Sickness erroneous
Sickness is part of the error which Truth casts out.482:27 Error will not expel error. Christian Science is the lawof Truth, which heals the sick, on the basisof the one Mind or God. It can heal in no482:30 other way, since the human, mortal mind so-called is nota healer, but causes the belief in disease.
True healing transcendent
483:1 Then comes the question, how do drugs, hygiene, andanimal magnetism heal? It may be affirmed that they483:3 do not heal, but only relieve suffering tempo-rarily, exchanging one disease for another.We classify disease as error, which nothing but Truth or483:6 Mind can heal, and this Mind must be divine, not human.Mind transcends all other power, and will ultimately su-persede all other means in healing. In order to heal by483:9 Science, you must not be ignorant of the moral and spir-itual demands of Science nor disobey them. Moral igno-rance or sin affects your demonstration, and hinders its483:12 approach to the standard in Christian Science.
Terms adopted by the author
After the author's sacred discovery, she affixed thename "Science" to Christianity, the name "error" to483:15 corporeal sense, and the name "substance" toMind. Science has called the world to battleover this issue and its demonstration, which483:18 heals the sick, destroys error, and reveals the universalharmony. To those natural Christian Scientists, the an-cient worthies, and to Christ Jesus, God certainly revealed483:21 the spirit of Christian Science, if not the absolute letter.
Science the way
Because the Science of Mind seems to bring into dis-honor the ordinary scientific schools, which wrestle with483:24 material observations alone, this Science hasmet with opposition; but if any system honorsGod, it ought to receive aid, not opposition, from all think-483:27 ing persons. And Christian Science does honor God asno other theory honors Him, and it does this in the wayof His appointing, by doing many wonderful works483:30 through the divine name and nature. One must fulfilone's mission without timidity or dissimulation, for to bewell done, the work must be done unselfishly. Christianity484:1 will never be based on a divine Principle and so found tobe unerring, until its absolute Science is reached. When484:3 this is accomplished, neither pride, prejudice, bigotry,nor envy can wash away its foundation, for it is built uponthe rock, Christ.
Mindless methods
484:6 /Question/. - Does Christian Science, or metaphysicalhealing, include medication, material hygiene, mesmer-ism, hypnotism, theosophy, or spiritualism?484:9 /Answer/. - Not one of them is included in it. In di-vine Science, the supposed laws of matter yield to thelaw of Mind. What are termed natural484:12 science and material laws are the objectivestates of mortal mind. The physical universe expressesthe conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals.484:15 Physical force and mortal mind are one. Drugs andhygiene oppose the supremacy of the divine Mind.Drugs and inert matter are unconscious, mindless. Cer-484:18 tain results, supposed to proceed from drugs, are reallycaused by the faith in them which the false human con-sciousness is educated to feel.
Animal magnetism error
484:21 Mesmerism is mortal, material illusion. Animal mag-netism is the voluntary or involuntary action of errorin all its forms; it is the human antipode484:24 of divine Science. Science must triumphover material sense, and Truth over error, thus puttingan end to the hypotheses involved in all false theories484:27 and practices.
Error only ephemeral
/Question/. - Is materiality the concomitant of spirit-uality, and is material sense a necessary preliminary to484:30 the understanding and expression of Spirit?485:1 /Answer/. - If error is necessary to define or to revealTruth, the answer is yes; but not otherwise. /Material485:3 sense/ is an absurd phrase, for matter has nosensation. Science declares that Mind, notmatter, sees, hears, feels, speaks. Whatever contradicts485:6 this statement is the false sense, which ever betraysmortals into sickness, sin, and death. If the unimpor-tant and evil appear, only soon to disappear because485:9 of their uselessness or their iniquity, then these ephem-eral views of error ought to be obliterated by Truth.Why malign Christian Science for instructing mortals how485:12 to make sin, disease, and death appear more and moreunreal?
Scientific translations
Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not485:15 to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but comenaturally into Spirit through better health andmorals and as the result of spiritual growth.485:18 Not death, but the understanding of Life, makes man im-mortal. The belief that life can be in matter or soul inbody, and that man springs from dust or from an egg,485:21 is the result of the mortal error which Christ, or Truth,destroys by fulfilling the spiritual law of being, in whichman is perfect, even as the "Father which is in heaven485:24 is perfect." If thought yields its dominion to other 'powers, it cannot outline on the body its own beautifulimages, but it effaces them and delineates foreign agents,485:27 called disease and sin.
Material beliefs
The heathen gods of mythology controlled war andagriculture as much as nerves control sensation or485:30 muscles measure strength. To say thatstrength is in matter, is like saying that thepower is in the lever. The notion of any life or intelli-486:1 gence in matter is without foundation in fact, and youcan have no faith in falsehood when you have learned486:3 falsehood's true nature.
Sense /versus/ Soul
Suppose one accident happens to the eye, another tothe ear, and so on, until every corporeal sense is quenched.486:6 What is man's remedy? To die, that he mayregain these senses? Even then he must gainspiritual understanding and spiritual sense in order to486:9 possess immortal consciousness. Earth's preparatoryschool must be improved to the utmost. In reality mannever dies. The belief that he dies will not establish his486:12 scientific harmony. Death is not the result of Truth butof error, and one error will not correct another.
