  	not eternal. Therefore matter is neither substantial, living,
 6	nor intelligent. The starting-point of divine Science is
  	that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other
  	might nor Mind, — that God is Love, and therefore He
 9	is divine Principle. 
  	    To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science,
  	you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle
12	of all that really is. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love,	Divine
  	combine as one, — and are the Scriptural names	synonyms 
  	for God. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, im-
15	mortality, cause, and effect belong to God. These are
  	His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite
  	divine Principle, Love. No wisdom is wise but His
18	wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life
  	but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows. 
  	    Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understand-
21	ing, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is
  	God, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience,	The divine
  	 — that is, all power, all presence, all Science. 	completeness 
24	Hence all is in reality the manifestation of Mind. 
  	    Our material human theories are destitute of Science. 
  	The true understanding of God is spiritual. It robs the
27	grave of victory. It destroys the false evidence that mis-
  	leads thought and points to other gods, or other so-called
  	powers, such as matter, disease, sin, and death, superior
30	or contrary to the one Spirit. 
  	    Truth, spiritually discerned, is scientifically understood. 
  	It casts out error and heals the sick. 
 
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 1	    Having one God, one Mind, unfolds the power that
  	heals the sick, and fulfils these sayings of Scripture, "I
 3	am the Lord that healeth thee," and "I have	Universal
  	found a ransom." When the divine precepts	brotherhood 
  	are understood, they unfold the foundation of fellowship,
 6	in which one mind is not at war with another, but all have
  	one Spirit, God, one intelligent source, in accordance with
  	the Scriptural command: "Let this Mind be in you,
 9	which was also in Christ Jesus." Man and his Maker
  	are correlated in divine Science, and real consciousness
  	is cognizant only of the things of God. 
12	    The realization that all inharmony is unreal brings
  	objects and thoughts into human view in their true light,
  	and presents them as beautiful and immortal. Harmony
15	in man is as real and immortal as in music. Discord is
  	unreal and mortal. 
  	    If God is admitted to be the only Mind and Life,
18	there ceases to be any opportunity for sin and death. 
  	When we learn in Science how to be perfect	Perfection
  	even as our Father in heaven is perfect,	requisite 
21	thought is turned into new and healthy channels, — 
  	towards the contemplation of things immortal and away
  	from materiality to the Principle of the universe, includ-
24	ing harmonious man. 
  	    Material beliefs and spiritual understanding never
  	mingle. The latter destroys the former. Discord is the
27	nothingness named error. Harmony is the somethingness
  	named Truth. 
  	    Nature and revelation inform us that like produces
30	like. Divine Science does not gather grapes	Like evolving
  	from thorns nor figs from thistles. Intelli-	like 
  	gence never produces non-intelligence; but matter is
 
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 1	ever non-intelligent and therefore cannot spring from
  	intelligence. To all that is unlike unerring and eternal
 3	Mind, this Mind saith, "Thou shalt surely die;" and else-
  	where the Scripture says that dust returns to dust. The
  	non-intelligent relapses into its own unreality. Matter
 6	never produces mind. The immortal never produces the
  	mortal. Good cannot result in evil. As God Himself is
  	good and is Spirit, goodness and spirituality must be im-
 9	mortal. Their opposites, evil and matter, are mortal
  	error, and error has no creator. If goodness and spirit-
  	uality are real, evil and materiality are unreal and can-
12	not be the outcome of an infinite God, good. 
  	    Natural history presents vegetables and animals as
  	preserving their original species, — like reproducing like. 
15	A mineral is not produced by a vegetable nor the man
  	by the brute. In reproduction, the order of genus and
  	species is preserved throughout the entire round of nature. 
18	This points to the spiritual truth and Science of being. 
  	Error relies upon a reversal of this order, asserts that
  	Spirit produces matter and matter produces all the ills
21	of flesh, and therefore that good is the origin of evil. 
  	These suppositions contradict even the order of material
  	so-called science. 
24	    The realm of the real is Spirit. The unlikeness of Spirit
  	is matter, and the opposite of the real is not divine, — it is
  	a human concept. Matter is an error of state-	Material
27	ment. This error in the premise leads to errors	error 
  	in the conclusion in every statement into which it enters. 
  	Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is immor-
30	tal, for matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phe-
  	nomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always
  	erroneous. 
 

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 1	    Is Spirit the source or creator of matter? Science re-
  	veals nothing in Spirit out of which to create matter. 
 3	Divine metaphysics explains away matter. 	Substance
  	Spirit is the only substance and consciousness	versus
  	recognized by divine Science. The material	supposition 
 6	senses oppose this, but there are no material senses, for
  	matter has no mind. In Spirit there is no matter, even
  	as in Truth there is no error, and in good no evil. It is
 9	a false supposition, the notion that there is real substance-
  	matter, the opposite of Spirit. Spirit, God, is infinite,
  	all. Spirit can have no opposite. 
12	    That matter is substantial or has life and sensation, is
  	one of the false beliefs of mortals, and exists only in a
  	supposititious mortal consciousness. Hence,	One cause
15	as we approach Spirit and Truth, we lose the	supreme 
  	consciousness of matter. The admission that there can
  	be material substance requires another admission, — 
18	namely, that Spirit is not infinite and that matter is self-
  	creative, self-existent, and eternal. From this it would
  	follow that there are two eternal causes, warring forever
21	with each other; and yet we say that Spirit is supreme
  	and all-presence. 
  	    The belief of the eternity of matter contradicts the
24	demonstration of life as Spirit, and leads to the conclu-
  	sion that if man is material, he originated in matter and
  	must return to dust, — logic which would prove his an-
27	nihilation. 
  	    All that we term sin, sickness, and death is a mortal
  	belief. We define matter as error, because it is the oppo-
30	site of life, substance, and intelligence. Mat-	Substance
  	ter, with its mortality, cannot be substantial	is Spirit 
  	if Spirit is substantial and eternal. Which ought to
 

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 1	be substance to us, — the erring, changing, and dying,
  	the mutable and mortal, or the unerring, immutable,
 3	and immortal? A New Testament writer plainly de-
  	scribes faith, a quality of mind, as "the substance of things
  	hoped for." 
 6	    The doom of matter establishes the conclusion that
  	matter, slime, or protoplasm never originated	Material
  	in the immortal Mind, and is therefore not	mortality 
 9	eternal. Matter is neither created by Mind nor for the
  	manifestation and support of Mind. 
  	    Ideas are tangible and real to immortal consciousness,
12	and they have the advantage of being eternal. 	Spiritual
  	Spirit and matter can neither coexist nor co-	tangibility 
  	operate, and one can no more create the other than
15	Truth can create error, or vice versa. 
  	    In proportion as the belief disappears that life and in-
  	telligence are in or of matter, the immortal facts of
18	being are seen, and their only idea or intelligence is
  	in God. Spirit is reached only through the understand-
  	ing and demonstration of eternal Life and Truth and
21	Love. 
  	    Every system of human philosophy, doctrine, and
  	medicine is more or less infected with the pantheistic
24	belief that there is mind in matter; but this	Pantheistic
  	belief contradicts alike revelation and right	tendencies 
  	reasoning. A logical and scientific conclusion is reached
27	only through the knowledge that there are not two
  	bases of being, matter and mind, but one alone, — 
  	Mind. 
30	    Pantheism, starting from a material sense of God,
  	seeks cause in effect, Principle in its idea, and life and
  	intelligence in matter. 
 

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 1	    In the infinitude of Mind, matter must be unknown. 
  	Symbols and elements of discord and decay are not prod-
 3	ucts of the infinite, perfect, and eternal All. 	The things
  	From Love and from the light and harmony	of God are
  	which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections	beautiful 
 6	of good can come. All things beautiful and harmless are
  	ideas of Mind. Mind creates and multiplies them, and
  	the product must be mental. 
 9	    Finite belief can never do justice to Truth in any direc-
  	tion. Finite belief limits all things, and would compress
  	Mind, which is infinite, beneath a skull bone. Such be-
12	lief can neither apprehend nor worship the infinite; and
  	to accommodate its finite sense of the divisibility of Soul
  	and substance, it seeks to divide the one Spirit into per-
15	sons and souls. 
  	    Through this error, human belief comes to have "gods
  	many and lords many." Moses declared as Jehovah's
18	first command of the Ten: "Thou shalt have	Belief in
  	no other gods before me!" But behold the	many gods 
  	zeal of belief to establish the opposite error of many
21	minds. The argument of the serpent in the allegory, "Ye
  	shall be as gods," urges through every avenue the belief
  	that Soul is in body, and that infinite Spirit, and Life, is
24	in finite forms. 
  	    Rightly understood, instead of possessing a sentient
  	material form, man has a sensationless body; and God,
27	the Soul of man and of all existence, being	Sensationless
  	perpetual in His own individuality, harmony,	body 
  	and immortality, imparts and perpetuates these qualities
30	in man, — through Mind, not matter. The only excuse
  	for entertaining human opinions and rejecting the Science
  	of being is our mortal ignorance of Spirit, — ignorance
 

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1	which yields only to the understanding of divine Science,
  	the understanding by which we enter into the kingdom
 3	of Truth on earth and learn that Spirit is infinite and
  	supreme. Spirit and matter no more commingle than
  	light and darkness. When one appears, the other dis-
 6	appears. 
  	    Error presupposes man to be both mind and matter. 
  	Divine Science contradicts the corporeal senses, rebukes
 9	mortal belief, and asks:  What is the Ego,	God and
  	whence its origin and what its destiny? The	His image 
  	Ego-man is the reflection of the Ego-God; the Ego-man
12	is the image and likeness of perfect Mind, Spirit, divine
  	Principle. 
  	    The one Ego, the one Mind or Spirit called God, is
15	infinite individuality, which supplies all form and come-
  	liness and which reflects reality and divinity in individual
  	spiritual man and things. 
18	    The mind supposed to exist in matter or beneath a
  	skull bone is a myth, a misconceived sense and false
  	conception as to man and Mind. When we put off the
21	false sense for the true, and see that sin and mortality
  	have neither Principle nor permanency, we shall learn
  	that sin and mortality are without actual origin or right-
24	ful existence. They are native nothingness, out of which
  	error would simulate creation through a man formed from
  	dust. 
27	    Divine Science does not put new wine into old bottles,
  	Soul into matter, nor the infinite into the finite. Our
  	false views of matter perish as we grasp	The true
30	the facts of Spirit. The old belief must be	new idea 
  	cast out or the new idea will be spilled, and the in-
  	spiration, which is to change our standpoint, will be
 

