Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 Part 14
_Are material things real when they are harmonious, and_ _do they disappear only to the natural sense? Does this_ _Scripture, __"__Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have_ [20]
_need of all these things__"__ imply that Spirit takes note of_ _matter?_
The Science of Mind, as well as the material unii verse, shows that nothing which is material is in perpetual harmony. Matter is manifest mortal mind, [35]
and it exists only to material sense. Real sensation is not material; it is, and must be, mental: and Mind is not mortal, it is immortal. Being is G.o.d, infinite Spirit; therefore it cannot cognize aught material, or outside of infinity. [30]
The Scriptural pa.s.sage quoted affords no evidence of
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the reality of matter, or that G.o.d is conscious of it. [1]
The so-called material body is said to suffer, but this supposition is proven erroneous when Mind casts out the suffering. The Scripture saith, "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth;" and again, "He doth not [5]
afflict willingly." Interpreted materially, these pas- sages conflict; they mingle the testimony of immor- tal Science with mortal sense; but once discern their spiritual meaning, and it separates the false sense from the true, and establishes the reality of what is spiritual, [10]
and the unreality of materiality.
Law is never material: it is always mental and moral, and a commandment to the wise. The foolish disobey moral law, and are punished. Human wisdom therefore can get no farther than to say, He knoweth that we have [15]
need of experience. Belief fulfils the conditions of a be- lief, and these conditions destroy the belief. Hence the verdict of experience: We have need of _these_ things; we have need to know that the so-called pleasures and pains of matter-yea, that all subjective states of false sensa- [20]
tion-are _unreal_.
_"__And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you,_ _That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when_ _the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory,_ _ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the_ [25]
_twelve tribes of Israel.__"_ (Matt. xix. 28.) _What is meant_ _by regeneration?_
It is the appearing of divine law to human under- standing; the spiritualization that comes from spiritual sense in contradistinction to the testimony of the so- [30]
called material senses. The phenomena of Spirit in
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Christian Science, and the divine correspondence of [1]
noumenon and phenomenon understood, are here signi- fied. This new-born sense subdues not only the false sense of generation, but the human will, and the un- natural enmity of mortal man toward G.o.d. It quickly [5]
imparts a new apprehension of the true basis of being, and the spiritual foundation for the affections which en- throne the Son of man in the glory of his Father; and judges, through the stern mandate of Science, all human systems of etiology and teleology. [10]
_If G.o.d does not recognize matter, how did Jesus, who was_ _"__the way, the truth, and the life,__"__ cognize it?_
Christ Jesus' sense of matter was the opposite of that which mortals entertain: his nativity was a spiritual and immortal sense of the ideal world. His earthly mission [15]
was to translate substance into its original meaning, Mind. He walked upon the waves; he turned the water into wine; he healed the sick and the sinner; he raised the dead, and rolled away the stone from the door of his own tomb. His demonstration of Spirit virtually van- [20]
quished matter and its supposed laws. Walking the wave, he proved the fallacy of the theory that matter is substance; healing through Mind, he removed any sup- position that matter is intelligent, or can recognize or express pain and pleasure. His triumph over the grave [25]
was an everlasting victory for Life; it demonstrated the lifelessness of matter, and the power and permanence of Spirit. He met and conquered the resistance of the world.
If you will admit, with me, that matter is neither [30]
substance, intelligence, nor Life, you may have all that
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is left of it; and you will have touched the hem of the [1]
garment of Jesus' idea of matter, Christ was "the way;"
since Life and Truth were the way that gave us, through a human person, a spiritual revelation of man's possible earthly development. [5]
_Why do you insist that there is but one Soul, and that_ _Soul is not in the body?_
_First:_ I urge this fundamental fact and grand verity of Christian Science, because it includes a rule that must be understood, or it is impossible to demonstrate the Sci- [10]
ence. Soul is a synonym of Spirit, and G.o.d is Spirit.
There is but one G.o.d, and the infinite is not within the finite; hence Soul is one, and is G.o.d; and G.o.d is not in matter or the mortal body.