Death an error
Jesus proved by the prints of the nails, that his body486:15 was the same immediately after death as before. If deathrestores sight, sound, and strength to man,then death is not an enemy but a better friend486:18 than Life. Alas for the blindness of belief, which makesharmony conditional upon death and matter, and yetsupposes Mind unable to produce harmony! So long486:21 as this error of belief remains, mortals will continue mor-tal in belief and subject to chance and change.
Permanent sensibility
Sight, hearing, all the spiritual senses of man, are486:24 eternal. They cannot be lost. Their reality and immor-tality are in Spirit and understanding, not inmatter, - hence their permanence. If this486:27 were not so, man would be speedily annihilated. If thefive corporeal senses were the medium through whichto understand God, then palsy, blindness, and deafness486:30 would place man in a terrible situation, where he wouldbe like those "having no hope, and without God in theworld;" but as a matter of fact, these calamities often487:1 drive mortals to seek and to find a higher sense of happi-ness and existence.
Exercise of Mind-faculties
487:3 Life is deathless. Life is the origin and ultimate ofman, never attainable through death, but gained by walk-ing in the pathway of Truth both before and487:6 after that which is called death. There is moreChristianity in seeing and hearing spirituallythan materially. There is more Science in the perpetual487:9 exercise of the Mind-faculties than in their loss. Lostthey cannot be, while Mind remains. The apprehensionof this gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf cen-487:12 turies ago, and it will repeat the wonder.
Understanding /versus/ belief
/Question/. - You speak of belief. Who or what is itthat believes?487:15 /Answer/. - Spirit is all-knowing; this precludes theneed of believing. Matter cannot believe, and Mindunderstands. The body cannot believe. The487:18 believer and belief are one and are mortal.Christian evidence is founded on Science ordemonstrable Truth, flowing from immortal Mind, and487:21 there is in reality no such thing as /mortal/ mind. Merebelief is blindness without Principle from which to ex-plain the reason of its hope. The belief that life is sen-487:24 tient and intelligent matter is erroneous.
The Apostle James said, "Show me thy faith withoutthy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works."487:27 The understanding that Life is God, Spirit, lengthensour days by strengthening our trust in the deathlessreality of Life, its almightiness and immortality.
Confirmation by healing
487:30 This faith relies upon an understood Principle. ThisPrinciple makes whole the diseased, and brings out the488:1 enduring and harmonious phases of things. The resultof our teachings is their sufficient confirmation. When,488:3 on the strength of these instructions, you areable to banish a severe malady, the cure showsthat you understand this teaching, and therefore you re-488:6 ceive the blessing of Truth.
Belief and firm trust
The Hebrew and Greek words often translated /belief/differ somewhat in meaning from that conveyed by the488:9 English verb /believe/; they have more the sig-nificance of faith, understanding, trust, con-stancy, firmness. Hence the Scriptures often appear in488:12 our common version to approve and endorse belief, whenthey mean to enforce the necessity of understanding.
All faculties from Mind
/Question/. - Do the five corporeal senses constitute488:15 man?/Answer/. - Christian Science sustains with immortalproof the impossibility of any material sense, and defines488:18 these so-called senses as /mortal beliefs/, thetestimony of which cannot be true either ofman or of his Maker. The corporeal senses can take no488:21 cognizance of spiritual reality and immortality. Nerveshave no more sensation, apart from what belief be-stows upon them, than the fibres of a plant. Mind alone488:24 possesses all faculties, perception, and comprehension.Therefore mental endowments are not at the mercy oforganization and decomposition, - otherwise the very488:27 worms could unfashion man. If it were possible for thereal senses of man to be injured, Soul could reproducethem in all their perfection; but they cannot be dis-488:30 turbed nor destroyed, since they exist in immortal Mind,not in matter.
Possibilities of Life
489:1 The less mind there is manifested in matter the better.When the unthinking lobster loses its claw, the claw grows489:3 again. If the Science of Life were understood,it would be found that the senses of Mind arenever lost and that matter has no sensation. Then the489:6 human limb would be replaced as readily as the lobster'sclaw, - not with an artificial limb, but with the genuineone. Any hypothesis which supposes life to be in matter489:9 is an educated belief. In infancy this belief is not equalto guiding the hand to the mouth; and as consciousnessdevelops, this belief goes out, - yields to the reality of489:12 everlasting Life.
Decalogue disregarded
Corporeal sense defrauds and lies; it breaks all thecommands of the Mosaic Decalogue to meet its own de-489:15 mands. How then can this sense be the God-given channel to man of divine blessings orunderstanding? How can man, reflecting God, be de-489:18 pendent on material means for knowing, hearing, seeing?Who dares to say that the senses of man can be at one timethe medium for sinning against God, at another the me-489:21 dium for obeying God? An affirmative reply would con-tradict the Scripture, for the same fountain sendeth notforth sweet waters and bitter.
