Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 42

Error presupposes man to be both mind and matter.

Divine Science contradicts the corporeal senses, rebukes 281:9 mortal belief, and asks: What is the Ego, whence its origin and what its destiny? The Ego-man is the reflection of the Ego-G.o.d; the Ego-man 281:12 is the image and likeness of perfect Mind, Spirit, divine Principle.

The one Ego, the one Mind or Spirit called G.o.d, is 281:15 infinite individuality, which supplies all form and come- liness and which reflects reality and divinity in individual spiritual man and things.

281:18 The mind supposed to exist in matter or beneath a skull bone is a myth, a misconceived sense and false conception as to man and Mind. When we put off the 281:21 false sense for the true, and see that sin and mortality have neither Principle nor permanency, we shall learn that sin and mortality are without actual origin or right- 281:24 ful existence. They are native nothingness, out of which error would simulate creation through a man formed from dust.

The true new idea

281:27 Divine Science does not put new wine into old bottles, Soul into matter, nor the infinite into the finite. Our false views of matter perish as we grasp 281:30 the facts of Spirit. The old belief must be cast out or the new idea will be spilled, and the in- spiration, which is to change our standpoint, will be 282:1 lost. Now, as of old, Truth casts out evils and heals the sick.

Figures of being

282:3 The real Life, or Mind, and its opposite, the so-called material life and mind, are figured by two geometrical symbols, a circle or sphere and a straight 282:6 line. The circle represents the infinite with- out beginning or end; the straight line represents the finite, which has both beginning and end. The sphere 282:9 represents good, the self-existent and eternal individuality or Mind; the straight line represents evil, a belief in a self-made and temporary material existence. Eternal 282:12 Mind and temporary material existence never unite in figure or in fact.

Opposite symbols

A straight line finds no abiding-place in a curve, and a 282:15 curve finds no adjustment to a straight line. Similarly, matter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has no place in matter. Truth has no home in 282:18 error, and error has no foothold in Truth. Mind cannot pa.s.s into non-intelligence and matter, nor can non-intel- ligence become Soul. At no point can these opposites 282:21 mingle or unite. Even though they seem to touch, one is still a curve and the other a straight line.

There is no inherent power in matter; for all that is 282:24 material is a material, human, mortal thought, always governing itself erroneously.

Truth is the intelligence of immortal Mind. Error is 282:27 the so-called intelligence of mortal mind.

Truth is not inverted

Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of G.o.d or G.o.d's absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither 282:30 Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the Father. The rule of inversion infers from error its opposite, Truth; but Truth is the light which 283:1 dispels error. As mortals begin to understand Spirit, they give up the belief that there is any true existence 283:3 apart from G.o.d.

Source of all life and action

Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no inertia to r.e.t.a.r.d or check its perpetual and harmonious 283:6 action. Mind is the same Life, Love, and wis- dom "yesterday, and to-day, and forever."

Matter and its effects - sin, sickness, and 283:9 death - are states of mortal mind which act, react, and then come to a stop. They are not facts of Mind. They are not ideas, but illusions. Principle is absolute. It 283:12 admits of no error, but rests upon understanding.

But what say prevalent theories? They insist that Life, or G.o.d, is one and the same with material life so- 283:15 called. They speak of both Truth and error as _mind_, and of good and evil as _spirit_. They claim that to be life which is but the objective state of material sense, - 283:18 such as the structural life of the tree and of material man, - and deem this the manifestation of the one Life, G.o.d.

Spiritual structure

283:21 This false belief as to what really const.i.tutes life so detracts from G.o.d's character and nature, that the true sense of His power is lost to all who cling to 283:24 this falsity. The divine Principle, or Life, can- not be practically demonstrated in length of days, as it was by the patriarchs, unless its Science be accurately 283:27 stated. We must receive the divine Principle in the under- standing, and live it in daily life; and unless we so do, we can no more demonstrate Science, than we can teach and 283:30 ill.u.s.trate geometry by calling a curve a straight line or a straight line a sphere.

Are mentality, immortality, consciousness, resident in 284:1 matter? It is not rational to say that Mind is infinite, but dwells in finiteness, - in matter, - or that matter is 284:3 infinite and the medium of Mind.

Mind never limited

If G.o.d were limited to man or matter, or if the infinite could be circ.u.mscribed within the finite, G.o.d would be 284:6 corporeal, and unlimited Mind would seem to spring from a limited body; but this is an impossibility. Infinite Mind can have no starting-point, 284:9 and can return to no limit. It can never be in bonds, nor be fully manifested through corporeality.

Material recognition impossible

Is G.o.d's image or likeness matter, or a mortal, sin, 284:12 sickness, and death? Can matter recognize Mind?

Can infinite Mind recognize matter? Can the infinite dwell in the finite or know aught un- 284:15 like the infinite? Can Deity be known through the material senses? Can the material senses, which re- ceive no direct evidence of Spirit, give correct testimony 284:18 as to spiritual life, truth, and love?

