{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_16591/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_16591","id":"gutenberg_16591","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16591","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian Science","Christianity"],"text":"Produced by Justin Gillbank, Josephine Paolucci and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUNITY OF GOOD\n\nBY\n\nMARY BAKER EDDY\n\nAUTHOR OF SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES\n\nRegistered U.S. Patent Office\n\nPublished by The Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy\n\nBOSTON, U.S.A.\n\nAuthorized Literature of\nTHE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST\nin Boston, Massachusetts\n\n_Copyright, 1887, 1891, 1908_\nBY MARY BAKER G. EDDY\n_Copyright renewed, 1915_\n_Copyright renewed, 1919_\n\n_All rights reserved_\n\nPRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA\n\n\n\n\nContents\n\n\nCaution in the Truth\n  _Does God know or behold sin, sickness, and death?_\n\nSeedtime and Harvest\n  _Is anything real of which the physical senses are cognizant?_\n\nThe Deep Things of God\n\nWays Higher than Our Ways\n\nRectifications\n\nA Colloquy\n\nThe Ego\n\nSoul\n\nThere is no Matter\n  _Sight_\n  _Touch_\n  _Taste_\n  _Force_\n\nIs There no Death?\n\nPersonal Statements\n\nCredo\n  _Do you believe in God?_\n  _Do you believe in man?_\n  _Do you believe in matter?_\n  _What say you of woman?_\n  _What say you of evil?_\n\nSuffering from Others' Thoughts\n\nThe Saviour's Mission\n\nSummary\n\n\n\n\nUnity of Good\n\nCaution in the Truth\n\n\nPerhaps no doctrine of Christian Science rouses so much natural doubt and\nquestioning as this, that God knows no such thing as sin. Indeed, this may\nbe set down as one of the \"things hard to be understood,\" such as the\napostle Peter declared were taught by his fellow-apostle Paul, \"which they\nthat are unlearned and unstable wrest ... unto their own destruction.\" (2\nPeter iii. 16.)\n\nLet us then reason together on this important subject, whose statement in\nChristian Science may justly be characterized as _wonderful_.\n\n\n_Does God know or behold sin, sickness, and death?_\n\nThe nature and character of God is so little apprehended and demonstrated\nby mortals, that I counsel my students to defer this infinite inquiry, in\ntheir discussions of Christian Science. In fact, they had better leave the\nsubject untouched, until they draw nearer to the divine character, and are\npractically able to testify, by their lives, that as they come closer to\nthe true understanding of God they lose all sense of error.\n\nThe Scriptures declare that God is too pure to behold iniquity (Habakkuk\ni. 13); but they also declare that God pitieth them who fear Him; that\nthere is no place where His voice is not heard; that He is \"a very present\nhelp in trouble.\"\n\nThe sinner has no refuge from sin, except in God, who is his salvation. We\nmust, however, realize God's presence, power, and love, in order to be\nsaved from sin. This realization takes away man's fondness for sin and his\npleasure in it; and, lastly, it removes the pain which accrues to him from\nit. Then follows this, as the _finale_ in Science: The sinner loses his\nsense of sin, and gains a higher sense of God, in whom there is no sin.\n\nThe true man, really _saved_, is ready to testify of God in the infinite\npenetration of Truth, and can affirm that the Mind which is good, or God,\nhas no knowledge of sin.\n\nIn the same manner the sick lose their sense of sickness, and gain that\nspiritual sense of harmony which contains neither discord nor disease.\n\nAccording to this same rule, in divine Science, the dying--if they die in\nthe Lord--awake from a sense of death to a sense of Life in Christ, with a\nknowledge of Truth and Love beyond what they possessed before; because\ntheir lives have grown so far toward the stature of manhood in Christ\nJesus, that they are ready for a spiritual transfiguration, through their\naffections and understanding.\n\nThose who reach this transition, called _death_, without having rightly\nimproved the lessons of this primary school of mortal existence,--and still\nbelieve in matter's reality, pleasure, and pain,--are not ready to\nunderstand immortality. Hence they awake only to another sphere of\nexperience, and must pass through another probationary state before it can\nbe truly said of them: \"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.