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 1	lost. Now, as of old, Truth casts out evils and heals
  	the sick. 
 3	    The real Life, or Mind, and its opposite, the so-called
  	material life and mind, are figured by two geometrical
  	symbols, a circle or sphere and a straight	Figures of
 6	line. The circle represents the infinite with-	being 
  	out beginning or end; the straight line represents the
  	finite, which has both beginning and end. The sphere
 9	represents good, the self-existent and eternal individuality
  	or Mind; the straight line represents evil, a belief in
  	a self-made and temporary material existence. Eternal
12	Mind and temporary material existence never unite in
  	figure or in fact. 
  	    A straight line finds no abiding-place in a curve, and a
15	curve finds no adjustment to a straight line. Similarly,
  	matter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has	Opposite
  	no place in matter. Truth has no home in	symbols 
18	error, and error has no foothold in Truth. Mind cannot
  	pass into non-intelligence and matter, nor can non-intel-
  	ligence become Soul. At no point can these opposites
21	mingle or unite. Even though they seem to touch, one
  	is still a curve and the other a straight line. 
  	    There is no inherent power in matter; for all that is
24	material is a material, human, mortal thought, always
  	governing itself erroneously. 
  	    Truth is the intelligence of immortal Mind. Error is
27	the so-called intelligence of mortal mind. 
  	    Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of
  	God or God's absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither
30	Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the	Truth is not
  	Father. The rule of inversion infers from	inverted 
  	error its opposite, Truth; but Truth is the light which
 

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 1	dispels error. As mortals begin to understand Spirit,
  	they give up the belief that there is any true existence
 3	apart from God. 
  	    Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no
  	inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious
 6	action. Mind is the same Life, Love, and wis-	Source of
  	dom "yesterday, and to-day, and forever." 	all life and
  	Matter and its effects — sin, sickness, and	action 
 9	death — are states of mortal mind which act, react, and
  	then come to a stop. They are not facts of Mind. They
  	are not ideas, but illusions. Principle is absolute. It
12	admits of no error, but rests upon understanding. 
  	    But what say prevalent theories? They insist that
  	Life, or God, is one and the same with material life so-
15	called. They speak of both Truth and error as mind,
  	and of good and evil as spirit. They claim that to be
  	life which is but the objective state of material sense, — 
18	such as the structural life of the tree and of material
  	man, — and deem this the manifestation of the one Life,
  	God. 
21	    This false belief as to what really constitutes life so
  	detracts from God's character and nature, that the true
  	sense of His power is lost to all who cling to	Spiritual
24	this falsity. The divine Principle, or Life, can-	structure 
  	not be practically demonstrated in length of days, as it
  	was by the patriarchs, unless its Science be accurately
27	stated. We must receive the divine Principle in the under-
  	standing, and live it in daily life; and unless we so do, we
  	can no more demonstrate Science, than we can teach and
30	illustrate geometry by calling a curve a straight line or a
  	straight line a sphere. 
  	    Are mentality, immortality, consciousness, resident in
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              284


 1	matter? It is not rational to say that Mind is infinite,
  	but dwells in finiteness, — in matter, — or that matter is
 3	infinite and the medium of Mind. 
  	    If God were limited to man or matter, or if the infinite
  	could be circumscribed within the finite, God would be
 6	corporeal, and unlimited Mind would seem	Mind never
  	to spring from a limited body; but this is an	limited 
  	impossibility. Infinite Mind can have no starting-point,
 9	and can return to no limit. It can never be in bonds,
  	nor be fully manifested through corporeality. 
  	    Is God's image or likeness matter, or a mortal, sin,
12	sickness, and death? Can matter recognize Mind? 
  	Can infinite Mind recognize matter? Can the	Material
  	infinite dwell in the finite or know aught un-	recognition
15	like the infinite? Can Deity be known through	impossible 
  	the material senses? Can the material senses, which re-
  	ceive no direct evidence of Spirit, give correct testimony
18	as to spiritual life, truth, and love? 
  	    The answer to all these questions must forever be in
  	the negative. 
21	    The physical senses can obtain no proof of God. They
  	can neither see Spirit through the eye nor hear it through
  	the ear, nor can they feel, taste, or smell Spirit. 	Our physical
24	Even the more subtile and misnamed ma-	insensibility
  	terial elements are beyond the cognizance	to Spirit 
  	of these senses, and are known only by the effects com-
27	monly attributed to them. 
  	    According to Christian Science, the only real senses
  	of man are spiritual, emanating from divine Mind. 
30	Thought passes from God to man, but neither sensation
  	nor report goes from material body to Mind. The in-
  	tercommunication is always from God to His idea, man. 
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              285


 1	Matter is not sentient and cannot be cognizant of good
  	or of evil, of pleasure or of pain. Man's individu-
 3	ality is not material. This Science of being obtains not
  	alone hereafter in what men call Paradise, but here
  	and now; it is the great fact of being for time and
 6	eternity. 
  	    What, then, is the material personality which suffers,
  	sins, and dies? It is not man, the image and likeness
 9	of God, but man's counterfeit, the inverted	The human
  	likeness, the unlikeness called sin, sickness,	counterfeit 
  	and death. The unreality of the claim that a mortal is
12	the true image of God is illustrated by the opposite na-
  	tures of Spirit and matter, Mind and body, for one is
  	intelligence while the other is non-intelligence. 
15	    Is God a physical personality? Spirit is not physical. 
  	The belief that a material body is man is a false con-
  	ception of man. The time has come for a	Material
18	finite conception of the infinite and of a ma-	misconceptions 
  	terial body as the seat of Mind to give place
  	to a diviner sense of intelligence and its manifestations, — 
21	to the better understanding that Science gives of the
  	Supreme Being, or divine Principle, and idea. 
  	    By interpreting God as a corporeal Saviour but not as
24	the saving Principle, or divine Love, we shall continue
  	to seek salvation through pardon and not	Salvation
  	through reform, and resort to matter instead	is through
27	of Spirit for the cure of the sick. As mortals	reform 
  	reach, through knowledge of Christian Science, a higher
  	sense, they will seek to learn, not from matter, but from
30	the divine Principle, God, how to demonstrate the Christ,
  	Truth, as the healing and saving power. 
  	    It is essential to understand, instead of believe, what
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              286


 1	relates most nearly to the happiness of being. To seek
  	Truth through belief in a human doctrine is not to un-
 3	derstand the infinite. We must not seek the immutable
  	and immortal through the finite, mutable, and mortal,
  	and so depend upon belief instead of demonstration, for
 6	this is fatal to a knowledge of Science. The understand-
  	ing of Truth gives full faith in Truth, and spiritual un-
  	derstanding is better than all burnt offerings. 
 9	    The Master said, "No man cometh unto the Father
  	[the divine Principle of being] but by me," Christ,
  	Life, Truth, Love; for Christ says, "I am the way." 
12	Physical causation was put aside from first to
  	last by this original man, Jesus. He knew that the
  	divine Principle, Love, creates and governs all that
15	is real. 
  	    In the Saxon and twenty other tongues good is the term
  	for God. The Scriptures declare all that He	Goodness
18	made to be good, like Himself, — good in	a portion
  	Principle and in idea. Therefore the spiritual	of God 
  	universe is good, and reflects God as He is. 
21	    God's thoughts are perfect and eternal, are substance
  	and Life. Material and temporal thoughts are human,
  	involving error, and since God, Spirit, is the	Spiritual
24	only cause, they lack a divine cause. The	thoughts 
  	temporal and material are not then creations of Spirit. 
  	They are but counterfeits of the spiritual and eternal. 
27	Transitory thoughts are the antipodes of everlasting
  	Truth, though (by the supposition of opposite qualities)
  	error must also say, "I am true." But by this saying
30	error, the lie, destroys itself. 
  	    Sin, sickness, and death are comprised in human ma-
  	terial belief, and belong not to the divine Mind. They
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              287


 1	are without a real origin or existence. They have neither
  	Principle nor permanence, but belong, with all that is
 3	material and temporal, to the nothingness of error, which
  	simulates the creations of Truth. All creations of Spirit
  	are eternal; but creations of matter must return to dust. 
 6	Error supposes man to be both mental and material. 
  	Divine Science contradicts this postulate and maintains
  	man's spiritual identity. 
 9	    We call the absence of Truth, error. Truth and error
  	are unlike. In Science, Truth is divine, and the infinite
  	God can have no unlikeness. Did God, Truth,	Divine
12	create error? No! "Doth a fountain send	allness 
  	forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?" God
  	being everywhere and all-inclusive, how can He be absent
15	or suggest the absence of omnipresence and omnipotence? 
  	How can there be more than all? 
  	    Neither understanding nor truth accompanies error,
18	nor is error the offshoot of Mind. Evil calls itself some-
  	thing, when it is nothing. It saith, "I am man, but I am
  	not the image and likeness of God;" whereas the Scrip-
21	tures declare that man was made in God's likeness. 
  	    Error is false, mortal belief; it is illusion, without spir-
  	itual identity or foundation, and it has no real existence. 
24	The supposition that life, substance, and in-	Error
  	telligence are in matter, or of it, is an error. 	unveiled 
  	Matter is neither a thing nor a person, but merely the
27	objective supposition of Spirit's opposite. The five mate-
  	rial senses testify to truth and error as united in a mind
  	both good and evil. Their false evidence will finally
30	yield to Truth, — to the recognition of Spirit and of the
  	spiritual creation. 
  	    Truth cannot be contaminated by error. The state-
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              288


 1	ment that Truth is real necessarily includes the correlated
  	statement, that error, Truth's unlikeness, is unreal. 
 3	    The suppositional warfare between truth and error is
  	only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spir-
  	itual senses and the testimony of the material	The great
 6	senses, and this warfare between the Spirit and	conflict 
  	flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the un-
  	derstanding of divine Love. 
 9	    Superstition and understanding can never combine. 
  	When the final physical and moral effects of Christian
  	Science are fully apprehended, the conflict between truth
12	and error, understanding and belief, Science and material
  	sense, foreshadowed by the prophets and inaugurated
  	by Jesus, will cease, and spiritual harmony reign. The
15	lightnings and thunderbolts of error may burst and flash
  	till the cloud is cleared and the tumult dies away in the
  	distance. Then the raindrops of divinity refresh the
18	earth. As St. Paul says: "There remaineth therefore
  	a rest to the people of God" (of Spirit). 
  	    The chief stones in the temple of Christian Science are
21	to be found in the following postulates:  that Life is God,
  	good, and not evil; that Soul is sinless, not	The chief
  	to be found in the body; that Spirit is not, and	stones in
24	cannot be, materialized; that Life is not subject	the temple 
  	to death; that the spiritual real man has no birth, no ma-
  	terial life, and no death. 
27	    Science reveals the glorious possibilities of immortal
  	man, forever unlimited by the mortal senses. 	The Christ-
  	The Christ-element in the Messiah made him	element 
30	the Way-shower, Truth and Life. 
  	    The eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem to have
  	learned from error, and man's real existence as a child
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              289


