LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

them for that purpose?

      No human hypotheses, whether in philosophy, medi-

      [pg 026]

      cine, or religion, can survive the wreck of time; but [1]

      whatever is of God, hath life abiding in it, and ulti-

      mately will be known as self-evident truth, as demonstra-

      ble as mathematics. Each successive period of progress

      is a period more humane and spiritual. The only logical [5]

      conclusion is that all is Mind and its manifestation, from

      the rolling of worlds, in the most subtle ether, to a potato-

      patch.

      The agriculturist ponders the history of a seed, and

      believes that his crops come from the seedling and the [10]

      loam; even while the Scripture declares He made “every

      plant of the field before it was in the earth.” The Scien-

      tist asks, Whence came the first seed, and what made

      the soil? Was it molecules, or material atoms? Whence

      came the infinitesimals—from infinite Mind, or from [15]

      matter? If from matter, how did matter originate? Was

      it self-existent? Matter is not intelligent, and thus able

      to evolve or create itself: it is the very opposite of Spirit,

      intelligent, self-creative, and infinite Mind. The belief

      of mind in matter is pantheism. Natural history shows [20]

      that neither a genus nor a species produces its opposite.

      God is All, in all. What can be more than All? Noth-

      ing: and this is just what I call matter, nothing. Spirit,

      God, has no antecedent; and God's consequent is the

      spiritual cosmos. The phrase, “express image,” in the [25]

      common version of Hebrews i. 3, is, in the Greek Tes-

      tament, character.

      The Scriptures name God as good, and the Saxon

      term for God is also good. From this premise comes

      the logical conclusion that God is naturally and divinely [30]

      infinite good. How, then, can this conclusion change,

      or be changed, to mean that good is evil, or the creator

      [pg 027]

      of evil? What can there be besides infinity? Nothing! [1]

      Therefore the Science of good calls evil nothing. In

      divine Science the terms God and good, as Spirit, are

      synonymous. That God, good, creates evil, or aught

      that can result in evil—or that Spirit creates its oppo- [5]

      site, named matter—are conclusions that destroy their

      premise and prove themselves invalid. Here is where

      Christian Science sticks to its text, and other systems

      of religion abandon their own logic. Here also is found

      the pith of the basal statement, the cardinal point in [10]

      Christian Science, that matter and evil (including all

      inharmony, sin, disease, death) are unreal. Mortals

      accept natural science, wherein no species ever pro-

      duces its opposite. Then why not accept divine Sci-

      ence on this ground? since the Scriptures maintain [15]

      this fact by parable and proof, asking, “Do men

      gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” “Doth a

      fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and

      bitter?”

      According to reason and revelation, evil and matter [20]

      are negation: for evil signifies the absence of good, God,

      though God is ever present; and matter claims some-

      thing besides God, when God is really All. Creation,

      evolution, or manifestation—being in and of Spirit,

      Mind, and all that really is—must be spiritual and [25]

      mental. This is Science, and is susceptible of proof.

      But, say you, is a stone spiritual?

      To erring material sense, No! but to unerring spiritual

      sense, it is a small manifestation of Mind, a type of spirit-

      ual substance, “the substance of things hoped for.” [30]

      Mortals can know a stone as substance, only by first ad-

      mitting that it is substantial. Take away the mortal sense

      [pg 028]

      of substance, and the stone itself would disappear, only [1]

      to reappear in the spiritual sense thereof. Matter can

      neither see, hear, feel, taste, nor smell; having no sen-

      sation of its own. Perception by the five personal senses

      is mental, and dependent on the beliefs that mortals [5]

      entertain. Destroy the belief that you can walk, and

      volition ceases; for muscles cannot move without mind.

      Matter takes no cognizance of matter. In dreams, things

      are only what mortal mind makes them; and the phe-

      nomena of mortal life are as dreams; and this so-called [10]

      life is a dream soon told. In proportion as mortals turn

      from this mortal and material dream, to the true sense

      of reality, everlasting Life will be found to be the only

      Life. That death does not destroy the beliefs of the flesh,

      our Master proved to his doubting disciple, Thomas. Also, [15]

      he demonstrated that divine Science alone can overbear

      materiality and mortality; and this great truth was shown

      is by his ascension after death, whereby he arose above

      the illusion of matter.

      The First Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other [20]

      gods before me,” suggests the inquiry, What meaneth

      this Me—Spirit, or matter? It certainly does not

      signify a graven idol, and must mean Spirit. Then

      the commandment means, Thou shalt recognize no

      intelligence nor life in matter; and find neither pleasure [25]

      nor pain therein. The Master's practical knowledge

      of this grand verity, together with his divine Love,

      healed the sick and raised the dead. He literally

      annulled the claims of physique and of physical law,

      by the superiority of the higher law; hence his decla- [30]

      ration, “These signs shall follow them

Скачать книгу