\"\n\nThey upon whom the second death, of which we read in the Apocalypse\n(Revelation xx. 6), hath no power, are those who have obeyed God's\ncommands, and have washed their robes white through the sufferings of the\nflesh and the triumphs of Spirit. Thus they have reached the goal in divine\nScience, by knowing Him in whom they have believed. This knowledge is not\nthe forbidden fruit of sin, sickness, and death, but it is the fruit which\ngrows on the \"tree of life.\" This is the understanding of God, whereby man\nis found in the image and likeness of good, not of evil; of health, not of\nsickness; of Life, not of death.\n\nGod is All-in-all. Hence He is in Himself only, in His own nature and\ncharacter, and is perfect being, or consciousness. He is all the Life and\nMind there is or can be. Within Himself is every embodiment of Life and\nMind.\n\nIf He is All, He can have no consciousness of anything unlike Himself;\nbecause, if He is omnipresent, there can be nothing outside of Himself.\n\nNow this self-same God is our helper. He pities us. He has mercy upon us,\nand guides every event of our careers. He is near to them who adore Him.\nTo understand Him, without a single taint of our mortal, finite sense of\nsin, sickness, or death, is to approach Him and become like Him.\n\nTruth is God, and in God's law. This law declares that Truth is All, and\nthere is no error. This law of Truth destroys every phase of error. To gain\na temporary consciousness of God's law is to feel, in a certain finite\nhuman sense, that God comes to us and pities us; but the attainment of the\nunderstanding of His presence, through the Science of God, destroys our\nsense of imperfection, or of His absence, through a diviner sense that God\nis all true consciousness; and this convinces us that, as we get still\nnearer Him, we must forever lose our own consciousness of error.\n\nBut how could we lose all consciousness of error, if God be conscious of\nit? God has not forbidden man to know Him; on the contrary, the Father bids\nman have the same Mind \"which was also in Christ Jesus,\"--which was\ncertainly the divine Mind; but God does forbid man's acquaintance with\nevil. Why? Because evil is no part of the divine knowledge.\n\nJohn's Gospel declares (xvii. 3) that \"life eternal\" consists in the\nknowledge of the only true God, and of Jesus Christ, whom He has sent.\nSurely from such an understanding of Science, such knowing, the vision of\nsin is wholly excluded.\n\nNevertheless, at the present crude hour, no wise men or women will rudely\nor prematurely agitate a theme involving the All of infinity.\n\nRather will they rejoice in the small understanding they have already\ngained of the wholeness of Deity, and work gradually and gently up toward\nthe perfect thought divine. This meekness will increase their apprehension\nof God, because their mental struggles and pride of opinion will\nproportionately diminish.\n\nEvery one should be encouraged not to accept any personal opinion on so\ngreat a matter, but to seek the divine Science of this question of Truth by\nfollowing upward individual convictions, undisturbed by the frightened\nsense of any need of attempting to solve every Life-problem in a day.\n\n\"Great is the mystery of godliness,\" says Paul; and _mystery_ involves the\nunknown. No stubborn purpose to force conclusions on this subject will\nunfold in us a higher sense of Deity; neither will it promote the Cause of\nTruth or enlighten the individual thought.\n\nLet us respect the rights of conscience and the liberty of the sons of God,\nso letting our \"moderation be known to all men.\" Let no enmity, no\nuntempered controversy, spring up between Christian Science students and\nChristians who wholly or partially differ from them as to the nature of sin\nand the marvellous unity of man with God shadowed forth in scientific\nthought. Rather let the stately goings of this wonderful part of Truth be\nleft to the supernal guidance.\n\n\"These are but parts of Thy ways,\" says Job; and the whole is greater than\nits parts. Our present understanding is but \"the seed within itself,\" for\nit is divine Science, \"bearing fruit after its kind.