Part 19 (1/2)
All Science is divine. Human thought never pro- 126:9 jected the least portion of true being. Human belief has sought and interpreted in its own way the echo of Spirit, and so seems to have 126:12 reversed it and repeated it materially; but the human mind never produced a real tone nor sent forth a positive sound.
Antagonistic questions
126:15 The point at issue between Christian Science on the one hand and popular theology on the other is this: Shall Science explain cause and effect as being 126:18 both natural and spiritual? Or shall all that is beyond the cognizance of the material senses be called supernatural, and be left to the mercy of speculative 126:21 hypotheses?
Biblical basis
I have set forth Christian Science and its application to the treatment of disease just as I have discovered them.
126:24 I have demonstrated through Mind the effects of Truth on the health, longevity, and morals of men; and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern 126:27 systems on which to found my own, except the teachings and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only au- 126:30 thority. I have had no other guide in ”the straight and narrow way” of Truth.
Science and Christianity
If Christendom resists the author's application of the 127:1 word Science to Christianity, or questions her use of the word Science, she will not therefore lose faith in Chris- 127:3 tianity, nor will Christianity lose its hold upon her. If G.o.d, the All-in-all, be the creator of the spiritual universe, including man, then everything 127:6 ent.i.tled to a cla.s.sification as truth, or Science, must be comprised in a knowledge or understanding of G.o.d, for there can be nothing beyond illimitable divinity.
Scientific terms
127:9 The terms Divine Science, Spiritual Science, Christ Science or Christian Science, or Science alone, she em- ploys interchangeably, according to the re- 127:12 quirements of the context. These synony- mous terms stand for everything relating to G.o.d, the in- finite, supreme, eternal Mind. It may be said, however, 127:15 that the term Christian Science relates especially to Science as applied to humanity. Christian Science re- veals G.o.d, not as the author of sin, sickness, and death, 127:18 but as divine Principle, Supreme Being, Mind, exempt from all evil. It teaches that matter is the falsity, not the fact, of existence; that nerves, brain, stomach, lungs, 127:21 and so forth, have - as matter - no intelligence, life, nor sensation.
No physical science
There is no physical science, inasmuch as all truth 127:24 proceeds from the divine Mind. Therefore truth is not human, and is not a law of matter, for matter is not a lawgiver. Science is an emanation of 127:27 divine Mind, and is alone able to interpret G.o.d aright.
It has a spiritual, and not a material origin. It is a divine utterance, - the Comforter which leadeth into all truth.
127:30 Christian Science eschews what is called natural science, in so far as this is built on the false hypotheses that matter is its own lawgiver, that law is founded on material con- 128:1 ditions, and that these are final and overrule the might of divine Mind. Good is natural and primitive. It is not 128:3 miraculous to itself.
Practical Science
The term Science, properly understood, refers only to the laws of G.o.d and to His government of the universe, 128:6 inclusive of man. From this it follows that business men and cultured scholars have found that Christian Science enhances their endurance and 128:9 mental powers, enlarges their perception of character, gives them acuteness and comprehensiveness and an ability to exceed their ordinary capacity. The human 128:12 mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding, becomes more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes somewhat from itself, and requires less repose. A knowl- 128:15 edge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher 128:18 realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity.
An odor becomes beneficent and agreeable only in pro- 128:21 portion to its escape into the surrounding atmosphere.
So it is with our knowledge of Truth. If one would not quarrel with his fellow-man for waking him from 128:24 a cataleptic nightmare, he should not resist Truth, which banishes - yea, forever destroys with the higher testi- mony of Spirit - the so-called evidence of matter.
Mathematics and scientific logic
128:27 Science relates to Mind, not matter. It rests on fixed Principle and not upon the judgment of false sensation.
The addition of two sums in mathematics must 128:30 always bring the same result. So is it with logic. If both the major and the minor propo- sitions of a syllogism are correct, the conclusion, if properly 129:1 drawn, cannot be false. So in Christian Science there are no discords nor contradictions, because its logic is as 129:3 harmonious as the reasoning of an accurately stated syl- logism or of a properly computed sum in arithmetic.
Truth is ever truthful, and can tolerate no error in 129:6 premise or conclusion.
Truth by inversion
If you wish to know the spiritual fact, you can dis- cover it by reversing the material fable, be the 129:9 fable _pro_ or _con_, - be it in accord with your preconceptions or utterly contrary to them.
Antagonistic theories
Pantheism may be defined as a belief in the intelli- 129:12 gence of matter, - a belief which Science overthrows.
In those days there will be ”great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the 129:15 world;” and earth will echo the cry, ”Art thou [Truth]
come hither to torment us before the time?” Animal magnetism, hypnotism, spiritualism, theosophy, agnos- 129:18 ticism, pantheism, and infidelity are antagonistic to true being and fatal to its demonstration; and so are some other systems.
Ontology needed