Part 52 (2/2)

356:15 Jesus knew, ”It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.”

Copartners.h.i.+p impossible

There is neither a present nor an eternal copartner- 356:18 s.h.i.+p between error and Truth, between flesh and Spirit.

G.o.d is as incapable of producing sin, sick- ness, and death as He is of experiencing these 356:21 errors. How then is it possible for Him to create man subject to this triad of errors, - man who is made in the divine likeness?

356:24 Does G.o.d create a material man out of Himself, Spirit?

Does evil proceed from good? Does divine Love com- mit a fraud on humanity by making man inclined to sin, 356:27 and then punis.h.i.+ng him for it? Would any one call it wise and good to create the primitive, and then punish its derivative?

Two infinite creators absurd

356:30 Does subsequent follow its antecedent? It does.

Was there original self-creative sin? Then there must have been more than one creator, more than one G.o.d.

357:1 In common justice, we must admit that G.o.d will not punish man for doing what He created man 357:3 capable of doing, and knew from the outset that man would do. G.o.d is ”of purer eyes than to behold evil.” We sustain Truth, not by accept- 357:6 ing, but by rejecting a lie.

Jesus said of personified evil, that it was ”a liar, and the father of it.” Truth creates neither a lie, a capacity 357:9 to lie, nor a liar. If mankind would relinquish the belief that G.o.d makes sickness, sin, and death, or makes man capable of suffering on account of this malevolent triad, 357:12 the foundations of error would be sapped and error's de- struction ensured; but if we theoretically endow mortals with the creativeness and authority of Deity, how dare we 357:15 attempt to destroy what He hath made, or even to deny that G.o.d made man evil and made evil good?

Anthropomorphism

History teaches that the popular and false notions 357:18 about the Divine Being and character have originated in the human mind. As there is in reality but one G.o.d, one Mind, wrong notions about G.o.d 357:21 must have originated in a false supposition, not in im- mortal Truth, and they are fading out. They are false claims, which will eventually disappear, according to the 357:24 vision of St. John in the Apocalypse.

One supremacy

If what opposes G.o.d is real, there must be two powers, and G.o.d is not supreme and infinite. Can 357:27 Deity be almighty, if another mighty and self-creative cause exists and sways man- kind? Has the Father ”Life in Himself,” as the Scrip- 357:30 tures say, and, if so, can Life, or G.o.d, dwell in evil and create it? Can matter drive Life, Spirit, hence, and so defeat omnipotence?

Matter impotent

358:1 Is the woodman's axe, which destroys a tree's so-called life, superior to omnipotence? Can a leaden bullet de- 358:3 prive a man of Life, - that is, of G.o.d, who is man's Life? If G.o.d is at the mercy of matter, then matter is omnipotent. Such doctrines are ”confu- 358:6 sion worse confounded.” If two statements directly con- tradict each other and one is true, the other must be false.

Is Science thus contradictory?

Scientific and Biblical facts

358:9 Christian Science, understood, coincides with the Scriptures, and sustains logically and demonstratively every point it presents. Otherwise it would 358:12 not be Science, and could not present its proofs. Christian Science is neither made up of contra- dictory aphorisms nor of the inventions of those who scoff 358:15 at G.o.d. It presents the calm and clear verdict of Truth against error, uttered and ill.u.s.trated by the prophets, by Jesus, by his apostles, as is recorded throughout the 358:18 Scriptures.

Why are the words of Jesus more frequently cited for our instruction than are his remarkable works? Is 358:21 it not because there are few who have gained a true knowledge of the great import to Christianity of those works?

Personal confidence

358:24 Sometimes it is said; ”Rest a.s.sured that whatever effect Christian Scientists may have on the sick, comes through rousing within the sick a belief 358:27 that in the removal of disease these healers have wonderful power, derived from the Holy Ghost.”

Is it likely that church-members have more faith in 358:30 some Christian Scientist, whom they have perhaps never seen and against whom they have been warned, than they have in their own accredited and orthodox 359:1 pastors, whom they have seen and have been taught to love and to trust?

359:3 Let any clergyman try to cure his friends by their faith in him. Will that faith heal them? Yet Scien- tists will take the same cases, and cures will follow.

359:6 Is this because the patients have more faith in the Scien- tist than in their pastor? I have healed infidels whose only objection to this method was, that I as a Chris- 359:9 tian Scientist believed in the Holy Spirit, while they, the patients, did not.

Even though you aver that the material senses are 359:12 indispensable to man's existence or ent.i.ty, you must change the human concept of life, and must at length know yourself spiritually and scientifically. The evi- 359:15 dence of the existence of Spirit, Soul, is palpable only to spiritual sense, and is not apparent to the material senses, which cognize only that which is the opposite of Spirit.

359:18 True Christianity is to be honored wherever found, but when shall we arrive at the goal which that word implies? From Puritan parents, the discov- 359:21 erer of Christian Science early received her religious education. In childhood, she often listened with joy to these words, falling from the lips of her 359:24 saintly mother, ”G.o.d is able to raise you up from sick- ness;” and she pondered the meaning of that Scripture she so often quotes: ”And these signs shall follow them 359:27 that believe; ... they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

<script>