Part 71 (2/2)

Light preceding the sun

504:6 All questions as to the divine creation being both spiritual and material are answered in this pa.s.sage, for though solar beams are not yet included in 504:9 the record of creation, still there is light. This light is not from the sun nor from volcanic flames, but it is the revelation of Truth and of spiritual ideas. This 504:12 also shows that there is no place where G.o.d's light is not seen, since Truth, Life, and Love fill immensity and are ever-present. Was not this a revelation instead of a 504:15 creation?

Evenings and mornings

The successive appearing of G.o.d's ideas is represented as taking place on so many _evenings_ and _mornings_, - 504:18 words which indicate, in the absence of solar time, spiritually clearer views of Him, views which are not implied by material darkness and dawn.

504:21 Here we have the explanation of another pa.s.sage of Scripture, that ”one day is with the Lord as a thousand years.” The rays of infinite Truth, when gathered into 504:24 the focus of ideas, bring light instantaneously, whereas a thousand years of human doctrines, hypotheses, and vague conjectures emit no such effulgence.

Spirit _versus_ darkness

504:27 Did infinite Mind create matter, and call it _light?_ Spirit is light, and the contradiction of Spirit is matter, darkness, and darkness obscures light. Mate- 504:30 rial sense is nothing but a supposition of the absence of Spirit. No solar rays nor planetary revolutions 505:1 form the day of Spirit. Immortal Mind makes its own record, but mortal mind, sleep, dreams, sin, disease, and 505:3 death have no record in the first chapter of Genesis.

_Genesis_ i. 6. And G.o.d said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from 505:6 the waters.

Spiritual firmament

Spiritual understanding, by which human conception, material sense, is separated from Truth, is the firmament.

505:9 The divine Mind, not matter, creates all iden- t.i.ties, and they are forms of Mind, the ideas of Spirit apparent only as Mind, never as mindless matter 505:12 nor the so-called material senses.

_Genesis_ i. 7. And G.o.d made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters 505:15 which were above the firmament: and it was so.

Understanding imparted

Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts con- sciousness and leads into all truth. The Psalmist saith: 505:18 ”The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.” Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual 505:21 good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds Mind, - Life, Truth, and Love, - and demonstrates the 505:24 divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in Christian Science.

Original reflected

This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result 505:27 of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things brought to light. G.o.d's ideas reflect the im- mortal, unerring, and infinite. The mortal, 505:30 erring, and finite are human beliefs, which apportion to 506:1 themselves a task impossible for them, that of distinguish- ing between the false and the true. Objects utterly un- 506:3 like the original do not reflect that original. Therefore matter, not being the reflection of Spirit, has no real en- t.i.ty. Understanding is a quality of G.o.d, a quality which 506:6 separates Christian Science from supposition and makes Truth final.

_Genesis_ i. 8. And G.o.d called the firmament Heaven.

506:9 And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Exalted thought

Through divine Science, Spirit, G.o.d, unites under- standing to eternal harmony. The calm and exalted 506:12 thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace.

Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each successive stage of progress.

506:15 _Genesis_ i. 9. And G.o.d said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

Unfolding of thoughts

506:18 Spirit, G.o.d, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose 506:21 in order that the purpose may appear.

_Genesis_ i. 10. And G.o.d called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and 506:24 G.o.d saw that it was good.

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