Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 17

For example: There is no pain in Truth, and no truth in pain; no nerve in Mind, and no 113:30 mind in nerve; no matter in Mind, and no mind in mat- ter; no matter in Life, and no life in matter; no matter in good, and no good in matter.

Definition of mortal mind

114:1 Usage cla.s.ses both evil and good together as _mind_; therefore, to be understood, the author calls sick and sin- 114:3 ful humanity _mortal mind_, - meaning by this term the flesh opposed to Spirit, the human mind and evil in contradistinction to the divine Mind, or 114:6 Truth and good. The spiritually unscientific definition of mind is based on the evidence of the physical senses, which makes minds many and calls _mind_ both human and 114:9 divine.

In Science, Mind is _one_, including noumenon and phe- nomena, G.o.d and His thoughts.

Imperfect terminology

114:12 Mortal mind is a solecism in language, and involves an improper use of the word _mind_. As Mind is immortal, the phrase _mortal mind_ implies something un- 114:15 true and therefore unreal; and as the phrase is used in teaching Christian Science, it is meant to designate that which has no real existence. Indeed, if 114:18 a better word or phrase could be suggested, it would be used; but in expressing the new tongue we must sometimes recur to the old and imperfect, and the new 114:21 wine of the Spirit has to be poured into the old bottles of the letter.

Causation mental

Christian Science explains all cause and effect as men- 114:24 tal, not physical. It lifts the veil of mystery from Soul and body. It shows the scientific relation of man to G.o.d, disentangles the interlaced ambiguities 114:27 of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought. In divine Science, the universe, including man, is spiritual, harmoni- ous, and eternal. Science shows that what is termed _mat- 114:30 ter_ is but the subjective state of what is termed by the author _mortal mind_.

Philological inadequacy

Apart from the usual opposition to everything new, 115:1 the one great obstacle to the reception of that spiritual- ity, through which the understanding of Mind-science 115:3 comes, is the inadequacy of material terms for metaphysical statements, and the consequent difficulty of so expressing metaphysical ideas as to make 115:6 them comprehensible to any reader, who has not person- ally demonstrated Christian Science as brought forth in my discovery. Job says: "The ear trieth words, as the 115:9 mouth tasteth meat." The great difficulty is to give the right impression, when translating material terms back into the original spiritual tongue.

115:12 SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF IMMORTAL MIND

Divine synonyms

G.o.d: Divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind.

Divine image

115:15 MAN: G.o.d's spiritual idea, individual, per- fect, eternal.

Divine reflection

IDEA: An image in Mind; the immediate 115:18 object of understanding. - _Webster_.

SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF MORTAL MIND

_First Degree:_ Depravity.

Unreality

115:21 PHYSICAL. Evil beliefs, pa.s.sions and appet.i.tes, fear, depraved will, self-justification, pride, envy, de- ceit, hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, disease, 115:24 death.

_Second Degree:_ Evil beliefs disappearing.

Transitional qualities

MORAL. Humanity, honesty, affection, com- pa.s.sion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance.

116:1 _Third Degree:_ Understanding.

Reality

SPIRITUAL. Wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding, 116:3 spiritual power, love, health, holiness.

Spiritual universe

In the third degree mortal mind disappears, and man as G.o.d's image appears. Science so reverses the evidence 116:6 before the corporeal human senses, as to make this Scriptural testimony true in our hearts, "The last shall be first, and the first last," so that G.o.d 116:9 and His idea may be to us what divinity really is and must of necessity be, - all-inclusive.

Aim of Science

A correct view of Christian Science and of its adapta- 116:12 tion to healing includes vastly more than is at first seen.

Works on metaphysics leave the grand point untouched. They never crown the power of 116:15 Mind as the Messiah, nor do they carry the day against physical enemies, - even to the extinction of all belief in matter, evil, disease, and death, - nor insist upon the fact 116:18 that G.o.d is all, therefore that matter is nothing beyond an image in mortal mind.

Divine personality

Christian Science strongly emphasizes the thought that 116:21 G.o.d is not _corporeal_, but _incorporeal_, - that is, bodiless. Mortals are corporeal, but G.o.d is incorporeal.

