Part 42 (2/2)
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
<script>