Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 67

468:27 Life is without beginning and without end.

Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in 468:30 proportion as the other is recognized. Time is finite; 469:1 eternity is forever infinite. Life is neither in nor of mat- ter. What is termed matter is unknown to Spirit, which 469:3 includes in itself all substance and is Life eternal. Mat- ter is a human concept. Life is divine Mind. Life is not limited. Death and finiteness are unknown to Life. If 469:6 Life ever had a beginning, it would also have an ending.

_Question_. - What is intelligence?

_Answer_. - Intelligence is omniscience, omnipresence, 469:9 and omnipotence. It is the primal and eternal quality of infinite Mind, of the triune Principle, - Life, Truth, and Love, - named G.o.d.

True sense of infinitude

469:12 _Question_. - What is Mind?

_Answer_. - Mind is G.o.d. The exterminator of error is the great truth that G.o.d, good, is the _only_ Mind, and 469:15 that the supposit.i.tious opposite of infinite Mind - called _devil_ or evil - is not Mind, is not Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality. There 469:18 can be but one Mind, because there is but one G.o.d; and if mortals claimed no other Mind and accepted no other, sin would be unknown. We can have but one Mind, if 469:21 that one is infinite. We bury the sense of infinitude, when we admit that, although G.o.d is infinite, evil has a place in this infinity, for evil can have no place, where all 469:24 s.p.a.ce is filled with G.o.d.

The sole governor

We lose the high signification of omnipotence, when after admitting that G.o.d, or good, is omnipresent and 469:27 has all-power, we still believe there is another power, named _evil_. This belief that there is more than one mind is as pernicious to divine theology 469:30 as are ancient mythology and pagan idolatry. With 470:1 one Father, even G.o.d, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that G.o.d, or good, 470:3 the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which const.i.tute divine Science. The supposed existence of 470:6 more than one mind was the basic error of idolatry. This error a.s.sumed the loss of spiritual power, the loss of the spiritual presence of Life as infinite Truth without an 470:9 unlikeness, and the loss of Love as ever present and universal.

The divine standard of perfection

Divine Science explains the abstract statement that 470:12 there is one Mind by the following self-evident propo- sition: If G.o.d, or good, is real, then evil, the unlikeness of G.o.d, is unreal. And evil can 470:15 only seem to be real by giving reality to the unreal. The children of G.o.d have but one Mind. How can good lapse into evil, when G.o.d, the Mind of man, 470:18 never sins? The standard of perfection was originally G.o.d and man. Has G.o.d taken down His own standard, and has man fallen?

Indestructible relations.h.i.+p

470:21 G.o.d is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection, man, remains perfect. Man is the expression 470:24 of G.o.d's being. If there ever was a moment when man did not express the divine perfec- tion, then there was a moment when man did not express 470:27 G.o.d, and consequently a time when Deity was unex- pressed - that is, without ent.i.ty. If man has lost per- fection, then he has lost his perfect Principle, the divine 470:30 Mind. If man ever existed without this perfect Principle or Mind, then man's existence was a myth.

The relations of G.o.d and man, divine Principle and 471:1 idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine 471:3 order or spiritual law, in which G.o.d and all that He cre- ates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history.

Celestial evidence

471:6 The unlikeness of Truth, - named _error_, - the op- posite of Science, and the evidence before the five cor- poreal senses, afford no indication of the grand 471:9 facts of being; even as these so-called senses receive no intimation of the earth's motions or of the science of astronomy, but yield a.s.sent to astronomical 471:12 propositions on the authority of natural science.

The facts of divine Science should be admitted, - although the evidence as to these facts is not supported 471:15 by evil, by matter, or by material sense, - because the evidence that G.o.d and man coexist is fully sustained by spiritual sense. Man is, and forever has been, G.o.d's re- 471:18 flection. G.o.d is infinite, therefore ever present, and there is no other power nor presence. Hence the spirit- uality of the universe is the only fact of creation. "Let 471:21 G.o.d be true, but every [material] man a liar."

The test of experience

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

_Answer_. - The author subscribed to an orthodox 471:24 creed in early youth, and tried to adhere to it until she caught the first gleam of that which inter- prets G.o.d as above mortal sense. This 471:27 view rebuked human beliefs, and gave the spiritual im- port, expressed through Science, of all that proceeds from the divine Mind. Since then her highest creed has 471:30 been divine Science, which, reduced to human apprehen- sion, she has named Christian Science. This Science 472:1 teaches man that G.o.d is the only Life, and that this Life is Truth and Love; that G.o.d is to be understood, adored, 472:3 and demonstrated; that divine Truth casts out supposi- tional error and heals the sick.

G.o.d's law destroys evil

The way which leads to Christian Science is straight 472:6 and narrow. G.o.d has set His signet upon Science, mak- ing it coordinate with all that is real and only with that which is harmonious and eternal.

472:9 Sickness, sin, and death, being inharmonious, do not originate in G.o.d nor belong to His government. His law, rightly understood, destroys them. Jesus furnished 472:12 proofs of these statements.

Evanescent materiality

_Question_. - What is error?

_Answer_. - Error is a supposition that pleasure and 472:15 pain, that intelligence, substance, life, are existent in mat- ter. Error is neither Mind nor one of Mind's faculties. Error is the contradiction of Truth.

472:18 Error is a belief without understanding. Error is unreal because untrue. It is that which seemeth to be and is not.

