Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📖

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Genesis iv. 8. Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and 541:15 slew him.

 

The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelligence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood 541:18 of man at the very outset.

 

Genesis iv. 9. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Cain,

Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am 541:21 I my brother’s keeper?

 

Brotherhood repudiated

 

Here the serpentine lie invents new forms. At first it

usurps divine power. It is supposed to say 541:24 in the first instance, “Ye shall be as gods.”

Now it repudiates even the human duty of man towards

his brother.

541:27 Genesis iv. 10, 11. And He [Jehovah] said, … The

voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground.

And now art thou cursed from the earth.

 

Murder brings its curse

542:1 The belief of life in matter sins at every step. It incurs divine displeasure, and it would kill Jesus that it 542:3 might be rid of troublesome Truth. Material

beliefs would slay the spiritual idea whenever and wherever it appears. Though error hides 542:6 behind a lie and excuses guilt, error cannot forever be

concealed. Truth, through her eternal laws, unveils

error. Truth causes sin to betray itself, and sets upon 542:9 error the mark of the beast. Even the disposition to

excuse guilt or to conceal it is punished. The avoidance

of justice and the denial of truth tend to perpetuate sin, 542:12 invoke crime, jeopardize self-control, and mock divine

mercy.

 

Genesis iv. 15. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him 542:15 Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken

on him sevenfold. And the Lord [Jehovah] set a mark

upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

 

Retribution and remorse

542:18 “They that take the sword shall perish with the

sword.” Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God’s

own way, and let human justice pattern the 542:21 divine. Sin will receive its full penalty, both

for what it is and for what it does. Justice marks

the sinner, and teaches mortals not to remove the 542:24 waymarks of God. To envy’s own hell, justice consigns the lie which, to advance itself, breaks God’s

commandments.

542:27 Genesis iv. 16. And Cain went out from the presence of

the Lord [Jehovah], and dwelt in the land of Nod.

 

Climax of suffering

 

The sinful misconception of Life as something less 543:1 than God, having no truth to support it, falls back upon

itself. This error, after reaching the climax of suffering, 543:3 yields to Truth and returns to dust; but it

is only mortal man and not the real man,

who dies. The image of Spirit cannot be effaced, since it 543:6 is the idea of Truth and changes not, but becomes more

beautifully apparent at error’s demise.

 

Dwelling in dreamland

 

In divine Science, the material man is shut out from 543:9 the presence of God. The five corporeal senses cannot

take cognizance of Spirit. They cannot come

into His presence, and must dwell in dream-543:12 land, until mortals arrive at the understanding that material life, with all its sin, sickness, and death, is an illusion, against which divine Science is engaged in a warfare 543:15 of extermination. The great verities of existence are

never excluded by falsity.

 

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 God 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 God, 543:30 mortal.

 

Material inception

 

The text, “In the day that the Lord God [Jehovah

God] 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 God’s, that Spirit 544:3 had no participation in it. In God’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 God 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 God. 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 recorded, include nothing of the kind.

 

Material personality

544:21 The serpent is supposed to say, “Ye shall be as gods,”

but these gods 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 god nor the image and 544:27 likeness of the one God.

 

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 conceptions.

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 God,

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

God 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 cipated from it, - this belief alone is mortal.

Spirit, God, never germinates, but is “the same

yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” If Mind, God, cre-546:6 ates error, that error must exist in the divine Mind, and

this assumption 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 God 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 God 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, comprehending them not, may deny their reality. 546:27 The proof that the system stated in this book is Christianly scientific resides in the good this system accomplishes, 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 Christian 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 Agassiz, by his microscopic examination

of a vulture’s ovum, strengthens the thinker’s conclusions

as to the scientific theory of creation. Agassiz 547:12 was able to see in the egg the earth’s atmosphere, 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. Material 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 understanding can truth be gained. The true theory 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 whosoever 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 God. 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