Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 48

Indestructible being

In Colossians (iii. 4) Paul writes: "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear [be manifested], then shall ye also 325:12 appear [be manifested] with him in glory."

When spiritual being is understood in all its perfection, continuity, and might, then shall man be found 325:15 in G.o.d'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 325:18 Christ in G.o.d," - with Truth in divine Love, where human sense hath not seen man.

Consecration required

Paul had a clear sense of the demands of Truth upon 325:21 mortals physically and spiritually, when he said: "Pre- sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, ac- ceptable unto G.o.d, which is your reasonable 325:24 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 325:27 the spiritual origin of man, the divine Science which ushered Jesus into human presence, will be understood and demonstrated.

325:30 When first spoken in any age, Truth, like the light, "s.h.i.+neth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." A false sense of life, substance, and mind 326:1 hides the divine possibilities, and conceals scientific demonstration.

Loving G.o.d supremely

326:3 If we wish to follow Christ, Truth, it must be in the way of G.o.d's appointing. Jesus said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also."

326:6 He, who would reach the source and find the divine remedy for every ill, must not try to climb the hill of Science by some other road. All nature teaches G.o.d's 326:9 love to man, but man cannot love G.o.d supremely and set his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual.

326:12 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 326:15 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.

326:18 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, 326:21 your Father will open the way. "Who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth?"

Conversion of Saul

Saul of Tarsus beheld the way - the Christ, or Truth 326:24 - only when his uncertain sense of right yielded to a spiritual sense, which is always right. Then the man was changed. Thought a.s.sumed a 326:27 n.o.bler 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- 326:30 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.

327:1 Reform comes by understanding that there is no abid- ing pleasure in evil, and also by gaining an affection for 327:3 good according to Science, which reveals the immortal fact that neither pleasure nor pain, appet.i.te nor pa.s.sion, can exist in or of matter, while divine Mind can and does 327:6 destroy the false beliefs of pleasure, pain, or fear and all the sinful appet.i.tes of the human mind.

Image of the beast

What a pitiful sight is malice, finding pleasure in re- 327:9 venge! Evil is sometimes a man's highest conception of right, until his grasp on good grows stronger.

Then he loses pleasure in wickedness, and it 327:12 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.

327:15 It is a moral madness which rushes forth to clamor with midnight and tempest.

Peremptory demands

To the physical senses, the strict demands of Christian 327:18 Science seem peremptory; but mortals are has- tening to learn that Life is G.o.d, good, and that evil has in reality neither place nor power in the human or 327:21 the divine economy.

Moral courage

Fear of punishment never made man truly honest.

Moral courage is requisite to meet the wrong and to 327:24 proclaim the right. But how shall we re- form the man who has more animal than moral courage, and who has not the true idea of good?

327:27 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 327:30 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 328:1 and the grandeur and bliss of a spiritual sense, which silences the material or corporeal. Then he not only will 328:3 be saved, but _is_ saved.

Final destruction of error

Mortals suppose that they can live without goodness, when G.o.d is good and the only real Life. What is the 328:6 result? Understanding little about the divine Principle which saves and heals, mortals get rid of sin, sickness, and death only in belief. These errors 328:9 are not thus really destroyed, and must therefore cling to mortals until, here or hereafter, they gain the true un- derstanding of G.o.d in the Science which destroys human 328:12 delusions about Him and reveals the grand realities of His allness.

Promise perpetual

This understanding of man's power, when he is 328:15 equipped by G.o.d, has sadly disappeared from Christian history. For centuries it has been dormant, a lost element of Christianity. Our missionaries 328:18 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- 328:21 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 328:24 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 328:27 sacred saying.

Jesus' promise is perpetual. Had it been given only to his immediate disciples, the Scriptural pa.s.sage would 328:30 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 329:1 single period or of a limited following. As time moves on, the healing elements of pure Christianity will be fairly 329:3 dealt with; they will be sought and taught, and will glow in all the grandeur of universal goodness.

Imitation of Jesus

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little under- 329:6 standing of Christian Science proves the truth of all that I say of it. Because you cannot walk on the water and raise the dead, you have no right to 329:9 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 329:12 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- 329:15 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 329:18 addition, who attempts to solve a problem of Euclid, and denies the rule of the problem because he fails in his first effort.

Error destroyed, not pardoned

329:21 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, 329:24 its divine Principle never repents, but main- tains the claim of Truth by quenching error.

The pardon of divine mercy is the destruction of error. If 329:27 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- 329:30 tal mind is plunged, the more intense the opposition to spirituality, till error yields to Truth.

The hopeful outlook

Human resistance to divine Science weakens in pro- 330:1 portion as mortals give up error for Truth and the un- derstanding of being supersedes mere belief. Until the 330:3 author of this book learned the vastness of Christian Science, the fixedness of mortal illu- sions, and the human hatred of Truth, she cherished 330:6 sanguine hopes that Christian Science would meet with immiediate and universal acceptance.

When the following platform is understood and the 330:9 letter and the spirit bear witness, the infallibility of divine metaphysics will be demonstrated.

The deific supremacy

I. G.o.d is infinite, the only Life, substance, Spirit, or 330:12 Soul, the only intelligence of the universe, including man.

Eye hath neither seen G.o.d nor His image and likeness. Neither G.o.d nor the perfect man 330:15 can be discerned by the material senses. The individ- uality of Spirit, or the infinite, is unknown, and thus a knowledge of it is left either to human conjecture or to the 330:18 revelation of divine Science.

The deific definitions

II. G.o.d is what the Scriptures declare Him to be, - Life, Truth, Love. Spirit is divine Principle, and divine 330:21 Principle is Love, and Love is Mind, and Mind is not both good and bad, for G.o.d is Mind; therefore there is in reality one Mind only, be- 330:24 cause there is one G.o.d.

Evil obsolete

III. The notion that both evil and good are real is a delusion of material sense, which Science annihilates.

330:27 Evil is nothing, no thing, mind, nor power.

As manifested by mankind it stands for a lie, nothing claiming to be something, - for l.u.s.t, dishonesty, 330:30 selfishness, envy, hypocrisy, slander, hate, theft, adultery, murder, dementia, insanity, inanity, devil, h.e.l.l, with all the etceteras that word includes.

Life the creator

331:1 IV. G.o.d is divine Life, and Life is no more confined to the forms which reflect it than substance is in its 331:3 shadow. If life were in mortal man or mate- rial things, it would be subject to their limi- tations and would end in death. Life is Mind, the creator 331:6 reflected in His creations. If He dwelt within what He creates, G.o.d would not be reflected but absorbed, and the Science of being would be forever lost through a mortal 331:9 sense, which falsely testifies to a beginning and an end.

Allness of Spirit

V. The Scriptures imply that G.o.d is All-in-all. From 331:12 this it follows that nothing possesses reality nor existence except the divine Mind and His ideas. The Scriptures also declare that G.o.d is Spirit.

331:15 Therefore in Spirit all is harmony, and there can be no discord; all is Life, and there is no death. Everything in G.o.d's universe expresses Him.

The universal cause

331:18 VI. G.o.d is individual, incorporeal. He is divine Prin- ciple, Love, the universal cause, the only creator, and there is no other self-existence. He is all- 331:21 inclusive, and is reflected by all that is real and eternal and by nothing else. He fills all s.p.a.ce, and it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and in- 331:24 dividuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind. Hence all is Spirit and spiritual.