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and 463:1 deals with the real cause of disease. The material physician gropes among phenomena, which fluctuate every in-463:3 stant under influences not embraced in his diagnosis, and

so he may stumble and fall in the darkness.

 

Scientific obstetrics

 

Teacher and student should also be familiar with the 463:6 obstetrics taught by this Science. To attend properly

the birth of the new child, or divine idea,

you should so detach mortal thought from its 463:9 material conceptions, that the birth will be natural and

safe. Though gathering new energy, this idea cannot

injure its useful surroundings in the travail of spiritual 463:12 birth. A spiritual idea has not a single element of error,

and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive.

The new idea, conceived and born of Truth and Love, is 463:15 clad in white garments. Its beginning will be meek, its

growth sturdy, and its maturity undecaying. When

this new birth takes place, the Christian Science infant 463:18 is born of the Spirit, born of God, and can cause the

mother no more suffering. By this we know that Truth

is here and has fulfilled its perfect work.

 

Unhesitating decision

463:21 To decide quickly as to the proper treatment of error -

whether error is manifested in forms of sickness, sin,

or death - is the first step towards destroy-463:24 ing error. Our Master treated error through

Mind. He never enjoined obedience to the laws of nature,

if by these are meant laws of matter, nor did he use drugs. 463:27 There is a law of God applicable to healing, and it is a

spiritual law instead of material. The sick are not healed

by inanimate matter or drugs, as they believe that they 463:30 are. Such seeming medical effect or action is that of so-called mortal mind.

 

Seclusion of the author

 

It has been said to the author, β€œThe world is bene-464:1 fited by you, but it feels your influence without seeing

you. Why do you not make yourself more widely 464:3 known?” Could her friends know how little

time the author has had, in which to make

herself outwardly known except through her laborious 464:6 publications, - and how much time and toil are still required to establish the stately operations of Christian

Science, - they would understand why she is so secluded. 464:9 Others could not take her place, even if willing so to do.

She therefore remains unseen at her post, seeking no selfβ€”

aggrandizement but praying, watching, and working for 464:12 the redemption of mankind.

 

If from an injury or from any cause, a Christian Scientist were seized with pain so violent that he could not 464:15 treat himself mentally, - and the Scientists had failed

to relieve him, - the sufferer could call a surgeon, who

would give him a hypodermic injection, then, when the 464:18 belief of pain was lulled, he could handle his own case

mentally. Thus it is that we β€œprove all things; [and]

hold fast that which is good.”

 

The right motive and its reward

464:21 In founding a pathological system of Christianity, the

author has labored to expound divine Principle, and not

to exalt personality. The weapons of bigotry, 464:24 ignorance, envy, fall before an honest heart.

Adulterating Christian Science, makes it void.

Falsity has no foundation. β€œThe hireling fleeth, because 464:27 he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.” Neither

dishonesty nor ignorance ever founded, nor can they overthrow a scientific system of ethics.

CHAPTER XIV - RECAPITULATION

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept;

line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there

a little. - ISAIAH.

465:1 THIS chapter is from the first edition of the author’s

class-book, copyrighted in 1870. After much labor 465:3 and increased spiritual understanding, she revised that

treatise for this volume in 1875. Absolute Christian

Science pervades its statements, to elucidate scientific 465:6 metaphysics.

 

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

 

Question. - What is God? 465:9 Answer. - God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite

Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.

 

Question. - Are these terms synonymous? 465:12 Answer. - They are. They refer to one absolute God.

They are also intended to express the nature, essence, and

wholeness of Deity. The attributes of God are justice, 465:15 mercy, wisdom, goodness, and so on.

 

Question. - Is there more than one God or Principle?

Answer. - There is not. Principle and its idea is one, 465:18 and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-466:1 present Being, and His reflection is man and the universe.

Omni is adopted from the Latin adjective signifying all. 466:3 Hence God combines all-power or potency, all-science

or true knowledge, all-presence. The varied manifestations of Christian Science indicate Mind, never matter, 466:6 and have one Principle.

 

Real versus unreal

 

Question. - What are spirits and souls?

