Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 13

Buried secrets

The mine knows naught of the emeralds within its rocks; the sea is ignorant of the gems within its caverns, 87:21 of the corals, of its sharp reefs, of the tall s.h.i.+ps that float on its bosom, or of the bodies which lie buried in its sands: yet these are all there. Do not 87:24 suppose that any mental concept is gone because you do not think of it. The true concept is never lost. The strong impressions produced on mortal mind by friend- 87:27 s.h.i.+p or by any intense feeling are lasting, and mind- readers can perceive and reproduce these impressions.

Recollected friends

Memory may reproduce voices long ago silent. We 87:30 have but to close the eyes, and forms rise before us, which are thousands of miles away or altogether gone from physical sight and sense, and 88:1 this not in dreamy sleep. In our day-dreams we can recall that for which the poet Tennyson expressed the 88:3 heart's desire, - the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still.

88:6 The mind may even be cognizant of a present flavor and odor, when no viand touches the palate and no scent salutes the nostrils.

Illusions not ideas

88:9 How are veritable ideas to be distinguished from il- lusions? By learning the origin of each. Ideas are emanations from the divine Mind. Thoughts, 88:12 proceeding from the brain or from matter, are offshoots of mortal mind; they are mortal material be- liefs. Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. Beliefs 88:15 proceed from the so-called material senses, which at one time are supposed to be substance-matter and at another are called spirits.

88:18 To love one's neighbor as one's self, is a divine idea; but this idea can never be seen, felt, nor understood through the physical senses. Excite the organ of ven- 88:21 eration or religious faith, and the individual manifests profound adoration. Excite the opposite development, and he blasphemes. These effects, however, do not pro- 88:24 ceed from Christianity, nor are they spiritual phenomena, for both arise from mortal belief.

Trance speaking illusion

Eloquence re-echoes the strains of Truth and Love.

88:27 It is due to inspiration rather than to erudition. It shows the possibilities derived from divine Mind, though it is said to be a gift whose endowment 88:30 is obtained from books or received from the impulsion of departed spirits. When eloquence proceeds from the belief that a departed spirit is speaking, who 89:1 can tell what the unaided medium is incapable of know- ing or uttering? This phenomenon only shows that the 89:3 beliefs of mortal mind are loosed. Forgetting her igno- rance in the belief that another mind is speaking through her, the devotee may become unwontedly eloquent. Hav- 89:6 ing more faith in others than in herself, and believing that somebody else possesses her tongue and mind, she talks freely.

89:9 Destroy her belief in outside aid, and her eloquence disappears. The former limits of her belief return. She says, "I am incapable of words that glow, for I am un- 89:12 educated." This familiar instance reaffirms the Scrip- tural word concerning a man, "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." If one believes that he cannot be an orator with- 89:15 out study or a superinduced condition, the body responds to this belief, and the tongue grows mute which before was eloquent.

Scientific improvisation

89:18 Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry, and the power of expressing them. Spirit, 89:21 G.o.d, is heard when the senses are silent. We are all capable of more than we do. The influence or action of Soul confers a freedom, which explains the phe- 89:24 nomena of improvisation and the fervor of untutored lips.

Divine origination

Matter is neither intelligent nor creative. The tree is not the author of itself. Sound is not the originator of 89:27 music, and man is not the father of man. Cain very naturally concluded that if life was in the body, and man gave it, man had the right to take it away.

89:30 This incident shows that the belief of life in matter was "a murderer from the beginning."

If seed is necessary to produce wheat, and wheat to 90:1 produce flour, or if one animal can originate another, how then can we account for their primal origin? How 90:3 were the loaves and fishes multiplied on the sh.o.r.es of Galilee, - and that, too, without meal or monad from which loaf or fish could come?

Mind is substance

90:6 The earth's...o...b..t and the imaginary line called the equator are not substance. The earth's motion and position are sustained by Mind alone. Divest 90:9 yourself of the thought that there can be sub- stance in matter, and the movements and transitions now possible for mortal mind will be found to be equally 90:12 possible for the body. Then being will be recognized as spiritual, and death will be obsolete, though now some insist that death is the necessary prelude to 90:15 immortality.

Mortal delusions

In dreams we fly to Europe and meet a far-off friend.

The looker-on sees the body in bed, but the supposed 90:18 inhabitant of that body carries it through the air and over the ocean. This shows the possibilities of thought. Opium and has.h.i.+sh eaters men- 90:21 tally travel far and work wonders, yet their bodies stay in one place. This shows what mortal mentality and knowledge are.

Scientific finalities

90:24 The admission to one's self that man is G.o.d's own like- ness sets man free to master the infinite idea. This con- viction shuts the door on death, and opens it 90:27 wide towards immortality. The understanding and recognition of Spirit must finally come, and we may as well improve our time in solving the mysteries of being 90:30 through an apprehension of divine Principle. At present we know not what man is, but we certainly shall know this when man reflects G.o.d.

