Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 78

550:15 Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The continual contemplation of existence as material and cor- poreal - as beginning and ending, and with 550:18 birth, decay, and dissolution as its component stages - hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes our standard to trail in the dust. If Life has any starting- 550:21 point whatsoever, then the great I AM is a myth. If Life is G.o.d, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embry- onic, it is infinite. An egg is an impossible enclosure for 550:24 Deity.

Embryology supplies no instance of one species pro- ducing its opposite. A serpent never begets a bird, nor 550:27 does a lion bring forth a lamb. Amalgamation is deemed monstrous and is seldom fruitful, but it is not so hideous and absurd as the supposition that Spirit - the pure and 550:30 holy, the immutable and immortal - can originate the impure and mortal and dwell in it. As Christian Science repudiates self-evident impossibilities, the material senses 551:1 must father these absurdities, for both the material senses and their reports are unnatural, impossible, and unreal.

The real producer

551:3 Either Mind produces, or it is produced. If Mind is first, it cannot produce its opposite in quality and quant.i.ty, called matter. If matter is first, it cannot pro- 551:6 duce Mind. Like produces like. In natural history, the bird is not the product of a beast. In spiritual history, matter is not the progenitor of Mind.

The ascent of species

551:9 One distinguished naturalist argues that mortals spring from eggs and in races. Mr. Darwin admits this, but he adds that mankind has ascended through all 551:12 the lower grades of existence. Evolution de- scribes the gradations of human belief, but it does not acknowledge the method of divine Mind, nor see that ma- 551:15 terial methods are impossible in divine Science and that all Science is of G.o.d, not of man.

Transmitted peculiarities

Naturalists ask: "What can there be, of a material 551:18 nature, transmitted through these bodies called eggs, - themselves composed of the simplest material elements, - by which all peculiarities of an- 551:21 cestry, belonging to either s.e.x, are brought down from generation to generation?" The question of the natu- ralist amounts to this: How can matter originate or trans- 551:24 mit mind? We answer that it cannot. Darkness and doubt encompa.s.s thought, so long as it bases creation on materiality. From a material standpoint, "Canst thou 551:27 by searching find out G.o.d?" All must be Mind, or else all must be matter. Neither can produce the other.

Mind is immortal; but error declares that the material 551:30 seed must decay in order to propagate its species, and the resulting germ is doomed to the same routine.

Causation not in matter

The ancient and hypothetical question, Which is first, 552:1 the egg or the bird? is answered, if the egg produces the parent. But we cannot stop here. Another question 552:3 follows: Who or what produces the parent of the egg? That the earth was hatched from the "egg of night" was once an accepted theory. Heathen 552:6 philosophy, modern geology, and all other material hy- potheses deal with causation as contingent on matter and as necessarily apparent to the corporeal senses, even 552:9 where the proof requisite to sustain this a.s.sumption is un- discovered. Mortal theories make friends of sin, sickness, and death; whereas the spiritual scientific facts of exist- 552:12 ence include no member of this dolorous and fatal triad.

Emergence of mortals

Human experience in mortal life, which starts from an egg, corresponds with that of Job, when he says, "Man 552:15 that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble." Mortals must emerge from this notion of material life as all-in-all. They must peck 552:18 open their sh.e.l.ls with Christian Science, and look outward and upward. But thought, loosened from a material basis but not yet instructed by Science, may become wild 552:21 with freedom and so be self-contradictory.

Persistence of species

From a material source flows no remedy for sorrow, sin, and death, for the redeeming power, from the ills 552:24 they occasion, is not in egg nor in dust. The blending tints of leaf and flower show the order of matter to be the order of mortal mind. The 552:27 intermixture of different species, urged to its utmost limits, results in a return to the original species. Thus it is learned that matter is a manifestation of mortal 552:30 mind, and that matter always surrenders its claims when the perfect and eternal Mind is understood.

Better basis than embryology

Naturalists describe the origin of mortal and material 553:1 existence in the various forms of embryology, and ac- company their descriptions with important observations, 553:3 which should awaken thought to a higher and purer contemplation of man's origin. This clearer consciousness must precede an under- 553:6 standing of the harmony of being. Mortal thought must obtain a better basis, get nearer the truth of being, or health will never be universal, and harmony will never 553:9 become the standard of man.

One of our ablest naturalists has said: "We have no right to a.s.sume that individuals have grown or been 553:12 formed under circ.u.mstances which made material con- ditions essential to their maintenance and reproduction, or important to their origin and first introduction."

553:15 Why, then, is the naturalist's basis so materialistic, and why are his deductions generally material?

All nativity in thought

Adam was created before Eve. In this instance, it is 553:18 seen that the maternal egg never brought forth Adam.

Eve was formed from Adam's rib, not from a foetal ovum. Whatever theory may be adopted 553:21 by general mortal thought to account for human origin, that theory is sure to become the signal for the appear- ance of its method in finite forms and operations. If con- 553:24 sentaneous human belief agrees upon an ovum as the point of emergence for the human race, this potent belief will immediately supersede the more ancient supersti- 553:27 tion about the creation from dust or from the rib of our primeval father.