Organic construction valueless
489:24 The corporeal senses are the only source of evil orerror. Christian Science shows them to be false, be-cause matter has no sensation, and no organic489:27 construction can give it hearing and sight normake it the medium of Mind. Outside thematerial sense of things, all is harmony. A wrong sense489:30 of God, man, and creation is /non-sense/, want of sense.Mortal belief would have the material senses sometimesgood and sometimes bad. It assures mortals that there490:1 is real pleasure in sin; but the grand truths of ChristianScience dispute this error.
Will-power an animal propensity
490:3 Will-power is but a product of belief, and this beliefcommits depredations on harmony. Human will is ananimal propensity, not a faculty of Soul.490:6 Hence it cannot govern man aright. Chris-tian Science reveals Truth and Love as themotive-powers of man. Will - blind, stubborn, and head-490:9 long - cooperates with appetite and passion. From thiscooperation arises its evil. From this also comes its pow-erlessness, since all power belongs to God, good.
Theories helpless
490:12 The Science of Mind needs to be understood. Untilit is understood, mortals are more or less deprived ofTruth. Human theories are helpless to make490:15 man harmonious or immortal, since he is soalready, according to Christian Science. Our only needis to know this and reduce to practice the real man's di-490:18 vine Principle, Love
True nature and origin
"Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings."Human belief - or knowledge gained from the so-called490:21 material senses - would, by fair logic, anni-hilate man along with the dissolving elementsof clay. The scientifically Christian explanations of the490:24 nature and origin of man destroy all material sense withimmortal testimony. This immortal testimony ushersin the spiritual sense of being, which can be obtained490:27 in no other way.
Sleep an illusion
Sleep and mesmerism explain the mythical nature ofmaterial sense. Sleep shows material sense as either490:30 oblivion, nothingness, or an illusion or dream.Under the mesmeric illusion of belief, a manwill think that he is freezing when he is warm, and that he491:1 is swimming when he is on dry land. Needle-thrusts willnot hurt him. A delicious perfume will seem intolerable.491:3 Animal magnetism thus uncovers material sense, andshows it to be a belief without actual foundation or va-lidity. Change the belief, and the sensation changes.491:6 Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears.
Man linked with Spirit
Material man is made up of involuntary and voluntaryerror, of a negative right and a positive wrong, the latter491:9 calling itself right. Man's spiritual individual-ity is never wrong. It is the likeness of man'sMaker. Matter cannot connect mortals with the true491:12 origin and facts of being, in which all must end. It is onlyby acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annulsthe claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and491:15 find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes manforever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator.
Material man as a dream
The belief that matter and mind are one, - that mat-491:18 ter is awake at one time and asleep at another, some-times presenting no appearance of mind, -this belief culminates in another belief, that491:21 man dies. Science reveals material man as never the realbeing. The dream or belief goes on, whether our eyes areclosed or open. In sleep, memory and consciousness are491:24 lost from the body, and they wander whither they willapparently with their own separate embodiment. Per-sonality is not the individuality of man. A wicked man491:27 may have an attractive personality.
Spiritual existence the one fact
When we are awake, we dream of the pains and pleas-ures of matter. Who will say, even though he491:30 does not understand Christian Science, thatthis dream - rather than the dreamer - maynot be mortal man? Who can rationally say otherwise,492:1 when the dream leaves mortal man intact in body andthought, although the so-called dreamer is unconscious?492:3 For right reasoning there should be but one fact beforethe thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality thereis no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its492:6 unlikeness, mortality.
Mind one and all
Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is alreadyproved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree,492:9 will uplift the physical and moral standardof mortals, will increase longevity, will purifyand elevate character. Thus progress will finally destroy492:12 all error, and bring immortality to light. We know thata statement proved to be good must be correct. Newthoughts are constantly obtaining the floor. These two492:15 contradictory theories - that matter is something, orthat all is Mind - will dispute the ground, until one isacknowledged to be the victor. Discussing his cam-492:18 paign, General Grant said: "I propose to fight it out onthis line, if it takes all summer." Science says: All isMind and Mind's idea. You must fight it out on this492:21 line. Matter can afford you no aid.
Scientific ultimatum
The notion that mind and matter commingle in thehuman illusion as to sin, sickness, and death must even-492:24 tually submit to the Science of Mind, whichdenies this notion. /God is Mind, and God isinfinite; hence all is Mind/. On this statement rests the492:27 Science of being, and the Principle of this Science is di-vine, demonstrating harmony and immortality.
Victory for Truth
The conservative theory, long believed, is that there492:30 are two factors, matter and mind, uniting on some im-possible basis. This theory would keep truth and erroralways at war. Victory would perch on neither banner.493:1 On the other hand, Christian Science speedily showsTruth to be triumphant. To corporeal sense, the sun493:3 appears to rise and set, and the earth to standstill; but astronomical science contradicts this,and explains the solar system as working on a differ-493:6 ent plan. All the evidence of physical sense and all theknowledge obtained from physical sense must yield toScience, to the immortal truth of all things.
