Part 38 (1/2)

Thy throne is established of old Thou art from everlasting. - PSALMS.

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. - PAUL.

Inadequate theories of creation

255:1 ETERNAL Truth is changing the universe. As mor- tals drop off their mental swaddling-clothes, thought 255:3 expands into expression. ”Let there be light,”

is the perpetual demand of Truth and Love, changing chaos into order and discord into the 255:6 music of the spheres. The mythical human theories of creation, anciently cla.s.sified as the higher criticism, sprang from cultured scholars in Rome and in Greece, but they 255:9 afforded no foundation for accurate views of creation by the divine Mind.

Finite views of Deity

Mortal man has made a covenant with his eyes to be- 255:12 little Deity with human conceptions. In league with material sense, mortals take limited views of all things. That G.o.d is corporeal or material, no man 255:15 should affirm.

The human form, or physical finiteness, cannot be made the basis of any true idea of the infinite G.o.dhead.

255:18 Eye hath not seen Spirit, nor hath ear heard His voice.

No material creation

256:1 Progress takes off human shackles. The finite must yield to the infinite. Advancing to a higher plane of ac- 256:3 tion, thought rises from the material sense to the spiritual, from the scholastic to the in- spirational, and from the mortal to the immortal. All 256:6 things are created spiritually. Mind, not matter, is the creator. Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man.

Tritheism impossible

256:9 The theory of three persons in one G.o.d (that is, a per- sonal Trinity or Tri-unity) suggests polythe- ism, rather than the one ever-present I AM.

256:12 ”Hear, O Israel: the Lord our G.o.d is one Lord.”

No divine corporeality

The everlasting I AM is not bounded nor compressed within the narrow limits of physical humanity, nor can 256:15 He be understood aright through mortal con- cepts. The precise form of G.o.d must be of small importance in comparison with the sublime ques- 256:18 tion, What is infinite Mind or divine Love?

Who is it that demands our obedience? He who, in the language of Scripture, ”doeth according to His will 256:21 in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?”

256:24 No form nor physical combination is adequate to rep- resent infinite Love. A finite and material sense of G.o.d leads to formalism and narrowness; it chills the spirit of 256:27 Christianity.

Limitless Mind

A limitless Mind cannot proceed from physical limita- tions. Finiteness cannot present the idea or the vast- 256:30 ness of infinity. A mind originating from a finite or material source must be limited and finite. Infinite Mind is the creator, and creation is the 257:1 infinite image or idea emanating from this Mind. If Mind is within and without all things, then all is Mind; 257:3 and this definition is scientific.

Matter is not substance

If matter, so-called, is substance, then Spirit, matter's unlikeness, must be shadow; and shadow cannot produce 257:6 substance. The theory that Spirit is not the only substance and creator is pantheistic het- erodoxy, which ultimates in sickness, sin, and death; it is 257:9 the belief in a bodily soul and a material mind, a soul governed by the body and a mind in matter. This be- lief is shallow pantheism.

257:12 Mind creates His own likeness in ideas, and the sub- stance of an idea is very far from being the supposed sub- stance of non-intelligent matter. Hence the Father Mind 257:15 is not the father of matter. The material senses and human conceptions would translate spiritual ideas into material beliefs, and would say that an anthropomorphic 257:18 G.o.d, instead of infinite Principle, - in other words, divine Love, - is the father of the rain, ”who hath begotten the drops of dew,” who bringeth ”forth Mazzaroth in his sea- 257:21 son,” and guideth ”Arcturus with his sons.”

Inexhaustible divine Love

Finite mind manifests all sorts of errors, and thus proves the material theory of mind in matter to be the 257:24 antipode of Mind. Who hath found finite life or love sufficient to meet the demands of human want and woe, - to still the desires, to satisfy the aspira- 257:27 tions? Infinite Mind cannot be limited to a finite form, or Mind would lose its infinite character as inexhaustible Love, eternal Life, omnipotent Truth.

Infinite physique impossible

257:30 It would require an infinite form to contain infinite Mind. Indeed, the phrase _infinite form_ involves a con- tradiction of terms. Finite man cannot be the image and 258:1 likeness of the infinite G.o.d. A mortal, corporeal, or finite conception of G.o.d cannot embrace the glories of 258:3 limitless, incorporeal Life and Love. Hence the unsatisfied human craving for something better, higher, holier, than is afforded by a 258:6 material belief in a physical G.o.d and man. The insuffi- ciency of this belief to supply the true idea proves the falsity of material belief.