If error were true, its truth would be error, and we should 472:21 have a self-evident absurdity - namely, _erroneous truth_.

Thus we should continue to lose the standard of Truth.

Unrealities that seem real

_Question_. - Is there no sin?

472:24 _Answer_. - All reality is in G.o.d and His creation, har- monious and eternal. That which He creates is good, and He makes all that is made. Therefore 472:27 the only reality of sin, sickness, or death is the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human, erring belief, until G.o.d strips off their disguise. They are not 472:30 true, because they are not of G.o.d. We learn in Christian 473:1 Science that all inharmony of mortal mind or body is illu- sion, possessing neither reality nor ident.i.ty though seeming 473:3 to be real and identical.

Christ the ideal Truth

The Science of Mind disposes of all evil. Truth, G.o.d, is not the father of error. Sin, sickness, and death are 473:6 to be cla.s.sified as effects of error. Christ came to destroy the belief of sin. The G.o.d- principle is omnipresent and omnipotent. G.o.d is every- 473:9 where, and nothing apart from Him is present or has power. Christ is the ideal Truth, that comes to heal sickness and sin through Christian Science, and attributes 473:12 all power to G.o.d. Jesus is the name of the man who, more than all other men, has presented Christ, the true idea of G.o.d, healing the sick and the sinning and destroy- 473:15 ing the power of death. Jesus is the human man, and Christ is the divine idea; hence the duality of Jesus the Christ.

Jesus not G.o.d

473:18 In an age of ecclesiastical despotism, Jesus introduced the teaching and practice of Christianity, affording the proof of Christianity's truth and love; but to 473:21 reach his example and to test its unerring Sci- ence according to his rule, healing sickness, sin, and death, a better understanding of G.o.d as divine Prin- 473:24 ciple, Love, rather than personality or the man Jesus, is required.

Jesus not understood

Jesus established what he said by demonstration, 473:27 thus making his acts of higher importance than his words. He proved what he taught. This is the Science of Christianity. Jesus _proved_ 473:30 the Principle, which heals the sick and casts out error, to be divine. Few, however, except his students un- derstood in the least his teachings and their glorious 474:1 proofs, - namely, that Life, Truth, and Love (the Prin- ciple of this unacknowledged Science) destroy all error, 474:3 evil, disease, and death.

Miracles rejected

The reception accorded to Truth in the early Chris- tian era is repeated to-day. Whoever introduces the 474:6 Science of Christianity will be scoffed at and scourged with worse cords than those which cut the flesh. To the ignorant age in which it first 474:9 appears, Science seems to be a mistake, - hence the misinterpretation and consequent maltreatment which it receives. Christian marvels (and _marvel_ is the sim- 474:12 ple meaning of the Greek word rendered _miracle_ in the New Testament) will be misunderstood and misused by many, until the glorious Principle of these marvels is 474:15 gained.

Divine fulfilment

If sin, sickness, and death are as real as Life, Truth, and Love, then they must all be from the same source; 474:18 G.o.d must be their author. Now Jesus came to destroy sin, sickness, and death yet the Scriptures aver, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."

474:21 Is it possible, then, to believe that the evils which Jesus lived to destroy are real or the offspring of the divine will?

Truth destroys falsity

474:24 Despite the hallowing influence of Truth in the de- struction of error, must error still be immortal? Truth spares all that is true. If evil is real, Truth 474:27 must make it so; but error, not Truth, is the author of the unreal, and the unreal vanishes, while all that is real is eternal. The apostle says that 474:30 the mission of Christ is to "destroy the works of the devil." Truth destroys falsity and error, for light and darkness cannot dwell together. Light extinguishes the 475:1 darkness, and the Scripture declares that there is "no night there." To Truth there is no error, - all is Truth.

475:3 To infinite Spirit there is no matter, - all is Spirit, divine Principle and its idea.

Fleshly factors unreal

_Question_. - What is man?

475:6 _Answer_. - Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in 475:9 the image and likeness of G.o.d. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and be- 475:12 cause he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so under- stood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of 475:15 G.o.d, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects G.o.d's image and likeness; the conscious ident.i.ty of being as found in Science, in which man is 475:18 the reflection of G.o.d, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from G.o.d; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which 475:21 possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker.

And G.o.d said: "Let us make man in our image, after 475:24 our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that 475:27 creepeth upon the earth."

Man unfallen

Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor 475:30 can G.o.d, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not 476:1 G.o.d's man. Mortals are the counterfeits of immortals.

They are the children of the wicked one, or the one evil, 476:3 which declares that man begins in dust or as a material embryo. In divine Science, G.o.d and the real man are inseparable as divine Principle and idea.

Mortals are not immortals

476:6 Error, urged to its final limits, is self-destroyed.

Error will cease to claim that soul is in body, that life and intelligence are in matter, and that 476:9 this matter is man. G.o.d is the Principle of man, and man is the idea of G.o.d. Hence man is not mortal nor material. Mortals will disappear, and im- 476:12 mortals, or the children of G.o.d, will appear as the only and eternal verities of man. Mortals are not fallen chil- dren of G.o.d. They never had a perfect state of being, 476:15 which may subsequently be regained. They were, from the beginning of mortal history, "conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity." Mortality is finally swallowed 476:18 up in immortality. Sin, sickness, and death must dis- appear to give place to the facts which belong to immortal man.

Imperishable ident.i.ty

476:21 Learn this, O mortal, and earnestly seek the spiritual status of man, which is outside of all material selfhood.