Part 30 (1/2)
Common opinion admits that a man may take cold in the act of doing good, and that this cold may produce 203:1 fatal pulmonary disease; as though evil could overbear the law of Love, and check the reward for do- 203:3 ing good. In the Science of Christianity, Mind - omnipotence - has all-power, a.s.signs sure rewards to righteousness, and shows that matter can 203:6 neither heal nor make sick, create nor destroy.
Our belief and understanding
If G.o.d were understood instead of being merely be- lieved, this understanding would establish health. The 203:9 accusation of the rabbis, ”He made himself the Son of G.o.d,” was really the justification of Jesus, for to the Christian the only true 203:12 spirit is G.o.dlike. This thought incites to a more exalted wors.h.i.+p and self-abnegation. Spiritual perception brings out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught 203:15 but G.o.d, and so makes man the image of his Maker in deed and in truth.
Suicide and sin
We are p.r.o.ne to believe either in more than one Su- 203:18 preme Ruler or in some power less than G.o.d. We im- agine that Mind can be imprisoned in a sensuous body.
When the material body has gone to ruin, when evil has 203:21 overtaxed the belief of life in matter and destroyed it, then mortals believe that the deathless Principle, or Soul, escapes from matter and lives on; but this is not 203:24 true. Death is not a stepping-stone to life, immortality, and bliss. The so-called sinner is a suicide.
Sin kills the sinner and will continue to kill 203:27 him so long as he sins. The foam and fury of illegiti- mate living and of fearful and doleful dying should disappear on the sh.o.r.e of time; then the waves of sin, 203:30 sorrow, and death beat in vain.
G.o.d, divine good, does not kill a man in order to give him eternal Life, for G.o.d alone is man's life. G.o.d is at 204:1 once the centre and circ.u.mference of being. It is evil that dies; good dies not.
Spirit the only intelligence and substance 204:3 All forms of error support the false conclusions that there is more than one Life; that material history is as real and living as spiritual history; that mortal 204:6 error is as conclusively mental as immortal Truth; and that there are two separate, an- tagonistic ent.i.ties and beings, two powers, - namely, 204:9 Spirit and matter, - resulting in a third person (mortal man) who carries out the delusions of sin, sickness, and death.
204:12 The first power is admitted to be good, an intelligence or Mind called G.o.d. The so-called second power, evil, is the unlikeness of good. It cannot therefore be mind, though 204:15 so called. The third power, mortal man, is a supposed mixture of the first and second antagonistic powers, in- telligence and non-intelligence, of Spirit and matter.
Unscientific theories
204:18 Such theories are evidently erroneous. They can never stand the test of Science. Judging them by their fruits, they are corrupt. When will the ages under- 204:21 stand the Ego, and realize only one G.o.d, one Mind or intelligence?
False and self-a.s.sertive theories have given sinners the 204:24 notion that they can create what G.o.d cannot, - namely, sinful mortals in G.o.d's image, thus usurping the name without the nature of the image or reflection of divine 204:27 Mind; but in Science it can never be said that man has a mind of his own, distinct from G.o.d, the _all_ Mind.
204:30 The belief that G.o.d lives in matter is pantheistic. The error, which says that Soul is in body, Mind is in matter, and good is in evil, must unsay it and cease from such 205:1 utterances; else G.o.d will continue to be hidden from hu- manity, and mortals will sin without knowing that they 205:3 are sinning, will lean on matter instead of Spirit, stumble with lameness, drop with drunkenness, consume with dis- case, - all because of their blindness, their false sense 205:6 concerning G.o.d and man.
Creation perfect
When will the error of believing that there is life in matter, and that sin, sickness, and death are creations of 205:9 G.o.d, be unmasked? When will it be under- stood that matter has neither intelligence, life, nor sensation, and that the opposite belief is the prolific 205:12 source of all suffering? G.o.d created all through Mind, and made all perfect and eternal. Where then is the necessity for recreation or procreation?
Perceiving the divine image
205:15 Befogged in error (the error of believing that matter can be intelligent for good or evil), we can catch clear glimpses of G.o.d only as the mists disperse, 205:18 or as they melt into such thinness that we per- ceive the divine image in some word or deed which indicates the true idea, - the supremacy and real- 205:21 ity of good, the nothingness and unreality of evil.
Redemption from selfishness
When we realize that there is one Mind, the divine law of loving our neighbor as ourselves is unfolded; 205:24 whereas a belief in many ruling minds hinders man's normal drift towards the one Mind, one G.o.d, and leads human thought into opposite channels 205:27 where selfishness reigns.
Selfishness tips the beam of human existence towards the side of error, not towards Truth. Denial of the one- 205:30 ness of Mind throws our weight into the scale, not of Spirit, G.o.d, good, but of matter.
When we fully understand our relation to the Divine, 206:1 we can have no other Mind but His, - no other Love, wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no con- 206:3 sciousness of the existence of matter or error.
Will-power unrighteous
The power of the human will should be exercised only in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judg- 206:6 ment and free the lower propensities. It is the province of spiritual sense to govern man.
Material, erring, human thought acts injuriously both 206:9 upon the body and through it.
Will-power is capable of all evil. It can never heal the sick, for it is the prayer of the unrighteous; while 206:12 the exercise of the sentiments - hope, faith, love - is the prayer of the righteous. This prayer, governed by Science instead of the senses, heals the sick.
206:15 In the scientific relation of G.o.d to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes, - Spirit, not matter, being the 206:18 source of supply.
Birth and death unreal