Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 Part 11
_Why did G.o.d command, __"__Be fruitful, and multiply,_ [25]
_and replenish the earth,__"__ if all minds (men) have existed_ _from the beginning, and have had successive stages of_ _existence to the present time?_
Your question implies that Spirit, which first spirit- ually created the universe, including man, created man [30]
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over again materially; and, by the aid of mankind, all [1]
was later made which _He had made_. If the first record is true, what evidence have you-apart from the evi- dence of that which you admit cannot discern spiritual things-of any other creation? The creative "Us" [5]
made all, and Mind was the creator. Man originated not from dust, materially, but from Spirit, spiritually.
This work had been done; the true creation was finished, and its spiritual Science is alluded to in the first chapter of Genesis. [10]
Jesus said of error, "That thou doest, do quickly."
By the law of opposites, after the truth of man had been demonstrated, the postulate of error must appear. That this addendum was untrue, is seen when Truth, G.o.d, denounced it, and said: "I will greatly multiply thy [15]
sorrow." "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The opposite error said, "I am true," and declared, "G.o.d doth know ... that your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as G.o.ds," creators. This was false; and the Lord G.o.d never said it. This history of a falsity [20]
must be told in the name of Truth, or it would have no seeming. The Science of creation is the universe with man created spiritually. The false sense and error of creation is the sense of man and the universe created materially.
_Why does the record make man a creation of the sixth_ [25]
_and last day, if he was coexistent with G.o.d?_
In its genesis, the Science of creation is stated in mathe- matical order, beginning with the lowest form and ascend- ing the scale of being up to man. But all that really is, always was and forever is; for it existed in and of the Mind [30]
that is G.o.d, wherein man is foremost.
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_If one has died of consumption, and he has no remem-_ [1]
_brance of that disease or dream, does that disease have any_ _more power over him?_
Waking from a dream, one learns its _unreality_; then it has no power over one. Waking from the dream of [5]
death, proves to him who thought he died that it was a dream, and that he did not die; then he learns that con- sumption did not kill him. When the belief in the power of disease is destroyed, disease cannot return.
_How does Mrs. Eddy know that she has read and studied_ [10]
_correctly, if one must deny the evidences of the senses?_ _She had to use her eyes to read._
Jesus said, "Having eyes, see ye not?" I read the in- spired page through a higher than mortal sense. As matter, the eye cannot see; and as mortal mind, it is a [15]
belief that sees. I may read the Scriptures through a belief of eyesight; but I must spiritually understand them to interpret their Science.
_Does the theology of Christian Science aid its heal-_ _ing?_ [20]
Without its theology there is no mental science, no order that proceeds from G.o.d. All Science is divine, not human, in origin and demonstration. If G.o.d does not govern the action of man, it is inharmonious: if He does govern it, the action is Science. Take away the [25]
theology of mental healing and you take away its science, leaving it a human "mind-cure," nothing more nor less, -even one human mind governing another; by which, if you agree that G.o.d is Mind, you admit that there is
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more than one government and G.o.d. Having no true [1]
sense of the healing theology of Mind, you can neither understand nor demonstrate its Science, and will prac- tise your belief of it in the name of Truth. This is the mortal "mind-cure" that produces the effect of mes- [5]
merism. It is using the power of human will, instead of the divine power understood, as in Christian Science; and without this Science there had better be no "mind- cure,"-in which the last state of patients is worse than the first. [10]
_Is it wrong to pray for the recovery of the sick?_
Not if we pray Scripturally, with the understanding that G.o.d _has_ given all things to those who love Him; but pleading with infinite Love to love us, or to restore health and harmony, and then to admit that it has been [15]
lost under His government, is the prayer of doubt and mortal belief that is unavailing in divine Science.
_Is not all argument mind over mind?_
The Scriptures refer to G.o.d as saying, "Come now, and let us reason together." There is but one right Mind, and [20]
that one should and does govern man. Any copartnership with that Mind is impossible; and the only benefit in speaking often one to another, arises from the success that one individual has with another in leading his thoughts away from the human mind or body, and guiding them [25]
with Truth. That individual is the best healer who as- serts himself the least, and thus becomes a transparency for the divine Mind, who is the only physician; the divine Mind is the scientific healer.
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_How can you believe there is no sin, and that G.o.d does_ [1]
_not recognize any, when He sent His Son to save from_ _sin, and the Bible is addressed to sinners? How can you_ _believe there is no sickness, when Jesus came healing the_ _sick? [5]_
To regard sin, disease, and death with less deference, and only as the woeful unrealities of being, is the only way to destroy them; Christian Science is proving this by healing cases of disease and sin after all other means have failed. The Nazarene Prophet could make the unreality [10]
of both apparent in a moment.
_Does it not limit the power of Mind to deny the possi-_ _bility of communion with departed friends-dead only in_ _belief?_
Does it limit the power of Mind to say that addition [15]
is not subtraction in mathematics? The Science of Mind reveals the impossibility of two individual sleepers, in different phases of thought, communicating, even if touch- ing each other corporeally; or for one who sleeps to communicate with another who is awake. Mind's possi- [20]
bilities are not lessened by being confined and conformed to the Science of being.
_If mortal mind and body are myths, what is the con-_ _nection between them and real ident.i.ty, and why are there_ _as many ident.i.ties as mortal bodies?_ [25]
Evil in the beginning claimed the power, wisdom, and utility of good; and every creation or idea of Spirit has its counterfeit in some matter belief. Every material be- lief hints the existence of spiritual reality; and if mortals are instructed in spiritual things, it will be seen that ma- [30]
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terial belief, in all its manifestations, reversed, will be [1]
found the type and representative of verities priceless, eternal, and just at hand.
The education of the future will be instruction, in spir- itual Science, against the material symbolic counterfeit [5]
sciences. All the knowledge and vain strivings of mortal mind, that lead to death,-even when aping the wisdom and magnitude of immortal Mind,-will be swallowed up by the reality and omnipotence of Truth over error, and of Life over death. [10]
"_Dear Mrs. Eddy_:-In the October _Journal_ I read the following: "But the real man, who was created in the image of G.o.d, does not commit sin." _What then does sin?_ _What commits theft? Or who does murder?_ For instance, the man is held responsible for the crime; for I went once [15]
to a place where a man was said to be "hanged for mur- der"-and certainly I saw him, or his effigy, dangling at the end of a rope. This "man" was held responsible for the 'sin.' "
_What sins?_ [20]
According to the Word, man is the image and likeness of G.o.d. Does G.o.d's essential likeness sin, or dangle at the end of a rope? If not, what does? A culprit, a sinner, -anything but a man! Then, what is a sinner? A mortal; but man is _immortal_. [25]
Again: mortals are the embodiments (or bodies, if you please) of error, not of Truth; of sickness, sin, and death. Naming these His embodiment, can neither make them so nor overthrow the logic that man is G.o.d's like- ness. Mortals seem very material; man in the likeness [30]
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of Spirit is spiritual. Holding the _right_ idea of man in my [1]
mind, I can improve my own, and other people's individ- uality, health, and morals; whereas, the opposite image of man, a sinner, kept constantly in mind, can no more improve health or morals, than holding in thought the [5]
form of a boa-constrictor can aid an artist in painting a landscape.