Part 10 (2/2)

Real and unreal ident.i.ty

70:12 The divine Mind maintains all ident.i.ties, from a blade of gra.s.s to a star, as distinct and eternal. The questions are: What are G.o.d's ident.i.ties?

70:15 What is Soul? Does life or soul exist in the thing formed?

71:1 Nothing is real and eternal, - nothing is Spirit, - but G.o.d and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither 71:3 person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense.

The ident.i.ty, or idea, of all reality continues forever; 71:6 but Spirit, or the divine Principle of all, is not _in_ Spirit's formations. Soul is synonymous with Spirit, G.o.d, the creative, governing, infinite Principle outside of finite form, 71:9 which forms only reflect.

Dream-lessons

Close your eyes, and you may dream that you see a flower, - that you touch and smell it. Thus you learn 71:12 that the flower is a product of the so-called mind, a formation of thought rather than of matter. Close your eyes again, and you may see land- 71:15 scapes, men, and women. Thus you learn that these also are images, which mortal mind holds and evolves and which simulate mind, life, and intelligence. From 71:18 dreams also you learn that neither mortal mind nor matter is the image or likeness of G.o.d, and that im- mortal Mind is not in matter.

Found wanting

71:21 When the Science of Mind is understood, spiritualism will be found mainly erroneous, having no scientific basis nor origin, no proof nor power outside of 71:24 human testimony. It is the offspring of the physical senses. There is no sensuality in Spirit. I never could believe in spiritualism.

71:27 The basis and structure of spiritualism are alike ma- terial and physical. Its spirits are so many corporealities, limited and finite in character and quality. Spiritualism 71:30 therefore presupposes Spirit, which is ever infinite, to be a corporeal being, a finite form, - a theory contrary to Christian Science.

72:1 There is but one spiritual existence, - the Life of which corporeal sense can take no cognizance. The 72:3 divine Principle of man speaks through immortal sense.

If a material body - in other words, mortal, material sense - were permeated by Spirit, that body would 72:6 disappear to mortal sense, would be deathless. A con- dition precedent to communion with Spirit is the gain of spiritual life.

Spirits obsolete

72:9 So-called _spirits_ are but corporeal communicators. As light destroys darkness and in the place of darkness all is light, so (in absolute Science) Soul, or G.o.d, 72:12 is the only truth-giver to man. Truth de- stroys mortality, and brings to light immortality. Mortal belief (the material sense of life) and immortal Truth 72:15 (the spiritual sense) are the tares and the wheat, which are not united by progress, but separated.

Perfection is not expressed through imperfection.

72:18 Spirit is not made manifest through matter, the anti- pode of Spirit. Error is not a convenient sieve through which truth can be strained.

Scientific phenomena

72:21 G.o.d, good, being ever present, it follows in divine logic that evil, the suppositional opposite of good, is never present. In Science, individual good derived 72:24 from G.o.d, the infinite All-in-all, may flow from the departed to mortals; but evil is neither com- municable nor scientific. A sinning, earthly mortal is 72:27 not the reality of Life nor the medium through which truth pa.s.ses to earth. The joy of intercourse becomes the jest of sin, when evil and suffering are communicable.

72:30 Not personal intercommunion but divine law is the com- municator of truth, health, and harmony to earth and humanity. As readily can you mingle fire and frost as 73:1 Spirit and matter. In either case, one does not support the other.

73:3 Spiritualism calls one person, living in this world, _ma- terial_, but another, who has died to-day a sinner and sup- posedly will return to earth to-morrow, it terms a _spirit_.

73:6 The fact is that neither the one nor the other is infinite Spirit, for Spirit is G.o.d, and man is His likeness.

One government

The belief that one man, as spirit, can control an- 73:9 other man, as matter, upsets both the individuality and the Science of man, for man is image. G.o.d controls man, and G.o.d is the only Spirit. Any 73:12 other control or attraction of so-called spirit is a mortal belief, which ought to be known by its fruit, - the repe- t.i.tion of evil.

73:15 If Spirit, or G.o.d, communed with mortals or controlled them through electricity or any other form of matter, the divine order and the Science of omnipotent, omnipresent 73:18 Spirit would be destroyed.

Incorrect theories

The belief that material bodies return to dust, hereafter to rise up as spiritual bodies with material sensations and 73:21 desires, is incorrect. Equally incorrect is the belief that spirit is confined in a finite, ma- terial body, from which it is freed by death, and that, when 73:24 it is freed from the material body, spirit retains the sensa- tions belonging to that body.

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