Science and Health With Key to The Scriptures

M >> Mary Baker Eddy >> Science and Health With Key to The Scriptures

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If the change called /death/ destroyed the belief in sin,
sickness, and death, happiness would be won at the mo-
290:18 ment of dissolution, and be forever permanent;
but this is not so. Perfection is gained only
by perfection. They who are unrighteous shall be un-
290:21 righteous still, until in divine Science Christ, Truth, re-
moves all ignorance and sin.

Sin is punished

The sin and error which possess us at the instant of
290:24 death do not cease at that moment, but endure until the
death of these errors. To be wholly spiritual,
man must be sinless, and he becomes thus only
290:27 when he reaches perfection. The murderer, though slain
in the act, does not thereby forsake sin. He is no more
spiritual for believing that his body died and learning that
290:30 his cruel mind died not. His thoughts are no purer until
evil is disarmed by good. His body is as material as his
mind, and /vice versa/.

291:1 The suppositions that sin is pardoned while unfor-
saken, that happiness can be genuine in the midst of
291:3 sin, that the so-called death of the body frees from sin,
and that God's pardon is aught but the destruction of
sin, - these are grave mistakes. We know that all will
291:6 be changed "in the twinkling of an eye," when the last
trump shall sound; but this last call of wisdom cannot
come till mortals have already yielded to each lesser call
291:9 in the growth of Christian character. Mortals need not
fancy that belief in the experience of death will awaken
them to glorified being.

Salvation and probation

291:12 Universal salvation rests on progression and probation,
and is unattainable without them. Heaven is not a local-
ity, but a divine state of Mind in which all the
291:15 manifestations of Mind are harmonious and
immortal, because sin is not there and man is
found having no righteousness of his own, but in posses-
291:18 sion of "the mind of the Lord," as the Scripture says.

"In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall
be." So we read in Ecclesiastes. This text has been
291:21 transformed into the popular proverb, "As the tree
falls, so it must lie." As man falleth asleep, so shall he
awake. As death findeth mortal man, so shall he be
291:24 after death, until probation and growth shall effect the
needed change. Mind never becomes dust. No resur-
rection from the grave awaits Mind or Life, for the grave
291:27 has no power over either.

Day of judgment

No final judgment awaits mortals, for the judgment-
day of wisdom comes hourly and continually,
291:30 even the judgment by which mortal man is di-
vested of all material error. As for spiritual error there
is none.

292:1 When the last mortal fault is destroyed, then the final
trump will sound which will end the battle of Truth with
292:3 error and mortality; "but of that day and hour, knoweth
no man." Here prophecy pauses. Divine Science alone
can compass the heights and depths of being and reveal
292:6 the infinite.

Primitive error

Truth will be to us "the resurrection and the life" only
as it destroys all error and the belief that Mind, the only
292:9 immortality of man, can be fettered by the
body, and Life be controlled by death. A sin-
ful, sick, and dying mortal is not the likeness of God, the
292:12 perfect and eternal.

Matter is the primitive belief of mortal mind, because
this so-called mind has no cognizance of Spirit. To
292:15 mortal mind, matter is substantial, and evil is
real. The so-called senses of mortals are material.
Hence the so-called life of mortals is dependent on
292:18 matter.

Explaining the origin of material man and mortal mind,
Jesus said: "Why do ye not understand my speech?
292:21 Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your
father, the devil [evil], and the lusts of your father ye will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode
292:24 not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar,
and the father of it."

Immortal man

292:27 This carnal material mentality, misnamed /mind/, is
mortal. Therefore man would be annihilated, were it
not for the spiritual real man's indissoluble
292:30 connection with his God, which Jesus brought
to light. In his resurrection and ascension, Jesus showed
that a mortal man is not the real essence of manhood, and
293:1 that this unreal material mortality disappears in presence
of the reality.

Elementary electricity

293:3 Electricity is not a vital fluid, but the least material
form of illusive consciousness, - the material mindless-
ness, which forms no link between matter and
293:6 Mind, and which destroys itself. Matter and
mortal mind are but different strata of human belief. The
grosser substratum is named matter or body; the more
293:9 ethereal is called mind. This so-called mind and body
is the illusion called a mortal, a mind in matter. In reality
and in Science, both strata, mortal mind and mortal body,
293:12 are false representatives of man.

The material so-called gases and forces are counter-
feits of the spiritual forces of divine Mind, whose potency
293:15 is Truth, whose attraction is Love, whose adhesion and
cohesion are Life, perpetuating the eternal facts of being.
Electricity is the sharp surplus of materiality which coun-
293:18 terfeits the true essence of spirituality or truth, - the
great difference being that electricity is not intelligent,
while spiritual truth is Mind.