Being is immortal

You may say that mortals are formed before they 553:30 think or know aught of their origin, and you may also ask how belief can affect a result which precedes the development of that belief. It can 554:1 only be replied, that Christian Science reveals what "eye hath not seen," - even the cause of all that exists, - for 554:3 the universe, inclusive of man, is as eternal as G.o.d, who is its divine immortal Principle. There is no such thing as mortality, nor are there properly any mortal beings, 554:6 because being is immortal, like Deity, - or, rather, being and Deity are inseparable.

Our conscious development

Error is always error. It is _no thing_. Any statement 554:9 of life, following from a misconception of life, is errone- ous, because it is dest.i.tute of any knowledge of the so-called selfhood of life, dest.i.tute of 554:12 any knowledge of its origin or existence. The mortal is unconscious of his foetal and infantile existence; but as he grows up into another false claim, that of self-con- 554:15 scious matter, he learns to say, "I am somebody; but who made me?" Error replies, "G.o.d made you." The first effort of error has been and is to impute to G.o.d the 554:18 creation of whatever is sinful and mortal; but infinite Mind sets at naught such a mistaken belief.

Mendacity of error

Jesus defined this opposite of G.o.d and His creation 554:21 better than we can, when he said, "He is a liar, and the father of it." Jesus also said, "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?"

554:24 This he said of Judas, one of Adam's race. Jesus never intimated that G.o.d made a devil, but he did say, "Ye are of your father, the devil." All these sayings were to 554:27 show that mind in matter is the author of itself, and is simply a falsity and illusion.

Ailments of animals

It is the general belief that the lower animals are less 554:30 sickly than those possessing higher organiza- tions, especially those of the human form.

This would indicate that there is less disease in propor- 555:1 tion as the force of mortal mind is less pungent or sensi- tive, and that health attends the absence of mortal mind.

555:3 A fair conclusion from this might be, that it is the human belief, and not the divine arbitrament, which brings the physical organism under the yoke of disease.

Ignorance the sign of error

555:6 An inquirer once said to the discoverer of Christian Science: "I like your explanations of truth, but I do not comprehend what you say about error."

555:9 This is the nature of error. The mark of igno- rance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor can be understood. Error would have itself received as 555:12 mind, as if it were as real and G.o.d-created as truth; but Christian Science attributes to error neither ent.i.ty nor power, because error is neither mind nor the outcome of 555:15 Mind.

The origin of divinity

Searching for the origin of man, who is the reflection of G.o.d, is like inquiring into the origin of G.o.d, the self- 555:18 existent and eternal. Only impotent error would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this 555:21 sham unity _man_, as if man were the offspring of both Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Crea- tion rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of 555:24 perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity, when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught that can become imperfect, that G.o.d bestows the power 555:27 to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err. Our great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in 555:30 death. Knowing that G.o.d was the Life of man, Jesus was able to present himself unchanged after the cruci- fixion. Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be- 556:1 lief in illusion or error. That which is real, is sustained by Spirit.

Genera cla.s.sified

556:3 Vertebrata, articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mor- tal and material concepts cla.s.sified, and are supposed to possess life and mind. These false beliefs 556:6 will disappear, when the radiation of Spirit destroys forever all belief in intelligent matter. Then will the new heaven and new earth appear, for the for- 556:9 mer things will have pa.s.sed away.

The Christian's privilege

Mortal belief infolds the conditions of sin. Mortal belief dies to live again in renewed forms, only to go out 556:12 at last forever; for life everlasting is not to be gained by dying. Christian Science may ab- sorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but 556:15 the Christian alone can fathom it. It is made known most fully to him who understands best the divine Life.

Did the origin and the enlightenment of the race come 556:18 from the deep sleep which fell upon Adam? Sleep is darkness, but G.o.d's creative mandate was, "Let there be light." In sleep, cause and effect are mere illusions.

556:21 They seem to be something, but are not. Oblivion and dreams, not realities, come with sleep. Even so goes on the Adam-belief, of which mortal and material life is the 556:24 dream.

Ontology _versus_ physiology

Ontology receives less attention than physiology. Why?

Because mortal mind must waken to spiritual 556:27 life before it cares to solve the problem of being, hence the author's experience; but when that awakening comes, existence will be on a new stand- 556:30 point.

It is related that a father plunged his infant babe, only a few hours old, into the water for several minutes, and 557:1 repeated this operation daily, until the child could remain under water twenty minutes, moving and playing with- 557:3 out harm, like a fish. Parents should remember this and learn how to develop their children properly on dry land.

The curse removed

557:6 Mind controls the birth-throes in the lower realms of nature, where parturition is without suffering. Vege- tables, minerals, and many animals suffer no 557:9 pain in multiplying; but human propagation has its suffering because it is a false belief. Christian Sci- ence reveals harmony as proportionately increasing as the 557:12 line of creation rises towards spiritual man, - towards enlarged understanding and intelligence; but in the line of the corporeal senses, the less a mortal knows of sin, 557:15 disease, and mortality, the better for him, - the less pain and sorrow are his. When the mist of mortal mind evap- orates, the curse will be removed which says to woman, 557:18 "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." Divine Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as 557:21 never dying, but as coexistent with his creator.

Popular theology takes up the history of man as if he began materially right, but immediately fell into mental 557:24 sin; whereas revealed religion proclaims the Science of Mind and its formations as being in accordance with the first chapter of the Old Testament, when G.o.d, Mind, 557:27 spake and it was done.

CHAPTER XVI - THE APOCALYPSE

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. - REVELATION.