Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 39

Immutable ident.i.ty of man

261:21 Detach sense from the body, or matter, which is only a form of human belief, and you may learn the meaning of G.o.d, or good, and the nature of the immu- 261:24 table and immortal. Breaking away from the mutations of time and sense, you will neither lose the solid objects and ends of life nor your own iden- 261:27 t.i.ty. Fixing your gaze on the realities supernal, you will rise to the spiritual consciousness of being, even as the bird which has burst from the egg and preens its wings for a 261:30 skyward flight.

Forgetfulness of self

We should forget our bodies in remembering good and the human race. Good demands of man every hour, in 262:1 which to work out the problem of being. Consecration to good does not lessen man's dependence on G.o.d, but 262:3 heightens it. Neither does consecration di- minish man's obligations to G.o.d, but shows the paramount necessity of meeting them. Christian 262:6 Science takes naught from the perfection of G.o.d, but it ascribes to Him the entire glory. By putting "off the old man with his deeds," mortals "put on immortality."

262:9 We cannot fathom the nature and quality of G.o.d's creation by diving into the shallows of mortal belief. We must reverse our feeble flutterings - our efforts to find 262:12 life and truth in matter - and rise above the testimony of the material senses, above the mortal to the immortal idea of G.o.d. These clearer, higher views inspire the G.o.d- 262:15 like man to reach the absolute centre and circ.u.mference of his being.

The true sense

Job said: "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the 262:18 ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee." Mortals will echo Job's thought, when the supposed pain and pleasure of matter cease to predominate. They 262:21 will then drop the false estimate of life and happiness, of joy and sorrow, and attain the bliss of loving unselfishly, working patiently, and conquering all that is unlike G.o.d.

262:24 Starting from a higher standpoint, one rises spontane- ously, even as light emits light without effort; for "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Mind the only cause

262:27 The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man's origin. To begin rightly is to end rightly. Every concept which seems to begin with the brain 262:30 begins falsely. Divine Mind is the only cause or Principle of existence. Cause does not exist in matter, in mortal mind, or in physical forms.

Human egotism

263:1 Mortals are egotists. They believe themselves to be independent workers, personal authors, and even privi- 263:3 leged originators of something which Deity would not or could not create. The creations of mortal mind are material. Immortal spiritual man 263:6 alone represents the truth of creation.

Mortal man a mis-creator

When mortal man blends his thoughts of existence with the spiritual and works only as G.o.d works, 263:9 he will no longer grope in the dark and cling to earth because he has not tasted heaven.

Carnal beliefs defraud us. They make man an involun- 263:12 tary hypocrite, - producing evil when he would create good, forming deformity when he would outline grace and beauty, injuring those whom he would bless. He 263:15 becomes a general mis-creator, who believes he is a semi-G.o.d. His "touch turns hope to dust, the dust we all have trod." He might say in Bible language: "The 263:18 good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, _that I do._"

No new creation

There can be but one creator, who has created all.

263:21 Whatever seems to be a new creation, is but the discovery of some distant idea of Truth; else it is a new multiplication or self-division of mor- 263:24 tal thought, as when some finite sense peers from its cloister with amazement and attempts to pattern the infinite.

263:27 The multiplication of a human and mortal sense of per- sons and things is not creation. A sensual thought, like an atom of dust thrown into the face of spiritual im- 263:30 mensity, is dense blindness instead of a scientific eternal consciousness of creation.

Mind's true camera

The fading forms of matter, the mortal body and ma- 264:1 terial earth, are the fleeting concepts of the human mind.

They have their day before the permanent facts and their 264:3 perfection in Spirit appear. The crude crea- tions of mortal thought must finally give place to the glorious forms which we sometimes behold in the 264:6 camera of divine Mind, when the mental picture is spir- itual and eternal. Mortals must look beyond fading, finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things.

264:9 Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm of Mind? We must look where we would walk, and we must act as possessing all power from Him in whom we 264:12 have our being.

Self-completeness

As mortals gain more correct views of G.o.d and man, mult.i.tudinous objects of creation, which before were 264:15 invisible, will become visible. When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-com- 264:18 pleteness, finding all in G.o.d, good, and needing no other consciousness.

Spiritual proofs of existence

Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being.

264:21 Matter disappears under the microscope of Spirit. Sin is unsustained by Truth, and sickness and death were overcome by Jesus, who proved 264:24 them to be forms of error. Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace 264:27 which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love.