The counterfeit forces

293:21 There is no vapid fury of mortal mind - expressed in
earthquake, wind, wave, lightning, fire, bestial ferocity
- and this so-called mind is self-destroyed.
293:24 The manifestations of evil, which counterfeit
divine justice, are called in the Scriptures, "The anger
of the Lord." In reality, they show the self-destruction
293:27 of error or matter and point to matter's opposite, the
strength and permanency of Spirit. Christian Science
brings to light Truth and its supremacy, universal har-
293:30 mony, the entireness of God, good, and the nothingness
of evil.

Instruments of error

The five physical senses are the avenues and instru-
294:1 ments of human error, and they correspond with error.
These senses indicate the common human belief, that life,
294:3 substance, and intelligence are a unison of
matter with Spirit. This is pantheism, and
carries within itself the seeds of all error.

294:6 If man is both mind and matter, the loss of one finger
would take away some quality and quantity of the man,
for matter and man would be one.

Mortal verdict

294:9 The belief that matter thinks, sees, or feels is not more
real than the belief that matter enjoys and suffers. This
mortal belief, misnamed /man/, is error, saying:
294:12 "Matter has intelligence and sensation. Nerves
feel. Brain thinks and sins. The stomach can make a
man cross. Injury can cripple and matter can kill man."
294:15 This verdict of the so-called material senses victimizes
mortals, taught, as they are by physiology and pathology,
to revere false testimony, even the errors that are destroyed
294:18 by Truth through spiritual sense and Science.

Mythical pleasure

The lines of demarcation between immortal man, repre-
senting Spirit, and mortal man, representing the error that
294:21 life and intelligence are in matter, show the
pleasures and pains of matter to be myths, and
human belief in them to be the father of mythology, in
294:24 which matter is represented as divided into intelligent gods.
Man's genuine selfhood is recognizable only in what is
good and true. Man is neither self-made nor made by
294:27 mortals. God created man.

Severed members

The inebriate believes that there is pleasure in intoxica-
tion. The thief believes that he gains something by steal-
294:30 ing, and the hypocrite that he is hiding himself. The
Science of Mind corrects such mistakes, for Truth demon-
strates the falsity of error.

Severed members

295:1 The belief that a severed limb is aching in the old loca-
tion, the sensation seeming to be in nerves which
295:3 are no longer there, is an added proof of the un-
reliability of physical testimony.

Mortals unlike immortals

God creates and governs the universe, including man.
295:6 The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He
evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind
that makes them. Mortal mind would trans-
295:9 form the spiritual into the material, and then
recover man's original self in order to escape from the
mortality of this error. Mortals are not like immortals,
295:12 created in God's own image; but infinite Spirit being all,
mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact
and disappear, and the real sense of being, perfect and
295:15 forever intact, will appear.

Goodness transparent

The manifestation of God through mortals is as light
passing through the window-pane. The light and the
295:18 glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass
is less opaque than the walls. The mortal
mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that
295:21 one which has lost much materiality - much error - in
order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then,
like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides
295:24 the sun.

Brainology a myth

All that is called mortal thought is made up of error.
The theoretical mind is matter, named /brain/, or /mate/-
295:27 /rial consciousness/, the exact opposite of real
Mind, or Spirit. Brainology teaches that
mortals are created to suffer and die. It further
295:30 teaches that when man is dead, his immortal soul is
resurrected from death and mortality. Thus error the-
orizes that spirit is born of matter and returns to mat-
296:1 ter, and that man has a resurrection from dust; whereas
Science unfolds the eternal verity, that man is the spiritual,
296:3 eternal reflection of God.

Scientific purgation

Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of
mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for
296:6 the immortal. Either here or hereafter, suf-
fering or Science must destroy all illusions
regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense
296:9 and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off.
Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a
false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic
296:12 matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real,
and eternal.

The so-called pleasures and pains of matter perish,
296:15 and they must go out under the blaze of Truth, spiritual
sense, and the actuality of being. Mortal belief must lose
all satisfaction in error and sin in order to part with
296:18 them.

Whether mortals will learn this sooner or later, and
how long they will suffer the pangs of destruction, de-
296:21 pends upon the tenacity of error.

Mixed testimony

The knowledge obtained from the corporeal senses
leads to sin and death. When the evidence of Spirit
296:24 and matter, Truth and error, seems to com-
mingle, it rests upon foundations which time
is wearing away. Mortal mind judges by the testimony
296:27 of the material senses, until Science obliterates this false
testimony. An improved belief is one step out of error,
and aids in taking the next step and in understanding
296:30 the situation in Christian Science.