116:24 As the words _person_ and _personal_ are commonly and ignorantly employed, they often lead, when applied to Deity, to confused and erroneous conceptions of divinity 116:27 and its distinction from humanity. If the term personality, as applied to G.o.d, means infinite personality, then G.o.d is infinite _Person_, - in the sense of infinite personality, but 116:30 not in the lower sense. An infinite Mind in a finite form is an absolute impossibility.

117:1 The term _individuality_ is also open to objections, be- cause an individual may be one of a series, one of many, 117:3 as an individual man, an individual horse; whereas G.o.d is _One_, - not one of a series, but one alone and without an equal.

Spiritual language

117:6 G.o.d is Spirit; therefore the language of Spirit must be, and is, spiritual. Christian Science attaches no physi- cal nature and significance to the Supreme 117:9 Being or His manifestation; mortals alone do this. G.o.d's essential language is spoken of in the last chapter of Mark's Gospel as the new tongue, the spir- 117:12 itual meaning of which is attained through "signs following."

The miracles of Jesus

Ear hath not heard, nor hath lip spoken, the pure lan- 117:15 guage of Spirit. Our Master taught spirituality by simili- tudes and parables. As a divine student he unfolded G.o.d to man, ill.u.s.trating and demon- 117:18 strating Life and Truth in himself and by his power over the sick and sinning. Human theories are inadequate to interpret the divine Principle involved in the miracles 117:21 (marvels) wrought by Jesus and especially in his mighty, crowning, unparalleled, and triumphant exit from the flesh.

Opacity of the senses

117:24 Evidence drawn from the five physical senses relates solely to human reason; and because of opaci- ty to the true light, human reason dimly re- 117:27 flects and feebly transmits Jesus' works and words. Truth is a revelation.

Leaven of Truth

Jesus bade his disciples beware of the leaven of the 117:30 Pharisees and of the Sadducees, which he de- fined as human doctrines. His parable of the "leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures 118:1 of meal, till the whole was leavened," impels the infer- ence that the spiritual leaven signifies the Science of Christ 118:3 and its spiritual interpretation, - an inference far above the merely ecclesiastical and formal applications of the ill.u.s.tration.

118:6 Did not this parable point a moral with a prophecy, foretelling the second appearing in the flesh of the Christ, Truth, hidden in sacred secrecy from the visi- 118:9 ble world?

Ages pa.s.s, but this leaven of Truth is ever at work. It must destroy the entire ma.s.s of error, and so be eternally 118:12 glorified in man's spiritual freedom.

The divine and human contrasted

In their spiritual significance, Science, Theology, and Medicine are means of divine thought, which include spirit- 118:15 ual laws emanating from the invisible and in- finite power and grace. The parable may import that these spiritual laws, perverted by 118:18 a perverse material sense of law, are metaphysically pre- sented as three measures of meal, - that is, three modes of mortal thought. In all mortal forms of thought, dust 118:21 is dignified as the natural status of men and things, and modes of material motion are honored with the name of _laws_. This continues until the leaven of Spirit changes 118:24 the whole of mortal thought, as yeast changes the chemical properties of meal.

Certain contradictions

The definitions of material law, as given by natural 118:27 science, represent a kingdom necessarily divided against itself, because these definitions portray law as physical, not spiritual. Therefore they con- 118:30 tradict the divine decrees and violate the law of Love, in which nature and G.o.d are one and the natural order of heaven comes down to earth.

Unescapable dilemma

119:1 When we endow matter with vague spiritual power, that is, when we do so in our theories, for of course we 119:3 cannot really endow matter with what it does not and cannot possess, - we disown the Al- mighty, for such theories lead to one of two things. They 119:6 either presuppose the self-evolution and self-government of matter, or else they a.s.sume that matter is the product of Spirit. To seize the first horn of this dilemma and con- 119:9 sider matter as a power in and of itself, is to leave the cre- ator out of His own universe; while to grasp the other horn of the dilemma and regard G.o.d as the creator of 119:12 matter, is not only to make Him responsible for all disas- ters, physical and moral, but to announce Him as their source, thereby making Him guilty of maintaining perpet- 119:15 ual misrule in the form and under the name of natural law.