 1	of God comes to light. Truth demonstrated is eternal
  	life. Mortal man can never rise from the temporal debris
 3	of error, belief in sin, sickness, and death, until he learns
  	that God is the only Life. The belief that life and sensa-
  	tion are in the body should be overcome by the under-
 6	standing of what constitutes man as the image of God. 
  	Then Spirit will have overcome the flesh. 
  	    A wicked mortal is not the idea of God. He is little
 9	else than the expression of error. To suppose that sin,
  	lust, hatred, envy, hypocrisy, revenge, have life	Wickedness
  	abiding in them, is a terrible mistake. Life	is not man 
12	and Life's idea, Truth and Truth's idea, never make men
  	sick, sinful, or mortal. 
  	    The fact that the Christ, or Truth, overcame and still
15	overcomes death proves the "king of terrors" to be but
  	a mortal belief, or error, which Truth destroys	Death but
  	with the spiritual evidences of Life; and this	an illusion 
18	shows that what appears to the senses to be death is but a
  	mortal illusion, for to the real man and the real universe
  	there is no death-process. 
21	    The belief that matter has life results, by the universal
  	law of mortal mind, in a belief in death. So man, tree,
  	and flower are supposed to die; but the fact remains,
24	that God's universe is spiritual and immortal. 
  	    The spiritual fact and the material belief of things are
  	contradictions; but the spiritual is true, and therefore the
27	material must be untrue. Life is not in matter. 	Spiritual
  	Therefore it cannot be said to pass out of mat-	offspring 
  	ter. Matter and death are mortal illusions. Spirit and
30	all things spiritual are the real and eternal. 
  	    Man is not the offspring of flesh, but of Spirit, — of
  	Life, not of matter. Because Life is God, Life must be
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              290


 1	eternal, self-existent. Life is the everlasting I AM, the Be-
  	ing who was and is and shall be, whom nothing can erase. 
 3	    If the Principle, rule, and demonstration of man's being
  	are not in the least understood before what is termed death
  	overtakes mortals, they will rise no higher spir-	Death no
 6	itually in the scale of existence on account of	advantage 
  	that single experience, but will remain as material as be-
  	fore the transition, still seeking happiness through a ma-
 9	terial, instead of through a spiritual sense of life, and from
  	selfish and inferior motives. That Life or Mind is finite
  	and physical or is manifested through brain and nerves,
12	is false. Hence Truth comes to destroy this error and
  	its effects, — sickness, sin, and death. To the spiritual
  	class, relates the Scripture: "On such the second death
15	hath no power." 
  	    If the change called death destroyed the belief in sin,
  	sickness, and death, happiness would be won at the mo-
18	ment of dissolution, and be forever permanent;	Future
  	but this is not so. Perfection is gained only	purification 
  	by perfection. They who are unrighteous shall be un-
21	righteous still, until in divine Science Christ, Truth, re-
  	moves all ignorance and sin. 
  	    The sin and error which possess us at the instant of
24	death do not cease at that moment, but endure until the
  	death of these errors. To be wholly spiritual,	Sin is
  	man must be sinless, and he becomes thus only	punished 
27	when he reaches perfection. The murderer, though slain
  	in the act, does not thereby forsake sin. He is no more
  	spiritual for believing that his body died and learning that
30	his cruel mind died not. His thoughts are no purer until
  	evil is disarmed by good. His body is as material as his
  	mind, and vice versa. 
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              291


 1	    The suppositions that sin is pardoned while unfor-
  	saken, that happiness can be genuine in the midst of
 3	sin, that the so-called death of the body frees from sin,
  	and that God's pardon is aught but the destruction of
  	sin, — these are grave mistakes. We know that all will
 6	be changed "in the twinkling of an eye," when the last
  	trump shall sound; but this last call of wisdom cannot
  	come till mortals have already yielded to each lesser call
 9	in the growth of Christian character. Mortals need not
  	fancy that belief in the experience of death will awaken
  	them to glorified being. 
12	    Universal salvation rests on progression and probation,
  	and is unattainable without them. Heaven is not a local-
  	ity, but a divine state of Mind in which all the	Salvation
15	manifestations of Mind are harmonious and	and
  	immortal, because sin is not there and man is	probation 
  	found having no righteousness of his own, but in posses-
18	sion of "the mind of the Lord," as the Scripture says. 
  	    "In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall
  	be." So we read in Ecclesiastes. This text has been
21	transformed into the popular proverb, "As the tree
  	falls, so it must lie." As man falleth asleep, so shall he
  	awake. As death findeth mortal man, so shall he be
24	after death, until probation and growth shall effect the
  	needed change. Mind never becomes dust. No resur-
  	rection from the grave awaits Mind or Life, for the grave
27	has no power over either. 
  	    No final judgment awaits mortals, for the judgment-
  	day of wisdom comes hourly and continually,	Day of
30	even the judgment by which mortal man is di-	judgment 
  	vested of all material error. As for spiritual error there
  	is none. 
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              292


 1	    When the last mortal fault is destroyed, then the final
  	trump will sound which will end the battle of Truth with
 3	error and mortality; "but of that day and hour, knoweth
  	no man." Here prophecy pauses. Divine Science alone
  	can compass the heights and depths of being and reveal
 6	the infinite. 
  	    Truth will be to us "the resurrection and the life" only
  	as it destroys all error and the belief that Mind, the only
 9	immortality of man, can be fettered by the	Primitive
  	body, and Life be controlled by death. A sin-	error 
  	ful, sick, and dying mortal is not the likeness of God, the
12	perfect and eternal. 
  	    Matter is the primitive belief of mortal mind, because
  	this so-called mind has no cognizance of Spirit. To
15	mortal mind, matter is substantial, and evil is
  	real. The so-called senses of mortals are material. 
  	Hence the so-called life of mortals is dependent on
18	matter. 
  	    Explaining the origin of material man and mortal mind,
  	Jesus said: "Why do ye not understand my speech? 
21	Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your
  	father, the devil [evil], and the lusts of your father ye will
  	do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode
24	not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When
  	he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar,
  	and the father of it." 
27	    This carnal material mentality, misnamed mind, is
  	mortal. Therefore man would be annihilated, were it
  	not for the spiritual real man's indissoluble	Immortal
30	connection with his God, which Jesus brought	man 
  	to light. In his resurrection and ascension, Jesus showed
  	that a mortal man is not the real essence of manhood, and
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              293


 1	that this unreal material mortality disappears in presence
  	of the reality. 
 3	    Electricity is not a vital fluid, but the least material
  	form of illusive consciousness, — the material mindless-
  	ness, which forms no link between matter and	Elementary
 6	Mind, and which destroys itself. Matter and	electricity 
  	mortal mind are but different strata of human belief. The
  	grosser substratum is named matter or body; the more
 9	ethereal is called mind. This so-called mind and body
  	is the illusion called a mortal, a mind in matter. In reality
  	and in Science, both strata, mortal mind and mortal body,
12	are false representatives of man. 
  	    The material so-called gases and forces are counter-
  	feits of the spiritual forces of divine Mind, whose potency
15	is Truth, whose attraction is Love, whose adhesion and
  	cohesion are Life, perpetuating the eternal facts of being. 
  	Electricity is the sharp surplus of materiality which coun-
18	terfeits the true essence of spirituality or truth, — the
  	great difference being that electricity is not intelligent,
  	while spiritual truth is Mind. 
21	    There is no vapid fury of mortal mind — expressed in
  	earthquake, wind, wave, lightning, fire, bestial ferocity
  	 — and this so-called mind is self-destroyed. 	The counterfeit
24	The manifestations of evil, which counterfeit	forces 
  	divine justice, are called in the Scriptures, "The anger
  	of the Lord." In reality, they show the self-destruction
27	of error or matter and point to matter's opposite, the
  	strength and permanency of Spirit. Christian Science
  	brings to light Truth and its supremacy, universal har-
30	mony, the entireness of God, good, and the nothingness
  	of evil. 
  	    The five physical senses are the avenues and instru-
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              294


 1	ments of human error, and they correspond with error. 
  	These senses indicate the common human belief, that life,
 3	substance, and intelligence are a unison of	Instruments
  	matter with Spirit. This is pantheism, and	of error 
  	carries within itself the seeds of all error. 
 6	    If man is both mind and matter, the loss of one finger
  	would take away some quality and quantity of the man,
  	for matter and man would be one. 
 9	    The belief that matter thinks, sees, or feels is not more
  	real than the belief that matter enjoys and suffers. This
  	mortal belief, misnamed man, is error, saying:	Mortal
12	"Matter has intelligence and sensation. Nerves	verdict 
  	feel. Brain thinks and sins. The stomach can make a
  	man cross. Injury can cripple and matter can kill man." 
15	This verdict of the so-called material senses victimizes
  	mortals, taught, as they are by physiology and pathology,
  	to revere false testimony, even the errors that are destroyed
18	by Truth through spiritual sense and Science. 
  	    The lines of demarcation between immortal man, repre-
  	senting Spirit, and mortal man, representing the error that
21	life and intelligence are in matter, show the	Mythical
  	pleasures and pains of matter to be myths, and	pleasure 
  	human belief in them to be the father of mythology, in
24	which matter is represented as divided into intelligent gods. 
  	Man's  genuine selfhood is recognizable only in what is
  	good and true. Man is neither self-made nor made by
27	mortals. God created man. 
  	    The inebriate believes that there is pleasure in intoxica-
  	tion. The thief believes that he gains something by steal-
30	ing, and the hypocrite that he is hiding himself. The
  	Science of Mind corrects such mistakes, for Truth demon-
  	strates the falsity of error. 
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              295


 1	    The belief that a severed limb is aching in the old loca-
  	tion, the sensation seeming to be in nerves which	Severed
 3	are no longer there, is an added proof of the un-	members 
  	reliability of physical testimony. 
  	    God creates and governs the universe, including man. 
 6	The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He
  	evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind	Mortals
  	that makes them. Mortal mind would trans-	unlike
 9	form the spiritual into the material, and then	immortals 
  	recover man's original self in order to escape from the
  	mortality of this error. Mortals are not like immortals,
12	created in God's own image; but infinite Spirit being all,
  	mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact
  	and disappear, and the real sense of being, perfect and
15	forever intact, will appear. 
  	    The manifestation of God through mortals is as light
  	passing through the window-pane. The light and the
18	glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass	Goodness
  	is less opaque than the walls. The mortal	transparent 
  	mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that
21	one which has lost much materiality — much error — in
  	order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then,
  	like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides
24	the sun. 
  	    All that is called mortal thought is made up of error. 
  	The theoretical mind is matter, named brain, or mate-
27	rial consciousness, the exact opposite of real	Brainology
  	Mind, or Spirit. Brainology teaches that	a myth 
  	mortals are created to suffer and die. It further
30	teaches that when man is dead, his immortal soul is
  	resurrected from death and mortality. Thus error the-
  	orizes that spirit is born of matter and returns to mat-
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              296