Belief an autocrat

Mortal belief is a liar from the beginning, not deserving
power. It says to mortals, "You are wretched!" and they
297:1 think they are so; and nothing can change this state, until
the belief changes. Mortal belief says, "You are happy!"
297:3 and mortals are so; and no circumstance can
alter the situation, until the belief on this sub-
ject changes. Human belief says to mortals, "You are
297:6 sick!" and this testimony manifests itself on the body as
sickness. It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for
an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into
297:9 the understanding of what constitutes health; for a change
in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the
physical condition.

Self-improvement

297:12 Erroneous belief is destroyed by truth. Change the
evidence, and that disappears which before seemed real
to this false belief, and the human conscious-
297:15 ness rises higher. Thus the reality of being
is attained and man found to be immortal. The only
fact concerning any material concept is, that it is neither
297:18 scientific nor eternal, but subject to change and dis-
solution.

Faith higher than belief

Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is
297:21 a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual
evidence, contradicting the testimony of mate-
rial sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the
297:24 ever-present, is becoming understood. Human thoughts
have their degrees of comparison. Some thoughts are
better than others. A belief in Truth is better than a
297:27 belief in error, but no mortal testimony is founded on the
divine rock. Mortal testimony can be shaken. Until
belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual under-
297:30 standing, human thought has little relation to the actual
or divine.

A mortal belief fulfils its own conditions. Sickness,
298:1 sin, and death are the vague realities of human conclu-
sions. Life, Truth, and Love are the realities of divine
298:3 Science. They dawn in faith and glow full-orbed in
spiritual understanding. As a cloud hides the sun it
cannot extinguish, so false belief silences for a while the
298:6 voice of immutable harmony, but false belief cannot de-
stroy Science armed with faith, hope, and fruition.

Truth's witness

What is termed material sense can report only a mor-
298:9 tal temporary sense of things, whereas spiritual sense can
bear witness only to Truth. To material sense,
the unreal is the real until this sense is corrected
298:12 by Christian Science.

Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, in-
volves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, real-
298:15 ity. Material sense expresses the belief that mind is in
matter. This human belief, alternating between a sense
of pleasure and pain, hope and fear, life and death, never
298:18 reaches beyond the boundary of the mortal or the unreal.
When the real is attained, which is announced by Science,
joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat. Spirit-
298:21 ual ideas, like numbers and notes, start from Principle,
and admit no materialistic beliefs. Spiritual ideas lead
up to their divine origin, God, and to the spiritual sense
298:24 of being.

Thought-angels

Angels are not etherealized human beings, evolving
animal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial
298:27 visitants, flying on spiritual, not material,
pinions. Angels are pure thoughts from God,
winged with Truth and Love, no matter what their indi-
298:30 vidualism may be. Human conjecture confers upon angels
its own forms of thought, marked with superstitious out-
lines, making them human creatures with suggestive
299:1 feathers; but this is only fancy. It has behind it no more
reality than has the sculptor's thought when he carves
299:3 his "Statue of Liberty," which embodies his concep-
tion of an unseen quality or condition, but which has
no physical antecedent reality save in the artist's own ob-
299:6 servation and "chambers of imagery."

Our Angelic messengers

My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door
of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried
299:9 its fondest earthly hopes. With white fin-
gers they point upward to a new and glo-
rified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels
299:12 are God's representatives. These upward-soaring beings
never lead towards self, sin, or materiality, but guide to
the divine Principle of all good, whither every real indi-
299:15 viduality, image, or likeness of God, gathers. By giving
earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us,
and we entertain "angels unawares."

Knowledge and Truth

299:18 Knowledge gained from material sense is figuratively
represented in Scripture as a tree, bearing the fruits of
sin, sickness, and death. Ought we not then
299:21 to judge the knowledge thus obtained to be
untrue and dangerous, since "the tree is known by his
fruit"?

299:24 Truth never destroys God's idea. Truth is spiritual,
eternal substance, which cannot destroy the right reflec-
tion. Corporeal sense, or error, may seem to hide Truth,
299:27 health, harmony, and Science, as the mist obscures the
sun or the mountain; but Science, the sunshine of Truth,
will melt away the shadow and reveal the celestial
299:30 peaks.

Old and new man

If man were solely a creature of the material senses,
he would have no eternal Principle and would be mutable
300:1 and mortal. Human logic is awry when it attempts
to draw correct spiritual conclusions regarding life from
300:3 matter. Finite sense has no true apprecia-
tion of infinite Principle, God, or of His infi-
nite image or reflection, man. The mirage, which makes
300:6 trees and cities seem to be where they are not, illustrates
the illusion of material man, who cannot be the image
of God.

300:9 So far as the scientific statement as to man is under-
stood, it can be proved and will bring to light the true
reflection of God - the real man, or the /new/ man (as
300:12 St. Paul has it).

