Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 77

Man springs from Mind

All error proceeds from the evidence before the mate- 543:18 rial senses. If man is material and originates in an egg, who shall say that he is not primarily dust? May not Darwin be right in think- 543:21 ing that apehood preceded mortal manhood? Minerals and vegetables are found, according to divine Science, to be the creations of erroneous thought, not of matter.

543:24 Did man, whom G.o.d created with a word, originate in an egg? When Spirit made all, did it leave aught for matter to create? Ideas of Truth alone are reflected 543:27 in the myriad manifestations of Life, and thus it is seen that man springs solely from Mind. The belief that matter supports life would make Life, or G.o.d, 543:30 mortal.

Material inception

The text, "In the day that the Lord G.o.d [Jehovah G.o.d] made the earth and the heavens," introduces the 544:1 record of a material creation which followed the spiritual, - a creation so wholly apart from G.o.d's, that Spirit 544:3 had no partic.i.p.ation in it. In G.o.d's creation ideas became productive, obedient to Mind.

There was no rain and "not a man to till the ground."

544:6 Mind, instead of matter, being the producer, Life was self-sustained. Birth, decay, and death arise from the material sense of things, not from the spiritual, for in 544:9 the latter Life consisteth not of the things which a man eateth. Matter cannot change the eternal fact that man exists because G.o.d exists. Nothing is new to the 544:12 infinite Mind.

First evil suggestion

In Science, Mind neither produces matter nor does matter produce mind. No mortal mind has the might 544:15 or right or wisdom to create or to destroy.

All is under the control of the one Mind, even G.o.d. The first statement about evil, - the first 544:18 suggestion of more than the one Mind, - is in the fable of the serpent. The facts of creation, as previously re- corded, include nothing of the kind.

Material personality

544:21 The serpent is supposed to say, "Ye shall be as G.o.ds,"

but these G.o.ds must be evolved from materiality and be the very antipodes of immortal and spiritual 544:24 being. Man is the likeness of Spirit, but a material personality is not this likeness. Therefore man, in this allegory, is neither a lesser G.o.d nor the image and 544:27 likeness of the one G.o.d.

Material, erroneous belief reverses understanding and truth. It declares mind to be in and of matter, so-called 544:30 mortal life to be Life, infinity to enter man's nostrils so that matter becomes spiritual. Error begins with corporeality as the producer instead of divine Prin- 545:1 ciple, and explains Deity through mortal and finite con- ceptions.

545:3 "Behold, the man is become as one of us." This could not be the utterance of Truth or Science, for according to the record, material man was fast degenerating and 545:6 never had been divinely conceived.

Mental tillage

The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means this, - that mortals should so improve material belief 545:9 by thought tending spiritually upward as to destroy materiality. Man, created by G.o.d, was given dominion over the whole earth. The notion 545:12 of a material universe is utterly opposed to the theory of man as evolved from Mind. Such fundamental errors send falsity into all human doctrines and conclusions, 545:15 and do not accord infinity to Deity. Error tills the whole ground in this material theory, which is entirely a false view, destructive to existence and happiness. Out- 545:18 side of Christian Science all is vague and hypothetical, the opposite of Truth; yet this opposite, in its false view of G.o.d and man, impudently demands a blessing.

Erroneous standpoint

545:21 The translators of this record of scientific creation entertained a false sense of being. They believed in the existence of matter, its propagation and 545:24 power. From that standpoint of error, they could not apprehend the nature and operation of Spirit.

Hence the seeming contradiction in that Scripture, which 545:27 is so glorious in its spiritual signification. Truth has but one reply to all error, - to sin, sickness, and death: "Dust [nothingness] thou art, and unto dust [nothingness]

545:30 shalt thou return."

Mortality mythical

"As in Adam [error] all die, even so in Christ [Truth]

shall all be made alive." The mortality of man is a 546:1 myth, for man is immortal. The false belief that spirit is now submerged in matter, at some future time to be eman- 546:3 c.i.p.ated from it, - this belief alone is mortal.

Spirit, G.o.d, never germinates, but is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." If Mind, G.o.d, cre- 546:6 ates error, that error must exist in the divine Mind, and this a.s.sumption of error would dethrone the perfection of Deity.

No truth from a material basis

546:9 Is Christian Science contradictory? Is the divine Principle of creation misstated? Has G.o.d no Science to declare Mind, while matter is governed by un- 546:12 erring intelligence? "There went up a mist from the earth." This represents error as starting from an idea of good on a material basis. It 546:15 supposes G.o.d and man to be manifested only through the corporeal senses, although the material senses can take no cognizance of Spirit or the spiritual idea.

546:18 Genesis and the Apocalypse seem more obscure than other portions of the Scripture, because they cannot possibly be interpreted from a material standpoint. To 546:21 the author, they are transparent, for they contain the deep divinity of the Bible.

Dawning of spiritual facts

Christian Science is dawning upon a material age.

546:24 The great spiritual facts of being, like rays of light, shine in the darkness, though the darkness, com- prehending them not, may deny their reality.

546:27 The proof that the system stated in this book is Chris- tianly scientific resides in the good this system accom- plishes, for it cures on a divine demonstrable Principle 546:30 which all may understand.