91:1 The Revelator tells us of "a new heaven and a new earth." Have you ever pictured this heaven and 91:3 earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme wisdom?

Let us rid ourselves of the belief that man is separated 91:6 from G.o.d, and obey only the divine principle, Life and Love. Here is the great point of departure for all true spiritual growth.

Man's genuine being

91:9 It is difficult for the sinner to accept divine Science, because Science exposes his nothingness; but the sooner error is reduced to its native nothingness, the 91:12 sooner man's great reality will appear and his genuine being will be understood. The destruction of error is by no means the destruction of Truth or Life, but 91:15 is the acknowledgment of them.

Absorbed in material selfhood we discern and reflect but faintly the substance of Life or Mind. The denial of 91:18 material selfhood aids the discernment of man's spirit- ual and eternal individuality, and destroys the erroneous knowledge gained from matter or through what are termed 91:21 the material senses.

Erroneous postulates

Certain erroneous postulates should be here considered in order that the spiritual facts may be better 91:24 apprehended.

The first erroneous postulate of belief is, that substance, life, and intelligence are something apart from G.o.d.

91:27 The second erroneous postulate is, that man is both mental and material.

The third erroneous postulate is, that mind is both evil 91:30 and good; whereas the real Mind cannot be evil nor the medium of evil, for Mind is G.o.d.

The fourth erroneous postulate is, that matter is in- 92:1 telligent, and that man has a material body which is part of himself.

92:3 The fifth erroneous postulate is, that matter holds in itself the issues of life and death, - that matter is not only capable of experiencing pleasure and pain, but also 92:6 capable of imparting these sensations. From the illusion implied in this last postulate arises the decomposition of mortal bodies in what is termed death.

92:9 Mind is not an ent.i.ty within the cranium with the power of sinning now and forever.

Knowledge of good and evil

In old Scriptural pictures we see a serpent coiled around 92:12 the tree of knowledge and speaking to Adam and Eve.

This represents the serpent in the act of commending to our first parents the knowl- 92:15 edge of good and evil, a knowledge gained from matter, or evil, instead of from Spirit. The portrayal is still graphically accurate, for the common conception of mor- 92:18 tal man - a burlesque of G.o.d's man - is an outgrowth of human knowledge or sensuality, a mere offshoot of material sense.

Opposing power

92:21 Uncover error, and it turns the lie upon you. Until the fact concerning error - namely, its nothingness - appears, the moral demand will not be met, 92:24 and the ability to make nothing of error will be wanting. We should blush to call that real which is only a mistake. The foundation of evil is laid on a belief 92:27 in something besides G.o.d. This belief tends to support two opposite powers, instead of urging the claims of Truth alone. The mistake of thinking that error can be real, 92:30 when it is merely the absence of truth, leads to belief in the superiority of error.

The age's privilege

Do you say the time has not yet come in which to 93:1 recognize Soul as substantial and able to control the body? Remember Jesus, who nearly nineteen centuries 93:3 ago demonstrated the power of Spirit and said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also," and who also said, "But the hour 93:6 cometh, and _now is_, when the true wors.h.i.+ppers shall wors.h.i.+p the Father in spirit and in truth." "Behold, _now_ is the accepted time; behold, _now_ is the day of sal- 93:9 vation," said Paul.

Logic and revelation

Divine logic and revelation coincide. If we believe otherwise, we may be sure that either our 93:12 logic is at fault or that we have misinterpreted revelation. Good never causes evil, nor creates aught that can cause evil.

93:15 Good does not create a mind susceptible of causing evil, for evil is the opposing error and not the truth of creation. Destructive electricity is not the offspring of in- 93:18 finite good. Whatever contradicts the real nature of the divine _Esse_, though human faith may clothe it with angelic vestments, is without foundation.

Derivatives of spirit

93:21 The belief that Spirit is finite as well as infinite has darkened all history. In Christian Science, Spirit, as a proper noun, is the name of the Supreme Being.

93:24 It means quant.i.ty and quality, and applies ex- clusively to G.o.d. The modifying derivatives of the word _spirit_ refer only to quality, not to G.o.d. Man is spiritual.

93:27 He is not G.o.d, Spirit. If man were Spirit, then men would be spirits, G.o.ds. Finite spirit would be mortal, and this is the error embodied in the belief that the infi- 93:30 nite can be contained in the finite. This belief tends to becloud our apprehension of the kingdom of heaven and of the reign of harmony in the Science of being.

Scientific man

94:1 Jesus taught but one G.o.d, one Spirit, who makes man in the image and likeness of Himself, - of Spirit, not of 94:3 matter. Man reflects infinite Truth, Life, and Love. The nature of man, thus understood, includes all that is implied by the terms "image" and 94:6 "likeness" as used in Scripture. The truly Christian and scientific statement of personality and of the relation of man to G.o.d, with the demonstration which accompa- 94:9 nied it, incensed the rabbis, and they said: "Crucify him, crucify him ... by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of G.o.d."