Mental preparation
493:9 /Question/, - Will you explain sickness and show how itis to be healed?/Answer/. - The method of Christian Science Mind-heal-493:12 ing is touched upon in a previous chapter entitled ChristianScience Practice. A full answer to the abovequestion involves teaching, which enables the493:15 healer to demonstrate and prove for himself the Principleand rule of Christian Science or metaphysical healing.
Mind destroys all ills
Mind must be found superior to all the beliefs of the493:18 five corporeal senses, and able to destroy all ills. Sick-ness is a belief, which must be annihilated bythe divine Mind. Disease is an experience of493:21 so-called mortal mind. It is fear made manifest on thebody. Christian Science takes away this physical senseof discord, just as it removes any other sense of moral or493:24 mental inharmony. That man is material, and that mat-ter suffers, - these propositions can only seem real andnatural in illusion. Any sense of soul in matter is not the493:27 reality of being.
If Jesus awakened Lazarus from the dream, illusion, ofdeath, this proved that the Christ could improve on a false493:30 sense. Who dares to doubt this consummate test of thepower and willingness of divine Mind to hold man forever494:1 intact in his perfect state, and to govern man's entireaction? Jesus said: "Destroy this temple [body], and494:3 in three days I [Mind] will raise it up;" and he did thisfor tired humanity's reassurance.
Inexhaustible divine Love
Is it not a species of infidelity to believe that so great494:6 a work as the Messiah's was done for himself or for God,who needed no help from Jesus' example topreserve the eternal harmony? But mortals494:9 did need this help, and Jesus pointed the way for them.Divine Love always has met and always will meet everyhuman need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demon-494:12 strated the divine power to heal only for a select numberor for a limited period of time, since to all mankind andin every hour, divine Love supplies all good.
Reason and Science
494:15 The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love. Jesusdemonstrated the inability of corporeality, as well as theinfinite ability of Spirit, thus helping erring494:18 human sense to flee from its own convictionsand seek safety in divine Science. Reason, rightly di-rected, serves to correct the errors of corporeal sense; but494:21 sin, sickness, and death will seem real (even as the ex-periences of the sleeping dream seem real) until the Sci-ence of man's eternal harmony breaks their illusion with494:24 the unbroken reality of scientific being.
Which of these two theories concerning man are youready to accept? One is the mortal testimony, changing,494:27 dying, unreal. The other is the eternal and real evidence,bearing Truth's signet, its lap piled high with immortalfruits.
Followers of Jesus
494:30 Our Master cast out devils (evils) and healed the sick.It should be said of his followers also, that they cast fearand all evil out of themselves and others and heal the sick.495:1 God will heal the sick through man, whenever man isgoverned by God. Truth casts out error now495:3 as surely as it did nineteen centuries ago. Allof Truth is not understood; hence its healing power is notfully demonstrated.
Destruction of all evil
495:6 If sickness is true or the idea of Truth, you cannotdestroy sickness, and it would be absurd to try. Thenclassify sickness and error as our Master did,495:9 when he spoke of the sick, "whom Satan hathbound," and find a sovereign antidote for error in the life-giving power of Truth acting on human belief, a power495:12 which opens the prison doors to such as are bound, andsets the captive free physically and morally.
Steadfast and calm trust
When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling495:15 steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but Hislikeness to abide in your thought. Let neitherfear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and495:18 calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious - asLife eternally is - can destroy any painful sense of, orbelief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science,495:21 instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding ofbeing, and this understanding will supplant error withTruth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence dis-495:24 cord with harmony.
Rudiments and growth
/Question/. - How can I progress most rapidly in theunderstanding of Christian Science?495:27 /Answer/. - Study thoroughly the letter and imbibethe spirit. Adhere to the divine Principle of Chris-tian Science and follow the behests of God,495:30 abiding steadfastly in wisdom, Truth, andLove. In the Science of Mind, you will soon ascertain496:1 that error cannot destroy error. You will also learnthat in Science there is no transfer of evil suggestions496:3 from one mortal to another, for there is but one Mind,and this ever-present omnipotent Mind is reflected byman and governs the entire universe. You will learn496:6 that in Christian Science the first duty is to obeyGod, to have one Mind, and to love another asyourself.
Condition of progress
496:9 We all must learn that Life is God. Ask yourself:Am I living the life that approaches the supreme good?Am I demonstrating the healing power of496:12 Truth and Love? If so then the way willgrow brighter "unto the perfect day." Your fruitswill prove what the understanding of God brings to man.496:15 Hold perpetually this thought, - that it is the spiritualidea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you todemonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing,496:18 based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, over-lying, and encompassing all true being.
Triumph over death
"The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is496:21 the law," - the law of mortal belief, at war with thefacts of immortal Life, even with the spirituallaw which says to the grave, "Where is thy496:24 victory?" But "when this corruptible shall have puton incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on im-mortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that496:27 is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."
/Question/. - Have Christian Scientists any religiouscreed?496:30 /Answer/. - They have not, if by that term is meantdoctrinal beliefs. The following is a brief exposition of497:1 the important points, or religious tenets, of ChristianScience: -
497:3 1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Wordof the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.
