Part 47 (1/2)

Deadness in sin

316:24 The spiritual idea of G.o.d, as presented by Jesus, was scourged in person, and its Principle was rejected. That man was accounted a criminal who could 316:27 prove G.o.d's divine power by healing the sick, casting out evils, spiritualizing materialistic beliefs, and raising the dead, - those dead in trespa.s.ses and 316:30 sins, satisfied with the flesh, resting on the basis of mat- ter, blind to the possibilities of Spirit and its correla- tive truth.

317:1 Jesus uttered things which had been ”secret from the foundation of the world,” - since material knowledge 317:3 usurped the throne of the creative divine Principle, insisted on the might of matter, the force of falsity, the insignifi- cance of spirit, and proclaimed an anthropomorphic G.o.d.

The cup of Jesus

317:6 Whosoever lives most the life of Jesus in this age and declares best the power of Christian Science, will drink of his Master's cup. Resistance to 317:9 Truth will haunt his steps, and he will in- cur the hatred of sinners, till ”wisdom is justified of her children.” These blessed benedictions rest upon 317:12 Jesus' followers: ”If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you;” ”Lo, I am with you alway,” - that is, not only in all time, but in _all ways_ 317:15 and conditions.

The individuality of man is no less tangible because it is spiritual and because his life is not at the mercy of 317:18 matter. The understanding of his spiritual individuality makes man more real, more formidable in truth, and en- ables him to conquer sin, disease, and death. Our Lord 317:21 and Master presented himself to his disciples after his resurrection from the grave, as the self-same Jesus whom they had loved before the tragedy on Calvary.

Material skepticism

317:24 To the materialistic Thomas, looking for the ideal Saviour in matter instead of in Spirit and to the testi- mony of the material senses and the body, 317:27 more than to Soul, for an earnest of immor- tality, - to him Jesus furnished the proof that he was unchanged by the crucifixion. To this dull and doubt- 317:30 ing disciple Jesus remained a fleshly reality, so long as the Master remained an inhabitant of the earth. Noth- ing but a display of matter could make existence real 318:1 to Thomas. For him to believe in matter was no task, but for him to conceive of the substantiality of Spirit - 318:3 to know that nothing can efface Mind and immortality, in which Spirit reigns - was more difficult.

What the senses originate

Corporeal senses define diseases as realities; but the 318:6 Scriptures declare that G.o.d made all, even while the cor- poreal senses are saying that matter causes disease and the divine Mind cannot or will 318:9 not heal it. The material senses originate and support all that is material, untrue, selfish, or debased.

They would put soul into soil, life into limbo, and doom 318:12 all things to decay. We must silence this lie of material sense with the truth of spiritual sense. We must cause the error to cease that brought the belief of sin and death 318:15 and would efface the pure sense of omnipotence.

Sickness as discord

Is the sick man sinful above all others? No! but so far as he is discordant, he is not the image of G.o.d.

318:18 Weary of their material beliefs, from which comes so much suffering, invalids grow more spiritual, as the error - or belief that life is in matter - 318:21 yields to the reality of spiritual Life.

The Science of Mind denies the error of sensation in matter, and heals with Truth. Medical science treats 318:24 disease as though disease were real, therefore right, and attempts to heal it with matter. If disease is right it is wrong to heal it. Material methods are temporary, and 318:27 are not adapted to elevate mankind.

The governor is not subjected to the governed. In Science man is governed by G.o.d, divine Principle, as 318:30 numbers are controlled and proved by His laws. Intelli- gence does not originate in numbers, but is manifested through them. The body does not include soul, but man- 319:1 ifests mortality, a false sense of soul. The delusion that there is life in matter has no kins.h.i.+p with the Life supernal.

Unscientific introspection

319:3 Science depicts disease as error, as matter _versus_ Mind, and error reversed as subserving the facts of health. To calculate one's life-prospects 319:6 from a material basis, would infringe upon spiritual law and misguide human hope. Having faith in the divine Principle of Health and spiritually under- 319:9 standing G.o.d, sustains man under all circ.u.mstances; whereas the lower appeal to the general faith in material means (commonly called nature) must yield to the all- 319:12 might of infinite Spirit.

Throughout the infinite cycles of eternal existence, Spirit and matter neither concur in man nor in the universe.

G.o.d the only Mind

319:15 The varied doctrines and theories which presuppose life and intelligence to exist in matter are so many ancient and modern mythologies. Mystery, miracle, 319:18 sin, and death will disappear when it becomes fairly understood that the divine Mind controls man and man has no Mind but G.o.d.

Scriptures misinterpreted

319:21 The divine Science taught in the original language of the Bible came through inspiration, and needs inspi- ration to be understood. Hence the misappre- 319:24 hension of the spiritual meaning of the Bible, and the misinterpretation of the Word in some instances by uninspired writers, who only wrote 319:27 down what an inspired teacher had said. A misplaced word changes the sense and misstates the Science of the Scriptures, as, for instance, to name Love as merely 319:30 an attribute of G.o.d; but we can by special and proper capitalization speak of the love of Love, meaning by that what the beloved disciple meant in one of his epistles, 320:1 when he said, ”G.o.d is love.” Likewise we can speak of the truth of Truth and of the life of Life, for Christ plainly 320:3 declared, ”I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

Interior meaning

Metaphors abound in the Bible, and names are often expressive of spiritual ideas. The most distinguished 320:6 theologians in Europe and America agree that the Scriptures have both a spiritual and lit- eral meaning. In Smith's Bible Dictionary it is said: 320:9 ”The spiritual interpretation of Scripture must rest upon both the literal and moral;” and in the learned article on Noah in the same work, the familiar text, 320:12 Genesis vi. 3, ”And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh,” is quoted as follows, from the original Hebrew: ”And Jehovah 320:15 said, My spirit shall not forever rule [or be humbled] in men, seeing that they are [or, in their error they are]

but flesh.” Here the original text declares plainly the 320:18 spiritual fact of being, even man's eternal and harmo- nious existence as image, idea, instead of matter (how- ever transcendental such a thought appears), and avers 320:21 that this fact is not forever to be humbled by the belief that man is flesh and matter, for according to that error man is mortal.

Job, on the resurrection

320:24 The one important interpretation of Scripture is the spiritual. For example, the text, ”In my flesh shall I see G.o.d,” gives a profound idea of the di- 320:27 vine power to heal the ills of the flesh, and encourages mortals to hope in Him who healeth all our diseases; whereas this pa.s.sage is continually quoted 320:30 as if Job intended to declare that even if disease and worms destroyed his body, yet in the latter days he should stand in celestial perfection before Elohim, still clad 321:1 in material flesh, - an interpretation which is just the op- posite of the true, as may be seen by studying the book 321:3 of Job. As Paul says, in his first epistle to the Corin- thians, ”Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of G.o.d.”