Part 77 (1/2)

Man springs from Mind

All error proceeds from the evidence before the mate- 543:18 rial senses. If man is material and originates in an egg, who shall say that he is not primarily dust? May not Darwin be right in think- 543:21 ing that apehood preceded mortal manhood? Minerals and vegetables are found, according to divine Science, to be the creations of erroneous thought, not of matter.

543:24 Did man, whom G.o.d created with a word, originate in an egg? When Spirit made all, did it leave aught for matter to create? Ideas of Truth alone are reflected 543:27 in the myriad manifestations of Life, and thus it is seen that man springs solely from Mind. The belief that matter supports life would make Life, or G.o.d, 543:30 mortal.

Material inception

The text, ”In the day that the Lord G.o.d [Jehovah G.o.d] made the earth and the heavens,” introduces the 544:1 record of a material creation which followed the spiritual, - a creation so wholly apart from G.o.d's, that Spirit 544:3 had no partic.i.p.ation in it. In G.o.d's creation ideas became productive, obedient to Mind.

There was no rain and ”not a man to till the ground.”

544:6 Mind, instead of matter, being the producer, Life was self-sustained. Birth, decay, and death arise from the material sense of things, not from the spiritual, for in 544:9 the latter Life consisteth not of the things which a man eateth. Matter cannot change the eternal fact that man exists because G.o.d exists. Nothing is new to the 544:12 infinite Mind.

First evil suggestion

In Science, Mind neither produces matter nor does matter produce mind. No mortal mind has the might 544:15 or right or wisdom to create or to destroy.

All is under the control of the one Mind, even G.o.d. The first statement about evil, - the first 544:18 suggestion of more than the one Mind, - is in the fable of the serpent. The facts of creation, as previously re- corded, include nothing of the kind.

Material personality

544:21 The serpent is supposed to say, ”Ye shall be as G.o.ds,”

but these G.o.ds must be evolved from materiality and be the very antipodes of immortal and spiritual 544:24 being. Man is the likeness of Spirit, but a material personality is not this likeness. Therefore man, in this allegory, is neither a lesser G.o.d nor the image and 544:27 likeness of the one G.o.d.

Material, erroneous belief reverses understanding and truth. It declares mind to be in and of matter, so-called 544:30 mortal life to be Life, infinity to enter man's nostrils so that matter becomes spiritual. Error begins with corporeality as the producer instead of divine Prin- 545:1 ciple, and explains Deity through mortal and finite con- ceptions.

545:3 ”Behold, the man is become as one of us.” This could not be the utterance of Truth or Science, for according to the record, material man was fast degenerating and 545:6 never had been divinely conceived.

Mental tillage

The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means this, - that mortals should so improve material belief 545:9 by thought tending spiritually upward as to destroy materiality. Man, created by G.o.d, was given dominion over the whole earth. The notion 545:12 of a material universe is utterly opposed to the theory of man as evolved from Mind. Such fundamental errors send falsity into all human doctrines and conclusions, 545:15 and do not accord infinity to Deity. Error tills the whole ground in this material theory, which is entirely a false view, destructive to existence and happiness. Out- 545:18 side of Christian Science all is vague and hypothetical, the opposite of Truth; yet this opposite, in its false view of G.o.d and man, impudently demands a blessing.

Erroneous standpoint

545:21 The translators of this record of scientific creation entertained a false sense of being. They believed in the existence of matter, its propagation and 545:24 power. From that standpoint of error, they could not apprehend the nature and operation of Spirit.

Hence the seeming contradiction in that Scripture, which 545:27 is so glorious in its spiritual signification. Truth has but one reply to all error, - to sin, sickness, and death: ”Dust [nothingness] thou art, and unto dust [nothingness]

545:30 shalt thou return.”

Mortality mythical

”As in Adam [error] all die, even so in Christ [Truth]

shall all be made alive.” The mortality of man is a 546:1 myth, for man is immortal. The false belief that spirit is now submerged in matter, at some future time to be eman- 546:3 c.i.p.ated from it, - this belief alone is mortal.

Spirit, G.o.d, never germinates, but is ”the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” If Mind, G.o.d, cre- 546:6 ates error, that error must exist in the divine Mind, and this a.s.sumption of error would dethrone the perfection of Deity.

No truth from a material basis

546:9 Is Christian Science contradictory? Is the divine Principle of creation misstated? Has G.o.d no Science to declare Mind, while matter is governed by un- 546:12 erring intelligence? ”There went up a mist from the earth.” This represents error as starting from an idea of good on a material basis. It 546:15 supposes G.o.d and man to be manifested only through the corporeal senses, although the material senses can take no cognizance of Spirit or the spiritual idea.

546:18 Genesis and the Apocalypse seem more obscure than other portions of the Scripture, because they cannot possibly be interpreted from a material standpoint. To 546:21 the author, they are transparent, for they contain the deep divinity of the Bible.

Dawning of spiritual facts

Christian Science is dawning upon a material age.