 1	ter, and that man has a resurrection from dust; whereas
  	Science unfolds the eternal verity, that man is the spiritual,
 3	eternal reflection of God. 
  	    Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of
  	mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for
 6	the immortal. Either here or hereafter, suf-	Scientific
  	fering or Science must destroy all illusions	purgation 
  	regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense
 9	and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off. 
  	Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a
  	false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic
12	matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real,
  	and eternal. 
  	    The so-called pleasures and pains of matter perish,
15	and they must go out under the blaze of Truth, spiritual
  	sense, and the actuality of being. Mortal belief must lose
  	all satisfaction in error and sin in order to part with
18	them. 
  	    Whether mortals will learn this sooner or later, and
  	how long they will suffer the pangs of destruction, de-
21	pends upon the tenacity of error. 
  	    The knowledge obtained from the corporeal senses
  	leads to sin and death. When the evidence of Spirit
24	and matter, Truth and error, seems to com-	Mixed
  	mingle, it rests upon foundations which time	testimony 
  	is wearing away. Mortal mind judges by the testimony
27	of the material senses, until Science obliterates this false
  	testimony. An improved belief is one step out of error,
  	and aids in taking the next step and in understanding
30	the situation in Christian Science. 
  	    Mortal belief is a liar from the beginning, not deserving
  	power. It says to mortals, "You are wretched!" and they
  

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              297


1	think they are so; and nothing can change this state, until
  	the belief changes. Mortal belief says, "You are happy!" 
 3	and mortals are so; and no circumstance can	Belief an
  	alter the situation, until the belief on this sub-	autocrat 
  	ject changes. Human belief says to mortals, "You are
 6	sick!" and this testimony manifests itself on the body as
  	sickness. It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for
  	an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into
 9	the understanding of what constitutes health; for a change
  	in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the
  	physical condition. 
12	    Erroneous belief is destroyed by truth. Change the
  	evidence, and that disappears which before seemed real
  	to this false belief, and the human conscious-	Self-
15	ness rises higher. Thus the reality of being	improvement 
  	is attained and man found to be immortal. The only
  	fact concerning any material concept is, that it is neither
18	scientific nor eternal, but subject to change and dis-
  	solution. 
  	    Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is
21	a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual
  	evidence, contradicting the testimony of mate-	Faith higher
  	rial sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the	than belief 
24	ever-present, is becoming understood. Human thoughts
  	have their degrees of comparison. Some thoughts are
  	better than others. A belief in Truth is better than a
27	belief in error, but no mortal testimony is founded on the
  	divine rock. Mortal testimony can be shaken. Until
  	belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual under-
30	standing, human thought has little relation to the actual
  	or divine. 
  	    A mortal belief fulfils its own conditions. Sickness,
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              298


 1	sin, and death are the vague realities of human conclu-
  	sions. Life, Truth, and Love are the realities of divine
 3	Science. They dawn in faith and glow full-orbed in
  	spiritual understanding. As a cloud hides the sun it
  	cannot extinguish, so false belief silences for a while the
 6	voice of immutable harmony, but false belief cannot de-
  	stroy Science armed with faith, hope, and fruition. 
  	    What is termed material sense can report only a mor-
 9	tal temporary sense of things, whereas spiritual sense can
  	bear witness only to Truth. To material sense,	Truth's
  	the unreal is the real until this sense is corrected	witness 
12	by Christian Science. 
  	    Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, in-
  	volves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, real-
15	ity. Material sense expresses the belief that mind is in
  	matter. This human belief, alternating between a sense
  	of pleasure and pain, hope and fear, life and death, never
18	reaches beyond the boundary of the mortal or the unreal. 
  	When the real is attained, which is announced by Science,
  	joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat. Spirit-
21	ual ideas, like numbers and notes, start from Principle,
  	and admit no materialistic beliefs. Spiritual ideas lead
  	up to their divine origin, God, and to the spiritual sense
24	of being. 
  	    Angels are not etherealized human beings, evolving
  	animal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial
27	visitants, flying on spiritual, not material,	Thought-
  	pinions. Angels are pure thoughts from God,	angels 
  	winged with Truth and Love, no matter what their indi-
30	vidualism may be. Human conjecture confers upon angels
  	its own forms of thought, marked with superstitious out-
  	lines, making them human creatures with suggestive
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              299


 1	feathers; but this is only fancy. It has behind it no more
  	reality than has the sculptor's thought when he carves
 3	his "Statue of Liberty," which embodies his concep-
  	tion of an unseen quality or condition, but which has
  	no physical antecedent reality save in the artist's own ob-
 6	servation and "chambers of imagery." 
  	    My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door
  	of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried
 9	its fondest earthly hopes. With white fin-	Our angelic
  	gers they point upward to a new and glo-	messengers 
  	rified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels
12	are God's representatives. These upward-soaring beings
  	never lead towards self, sin, or materiality, but guide to
  	the divine Principle of all good, whither every real indi-
15	viduality, image, or likeness of God, gathers. By giving
  	earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us,
  	and we entertain "angels unawares." 
18	    Knowledge gained from material sense is figuratively
  	represented in Scripture as a tree, bearing the fruits of
  	sin, sickness, and death. Ought we not then	Knowledge
21	to judge the knowledge thus obtained to be	and Truth 
  	untrue and dangerous, since "the tree is known by his
  	fruit"? 
24	    Truth never destroys God's idea. Truth is spiritual,
  	eternal substance, which cannot destroy the right reflec-
  	tion. Corporeal sense, or error, may seem to hide Truth,
27	health, harmony, and Science, as the mist obscures the
  	sun or the mountain; but Science, the sunshine of Truth,
  	will melt away the shadow and reveal the celestial
30	peaks. 
  	    If man were solely a creature of the material senses,
  	he would have no eternal Principle and would be mutable
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              300


 1	and mortal. Human logic is awry when it attempts
  	to draw correct spiritual conclusions regarding life from
 3	matter. Finite sense has no true apprecia-	Old and
  	tion of infinite Principle, God, or of His infi-	new man 
  	nite image or reflection, man. The mirage, which makes
 6	trees and cities seem to be where they are not, illustrates
  	the illusion of material man, who cannot be the image
  	of God. 
 9	    So far as the scientific statement as to man is under-
  	stood, it can be proved and will bring to light the true
  	reflection of God — the real man, or the new man (as
12	St. Paul has it). 
  	    The temporal and unreal never touch the eternal and
  	real. The mutable and imperfect never touch the im-
15	mutable and perfect. The inharmonious and	The tares
  	self-destructive never touch the harmonious	and wheat 
  	and self-existent. These opposite qualities are the tares
18	and wheat, which never really mingle, though (to mortal
  	sight) they grow side by side until the harvest; then, Sci-
  	ence separates the wheat from the tares, through the real-
21	ization of God as ever present and of man as reflecting
  	the divine likeness. 
  	    Spirit is God, Soul; therefore Soul is not in matter. If
24	Spirit were in matter, God would have no representative,
  	and matter would be identical with God. 	The divine
  	The theory that soul, spirit, intelligence, in-	reflection 
27	habits matter is taught by the schools. This theory is
  	unscientific. The universe reflects and expresses the di-
  	vine substance or Mind; therefore God is seen only in the
30	spiritual universe and spiritual man, as the sun is seen in
  	the ray of light which goes out from it. God is re-
  	vealed only in that which reflects Life, Truth, Love, — 
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              301


 1	yea, which manifests God's attributes and power, even
  	as the human likeness thrown upon the mirror, repeats
 3	the color, form, and action of the person in front of the
  	mirror. 
  	    Few persons comprehend what Christian Science
 6	means by the word reflection. To himself, mortal and
  	material man seems to be substance, but his sense of
  	substance involves error and therefore is material,
 9	temporal. 
  	    On the other hand, the immortal, spiritual man is really
  	substantial, and reflects the eternal substance, or Spirit,
12	which mortals hope for. He reflects the divine, which
  	constitutes the only real and eternal entity. This reflection
  	seems to mortal sense transcendental, because the spiritual
15	man's substantiality transcends mortal vision and is re-
  	vealed only through divine Science. 
  	    As God is substance and man is the divine image and
18	likeness, man should wish for, and in reality has, only
  	the substance of good, the substance of Spirit,	Inverted
  	not matter. The belief that man has any other	images
21	substance, or mind, is not spiritual and breaks	and ideas 
  	the First Commandment, Thou shalt have one God, one
  	Mind. Mortal man seems to himself to be material sub-
24	stance, while man is "image" (idea). Delusion, sin, dis-
  	ease, and death arise from the false testimony of material
  	sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the
27	focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image
  	of Mind and substance with everything turned upside
  	down. 
30	    This falsity presupposes soul to be an unsubstantial
  	dweller in material forms, and man to be material instead
  	of spiritual. Immortality is not bounded by mortality. 
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              302


 1	Soul is not compassed by finiteness. Principle is not to
  	be found in fragmentary ideas. 
 3	    The material body and mind are temporal, but the
  	real man is spiritual and eternal. The identity of the
  	real man is not lost, but found through this	Identity
 6	explanation; for the conscious infinitude of	not lost 
  	existence and of all identity is thereby discerned and re-
  	mains unchanged. It is impossible that man should lose
 9	aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his. The
  	notion that mind is in matter, and that the so-called pleas-
  	ures and pains, the birth, sin, sickness, and death of
12	matter, are real, is a mortal belief; and this belief is all
  	that will ever be lost. 
  	    Continuing our definition of man, let us remember that
15	harmonious and immortal man has existed forever, and
  	is always beyond and above the mortal illu-	Definition
  	sion of any life, substance, and intelligence	of man 
18	as existent in matter. This statement is based on fact,
  	not fable. The Science of being reveals man as perfect,
  	even as the Father is perfect, because the Soul, or Mind,
21	of the spiritual man is God, the divine Principle of all
  	being, and because this real man is governed by Soul
  	instead of sense, by the law of Spirit, not by the so-called
24	laws of matter. 
  	    God is Love. He is therefore the divine, infinite Prin-
  	ciple, called Person or God. Man's  true consciousness
27	is in the mental, not in any bodily or personal likeness
  	to Spirit. Indeed, the body presents no proper likeness
  	of divinity, though mortal sense would fain have us so
30	believe. 
  	    Even in Christian Science, reproduction by Spirit's
  	individual ideas is but the reflection of the creative power
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              303