Answer. - To human belief, they are personalities 466:9 constituted of mind and matter, life and death, truth and

error, good and evil; but these contrasting

pairs of terms represent contraries, as Chris-466:12 tian Science reveals, which neither dwell together nor

assimilate. Truth is immortal; error is mortal. Truth

is limitless; error is limited. Truth is intelligent; error 466:15 is non-intelligent. Moreover, Truth is real, and error is

unreal. This last statement contains the point you will

most reluctantly admit, although first and last it is the 466:18 most important to understand.

 

Mankind redeemed

 

The term souls or spirits is as improper as the term

gods. Soul or Spirit signifies Deity and nothing else. 466:21 There is no finite soul nor spirit. Soul or

Spirit means only one Mind, and cannot be

rendered in the plural. Heathen mythology and Jewish 466:24 theology have perpetuated the fallacy that intelligence,

soul, and life can be in matter; and idolatry and ritualism

are the outcome of all man-made beliefs. The Science 466:27 of Christianity comes with fan in hand to separate the

chaff from the wheat. Science will declare God aright,

and Christianity will demonstrate this declaration and 466:30 its divine Principle, making mankind better physically,

morally, and spiritually.

 

Two chief commands

467:1 Question. - What are the demands of the Science of

Soul? 467:3 Answer. - The first demand of this Science is, ” Thou

shalt have no other gods before me.” This me is Spirit.

Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt 467:6 have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no

truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second

is like unto it, β€œThou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” 467:9 It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one

Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love.

Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact 467:12 becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established. Having no other gods,

turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide 467:15 him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ.

 

Soul not confined in body

 

Science reveals Spirit, Soul, as not in the body, and 467:18 God as not in man but as reflected by man. The greater

cannot be in the lesser. The belief that the

greater can be in the lesser is an error that 467:21 works ill. This is a leading point in the Science of Soul,

that Principle is not in its idea. Spirit, Soul, is not

confined in man, and is never in matter. We reason im-467:24 perfectly from effect to cause, when we conclude that

matter is the effect of Spirit; but a priori reasoning

shows material existence to be enigmatical. Spirit gives 467:27 the true mental idea. We cannot interpret Spirit, Mind,

through matter. Matter neither sees, hears, nor feels.

 

Sinlessness of Mind, Soul

 

Reasoning from cause to effect in the Science of Mind, 467:30 we begin with Mind, which must be understood through the idea which expresses it and

cannot be learned from its opposite, matter. Thus we 468:1 arrive at Truth, or intelligence, which evolves its own

unerring idea and never can be coordinate with human 468:3 illusions. If Soul sinned, it would be mortal, for sin is

mortality’s self, because it kills itself. If Truth is immortal, error must be mortal, because error is unlike 468:6 Truth. Because Soul is immortal, Soul cannot sin, for

sin is not the eternal verity of being.

 

Question. - What is the scientific statement of being? 468:9 Answer. - There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite

manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal 468:12 Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and

eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is

God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore 468:15 man is not material; he is spiritual.

 

Spiritual synonyms

 

Question. - What is substance?

Answer. - Substance is that which is eternal and inca-468:18 pable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are

substance, as the Scriptures use this word in

Hebrews: β€œThe substance of things hoped 468:21 for, the evidence of things not seen.” Spirit, the synonym

of Mind, Soul, or God, is the only real substance. The

spiritual universe, including individual man, is a com-468:24 pound idea, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit.

 

Eternity of Life

 

Question. - What is Life?

Answer. - Life is divine Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit. 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 matter. What is termed matter is unknown to Spirit, which 469:3 includes in itself all substance and is Life eternal. Matter 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 God.

 

True sense of infinitude

469:12 Question. - What is Mind?

Answer. - Mind is God. The exterminator of error

is the great truth that God, good, is the only Mind, and 469:15 that the supposititious 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 God; 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 God is infinite, evil has a

place in this infinity, for evil can have no place, where all 469:24 space is filled with God.

 

The sole governor

 

We lose the high signification of omnipotence, when

after admitting that God, 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 God, the whole family of man would

be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, 470:3 the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth,

and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which

constitute divine Science.

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