When we learn the way in Christian Science and rec- ognize man's spiritual being, we shall behold and under- 264:30 stand G.o.d's creation, - all the glories of earth and heaven and man.

G.o.dward gravitation

The universe of Spirit is peopled with spiritual beings, 265:1 and its government is divine Science. Man is the off- spring, not of the lowest, but of the highest qualities of 265:3 Mind. Man understands spiritual existence in proportion as his treasures of Truth and Love are enlarged. Mortals must gravitate G.o.dward, 265:6 their affections and aims grow spiritual, - they must near the broader interpretations of being, and gain some proper sense of the infinite, - in order that sin and mortality 265:9 may be put off.

This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity 265:12 and the loss of his ident.i.ty, but confers upon man en- larged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent 265:15 peace.

Mortal birth and death

The senses represent birth as untimely and death as irresistible, as if man were a weed growing apace or a 265:18 flower withered by the sun and nipped by untimely frosts; but this is true only of a mortal, not of a man in G.o.d's image and likeness. The 265:21 truth of being is perennial, and the error is unreal and obsolete.

Blessings from pain

Who that has felt the loss of human peace has not gained 265:24 stronger desires for spiritual joy? The aspiration after heavenly good comes even before we discover what belongs to wisdom and Love. The loss 265:27 of earthly hopes and pleasures brightens the ascending path of many a heart. The pains of sense quickly inform us that the pleasures of sense are mortal and that joy is 265:30 spiritual.

Decapitation of error

The pains of sense are salutary, if they wrench away false pleasurable beliefs and transplant the affections 266:1 from sense to Soul, where the creations of G.o.d are good, "rejoicing the heart." Such is the sword of 266:3 Science, with which Truth decapitates error, materiality giving place to man's higher individuality and destiny.

Uses of adversity

266:6 Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this 266:9 seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love. When this hour of development comes, even if you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will 266:12 force you to accept what best promotes your growth.

Friends will betray and enemies will slander, until the lesson is sufficient to exalt you; for "man's extremity 266:15 is G.o.d's opportunity." The author has experienced the foregoing prophecy and its blessings. Thus He teaches mortals to lay down their fleshliness and gain spirituality.

266:18 This is done through self-abnegation. Universal Love is the divine way in Christian Science.

The sinner makes his own h.e.l.l by doing evil, and the 266:21 saint his own heaven by doing right. The opposite per- secutions of material sense, aiding evil with evil, would deceive the very elect.

Beatific presence

266:24 Mortals must follow Jesus' sayings and his demonstra- tions, which dominate the flesh. Perfect and infinite Mind enthroned is heaven. The evil beliefs 266:27 which originate in mortals are h.e.l.l. Man is the idea of Spirit; he reflects the beatific presence, illuming the universe with light. Man is deathless, spiritual. He 266:30 is above sin or frailty. He does not cross the barriers of time into the vast forever of Life, but he coexists with G.o.d and the universe.

The infinitude of G.o.d

267:1 Every object in material thought will be destroyed, but the spiritual idea, whose substance is in Mind, is eternal.

267:3 The offspring of G.o.d start not from matter or ephemeral dust. They are in and of Spirit, divine Mind, and so forever continue. G.o.d is one. The 267:6 allness of Deity is His oneness. Generically man is one, and specifically man means all men.

It is generally conceded that G.o.d is Father, eternal, self- 267:9 created, infinite. If this is so, the forever Father must have had children prior to Adam. The great I AM made all "that was made." Hence man and the spiritual uni- 267:12 verse coexist with G.o.d.

Christian Scientists understand that, in a religious sense, they have the same authority for the appellative 267:15 mother, as for that of brother and sister. Jesus said: "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and 267:18 mother."

Waymarks to eternal Truth

When examined in the light of divine Science, mortals present more than is detected upon the surface, since 267:21 inverted thoughts and erroneous beliefs must be counterfeits of Truth. Thought is bor- rowed from a higher source than matter, and 267:24 by reversal, errors serve as waymarks to the one Mind, in which all error disappears in celestial Truth. The robes of Spirit are "white and glistering," like the raiment 267:27 of Christ. Even in this world, therefore, "let thy gar- ments be always white." "Blessed is the man that en- dureth [overcometh] temptation: for when he is tried, 267:30 [proved faithful], he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him."

(James i. 12.)