2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and in-497:6 finite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; theHoly Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God'simage and likeness.
497:9 3. We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in thedestruction of sin and the spiritual understanding thatcasts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is pun-497:12 ished so long as the belief lasts.
4. We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evi-dence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity497:15 with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; andwe acknowledge that man is saved through Christ,through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the497:18 Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcomingsin and death.
5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and497:21 his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eter-nal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the noth-ingness of matter.
497:24 6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray forthat Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; todo unto others as we would have them do unto us; and497:27 to be merciful, just, and pure.
These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. - REVELATION.
And I appeared unto Abraham,, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty; but by My name Jehovah was I not known to them. - EXODUS.
All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. - JOHN.
Spiritual interpretation
501:1 SCIENTIFIC interpretation of the Scriptures prop-erly starts with the beginning of the Old Testa-501:3 ment, chiefly because the spiritual import ofthe Word, in its earliest articulations, oftenseems so smothered by the immediate context as to501:6 require explication; whereas the New Testament narra-tives are clearer and come nearer the heart. Jesus il-lumines them, showing the poverty of mortal existence,501:9 but richly recompensing human want and woe withspiritual gain. The incarnation of Truth, that amplifi-cation of wonder and glory which angels could only501:12 whisper and which God illustrated by light and har-mony, is consonant with ever-present Love. So-calledmystery and miracle, which subserve the end of natural501:15 good, are explained by that Love for whose rest theweary ones sigh when needing something more nativeto their immortal cravings than the history of perpetual501:18 evil.
Spiritual overture
502:1 A second necessity for beginning with Genesis is thatthe living and real prelude of the older Scriptures is so502:3 brief that it would almost seem, from thepreponderance of unreality in the entire nar-rative, as if reality did not predominate over unreality,502:6 the light over the dark, the straight line of Spirit overthe mortal deviations and inverted images of the creatorand His creation.
Deflection of being
502:9 Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the historyof the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. Thisdeflection of being, rightly viewed, serves to502:12 suggest the proper reflection of God and thespiritual actuality of man, as given in the first chapterof Genesis. Even thus the crude forms of human thought502:15 take on higher symbols and significations, when scien-tifically Christian views of the universe appear, illuminat-ing time with the glory of eternity.
502:18 In the following exegesis, each text is followed by its spiritual interpretation according to the teachings of Chris- tian Science.
/Genesis/ i. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Ideas and identities
502:24 The infinite has no beginning. This word /beginning/is employed to signify /the only/, - that is, the eternal ver-ity and unity of God and man, including502:27 the universe. The creative Principle - Life,Truth, and Love - is God. The universe reflects God.There is but one creator and one creation. This crea-503:1 tion consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and theiridentities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and503:3 forever reflected. These ideas range from the infini-tesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sonsand daughters of God.
503:6 /Genesis/ i. 2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Spiritual harmony
503:9 The divine Principle and idea constitute spiritual har-mony, - heaven and eternity. In the universe of Truth,matter is unknown. No supposition of error503:12 enters there. Divine Science, the Word ofGod, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, "Godis All-in-all," and the light of ever-present Love illumines503:15 the universe. Hence the eternal wonder, - that infinitespace is peopled with God's ideas, reflecting Him incountless spiritual forms.
503:18 /Genesis/ i. 3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Mind's idea faultless
Immortal and divine Mind presents the idea of God:503:21 /first/, in light; /second/, in reflection; /third/, in spiritual andimmortal forms of beauty and goodness. Butthis Mind creates no element nor symbol of503:24 discord and decay. God creates neither erring thought,mortal life, mutable truth, nor variable love.
/Genesis/ i. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good:503:27 and God divided the light from the darkness.
God, Spirit, dwelling in infinite light and harmony504:1 from which emanates the true idea, is never reflected byaught but the good.
504:3 /Genesis/ i. 5. And God called the light Day, and thedarkness He called Night. And the evening and the morn-ing were the first day.
Light preceding the sun
504:6 All questions as to the divine creation being bothspiritual and material are answered in this passage, forthough solar beams are not yet included in504:9 the record of creation, still there is light. Thislight is not from the sun nor from volcanic flames, but itis the revelation of Truth and of spiritual ideas. This504:12 also shows that there is no place where God's light is notseen, since Truth, Life, and Love fill immensity and areever-present. Was not this a revelation instead of a504:15 creation?
Evenings and mornings
The successive appearing of God's ideas is representedas taking place on so many /evenings/ and /mornings/, -504:18 words which indicate, in the absence of solartime, spiritually clearer views of Him, viewswhich are not implied by material darkness and dawn.504:21 Here we have the explanation of another passage ofScripture, that "one day is with the Lord as a thousandyears." The rays of infinite Truth, when gathered into504:24 the focus of ideas, bring light instantaneously, whereasa thousand years of human doctrines, hypotheses, andvague conjectures emit no such effulgence.