 1	of the divine Principle of those ideas. The reflection,
  	through mental manifestation, of the multitudinous
 3	forms of Mind which people the realm of	Mental
  	the real is controlled by Mind, the Principle	propagation 
  	governing the reflection. Multiplication of God's chil-
 6	dren comes from no power of propagation in matter, it
  	is the reflection of Spirit. 
  	    The minutiae of lesser individualities reflect the one di-
 9	vine individuality and are comprehended in and formed
  	by Spirit, not by material sensation. Whatever reflects
  	Mind, Life, Truth, and Love, is spiritually conceived and
12	brought forth; but the statement that man is conceived
  	and evolved both spiritually and materially, or by both
  	God and man, contradicts this eternal truth. All the
15	vanity of the ages can never make both these contraries
  	true. Divine Science lays the axe at the root of the illu-
  	sion that life, or mind, is formed by or is in the material
18	body, and Science will eventually destroy this illusion
  	through the self-destruction of all error and the beatified
  	understanding of the Science of Life. 
21	    The belief that pain and pleasure, life and death, holi-
  	ness and unholiness, mingle in man, — that	Error
  	mortal, material man is the likeness of God	defined 
24	and is himself a creator, — is a fatal error. 
  	    God, without the image and likeness of Himself, would
  	be a nonentity, or Mind unexpressed. He would be
27	without a witness or proof of His own na-	Man's  entity
  	ture. Spiritual man is the image or idea of	spiritual 
  	God, an idea which cannot be lost nor sep-
30	arated from its divine Principle. When the evidence
  	before the material senses yielded to spiritual sense, the
  	apostle declared that nothing could alienate him from
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              304


 1	God, from the sweet sense and presence of Life and
  	Truth. 
 3	    It is ignorance and false belief, based on a material
  	sense of things, which hide spiritual beauty and good-
  	ness. Understanding this, Paul said: "Nei-	Man
 6	ther death, nor life, . . . nor things present,	inseparable
  	nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor	from Love 
  	any other creature, shall be able to separate us from
 9	the love of God." This is the doctrine of Christian
  	Science:  that divine Love cannot be deprived of its
  	manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into
12	sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can
  	never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind
  	nor life result in death. The perfect man — governed
15	by God, his perfect Principle — is sinless and eternal. 
  	    Harmony is produced by its Principle, is controlled
  	by it and abides with it. Divine Principle is the Life
18	of man. Man's  happiness is not, therefore, at	Harmony
  	the disposal of physical sense. Truth is not	natural 
  	contaminated by error. Harmony in man is as beautiful
21	as in music, and discord is unnatural, unreal. 
  	    The science of music governs tones. If mortals caught
  	harmony through material sense, they would lose har-
24	mony, if time or accident robbed them of material sense. 
  	To be master of chords and discords, the science of
  	music must be understood. Left to the decisions
27	of material sense, music is liable to be misappre-
  	hended and lost in confusion. Controlled by belief,
  	instead of understanding, music is, must be, imper-
30	fectly expressed. So man, not understanding the Sci-
  	ence of being, — thrusting aside his divine Principle as
  	incomprehensible, — is abandoned to conjectures, left in
  

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              305


1	the hands of ignorance, placed at the disposal of illusions,
  	subjected to material sense which is discord. A discon-
 3	tented, discordant mortal is no more a man than discord
  	is music. 
  	    A picture in the camera or a face reflected in the mirror
 6	is not the original, though resembling it. Man, in the
  	likeness of his Maker, reflects the central light	Human
  	of being, the invisible God. As there is no cor-	reflection 
 9	poreality in the mirrored form, which is but a reflection,
  	so man, like all things real, reflects God, his divine Prin-
  	ciple, not in a mortal body. 
12	    Gender also is a quality, not of God, but a character-
  	istic of mortal mind. The verity that God's image is not
  	a creator, though he reflects the creation of Mind, God,
15	constitutes the underlying reality of reflection. "Then
  	answered Jesus and said unto them:  Verily, verily I say
  	unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he
18	seeth the Father do:  for what things soever He doeth,
  	these also doeth the Son likewise." 
  	    The inverted images presented by the senses, the de-
21	flections of matter as opposed to the Science of spirit-
  	ual reflection, are all unlike Spirit, God. In	Inverted
  	the illusion of life that is here to-day and	images 
24	gone to-morrow, man would be wholly mortal, were
  	it not that Love, the divine Principle that obtains in
  	divine Science, destroys all error and brings immor-
27	tality to light. Because man is the reflection of his
  	Maker, he is not subject to birth, growth, maturity, de-
  	cay. These mortal dreams are of human origin, not
30	divine. 
  	    The Sadducees reasoned falsely about the resurrec-
  	tion, but not so blindly as the Pharisees, who believed
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              306


 1	error to be as immortal as Truth. The Pharisees thought
  	that they could raise the spiritual from the material. They
 3	would first make life result in death, and then	Jewish
  	resort to death to reproduce spiritual life. 	traditions 
  	Jesus taught them how death was to be overcome by
 6	spiritual Life, and demonstrated this beyond cavil. 
  	    Life demonstrates Life. The immortality of Soul makes
  	man immortal. If God, who is Life, were parted for a
 9	moment from His reflection, man, during that	Divinity not
  	moment there would be no divinity reflected. 	childless 
  	The Ego would be unexpressed, and the Father would be
12	childless, — no Father. 
  	    If Life or Soul and its representative, man, unite for
  	a period and then are separated as by a law of divorce to
15	be brought together again at some uncertain future time
  	and in a manner unknown, — and this is the general
  	religious opinion of mankind, — we are left without a
18	rational proof of immortality. But man cannot be sep-
  	arated for an instant from God, if man reflects God. 
  	Thus Science proves man's existence to be intact. 
21	    The myriad forms of mortal thought, made manifest
  	as matter, are not more distinct nor real to the mate-
  	rial senses than are the Soul-created forms	Thought-
24	to spiritual sense, which cognizes Life as per-	forms 
  	manent. Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the
  	material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding
27	to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle,
  	 — is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and
  	eternal. 
30	    God's man, spiritually created, is not material and
  	mortal. 
  	    The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream,
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              307


 1	the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life
  	and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter. 
 3	This pantheistic error, or so-called serpent, in-	The serpent's
  	sists still upon the opposite of Truth, saying,	whisper 
  	"Ye shall be as gods;" that is, I will make error as real
 6	and eternal as Truth. 
  	    Evil still affirms itself to be mind, and declares that
  	there is more than one intelligence or God. It says:
 9	"There shall be lords and gods many. I declare that God
  	makes evil minds and evil spirits, and that I aid Him. 
  	Truth shall change sides and be unlike Spirit. I will
12	put spirit into what I call matter, and matter shall seem
  	to have life as much as God, Spirit, who is the only Life." 
  	    This error has proved itself to be error. Its life is found
15	to be not Life, but only a transient, false sense of an ex-
  	istence which ends in death. Error charges	Bad results
  	its lie to Truth and says: "The Lord knows	from error 
18	it. He has made man mortal and material, out of mat-
  	ter instead of Spirit." Thus error partakes of its own
  	nature and utters its own falsities. If we regard matter
21	as intelligent, and Mind as both good and evil, every sin
  	or supposed material pain and pleasure seems normal,
  	a part of God's creation, and so weighs against our course
24	Spiritward. 
  	    Truth has no beginning. The divine Mind is the Soul
  	of man, and gives man dominion over all things. Man
27	was not created from a material basis, nor	Higher
  	bidden to obey material laws which Spirit never	statutes 
  	made; his province is in spiritual statutes, in the higher
30	law of Mind. 
  	    Above error's awful din, blackness, and chaos, the voice
  	of Truth still calls: "Adam, where art thou? Conscious-
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              308


 1	ness, where art thou? Art thou dwelling in the belief
  	that mind is in matter, and that evil is mind, or art thou
 3	in the living faith that there is and can be but	The great
  	one God, and keeping His commandment?" 	question 
  	Until the lesson is learned that God is the only Mind gov-
 6	erning man, mortal belief will be afraid as it was in the
  	beginning, and will hide from the demand, "Where art
  	thou?" This awful demand, "Adam, where art thou?" 
 9	is met by the admission from the head, heart, stomach,
  	blood, nerves, etc.: "Lo, here I am, looking for happiness
  	and life in the body, but finding only an illusion, a blend-
12	ing of false claims, false pleasure, pain, sin, sickness, and
  	death." 
  	    The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth,
15	and talked with God as consciously as man talks with man. 
  	    Jacob was alone, wrestling with error, — struggling
  	with a mortal sense of life, substance, and intelligence
18	as existent in matter with its false pleasures	Wrestling
  	and pains, — when an angel, a message from	of Jacob 
  	Truth and Love, appeared to him and smote the sinew,
21	or strength, of his error, till he saw its unreality; and
  	Truth, being thereby understood, gave him spiritual
  	strength in this Peniel of divine Science. Then said
24	the spiritual evangel: "Let me go, for the day breaketh;"
  	that is, the light of Truth and Love dawns upon thee. 
  	But the patriarch, perceiving his error and his need
27	of help, did not loosen his hold upon this glorious light
  	until his nature was transformed. When Jacob was
  	asked, "What is thy name?" he straightway answered;
30	and then his name was changed to Israel, for "as a prince"
  	had he prevailed and had "power with God and with
  	men." Then Jacob questioned his deliverer, "Tell me,
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              309


 1	I pray thee, thy name;" but this appellation was withheld,
  	for the messenger was not a corporeal being, but a name-
 3	less, incorporeal impartation of divine Love to man, which,
  	to use the word of the Psalmist, restored his Soul, — gave
  	him the spiritual sense of being and rebuked his material
 6	sense. 
  	    The result of Jacob's struggle thus appeared. He had
  	conquered material error with the understanding of Spirit
 9	and of spiritual power. This changed the man. 	Israel the
  	He was no longer called Jacob, but Israel, — 	new name 
  	a prince of God, or a soldier of God, who had fought
12	a good fight. He was to become the father of those, who
  	through earnest striving followed his demonstration of the
  	power of Spirit over the material senses; and the children
15	of earth who followed his example were to be called the
  	children of Israel, until the Messiah should rename them. 
  	If these children should go astray, and forget that Life
18	is God, good, and that good is not in elements which are
  	not spiritual, — thus losing the divine power which heals
  	the sick and sinning, — they were to be brought back
21	through great tribulation, to be renamed in Christian
  	Science and led to deny material sense, or mind in matter,
  	even as the gospel teaches. 
24	    The Science of being shows it to be impossible for in-
  	finite Spirit or Soul to be in a finite body or for man to
  	have an intelligence separate from his Maker. 	Life never
27	It is a self-evident error to suppose that there	structural 
  	can be such a reality as organic animal or vegetable life,
  	when such so-called life always ends in death. Life is
30	never for a moment extinct. Therefore it is never struc-
  	tural nor organic, and is never absorbed nor limited by its
  	own formations. 
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              310


