Part 78 (2/2)
Jesus defined this opposite of G.o.d and His creation 554:21 better than we can, when he said, ”He is a liar, and the father of it.” Jesus also said, ”Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?”
554:24 This he said of Judas, one of Adam's race. Jesus never intimated that G.o.d made a devil, but he did say, ”Ye are of your father, the devil.” All these sayings were to 554:27 show that mind in matter is the author of itself, and is simply a falsity and illusion.
Ailments of animals
It is the general belief that the lower animals are less 554:30 sickly than those possessing higher organiza- tions, especially those of the human form.
This would indicate that there is less disease in propor- 555:1 tion as the force of mortal mind is less pungent or sensi- tive, and that health attends the absence of mortal mind.
555:3 A fair conclusion from this might be, that it is the human belief, and not the divine arbitrament, which brings the physical organism under the yoke of disease.
Ignorance the sign of error
555:6 An inquirer once said to the discoverer of Christian Science: ”I like your explanations of truth, but I do not comprehend what you say about error.”
555:9 This is the nature of error. The mark of igno- rance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor can be understood. Error would have itself received as 555:12 mind, as if it were as real and G.o.d-created as truth; but Christian Science attributes to error neither ent.i.ty nor power, because error is neither mind nor the outcome of 555:15 Mind.
The origin of divinity
Searching for the origin of man, who is the reflection of G.o.d, is like inquiring into the origin of G.o.d, the self- 555:18 existent and eternal. Only impotent error would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this 555:21 sham unity _man_, as if man were the offspring of both Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Crea- tion rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of 555:24 perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity, when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught that can become imperfect, that G.o.d bestows the power 555:27 to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err. Our great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in 555:30 death. Knowing that G.o.d was the Life of man, Jesus was able to present himself unchanged after the cruci- fixion. Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be- 556:1 lief in illusion or error. That which is real, is sustained by Spirit.
Genera cla.s.sified
556:3 Vertebrata, articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mor- tal and material concepts cla.s.sified, and are supposed to possess life and mind. These false beliefs 556:6 will disappear, when the radiation of Spirit destroys forever all belief in intelligent matter. Then will the new heaven and new earth appear, for the for- 556:9 mer things will have pa.s.sed away.
The Christian's privilege
Mortal belief infolds the conditions of sin. Mortal belief dies to live again in renewed forms, only to go out 556:12 at last forever; for life everlasting is not to be gained by dying. Christian Science may ab- sorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but 556:15 the Christian alone can fathom it. It is made known most fully to him who understands best the divine Life.
Did the origin and the enlightenment of the race come 556:18 from the deep sleep which fell upon Adam? Sleep is darkness, but G.o.d's creative mandate was, ”Let there be light.” In sleep, cause and effect are mere illusions.
556:21 They seem to be something, but are not. Oblivion and dreams, not realities, come with sleep. Even so goes on the Adam-belief, of which mortal and material life is the 556:24 dream.
Ontology _versus_ physiology
Ontology receives less attention than physiology. Why?
Because mortal mind must waken to spiritual 556:27 life before it cares to solve the problem of being, hence the author's experience; but when that awakening comes, existence will be on a new stand- 556:30 point.
It is related that a father plunged his infant babe, only a few hours old, into the water for several minutes, and 557:1 repeated this operation daily, until the child could remain under water twenty minutes, moving and playing with- 557:3 out harm, like a fish. Parents should remember this and learn how to develop their children properly on dry land.
The curse removed
557:6 Mind controls the birth-throes in the lower realms of nature, where parturition is without suffering. Vege- tables, minerals, and many animals suffer no 557:9 pain in multiplying; but human propagation has its suffering because it is a false belief. Christian Sci- ence reveals harmony as proportionately increasing as the 557:12 line of creation rises towards spiritual man, - towards enlarged understanding and intelligence; but in the line of the corporeal senses, the less a mortal knows of sin, 557:15 disease, and mortality, the better for him, - the less pain and sorrow are his. When the mist of mortal mind evap- orates, the curse will be removed which says to woman, 557:18 ”In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” Divine Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as 557:21 never dying, but as coexistent with his creator.
Popular theology takes up the history of man as if he began materially right, but immediately fell into mental 557:24 sin; whereas revealed religion proclaims the Science of Mind and its formations as being in accordance with the first chapter of the Old Testament, when G.o.d, Mind, 557:27 spake and it was done.
CHAPTER XVI - THE APOCALYPSE
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. - REVELATION.
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