The answer to all these questions must forever be in the negative.

Our physical insensibility to Spirit

284:21 The physical senses can obtain no proof of G.o.d. They can neither see Spirit through the eye nor hear it through the ear, nor can they feel, taste, or smell Spirit.

284:24 Even the more subtile and misnamed ma- terial elements are beyond the cognizance of these senses, and are known only by the effects com- 284:27 monly attributed to them.

According to Christian Science, the only real senses of man are spiritual, emanating from divine Mind.

284:30 Thought pa.s.ses from G.o.d to man, but neither sensation nor report goes from material body to Mind. The in- tercommunication is always from G.o.d to His idea, man.

285:1 Matter is not sentient and cannot be cognizant of good or of evil, of pleasure or of pain. Man's individu- 285:3 ality is not material. This Science of being obtains not alone hereafter in what men call Paradise, but here and now; it is the great fact of being for time and 285:6 eternity.

The human counterfeit

What, then, is the material personality which suffers, sins, and dies? It is not man, the image and likeness 285:9 of G.o.d, but man's counterfeit, the inverted likeness, the _unlikeness_ called sin, sickness, and death. The unreality of the claim that a mortal is 285:12 the true image of G.o.d is ill.u.s.trated by the opposite na- tures of Spirit and matter, Mind and body, for one is intelligence while the other is non-intelligence.

Material misconceptions

285:15 Is G.o.d a physical personality? Spirit is not physical.

The belief that a material body is man is a false con- ception of man. The time has come for a 285:18 finite conception of the infinite and of a ma- terial body as the seat of Mind to give place to a diviner sense of intelligence and its manifestations, 285:21 to the better understanding that Science gives of the Supreme Being, or divine Principle, and idea.

Salvation is through reform

By interpreting G.o.d as a corporeal Saviour but not as 285:24 the saving Principle, or divine Love, we shall continue to seek salvation through pardon and not through reform, and resort to matter instead 285:27 of Spirit for the cure of the sick. As mortals reach, through knowledge of Christian Science, a higher sense, they will seek to learn, not from matter, but from 285:30 the divine Principle, G.o.d, how to demonstrate the Christ, Truth, as the healing and saving power.

It is essential to understand, instead of believe, what 286:1 relates most nearly to the happiness of being. To seek Truth through belief in a human doctrine is not to un- 286:3 derstand the infinite. We must not seek the immutable and immortal through the finite, mutable, and mortal, and so depend upon belief instead of demonstration, for 286:6 this is fatal to a knowledge of Science. The understand- ing of Truth gives full faith in Truth, and spiritual un- derstanding is better than all burnt offerings.

286:9 The Master said, "No man cometh unto the Father [the divine Principle of being] but by me," Christ, Life, Truth, Love; for Christ says, "I am the way."

286:12 Physical causation was put aside from first to last by this original man, Jesus. He knew that the divine Principle, Love, creates and governs all that 286:15 is real.

Goodness a portion of G.o.d

In the Saxon and twenty other tongues _good_ is the term for G.o.d. The Scriptures declare all that He 286:18 made to be good, like Himself, - good in Principle and in idea. Therefore the spiritual universe is good, and reflects G.o.d as He is.

Spiritual thoughts

286:21 G.o.d's thoughts are perfect and eternal, are substance and Life. Material and temporal thoughts are human, involving error, and since G.o.d, Spirit, is the 286:24 only cause, they lack a divine cause. The temporal and material are not then creations of Spirit.

They are but counterfeits of the spiritual and eternal.

286:27 Transitory thoughts are the antipodes of everlasting Truth, though (by the supposition of opposite qualities) error must also say, "I am true." But by this saying 286:30 error, the lie, destroys itself.

Sin, sickness, and death are comprised in human ma- terial belief, and belong not to the divine Mind. They 287:1 are without a real origin or existence. They have neither Principle nor permanence, but belong, with all that is 287:3 material and temporal, to the nothingness of error, which simulates the creations of Truth. All creations of Spirit are eternal; but creations of matter must return to dust.

287:6 Error supposes man to be both mental and material.

Divine Science contradicts this postulate and maintains man's spiritual ident.i.ty.

Divine allness

287:9 We call the absence of Truth, _error_. Truth and error are unlike. In Science, Truth is divine, and the _infinite_ G.o.d can have no unlikeness. Did G.o.d, Truth, 287:12 create error? No! "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?" G.o.d being everywhere and all-inclusive, how can He be absent 287:15 or suggest the absence of omnipresence and omnipotence?

How can there be more than _all_?

Neither understanding nor truth accompanies error, 287:18 nor is error the offshoot of Mind. Evil calls itself some- thing, when it is nothing. It saith, "I am man, but I am not the image and likeness of G.o.d;" whereas the Scrip- 287:21 tures declare that man was made in G.o.d's likeness.

Error unveiled