 1	    The artist is not in his painting. The picture is the
  	artist's thought objectified. The human belief fancies
 3	that it delineates thought on matter, but what	Thought seen
  	is matter? Did it exist prior to thought? 	as substance 
  	Matter is made up of supposititious mortal mind-force;
 6	but all might is divine Mind. Thought will finally be
  	understood and seen in all form, substance, and color, but
  	without material accompaniments. The potter is not in
 9	the clay; else the clay would have power over the potter. 
  	God is His own infinite Mind, and expresses all. 
  	    Day may decline and shadows fall, but darkness flees
12	when the earth has again turned upon its axis. The sun
  	is not affected by the revolution of the earth. 	The central
  	So Science reveals Soul as God, untouched	intelligence 
15	by sin and death, — as the central Life and intelligence
  	around which circle harmoniously all things in the sys-
  	tems of Mind. 
18	    Soul changeth not. We are commonly taught that there
  	is a human soul which sins and is spiritually lost, — that
  	soul may be lost, and yet be immortal. If	Soul
21	Soul could sin, Spirit, Soul, would be flesh in-	imperishable 
  	stead of Spirit. It is the belief of the flesh and of mate-
  	rial sense which sins. If Soul sinned, Soul would die. 
24	Sin is the element of self-destruction, and spiritual death
  	is oblivion. If there was sin in Soul, the annihilation of
  	Spirit would be inevitable. The only Life is Spirit, and
27	if Spirit should lose Life as God, good, then Spirit, which
  	has no other existence, would be annihilated. 
  	    Mind is God, and God is not seen by material sense,
30	because Mind is Spirit, which material sense cannot dis-
  	cern. There is neither growth, maturity, nor decay in
  	Soul. These changes are the mutations of material sense,
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              311


 1	the varying clouds of mortal belief, which hide the truth
  	of being. 
 3	    What we term mortal mind or carnal mind, dependent
  	on matter for manifestation, is not Mind. God is Mind:
  	all that Mind, God, is, or hath made, is good, and He
 6	made all. Hence evil is not made and is not real. 
  	    Soul is immortal because it is Spirit, which has no ele-
  	ment of self-destruction. Is man lost spiritually? No,
 9	he can only lose a sense material. All sin is	Sin only of
  	of the flesh. It cannot be spiritual. Sin exists	the flesh 
  	here or hereafter only so long as the illusion of mind in
12	matter remains. It is a sense of sin, and not a sinful soul,
  	which is lost. Evil is destroyed by the sense of good. 
  	    Through false estimates of soul as dwelling in sense
15	and of mind as dwelling in matter, belief strays into a
  	sense of temporary loss or absence of soul, spir-	Soul
  	itual truth. This state of error is the mortal	impeccable 
18	dream of life and substance as existent in matter, and is
  	directly opposite to the immortal reality of being. So long
  	as we believe that soul can sin or that immortal Soul is in
21	mortal body, we can never understand the Science of be-
  	ing. When humanity does understand this Science, it
  	will become the law of Life to man, — even the higher law
24	of Soul, which prevails over material sense through har-
  	mony and immortality. 
  	    The objects cognized by the physical senses have not
27	the reality of substance. They are only what mortal
  	belief calls them. Matter, sin, and mortality lose all
  	supposed consciousness or claim to life or existence, as
30	mortals lay off a false sense of life, substance, and intelli-
  	gence. But the spiritual, eternal man is not touched by
  	these phases of mortality. 
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              312


 1	    How true it is that whatever is learned through material
  	sense must be lost because such so-called knowledge is
 3	reversed by the spiritual facts of being in	Sense-
  	Science. That which material sense calls	dreams 
  	intangible, is found to be substance. What to material
 6	sense seems substance, becomes nothingness, as the sense-
  	dream vanishes and reality appears. 
  	    The senses regard a corpse, not as man, but simply as
 9	matter. People say, "Man is dead;" but this death is
  	the departure of a mortal's mind, not of matter. The
  	matter is still there. The belief of that mortal that he
12	must die occasioned his departure; yet you say that
  	matter has caused his death. 
  	    People go into ecstasies over the sense of a corporeal
15	Jehovah, though with scarcely a spark of love in their
  	hearts; yet God is Love, and without Love,	Vain
  	God, immortality cannot appear. Mortals try	ecstasies 
18	to believe without understanding Truth; yet God is
  	Truth. Mortals claim that death is inevitable; but man's
  	eternal Principle is ever-present Life. Mortals believe in
21	a finite personal God; while God is infinite Love, which
  	must be unlimited. 
  	    Our theories are based on finite premises, which can-
24	not penetrate beyond matter. A personal sense of God
  	and of man's capabilities necessarily limits	Man-made
  	faith and hinders spiritual understanding. It	theories 
27	divides faith and understanding between matter and Spirit,
  	the finite and the infinite, and so turns away from the
  	intelligent and divine healing Principle to the inanimate
30	drug. 
  	    Jesus' spiritual origin and his demonstration of divine
  	Principle richly endowed him and entitled him to sonship
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              313


 1	in Science. He was the son of a virgin. The term
  	Christ Jesus, or Jesus the Christ (to give the full and
 3	proper translation of the Greek), may be ren-	The one
  	dered "Jesus the anointed," Jesus the God-	anointed 
  	crowned or the divinely royal man, as it is said of him in
 6	the first chapter of Hebrews: — 

  	       Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee
  	       With the oil of gladness above thy fellows. 

 9	    With this agrees another passage in the same chapter,
  	which refers to the Son as "the brightness of His [God's]
  	glory, and the express [expressed] image of His person
12	[infinite Mind]." It is noteworthy that the phrase "ex-
  	press image" in the Common Version is, in the Greek
  	Testament, character. Using this word in its higher mean-
15	ing, we may assume that the author of this remarkable
  	epistle regarded Christ as the Son of God, the royal
  	reflection of the infinite; and the cause given for the ex-
18	altation of Jesus, Mary's son, was that he "loved right-
  	eousness and hated iniquity." The passage is made
  	even clearer in the translation of the late George R. 
21	Noyes, D.D.: "Who, being a brightness from His glory,
  	and an image of His being." 
  	    Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that
24	ever trod the globe. He plunged beneath the material
  	surface of things, and found the spiritual	Jesus the
  	cause. To accommodate himself to imma-	Scientist 
27	ture ideas of spiritual power, — for spirituality was pos-
  	sessed only in a limited degree even by his disciples, — 
  	Jesus called the body, which by spiritual power he
30	raised from the grave, "flesh and bones." To show
  	that the substance of himself was Spirit and the body
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              314


 1	no more perfect because of death and no less material
  	until the ascension (his further spiritual exaltation),
 3	Jesus waited until the mortal or fleshly sense had re-
  	linquished the belief of substance-matter, and spiritual
  	sense had quenched all earthly yearnings. Thus he found
 6	the eternal Ego, and proved that he and the Father were
  	inseparable as God and His reflection or spiritual man. 
  	Our Master gained the solution of being, demonstrating
 9	the existence of but one Mind without a second or equal. 
  	    The Jews, who sought to kill this man of God, showed
  	plainly that their material views were the parents of their
12	wicked deeds. When Jesus spoke of repro-	The bodily
  	ducing his body, — knowing, as he did, that	resurrection 
  	Mind was the builder, — and said, "Destroy this temple,
15	and in three days I will raise it up," they thought that he
  	meant their material temple instead of his body. To such
  	materialists, the real man seemed a spectre, unseen and
18	unfamiliar, and the body, which they laid in a sepulchre,
  	seemed to be substance. This materialism lost sight of
  	the true Jesus; but the faithful Mary saw him, and he
21	presented to her, more than ever before, the true idea of
  	Life and substance. 
  	    Because of mortals' material and sinful belief, the
24	spiritual Jesus was imperceptible to them. The higher
  	his demonstration of divine Science carried	Opposition of
  	the problem of being, and the more dis-	materialists 
27	tinctly he uttered the demands of its divine Principle,
  	Truth and Love, the more odious he became to sinners
  	and to those who, depending on doctrines and material
30	laws to save them from sin and sickness, were submis-
  	sive to death as being in supposed accord with the
  	inevitable law of life. Jesus proved them wrong by
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              315


 1	his resurrection, and said: "Whosoever liveth and be-
  	lieveth in me shall never die." 
 3	    That saying of our Master, "I and my Father are one,"
  	separated him from the scholastic theology of the rabbis. 
  	His better understanding of God was a rebuke	Hebrew
 6	to them. He knew of but one Mind and laid	theology 
  	no claim to any other. He knew that the Ego was Mind
  	instead of body and that matter, sin, and evil were not
 9	Mind; and his understanding of this divine Science
  	brought upon him the anathemas of the age. 
  	    The opposite and false views of the people hid from
12	their sense Christ's sonship with God. They could not
  	discern his spiritual existence. Their carnal	The true
  	minds were at enmity with it. Their thoughts	sonship 
15	were filled with mortal error, instead of with God's spirit-
  	ual idea as presented by Christ Jesus. The likeness of
  	God we lose sight of through sin, which beclouds the spir-
18	itual sense of Truth; and we realize this likeness only
  	when we subdue sin and prove man's heritage, the liberty
  	of the sons of God. 
21	    Jesus' spiritual origin and understanding enabled him
  	to demonstrate the facts of being, — to prove irrefutably
  	how spiritual Truth destroys material error,	Immaculate
24	heals sickness, and overcomes death. The	conception 
  	divine conception of Jesus pointed to this truth and pre-
  	sented an illustration of creation. The history of Jesus
27	shows him to have been more spiritual than all other
  	earthly personalities. 
  	    Wearing in part a human form (that is, as it seemed
30	to mortal view), being conceived by a human mother,
  	Jesus was the mediator between Spirit and the flesh,
  	between Truth and error. Explaining and demonstrat-
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              316


 1	ing the way of divine Science, he became the way of
  	salvation to all who accepted his word. From him mor-
 3	tals may learn how to escape from evil. The	Jesus as
  	real man being linked by Science to his Maker,	mediator 
  	mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal
 6	selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to
  	God, and to recognize the divine sonship. Christ, Truth,
  	was demonstrated through Jesus to prove the power of
 9	Spirit over the flesh, — to show that Truth is made
  	manifest by its effects upon the human mind and body,
  	healing sickness and destroying sin. 
12	    Jesus represented Christ, the true idea of God. Hence
  	the warfare between this spiritual idea and perfunctory
  	religion, between spiritual clear-sightedness	Spiritual
15	and the blindness of popular belief, which led	government 
  	to the conclusion that the spiritual idea could be killed
  	by crucifying the flesh. The Christ-idea, or the Christ-
18	man, rose higher to human view because of the crucifixion,
  	and thus proved that Truth was the master of death. 
  	Christ presents the indestructible man, whom Spirit cre-
21	ates, constitutes, and governs. Christ illustrates that
  	blending with God, his divine Principle, which gives man
  	dominion over all the earth. 
24	    The spiritual idea of God, as presented by Jesus, was
  	scourged in person, and its Principle was rejected. That
  	man was accounted a criminal who could	Deadness
27	prove God's divine power by healing the	in sin 
  	sick, casting out evils, spiritualizing materialistic beliefs,
  	and raising the dead, — those dead in trespasses and
30	sins, satisfied with the flesh, resting on the basis of mat-
  	ter, blind to the possibilities of Spirit and its correla-
  	tive truth. 
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              317