_Second:_ Because Soul is a term for Deity, and this [15]
term should seldom be employed except where the word _G.o.d_ can be used and make complete sense. The word _Soul_ may sometimes be used metaphorically; but if this term is warped to signify human quality, a subst.i.tution of _sense_ for _soul_ clears the meaning, and a.s.sists one to [20]
understand Christian Science. Mary's exclamation, ""My _soul_ doth magnify the Lord," is rendered in Sci- ence, "My _spiritual sense_ doth magnify the Lord;"
for the name of Deity used in that place does not bring out the meaning of the pa.s.sage. It was evidently an [25]
illuminated sense through which she discovered the spiritual origin of man. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die," means, that mortal man (_alias_ material sense) that sinneth, shall die; and the commonly accepted view is that _soul_ is deathless. Soul is the divine Mind,-for [30]
Soul cannot be formed or brought forth by human
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thought,-and must proceed from G.o.d; hence it must [1]
be sinless, and dest.i.tute of self-created or derived capacity to sin.
_Third:_ Jesus said, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." This statement of our Master [5]
is true, and remains to be demonstrated; for it is the ultimatum of Christian Science; but this immortal saying can never be tested or proven true upon a false premise, such as the mortal belief that soul is in body, and life and intelligence are in matter. That doctrine is not [10]
theism, but pantheism. According to human belief the bodies of mortals are mortal, but they contain immortal souls! hence these bodies must die for these souls to escape and be immortal. The theory that death must occur, to set a human soul free from its environments, [15]
is rendered void by Jesus' divine declaration, who spake as never man spake,-and no man can rationally reject his authority on this subject and accept it on other topics less important.
Now, exchange the term _soul_ for _sense_ whenever this [20]
word means the so-called soul in the body, and you will find the right meaning indicated. The misnamed human soul is material sense, which sinneth and shall die; for it is an error or false sense of mentality in matter, and matter has no sense. You will admit that Soul is the [25]
Life of man. Now if Soul sinned, it would die; for "the wages of sin is death." The Scripture saith, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." The Science of Soul, Spirit, involves this appearing, and is essential to the fulfilment [30]
of this glorious prophecy of the master Metaphysician, who overcame the last enemy, death.
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_Did the salvation of the eunuch depend merely on his_ [1]
_believing that Jesus Christ was the Son of G.o.d?_
It did; but this believing was more than faith in the fact that Jesus was the Messiah. Here the verb _believe_ took its original meaning, namely, to be _firm_,-yea, to [5]
_understand_ those great truths a.s.serted of the Messiah: it meant to discern and consent to that infinite demand made upon the eunuch in those few words of the apostle.
Philip's requirement was, that he should not only ac- knowledge the incarnation,-G.o.d made manifest through [10]
man,-but even the eternal unity of man and G.o.d, as the divine Principle and spiritual idea; which is the in- dissoluble bond of union, the power and presence, in divine Science, of Life, Truth, and Love, to support their ideal man. This is the Father's great Love that He [15]
hath bestowed upon us, and it holds man in endless Life and one eternal round of harmonious being. It guides him by Truth that knows no error, and with supersensual, impartial, and unquenchable Love. To _believe_ is to _be firm_. In adopting all this vast idea of [20]
Christ Jesus, the eunuch was to _know_ in whom he be- lieved. To _believe_ thus was to enter the spiritual sanctuary of Truth, and there learn, in divine Science, somewhat of the All-Father-Mother G.o.d. It was to understand G.o.d and man: it was sternly to rebuke the mortal [25]
belief that man has fallen away from his first estate; that man, made in G.o.d's own likeness, and reflecting Truth, could fall into mortal error; or, that man is the father of man. It was to enter unshod the Holy of Holies, where the miracle of grace appears, and where the miracles of [30]
Jesus had their birth,-healing the sick, casting out evils, and resurrecting the human _sense_ to the belief
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that Life, G.o.d, is not buried in matter. This is the spirit- [1]
ual dawn of the Messiah, and the overture of the angels. This is when G.o.d is made manifest in the flesh, and thus it destroys all sense of sin, sickness, and death,-when the brightness of His glory encompa.s.seth [5]
all being.
_Can Christian Science Mind-healing be taught to those_ _who are absent?_
The Science of Mind-healing can no more be taught thus, than can science in any other direction. I know [10]
not how to teach either Euclid or the Science of Mind silently; and never dreamed that either of these partook of the nature of occultism, magic, alchemy, or necro- mancy. These "ways that are vain" are the inventions of animal magnetism, which would deceive, if possible, [15]