Spirit /versus/ darkness
504:27 Did infinite Mind create matter, and call it /light?/Spirit is light, and the contradiction of Spirit is matter,darkness, and darkness obscures light. Mate-504:30 rial sense is nothing but a supposition of theabsence of Spirit. No solar rays nor planetary revolutions505:1 form the day of Spirit. Immortal Mind makes its ownrecord, but mortal mind, sleep, dreams, sin, disease, and505:3 death have no record in the first chapter of Genesis.
/Genesis/ i. 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament inthe midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from505:6 the waters.
Spiritual firmament
Spiritual understanding, by which human conception,material sense, is separated from Truth, is the firmament.505:9 The divine Mind, not matter, creates all iden-tities, and they are forms of Mind, the ideas ofSpirit apparent only as Mind, never as mindless matter505:12 nor the so-called material senses.
/Genesis/ i. 7. And God made the firmament, and dividedthe waters which were under the firmament from the waters505:15 which were above the firmament: and it was so.
Understanding imparted
Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts con-sciousness and leads into all truth. The Psalmist saith:505:18 "The Lord on high is mightier than the noiseof many waters, yea, than the mighty waves ofthe sea." Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual505:21 good. Understanding is the line of demarcation betweenthe real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfoldsMind, - Life, Truth, and Love, - and demonstrates the505:24 divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe inChristian Science.
Original reflected
This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result505:27 of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all thingsbrought to light. God's ideas reflect the im-mortal, unerring, and infinite. The mortal,505:30 erring, and finite are human beliefs, which apportion to506:1 themselves a task impossible for them, that of distinguish-ing between the false and the true. Objects utterly un-506:3 like the original do not reflect that original. Thereforematter, not being the reflection of Spirit, has no real en-tity. Understanding is a quality of God, a quality which506:6 separates Christian Science from supposition and makesTruth final.
/Genesis/ i. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven.506:9 And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Exalted thought
Through divine Science, Spirit, God, unites under-standing to eternal harmony. The calm and exalted506:12 thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace.Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming eachsuccessive stage of progress.
506:15 /Genesis/ i. 9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Unfolding of thoughts
506:18 Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into theirproper channels, and unfolds these thoughts,even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose506:21 in order that the purpose may appear.
/Genesis/ i. 10. And God called the dry land Earth; andthe gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and506:24 God saw that it was good.
Spirit names and blesses
Here the human concept and divine idea seem con-fused by the translator, but they are not so in the scien-506:27 tifically Christian meaning of the text. UponAdam devolved the pleasurable task of find-ing names for all material things, but Adam has not yet507:1 appeared in the narrative. In metaphor, the /dry land/illustrates the absolute formations instituted by Mind,507:3 while /water/ symbolizes the elements of Mind. Spirit dulyfeeds and clothes every object, as it appears in the lineof spiritual creation, thus tenderly expressing the father-507:6 hood and motherhood of God. Spirit names and blessesall. Without natures particularly defined, objects andsubjects would be obscure, and creation would be full of507:9 nameless offspring, - wanderers from the parent Mind,strangers in a tangled wilderness.
/Genesis/ i. 11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth507:12 grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yieldingfruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth:and it was so.
Divine propagation
507:15 The universe of Spirit reflects the creative power ofthe divine Principle, or Life, which reproduces the multi-tudinous forms of Mind and governs the mul-507:18 tiplication of the compound idea man. Thetree and herb do not yield fruit because of any propagat-ing power of their own, but because they reflect the Mind507:21 which includes all. A material world implies a mortalmind and man a creator. The scientific divine creationdeclares immortal Mind and the universe created by God.
Ever-appearing creation
507:24 Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the men-tal molecule to infinity. This divine Principle of allexpresses Science and art throughout His507:27 creation, and the immortality of man and theuniverse. Creation is ever appearing, and must ever con-tinue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source.507:30 Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas mate-rial. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall508:1 to the level of a human or material belief, called mortalman. But the seed is in itself, only as the divine Mind508:3 is All and reproduces all - as Mind is the multiplier,and Mind's infinite idea, man and the universe, is theproduct. The only intelligence or substance of a thought,508:6 a seed, or a flower is God, the creator of it. Mind is theSoul of all. Mind is Life, Truth, and Love which gov-erns all.
508:9 /Genesis/ i. 12. And the earth brought forth grass, andherb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yieldingfruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw508:12 that it was good.
Mind's pure thought
God determines the gender of His own ideas. Gen-der is mental, not material. The seed within itself is508:15 the pure thought emanating from divineMind. The feminine gender is not yet ex-pressed in the text. /Gender/ means simply /kind/ or /sort/,508:18 and does not necessarily refer either to masculinity orfemininity. The word is not confined to sexuality, andgrammars always recognize a neuter gender, neither508:21 male nor female. The Mind or intelligence of produc-tion names the female gender last in the ascending orderof creation. The intelligent individual idea, be it male508:24 or female, rising from the lesser to the greater, unfoldsthe infinitude of Love.
/Genesis/ i. 13. And the evening and the morning were508:27 the third day.