 1	    Jesus uttered things which had been "secret from the
  	foundation of the world," — since material knowledge
 3	usurped the throne of the creative divine Principle, insisted
  	on the might of matter, the force of falsity, the insignifi-
  	cance of spirit, and proclaimed an anthropomorphic God. 
 6	    Whosoever lives most the life of Jesus in this age
  	and declares best the power of Christian Science, will
  	drink of his Master's cup. Resistance to	The cup
 9	Truth will haunt his steps, and he will in-	of Jesus 
  	cur the hatred of sinners, till "wisdom is justified of
  	her children." These blessed benedictions rest upon
12	Jesus' followers: "If the world hate you, ye know that
  	it hated me before it hated you;" "Lo, I am with you
  	alway," — that is, not only in all time, but in all ways
15	and conditions. 
  	    The individuality of man is no less tangible because
  	it is spiritual and because his life is not at the mercy of
18	matter. The understanding of his spiritual individuality
  	makes man more real, more formidable in truth, and en-
  	ables him to conquer sin, disease, and death. Our Lord
21	and Master presented himself to his disciples after his
  	resurrection from the grave, as the self-same Jesus whom
  	they had loved before the tragedy on Calvary. 
24	    To the materialistic Thomas, looking for the ideal
  	Saviour in matter instead of in Spirit and to the testi-
  	mony of the material senses and the body,	Material
27	more than to Soul, for an earnest of immor-	skepticism 
  	tality, — to him Jesus furnished the proof that he was
  	unchanged by the crucifixion. To this dull and doubt-
30	ing disciple Jesus remained a fleshly reality, so long as
  	the Master remained an inhabitant of the earth. Noth-
  	ing but a display of matter could make existence real
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              318


 1	to Thomas. For him to believe in matter was no task,
  	but for him to conceive of the substantiality of Spirit — 
 3	to know that nothing can efface Mind and immortality, in
  	which Spirit reigns — was more difficult. 
  	    Corporeal senses define diseases as realities; but the
 6	Scriptures declare that God made all, even while the cor-
  	poreal senses are saying that matter causes	What
  	disease and the divine Mind cannot or will	the senses
 9	not heal it. The material senses originate and	originate 
  	support all that is material, untrue, selfish, or debased. 
  	They would put soul into soil, life into limbo, and doom
12	all things to decay. We must silence this lie of material
  	sense with the truth of spiritual sense. We must cause
  	the error to cease that brought the belief of sin and death
15	and would efface the pure sense of omnipotence. 
  	    Is the sick man sinful above all others? No! but
  	so far as he is discordant, he is not the image of God. 
18	Weary of their material beliefs, from which	Sickness
  	comes so much suffering, invalids grow more	as discord 
  	spiritual, as the error — or belief that life is in matter — 
21	yields to the reality of spiritual Life. 
  	    The Science of Mind denies the error of sensation in
  	matter, and heals with Truth. Medical science treats
24	disease as though disease were real, therefore right, and
  	attempts to heal it with matter. If disease is right it is
  	wrong to heal it. Material methods are temporary, and
27	are not adapted to elevate mankind. 
  	    The governor is not subjected to the governed. In
  	Science man is governed by God, divine Principle, as
30	numbers are controlled and proved by His laws. Intelli-
  	gence does not originate in numbers, but is manifested
  	through them. The body does not include soul, but man-
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              319


 1	ifests mortality, a false sense of soul. The delusion that
  	there is life in matter has no kinship with the Life supernal. 
 3	    Science depicts disease as error, as matter versus
  	Mind, and error reversed as subserving the facts of
  	health. To calculate one's life-prospects	Unscientific
 6	from a material basis, would infringe upon	introspection 
  	spiritual law and misguide human hope. Having faith
  	in the divine Principle of health and spiritually under-
 9	standing God, sustains man under all circumstances;
  	whereas the lower appeal to the general faith in material
  	means (commonly called nature) must yield to the all-
12	might of infinite Spirit. 
  	    Throughout the infinite cycles of eternal existence,
  	Spirit and matter neither concur in man nor in the universe. 
15	    The varied doctrines and theories which presuppose
  	life and intelligence to exist in matter are so many ancient
  	and modern mythologies. Mystery, miracle,	God the
18	sin, and death will disappear when it becomes	only Mind 
  	fairly understood that the divine Mind controls man and
  	man has no Mind but God. 
21	    The divine Science taught in the original language
  	of the Bible came through inspiration, and needs inspi-
  	ration to be understood. Hence the misappre-	Scriptures
24	hension of the spiritual meaning of the Bible,	misinterpreted 
  	and the misinterpretation of the Word in
  	some instances by uninspired writers, who only wrote
27	down what an inspired teacher had said. A misplaced
  	word changes the sense and misstates the Science of
  	the Scriptures, as, for instance, to name Love as merely
30	an attribute of God; but we can by special and proper
  	capitalization speak of the love of Love, meaning by that
  	what the beloved disciple meant in one of his epistles,
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              320


 1	when he said, "God is love." Likewise we can speak of
  	the truth of Truth and of the life of Life, for Christ plainly
 3	declared, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." 
  	    Metaphors abound in the Bible, and names are often
  	expressive of spiritual ideas. The most distinguished
 6	theologians in Europe and America agree that	Interior
  	the Scriptures have both a spiritual and lit-	meaning 
  	eral meaning. In Smith's Bible Dictionary it is said:
 9	"The spiritual interpretation of Scripture must rest
  	upon both the literal and moral;" and in the learned
  	article on Noah in the same work, the familiar text,
12	Genesis vi. 3, "And the Lord said, My spirit shall not
  	always strive with man, for that he also is flesh," is quoted
  	as follows, from the original Hebrew: "And Jehovah
15	said, My spirit shall not forever rule [or be humbled] in
  	men, seeing that they are [or, in their error they are]
  	but flesh." Here the original text declares plainly the
18	spiritual fact of being, even man's eternal and harmo-
  	nious existence as image, idea, instead of matter (how-
  	ever transcendental such a thought appears), and avers
21	that this fact is not forever to be humbled by the belief
  	that man is flesh and matter, for according to that error
  	man is mortal. 
24	    The one important interpretation of Scripture is the
  	spiritual. For example, the text, "In my flesh shall I
  	see God," gives a profound idea of the di-	Job, on the
27	vine power to heal the ills of the flesh, and	resurrection 
  	encourages mortals to hope in Him who healeth all our
  	diseases; whereas this passage is continually quoted
30	as if Job intended to declare that even if disease and
  	worms destroyed his body, yet in the latter days he should
  	stand in celestial perfection before Elohim, still clad
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              321


 1	in material flesh, — an interpretation which is just the op-
  	posite of the true, as may be seen by studying the book
 3	of Job. As Paul says, in his first epistle to the Corin-
  	thians, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
  	God." 
 6	    The Hebrew Lawgiver, slow of speech, despaired of
  	making the people understand what should be revealed
  	to him. When, led by wisdom to cast down his	Fear of the
 9	rod, he saw it become a serpent, Moses fled be-	serpent
  	fore it; but wisdom bade him come back and	overcome 
  	handle the serpent, and then Moses' fear departed. In
12	this incident was seen the actuality of Science. Matter
  	was shown to be a belief only. The serpent, evil, under
  	wisdom's bidding, was destroyed through understanding
15	divine Science, and this proof was a staff upon which to
  	lean. The illusion of Moses lost its power to alarm him,
  	when he discovered that what he apparently saw was really
18	but a phase of mortal belief. 
  	    It was scientifically demonstrated that leprosy was a
  	creation of mortal mind and not a condition of matter,
21	when Moses first put his hand into his bosom	Leprosy
  	and drew it forth white as snow with the dread	healed 
  	disease, and presently restored his hand to its natural con-
24	dition by the same simple process. God had lessened
  	Moses' fear by this proof in divine Science, and the in-
  	ward voice became to him the voice of God, which said:
27	"It shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither
  	hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe
  	the voice of the latter sign." And so it was in the coming
30	centuries, when the Science of being was demonstrated
  	by Jesus, who showed his students the power of Mind by
  	changing water into wine, and taught them how to handle
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              322


 1	serpents unharmed, to heal the sick and cast out evils in
  	proof of the supremacy of Mind. 
 3	    When understanding changes the standpoints of life and
  	intelligence from a material to a spiritual basis, we shall
  	gain the reality of Life, the control of Soul over	Standpoints
 6	sense, and we shall perceive Christianity, or	changed 
  	Truth, in its divine Principle. This must be the climax
  	before harmonious and immortal man is obtained and his
 9	capabilities revealed. It is highly important — in view
  	of the immense work to be accomplished before this recog-
  	nition of divine Science can come — to turn our thoughts
12	towards divine Principle, that finite belief may be pre-
  	pared to relinquish its error. 
  	    Man's  wisdom finds no satisfaction in sin, since God
15	has sentenced sin to suffer. The necromancy of yester-
  	day foreshadowed the mesmerism and hypno-	Saving the
  	tism of to-day. The drunkard thinks he enjoys	inebriate 
18	drunkenness, and you cannot make the inebriate leave
  	his besottedness, until his physical sense of pleasure yields
  	to a higher sense. Then he turns from his cups, as
21	the startled dreamer who wakens from an incubus in-
  	curred through the pains of distorted sense. A man who
  	likes to do wrong — finding pleasure in it and refraining
24	from it only through fear of consequences — is neither
  	a temperate man nor a reliable religionist. 
  	    The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life
27	of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless
  	woes, turn us like tired children to the arms	Uses of
  	of divine Love. Then we begin to learn Life	suffering 
30	in divine Science. Without this process of weaning,
  	"Canst thou by searching find out God?" It is easier
  	to desire Truth than to rid one's self of error. Mortals
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              323