The tares and wheat

The temporal and unreal never touch the eternal and
real. The mutable and imperfect never touch the im-
300:15 mutable and perfect. The inharmonious and
self-destructive never touch the harmonious
and self-existent. These opposite qualities are the tares
300:18 and wheat, which never really mingle, though (to mortal
sight) they grow side by side until the harvest; then, Sci-
ence separates the wheat from the tares, through the real-
300:21 ization of God as ever present and of man as reflecting
the divine likeness.

The divine reflection

Spirit is God, Soul; therefore Soul is not in matter. If
300:24 Spirit were in matter, God would have no representative,
and matter would be identical with God.
The theory that soul, spirit, intelligence, in-
300:27 habits matter is taught by the schools. This theory is
unscientific. The universe reflects and expresses the di-
vine substance or Mind; therefore God is seen only in the
300:30 spiritual universe and spiritual man, as the sun is seen in
the ray of light which goes out from it. God is re-
vealed only in that which reflects Life, Truth, Love, -
301:1 yea, which manifests God's attributes and power, even
as the human likeness thrown upon the mirror, repeats
301:3 the color, form, and action of the person in front of the
mirror.

Few persons comprehend what Christian Science
301:6 means by the word /reflection. /To himself, mortal and
material man seems to be substance, but his sense of
substance involves error and therefore is material,
301:9 temporal.

On the other hand, the immortal, spiritual man is really
substantial, and reflects the eternal substance, or Spirit,
301:12 which mortals hope for. He reflects the divine, which
constitutes the only real and eternal entity. This reflection
seems to mortal sense transcendental, because the spiritual
301:15 man's substantiality transcends mortal vision and is re-
vealed only through divine Science.

Inverted images and ideas

As God is substance and man is the divine image and
301:18 likeness, man should wish for, and in reality has, only
the substance of good, the substance of Spirit,
not matter. The belief that man has any other
301:21 substance, or mind, is not spiritual and breaks
the First Commandment, Thou shalt have one God, one
Mind. Mortal man seems to himself to be material sub-
301:24 stance, while man is "image" (idea). Delusion, sin, dis-
ease, and death arise from the false testimony of material
sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the
301:27 focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image
of Mind and substance with everything turned upside
down.

301:30 This falsity presupposes soul to be an unsubstantial
dweller in material forms, and man to be material instead
of spiritual. Immortality is not bounded by mortality.
302:1 Soul is not compassed by finiteness. Principle is not to
be found in fragmentary ideas.

Identity not lost

302:3 The material body and mind are temporal, but the
real man is spiritual and eternal. The identity of the
real man is not lost, but found through this
302:6 explanation; for the conscious infinitude of
existence and of all identity is thereby discerned and re-
mains unchanged. It is impossible that man should lose
302:9 aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his. The
notion that mind is in matter, and that the so-called pleas-
ures and pains, the birth, sin, sickness, and death of
302:12 matter, are real, is a mortal belief; and this belief is all
that will ever be lost.

Definition of man

Continuing our definition of/ man/, let us remember that
302:15 harmonious and immortal man has existed forever, and
is always beyond and above the mortal illu-
sion of any life, substance and intelligence
302:18 as existent in matter. This statement is based on fact,
not fable. The Science of being reveals man as perfect,
even as the Father is perfect, because the Soul, or Mind,
302:21 of the spiritual man is God, the divine Principle of all
being, and because this real man is governed by Soul
instead of sense, by the law of Spirit, not by the so-called
302:24 laws of matter.

God is Love. He is therefore the divine, infinite Prin-
ciple, called Person or God. Man's true consciousness
302:27 is in the mental, not in any bodily or personal likeness
to Spirit. Indeed, the body presents no proper likeness
of divinity, though mortal sense would fain have us so
302:30 believe.

Mental propagation

Even in Christian Science, reproduction by Spirit's
individual ideas is but the reflection of the creative power
303:1 of the divine Principle of those ideas. The reflection,
through mental manifestation, of the multitudinous
303:3 forms of Mind which people the realm of
the real is controlled by Mind, the Principle
governing the reflection. Multiplication of God's chil-
303:6 dren comes from no power of propagation in matter, it
is the reflection of Spirit.

The minutiae of lesser individualities reflect the one di-
303:9 vine individuality and are comprehended in and formed
by Spirit, not by material sensation. Whatever reflects
Mind, Life, Truth, and Love, is spiritually conceived and
303:12 brought forth; but the statement that man is conceived
and evolved both spiritually and materially, or by both
God and man, contradicts this eternal truth. All the
303:15 vanity of the ages can never make both these contraries
true. Divine Science lays the axe at the root of the illu-
sion that life, or mind, is formed by or is in the material
303:18 body, and Science will eventually destroy this illusion
through the self-destruction of all error and the beatified
understanding of the Science of Life.

Error defined