Rising to the light
The third stage in the order of Christian Science is animportant one to the human thought, letting in the light509:1 of spiritual understanding. This period corresponds tothe resurrection, when Spirit is discerned to be the Life of509:3 all, and the deathless Life, or Mind, dependentupon no material organization. Our Masterreappeared to his students, - to their apprehension he509:6 rose from the grave, - on the third day of his ascendingthought, and so presented to them the certain sense ofeternal Life.
509:9 /Genesis/ i. 14. And God said, Let there be lights in thefirmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night;and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days,509:12 and years.
Rarefaction of thought
Spirit creates no other than heavenly or celestial bodies,but the stellar universe is no more celestial than our earth.509:15 This text gives the idea of the rarefaction ofthought as it ascends higher. God forms andpeoples the universe. The light of spiritual understand-509:18 ing gives gleams of the infinite only, even as nebulae indi-cate the immensity of space.
Divine nature appearing
So-called mineral, vegetable, and animal substances509:21 are no more contingent now on time or material struc-ture than they were when "the morning starssang together." Mind made the "plant of509:24 the field before it was in the earth." The periods ofspiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind'screation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness509:27 - yea, the divine nature - appear in man and the uni-verse never to disappear.
Spiritual ideas apprehended
Knowing the Science of creation, in which all is Mind509:30 and its ideas, Jesus rebuked the material thought of hisfellow-countrymen: "Ye can discern the face of the510:1 sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?"How much more should we seek to apprehend the spirit-510:3 ual ideas of God, than to dwell on the objectsof sense! To discern the rhythm of Spiritand to be holy, thought must be purely spiritual.
510:6 /Genesis/ i. 15. And let them be for lights in the firma-ment of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and itwas so.
510:9 Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose"light shall we see light;" and this illumination is re-flected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn510:12 away from a false material sense.
/Genesis/ i. 16. And God made two great lights; thegreater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the510:15 night: He made the stars also.
Geology a failure
The sun is a metaphorical representation of Soul out-side the body, giving existence and intelligence to the510:18 universe. Love alone can impart the limit-less idea of infinite Mind. Geology has neverexplained the earth's formations; it cannot explain them.510:21 There is no Scriptural allusion to solar light until time hasbeen already divided into evening and morning; and theallusion to fluids (Genesis i. 2) indicates a supposed for-510:24 mation of matter by the resolving of fluids into solids,analogous to the suppositional resolving of thoughts intomaterial things.
Spiritual subdivision
510:27 Light is a symbol of Mind, of Life, Truth, and Love,and not a vitalizing property of matter. Sci-ence reveals only one Mind, and this one shin-510:30 ing by its own light and governing the universe, including511:1 man, in perfect harmony. This Mind forms ideas, itsown images, subdivides and radiates their borrowed light,511:3 intelligence, and so explains the Scripture phrase, "whoseseed is in itself." Thus God's ideas "multiply and re-plenish the earth." The divine Mind supports the sub-511:6 limity, magnitude, and infinitude of spiritual creation.
/Genesis/ i. 17, 18. And God set them in the firmament ofthe heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over511:9 the day and over the night, and to divide the light from thedarkness: and God saw that it was good.
Darkness scattered
In divine Science, which is the seal of Deity and has511:12 the impress of heaven, God is revealed as in-finite light. In the eternal Mind, no night isthere.
511:15 /Genesis/ i. 19. And the evening and the morning werethe fourth day.
The changing glow and full effulgence of God's infi-511:18 nite ideas, images, mark the periods of progress.
/Genesis/ i. 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forthabundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl511:21 that may fly above the earth in the open firmament ofheaven.
Soaring aspirations
To mortal mind, the universe is liquid, solid, and aeri-511:24 form. Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains standfor solid and grand ideas. Animals and mor-tals metaphorically present the gradation of511:27 mortal thought, rising in the scale of intelligence, takingform in masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. Thefowls, which fly above the earth in the open firmament512:1 of heaven, correspond to aspirations soaring beyond andabove corporeality to the understanding of the incorporeal512:3 and divine Principle, Love.
/Genesis/ i. 21. And God created great whales, and everyliving creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth512:6 abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl afterhis kind: and God saw that it was good.
Seraphic symbols
Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power,512:9 and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These an-gels of His presence, which have the holiestcharge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of512:12 Mind, and consequently reproduce their own character-istics. Their individual forms we know not, but we doknow that their natures are allied to God's nature; and512:15 spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the externalized, yetsubjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding.
/Genesis/ i. 22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruit-512:18 ful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and letfowl multiply in the earth.
Multiplication of pure ideas
Spirit blesses the multiplication of its own pure and512:21 perfect ideas. From the infinite elements of the oneMind emanate all form, color, quality, andquantity, and these are mental, both primarily512:24 and secondarily. Their spiritual nature is discerned onlythrough the spiritual senses. Mortal mind inverts the truelikeness, and confers animal names and natures upon its512:27 own misconceptions. Ignorant of the origin and opera-tions of mortal mind, - that is, ignorant of itself, - thisso-called mind puts forth its own qualities, and claims512:30 God as their author; albeit God is ignorant of the ex-513:1 istence of both this mortal mentality, so-called, and itsclaim, for the claim usurps the deific prerogatives and is513:3 an attempted infringement on infinity.