 1	may seek the understanding of Christian Science, but they
  	will not be able to glean from Christian Science the facts
 3	of being without striving for them. This strife consists
  	in the endeavor to forsake error of every kind and to pos-
  	sess no other consciousness but good. 
 6	    Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, we
  	are helped onward in the march towards righteousness,
  	peace, and purity, which are the landmarks	A bright
 9	of Science. Beholding the infinite tasks of	outlook 
  	truth, we pause, — wait on God. Then we push onward,
  	until boundless thought walks enraptured, and concep-
12	tion unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory. 
  	    In order to apprehend more, we must put into prac-
  	tice what we already know. We must recollect that
15	Truth is demonstrable when understood, and	Need and
  	that good is not understood until demonstrated. 	supply 
  	If "faithful over a few things," we shall be made rulers
18	over many; but the one unused talent decays and is lost. 
  	When the sick or the sinning awake to realize their need
  	of what they have not, they will be receptive of divine
21	Science, which gravitates towards Soul and away from
  	material sense, removes thought from the body, and ele-
  	vates even mortal mind to the contemplation of some-
24	thing better than disease or sin. The true idea of God
  	gives the true understanding of Life and Love, robs the
  	grave of victory, takes away all sin and the delusion that
27	there are other minds, and destroys mortality. 
  	    The effects of Christian Science are not so much seen
  	as felt. It is the "still, small voice" of Truth	Childlike
30	uttering itself. We are either turning away	receptivity 
  	from this utterance, or we are listening to it and going
  	up higher. Willingness to become as a little child and
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              324


 1	to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of
  	the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks
 3	and joy to see them disappear, — this disposition helps
  	to precipitate the ultimate harmony. The purification
  	of sense and self is a proof of progress. "Blessed are the
 6	pure in heart:  for they shall see God." 
  	    Unless the harmony and immortality of man are be-
  	coming more apparent, we are not gaining the true idea
 9	of God; and the body will reflect what gov-	Narrow
  	erns it, whether it be Truth or error,	pathway 
  	understanding or belief, Spirit or matter. Therefore
12	"acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace." 
  	Be watchful, sober, and vigilant. The way is straight
  	and narrow, which leads to the understanding that God
15	is the only Life. It is a warfare with the flesh, in which
  	we must conquer sin, sickness, and death, either here
  	or hereafter, — certainly before we can reach the goal
18	of Spirit, or life in God. 
  	    Paul was not at first a disciple of Jesus but a perse-
  	cutor of Jesus' followers. When the truth first appeared
21	to him in Science, Paul was made blind,	Paul's
  	and his blindness was felt; but spiritual	enlightenment 
  	light soon enabled him to follow the example and teach-
24	ings of Jesus, healing the sick and preaching Christian-
  	ity throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and even in imperial
  	Rome. 
27	    Paul writes, "If Christ [Truth] be not risen, then is
  	our preaching vain." That is, if the idea of the suprem-
  	acy of Spirit, which is the true conception of being,
30	come not to your thought, you cannot be benefited by
  	what I say. 
  	    Jesus said substantially, "He that believeth in me
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              325


 1	shall not see death." That is, he who perceives the
  	true idea of Life loses his belief in death. He who has
 3	the true idea of good loses all sense of evil,	Abiding
  	and by reason of this is being ushered into the	in Life 
  	undying realities of Spirit. Such a one abideth in Life, — 
 6	life obtained not of the body incapable of supporting life,
  	but of Truth, unfolding its own immortal idea. Jesus
  	gave the true idea of being, which results in infinite bless-
 9	ings to mortals. 
  	    In Colossians (iii. 4) Paul writes: "When Christ, who
  	is our life, shall appear [be manifested], then shall ye also
12	appear [be manifested] with him in glory." 	Indestructible
  	When spiritual being is understood in all its	being 
  	perfection, continuity, and might, then shall man be found
15	in God's image. The absolute meaning of the apostolic
  	words is this:  Then shall man be found, in His likeness,
  	perfect as the Father, indestructible in Life, "hid with
18	Christ in God," — with Truth in divine Love, where
  	human sense hath not seen man. 
  	    Paul had a clear sense of the demands of Truth upon
21	mortals physically and spiritually, when he said: "Pre-
  	sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, ac-	Consecration
  	ceptable unto God, which is your reasonable	required 
24	service." But he, who is begotten of the beliefs of the
  	flesh and serves them, can never reach in this world the
  	divine heights of our Lord. The time cometh when
27	the spiritual origin of man, the divine Science which
  	ushered Jesus into human presence, will be understood
  	and demonstrated. 
30	    When first spoken in any age, Truth, like the light,
  	"shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended
  	it not." A false sense of life, substance, and mind
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              326


 1	hides the divine possibilities, and conceals scientific
  	demonstration. 
 3	    If we wish to follow Christ, Truth, it must be in the
  	way of God's appointing. Jesus said, "He that believeth
  	on me, the works that I do shall he do also." 	Loving God
 6	He, who would reach the source and find the	supremely 
  	divine remedy for every ill, must not try to climb the hill
  	of Science by some other road. All nature teaches God's
 9	love to man, but man cannot love God supremely and set
  	his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the
  	material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual. 
12	    We must forsake the foundation of material systems,
  	however time-honored, if we would gain the Christ as
  	our only Saviour. Not partially, but fully, the great
15	healer of mortal mind is the healer of the body. 
  	    The purpose and motive to live aright can be gained
  	now. This point won, you have started as you should. 
18	You have begun at the numeration-table of Christian
  	Science, and nothing but wrong intention can hinder your
  	advancement. Working and praying with true motives,
21	your Father will open the way. "Who did hinder you,
  	that ye should not obey the truth?" 
  	    Saul of Tarsus beheld the way — the Christ, or Truth
24	 — only when his uncertain sense of right yielded to a
  	spiritual sense, which is always right. Then	Conversion
  	the man was changed. Thought assumed a	of Saul 
27	nobler outlook, and his life became more spiritual. He
  	learned the wrong that he had done in persecuting Chris-
  	tians, whose religion he had not understood, and in hu-
30	mility he took the new name of Paul. He beheld for the
  	first time the true idea of Love, and learned a lesson in
  	divine Science. 
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              327


 1	    Reform comes by understanding that there is no abid-
  	ing pleasure in evil, and also by gaining an affection for
 3	good according to Science, which reveals the immortal
  	fact that neither pleasure nor pain, appetite nor passion,
  	can exist in or of matter, while divine Mind can and does
 6	destroy the false beliefs of pleasure, pain, or fear and all
  	the sinful appetites of the human mind. 
  	    What a pitiful sight is malice, finding pleasure in re-
 9	venge! Evil is sometimes a man's highest conception
  	of right, until his grasp on good grows stronger. 	Image of
  	Then he loses pleasure in wickedness, and it	the beast 
12	becomes his torment. The way to escape the misery of
  	sin is to cease sinning. There is no other way. Sin is
  	the image of the beast to be effaced by the sweat of agony. 
15	It is a moral madness which rushes forth to clamor with
  	midnight and tempest. 
  	    To the physical senses, the strict demands of Christian
18	Science seem peremptory; but mortals are has-	Peremptory
  	tening to learn that Life is God, good, and that	demands 
  	evil has in reality neither place nor power in the human or
21	the divine economy. 
  	    Fear of punishment never made man truly honest. 
  	Moral courage is requisite to meet the wrong and to
24	proclaim the right. But how shall we re-	Moral
  	form the man who has more animal than	courage 
  	moral courage, and who has not the true idea of good? 
27	Through human consciousness, convince the mortal of
  	his mistake in seeking material means for gaining hap-
  	piness. Reason is the most active human faculty. Let
30	that inform the sentiments and awaken the man's dor-
  	mant sense of moral obligation, and by degrees he will
  	learn the nothingness of the pleasures of human sense
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              328


 1	and the grandeur and bliss of a spiritual sense, which
  	silences the material or corporeal. Then he not only will
 3	be saved, but is saved. 
  	    Mortals suppose that they can live without goodness,
  	when God is good and the only real Life. What is the
 6	result? Understanding little about the divine          Final destruction
  	Principle which saves and heals, mortals get        of error
  	rid of sin, sickness, and death only in belief. These errors 
 9	are not thus really destroyed, and must therefore cling
  	to mortals until, here or hereafter, they gain the true un-
  	derstanding of God in the Science which destroys human
12	delusions about Him and reveals the grand realities of
  	His allness. 
  	    This understanding of man's power, when he is
15	equipped by God, has sadly disappeared from Christian
  	history. For centuries it has been dormant, a	Promise
  	lost element of Christianity. Our missionaries	perpetual 
18	carry the Bible to India, but can it be said that they
  	explain it practically, as Jesus did, when hundreds of
  	persons die there annually from serpent-bites? Under-
21	standing spiritual law and knowing that there is no mate-
  	rial law, Jesus said: "These signs shall follow them that
  	believe, . . . they shall take up serpents, and if they
24	drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They
  	shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." It
  	were well had Christendom believed and obeyed this
27	sacred saying. 
  	    Jesus' promise is perpetual. Had it been given only
  	to his immediate disciples, the Scriptural passage would
30	read you, not they. The purpose of his great life-work
  	extends through time and includes universal humanity. 
  	Its Principle is infinite, reaching beyond the pale of a
 

      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              329


 1	single period or of a limited following. As time moves
  	on, the healing elements of pure Christianity will be fairly
 3	dealt with; they will be sought and taught, and will glow
  	in all the grandeur of universal goodness. 
  	    A little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little under-
 6	standing of Christian Science proves the truth of all that
  	I say of it. Because you cannot walk on the	Imitation
  	water and raise the dead, you have no right to	of Jesus 
 9	question the great might of divine Science in these direc-
  	tions. Be thankful that Jesus, who was the true demon-
  	strator of Science, did these things, and left his example for
12	us. In Science we can use only what we understand. We
  	must prove our faith by demonstration. 
  	    One should not tarry in the storm if the body is freez-
15	ing, nor should he remain in the devouring flames. Un-
  	til one is able to prevent bad results, he should avoid their
  	occasion. To be discouraged, is to resemble a pupil in
18	addition, who attempts to solve a problem of Euclid, and
  	denies the rule of the problem because he fails in his first
  	effort. 
21	    There is no hypocrisy in Science. Principle is impera-
  	tive. You cannot mock it by human will. Science is a
  	divine demand, not a human. Always right,	Error
24	its divine Principle never repents, but main-	destroyed,
  	tains the claim of Truth by quenching error. 	not pardoned 
  	The pardon of divine mercy is the destruction of error. If
27	men understood their real spiritual source to be all bless-
  	edness, they would struggle for recourse to the spiritual
  	and be at peace; but the deeper the error into which mor-
30	tal mind is plunged, the more intense the opposition to
  	spirituality, till error yields to Truth. 
  	    Human resistance to divine Science weakens in pro-
 
      Science and Health – Science of Being                                              330

 1	portion as mortals give up error for Truth and the un-
  	derstanding of being supersedes mere belief. Until the
 3	author of this book learned the vastness of	The hopeful
  	Christian Science, the fixedness of mortal illu-	outlook 
  	sions, and the human hatred of Truth, she cherished
 6	sanguine hopes that Christian Science would meet with
  	immediate and universal acceptance. SHOW ALL