Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 84

SEAL. The signet of error revealed by Truth

594:1 SERPENT (_ophis_, in Greek; _nacash_, in Hebrew).

Subtlety; a lie; the opposite of Truth, named error; 594:3 the first statement of mythology and idolatry; the belief in more than one G.o.d; animal magnetism; the first lie of limitation; finity; the first claim that there is an oppo- 594:6 site of Spirit, or good, termed matter, or evil; the first delusion that error exists as fact; the first claim that sin, sickness, and death are the realities of life. The first 594:9 audible claim that G.o.d was not omnipotent and that there was another power, named _evil_, which was as real and eternal as G.o.d, good.

594:12 SHEEP. Innocence; inoffensiveness; those who follow their leader.

SHEM (Noah's son). A corporeal mortal; kindly affec- 594:1 tion; love rebuking error; reproof of sensualism.

SON. The Son of G.o.d, the Messiah or Christ. The son of man, the offspring of the flesh. "Son of a year."

594:18 SOULS. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 466.

SPIRIT. Divine substance; Mind; divine Principle; all that is good; G.o.d; that only which is perfect, ever- 594:21 lasting, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite.

SPIRITS. Mortal beliefs; corporeality; evil minds; supposed intelligences, or G.o.ds; the opposites of G.o.d; 594:24 errors; hallucinations. (See page 466.)

SUBSTANCE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 468.

595:1 SUN. The symbol of Soul governing man, - of Truth, Life, and Love.

595:3 SWORD. The idea of Truth; justice. Revenge; anger.

TARES. Mortality; error; sin; sickness; disease; 595:6 death.

TEMPLE. Body; the idea of Life, substance, and in- telligence; the superstructure of Truth; the shrine of 595:9 Love; a material superstructure, where mortals congre- gate for worship.

THUMMIM. Perfection; the eternal demand of divine 595:12 Science.

The Urim and Thummim, which were to be on Aaron's breast when he went before Jehovah, were holiness and 595:15 purification of thought and deed, which alone can fit us for the office of spiritual teaching.

TIME. Mortal measurements; limits, in which are 595:18 summed up all human acts, thoughts, beliefs, opinions, knowledge; matter; error; that which begins before, and continues after, what is termed death, until the mortal 595:21 disappears and spiritual perfection appears.

t.i.tHE. Contribution; tenth part; homage; grat.i.tude.

A sacrifice to the G.o.ds.

595:24 UNCLEANLINESS. Impure thoughts; error; sin; dirt.

UNG.o.dLINESS. Opposition to the divine Principle and its spiritual idea.

596:1 UNKNOWN. That which spiritual sense alone compre- hends, and which is unknown to the material senses.

596:3 Paganism and agnosticism may define Deity as "the great unknowable;" but Christian Science brings G.o.d much nearer to man, and makes Him better known as 596:6 the All-in-all, forever near.

Paul saw in Athens an altar dedicated "to the unknown G.o.d." Referring to it, he said to the Athenians: "Whom 596:9 therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you."

(Acts xvii. 23.)

URIM. Light.

596:12 The rabbins believed that the stones in the breast- plate of the high-priest had supernatural illumination, but Christian Science reveals Spirit, not matter, as the 596:15 illuminator of all. The illuminations of Science give us a sense of the nothingness of error, and they show the spiritual inspiration of Love and Truth to be the only fit 596:18 preparation for admission to the presence and power of the Most High.

VALLEY. Depression; meekness; darkness.

596:21 "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." (Psalm xxiii.4.)

Though the way is dark in mortal sense, divine Life 596:24 and Love illumine it, destroy the unrest of mortal thought, the fear of death, and the supposed reality of error. Chris- tian Science, contradicting sense, maketh the valley to bud 596:27 and blossom as the rose.

VEIL. A cover; concealment; hiding; hypocrisy.

The Jewish women wore veils over their faces in token 597:1 of reverence and submission and in accordance with Pharisaical notions.

597:3 The Judaic religion consisted mostly of rites and cere- monies. The motives and affections of a man were of little value, if only he appeared unto men to fast. The 597:6 great Nazarene, as meek as he was mighty, rebuked the hypocrisy, which offered long pet.i.tions for blessings upon material methods, but cloaked the crime, latent in thought, 597:9 which was ready to spring into action and crucify G.o.d's anointed. The martyrdom of Jesus was the culminating sin of Pharisaism. It rent the veil of the temple. It re- 597:12 vealed the false foundations and superstructures of super- ficial religion, tore from bigotry and superst.i.tion their coverings, and opened the sepulchre with divine Science, 597:15 - immortality and Love.

WILDERNESS. Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spon- taneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a 597:18 material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.

WILL. The motive-power of error; mortal belief; ani- 597:21 mal power. The might and wisdom of G.o.d.

"For this is the will of G.o.d." (I Thessalonians iv. 3.)

597:24 Will, as a quality of so-called mortal mind, is a wrong- doer; hence it should not be confounded with the term as applied to Mind or to one of G.o.d's qualities.

597:27 WIND. That which indicates the might of omnipo- tence and the movements of G.o.d's spiritual government, encompa.s.sing all things. Destruction; anger; mortal 597:30 pa.s.sions.

598:1 The Greek word for _wind_ (_pneuma_) is used also for _spirit_, as in the pa.s.sage in John's Gospel, the third chap- 598:3 ter, where we read: "The wind [_pneuma_] bloweth where it listeth... . So is every one that is born of the Spirit [_pneuma_]." Here the original word is the same in both 598:6 cases, yet it has received different translations, as in other pa.s.sages in this same chapter and elsewhere in the New Testament. This shows how our Master had constantly 598:9 to employ words of material significance in order to unfold spiritual thoughts. In the record of Jesus' supposed death, we read: "He bowed his head, and gave up the 598:12 ghost;" but this word _ghost_ is _pneuma_. It might be trans- lated _wind_ or _air_, and the phrase is equivalent to our common statement, "He breathed his last." What 598:15 Jesus gave up was indeed air, an etherealized form of matter, for never did he give up Spirit, or Soul.

WINE. Inspiration; understanding. Error; fornica- 598:18 tion; temptation; pa.s.sion.

YEAR. A solar measurement of time; mortality; s.p.a.ce for repentance.

598:21 "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years."

(II Peter iii. 8.)

One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual 598:24 understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity.

This exalted view, obtained and retained when the Sci- ence of being is understood, would bridge over with life 598:27 discerned spiritually the interval of death, and man would be in the full consciousness of his immortality and eternal harmony, where sin, sickness, and death are un- 598:30 known. Time is a mortal thought, the divisor of which 599:1 is the solar year. Eternity is G.o.d's measurement of Soul- filled years.

599:3 YOU. As applied to corporeality, a mortal; finity.

ZEAL. The reflected animation of Life, Truth, and Love. Blind enthusiasm; mortal will.

599:6 ZION. Spiritual foundation and superstructure; in- spiration; spiritual strength. Emptiness; unfaithful- ness; desolation.

CHAPTER XVIII - FRUITAGE

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. - JESUS.