/Genesis/ i. 23. And the evening and the morning werethe fifth day.
Spiritual spheres
513:6 Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe ofMind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. Tomaterial sense, this divine universe is dim and513:9 distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight;but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light.In the record, time is not yet measured by solar revolutions,513:12 and the motions and reflections of deific power cannot beapprehended until divine Science becomes the interpreter.
/Genesis/ i. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth513:15 the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing,and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Continuity of thoughts
Spirit diversifies, classifies, and individualizes all513:18 thoughts, which are as eternal as the Mindconceiving them; but the intelligence, exist-ence, and continuity of all individuality remain in God,513:21 who is the divinely creative Principle thereof.
/Genesis/ i. 25. And God made the beast of the earth afterhis kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that513:24 creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw thatit was good.
God's thoughts are spiritual realities
God creates all forms of reality. His thoughts are513:27 spiritual realities. So-called mortal mind - being non-existent and consequently not within the range of im-514:1 mortal existence - could not by simulating deific powerinvert the divine creation, and afterwards recreate per-514:3 sons or things upon its own plane, since noth-ing exists beyond the range of all-inclusiveinfinity, in which and of which God is the514:6 sole creator. Mind, joyous in strength, dwells in therealm of Mind. Mind's infinite ideas run and dis-port themselves. In humility they climb the heights of514:9 holiness.
Qualities of thought
Moral courage is "the lion of the tribe of Juda," theking of the mental realm. Free and fearless it roams in514:12 the forest. Undisturbed it lies in the openfield, or rests in "green pastures, . . . besidethe still waters." In the figurative transmission from the514:15 divine thought to the human, diligence, promptness, andperseverance are likened to "the cattle upon a thousandhills." They carry the baggage of stern resolve, and514:18 keep pace with highest purpose. Tenderness accompa-nies all the might imparted by Spirit. The individ-uality created by God is not carnivorous, as witness the514:21 millennial estate pictured by Isaiah: -
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;514:24 And the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together;And a little child shall lead them.
Creatures of God useful
Understanding the control which Love held over all,514:27 Daniel felt safe in the lions' den, and Paul proved theviper to be harmless. All of God's creaturesmoving in the harmony of Science, are harm-514:30 less, useful, indestructible. A realization of this grandverity was a source of strength to the ancient worthies.515:1 It supports Christian healing, and enables its possessorto emulate the example of Jesus. "And God saw that515:3 it was good."
The serpent harmless
Patience is symbolized by the tireless worm, creepingover lofty summits, persevering in its intent. The ser-515:6 pent of God's creating is neither subtle norpoisonous, but is a wise idea, charming in itsadroitness, for Love's ideas are subject to the Mind which515:9 forms them, - the power which changeth the serpentinto a staff.
/Genesis/ i. 26. And God said, Let us make man in our515:12 image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion overthe fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and overthe cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping515:15 thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Elohistic plurality
The eternal Elohim includes the forever universe.The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of515:18 Spirit does not imply more than one God, nordoes it imply three persons in one. It relatesto the oneness, the triunity of Life, Truth, and Love.515:21 "Let /them/ have dominion." Man is the family namefor all ideas, - the sons and daughters of God. All thatGod imparts moves in accord with Him, reflecting good-515:24 ness and power.
Reflected likeness
Your mirrored reflection is your own image or like-ness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also.515:27 If you speak, the lips of this likeness move inaccord with yours. Now compare man beforethe mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror515:30 divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note516:1 how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflectionto its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in516:3 the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection ofGod. The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love,which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation;516:6 and when we subordinate the false testimony of thecorporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall seethis true likeness and reflection everywhere.
Love imparts beauty
516:9 God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Lifeis reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God ingoodness, which impart their own peace and516:12 permanence. Love, redolent with unselfish-ness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneathour feet silently exclaims, "The meek shall inherit the516:15 earth." The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath toheaven. The great rock gives shadow and shelter. Thesunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the516:18 prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens theflower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth. Man,made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God's domin-516:21 ion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistentand eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality,the infinite Father-Mother God.
516:24 /Genesis/ i. 27. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
Ideal man and woman
516:27 To emphasize this momentous thought, it is repeatedthat God made man in His own image, to reflect thedivine Spirit. It follows that man is a generic516:30 term. Masculine, feminine, and neuter gen-ders are human concepts. In one of the ancient lan-517:1 guages the word for /man/ is used also as the synonym of/mind/. This definition has been weakened by anthropo-517:3 morphism, or a humanization of Deity. The word /an-thropomorphic/, in such a phrase as "an anthropomorphicGod," is derived from two Greek words, signifying /man/517:6 and /form/, and may be defined as a mortally mental at-tempt to reduce Deity to corporeality. The life-givingquality of Mind is Spirit, not matter. The ideal man517:9 corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth.The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love. Indivine Science, we have not as much authority for con-517:12 sidering God masculine, as we have for consideringHim feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea ofDeity.