Proof given in healing

If mathematics should present a thousand different examples of one rule, the proving of one example would 547:1 authenticate all the others. A simple statement of Chris- tian Science, if demonstrated by healing, contains the 547:3 proof of all here said of Christian Science. If one of the statements in this book is true, every one must be true, for not one departs from the stated sys- 547:6 tem and rule. You can prove for yourself, dear reader, the Science of healing, and so ascertain if the author has given you the correct interpretation of Scripture.

Embryonic evolution

547:9 The late Louis Aga.s.siz, by his microscopic examination of a vulture's ovum, strengthens the thinker's conclusions as to the scientific theory of creation. Aga.s.siz 547:12 was able to see in the egg the earth's atmos- phere, the gathering clouds, the moon and stars, while the germinating speck of so-called embryonic life seemed a 547:15 small sun. In its history of mortality, Darwin's theory of evolution from a material basis is more consistent than most theories. Briefly, this is Darwin's theory, - that 547:18 Mind produces its opposite, matter, and endues matter with power to recreate the universe, including man. Ma- terial evolution implies that the great First Cause must 547:21 become material, and afterwards must either return to Mind or go down into dust and nothingness.

True theory of the universe

The Scriptures are very sacred. Our aim must be to 547:24 have them understood spiritually, for only by this under- standing can truth be gained. The true the- ory of the universe, including man, is not in 547:27 material history but in spiritual development.

Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and 547:30 immortal.

Scriptural perception

It is this spiritual perception of Scripture, which lifts humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith.

548:1 "The Spirit and the bride say, Come! ... and whoso- ever will, let him take the water of life freely." Christian 548:3 Science separates error from truth, and breathes through the sacred pages the spiritual sense of life, substance, and intelligence. In this Science, we dis- 548:6 cover man in the image and likeness of G.o.d. We see that man has never lost his spiritual estate and his eternal harmony.

The clouds dissolving

548:9 How little light or heat reach our earth when clouds cover the sun's face! So Christian Science can be seen only as the clouds of corporeal sense roll away.

548:12 Earth has little light or joy for mortals before Life is spiritually learned. Every agony of mortal error helps error to destroy error, and so aids the apprehension 548:15 of immortal Truth. This is the new birth going on hourly, by which men may entertain angels, the true ideas of G.o.d, the spiritual sense of being.

Prediction of a naturalist

548:18 Speaking of the origin of mortals, a famous naturalist says: "It is very possible that many general statements now current, about birth and generation, will 548:21 be changed with the progress of information."

Had the naturalist, through his tireless researches, gained the diviner side in Christian Science, - so far apart from 548:24 his material sense of animal growth and organization, - he would have blessed the human race more abundantly.

Methods of reproduction

Natural history is richly endowed by the labors and 548:27 genius of great men. Modern discoveries have brought to light important facts in regard to so-called embryonic life. Aga.s.siz declares ("Methods 548:30 of Study in Natural History,") "Certain ani- mals, besides the ordinary process of generation, also increase their numbers naturally and constantly by self- 549:1 division." This discovery is corroborative of the Science of Mind, for this discovery shows that the multiplication 549:3 of certain animals takes place apart from s.e.xual condi- tions. The supposition that life germinates in eggs and must decay after it has grown to maturity, if not before, 549:6 is shown by divine metaphysics to be a mistake, - a blunder which will finally give place to higher theories and demonstrations.

The three processes

549:9 Creatures of lower forms of organism are supposed to have, as cla.s.ses, three different methods of reproduc- tion and to multiply their species sometimes 549:12 through eggs, sometimes through buds, and sometimes through self-division. According to recent lore, successive generations do not begin with the _birth_ of 549:15 new individuals, or personalities, but with the formation of the nucleus, or egg, from which one or more individu- alities subsequently emerge; and we must therefore look 549:18 upon the simple ovum as the germ, the starting-point, of the most complicated corporeal structures, including those which we call human. Here these material researches 549:21 culminate in such vague hypotheses as must necessarily attend false systems, which rely upon physics and are de- void of metaphysics.

Deference to material law

549:24 In one instance a celebrated naturalist, Aga.s.siz, dis- covers the pathway leading to divine Science, and beards the lion of materialism in its den. At that 549:27 point, however, even this great observer mis- takes nature, forsakes Spirit as the divine origin of creative Truth, and allows matter and material law to 549:30 usurp the prerogatives of omnipotence. He absolutely drops from his summit, coming down to a belief in the material origin of man, for he virtually affirms that 550:1 the germ of humanity is in a circ.u.mscribed and non- intelligent egg.

Deep-reaching interrogations

550:3 If this be so, whence cometh Life, or Mind, to the human race? Matter surely does not possess Mind.

G.o.d is the Life, or intelligence, which forms 550:6 and preserves the individuality and ident.i.ty of animals as well as of men. G.o.d cannot become finite, and be limited within material bounds.

550:9 Spirit cannot become matter, nor can Spirit be developed through its opposite. Of what avail is it to investigate what is miscalled material life, which ends, even as it be- 550:12 gins, in nameless nothingness? The true sense of being and its eternal perfection should appear now, even as it will hereafter.

Stages of existence