\"\n\nSooner or later the whole human race will learn that, in proportion as the\nspotless selfhood of God is understood, human nature will be renovated, and\nman will receive a higher selfhood, derived from God, and the redemption of\nmortals from sin, sickness, and death be established on everlasting\nfoundations.\n\nThe Science of physical harmony, as now presented to the people in divine\nlight, is radical enough to promote as forcible collisions of thought as\nthe age has strength to bear. Until the heavenly law of health, according\nto Christian Science, is firmly grounded, even the thinkers are not\nprepared to answer intelligently leading questions about God and sin, and\nthe world is far from ready to assimilate such a grand and all-absorbing\nverity concerning the divine nature and character as is embraced in the\ntheory of God's blindness to error and ignorance of sin. No wise mother,\nthough a graduate of Wellesley College, will talk to her babe about the\nproblems of Euclid.\n\nNot much more than a half-century ago the assertion of universal salvation\nprovoked discussion and horror, similar to what our declarations about sin\nand Deity must arouse, if hastily pushed to the front while the platoons of\nChristian Science are not yet thoroughly drilled in the plainer manual of\ntheir spiritual armament. \"Wait patiently on the Lord;\" and in less than\nanother fifty years His name will be magnified in the apprehension of this\nnew subject, as already He is glorified in the wide extension of belief in\nthe impartial grace of God,--shown by the changes at Andover Seminary and\nin multitudes of other religious folds.\n\nNevertheless, though I thus speak, and from my heart of hearts, it is due\nboth to Christian Science and myself to make also the following statement:\nWhen I have most clearly seen and most sensibly felt that the infinite\nrecognizes no disease, this has not separated me from God, but has so bound\nme to Him as to enable me instantaneously to heal a cancer which had eaten\nits way to the jugular vein.\n\nIn the same spiritual condition I have been able to replace dislocated\njoints and raise the dying to instantaneous health. People are now living\nwho can bear witness to these cures. Herein is my evidence, from on high,\nthat the views here promulgated on this subject are correct.\n\nCertain self-proved propositions pour into my waiting thought in connection\nwith these experiences; and here is one such conviction: that an\nacknowledgment of the perfection of the infinite Unseen confers a power\nnothing else can. An incontestable point in divine Science is, that because\nGod is All, a realization of this fact dispels even the sense or\nconsciousness of sin, and brings us nearer to God, bringing out the highest\nphenomena of the All-Mind.\n\n\n\n\nSeedtime and Harvest\n\n\nLet another query now be considered, which gives much trouble to many\nearnest thinkers before Science answers it.\n\n\n_Is anything real of which the physical senses are cognizant?_\n\nEverything is as real as you make it, and no more so. What you see, hear,\nfeel, is a mode of consciousness, and can have no other reality than the\nsense you entertain of it.\n\nIt is dangerous to rest upon the evidence of the senses, for this evidence\nis not absolute, and therefore not real, in our sense of the word. All that\nis beautiful and good in your individual consciousness is permanent. That\nwhich is not so is illusive and fading. My insistence upon a proper\nunderstanding of the unreality of matter and evil arises from their\ndeleterious effects, physical, moral, and intellectual, upon the race.\n\nAll forms of error are uprooted in Science, on the same basis whereby\nsickness is healed,--namely, by the establishment, through reason,\nrevelation, and Science, of the nothingness of every claim of error, even\nthe doctrine of heredity and other physical causes. You demonstrate the\nprocess of Science, and it proves my view conclusively, that mortal mind\nis the cause of all disease. Destroy the mental sense of the disease, and\nthe disease itself disappears. Destroy the sense of sin, and sin itself\ndisappears.\n\nMaterial and sensual consciousness are mortal. Hence they must, some time\nand in some way, be reckoned unreal. That time has partially come, or my\nwords would not have been spoken. Jesus has made the way plain,--so plain\nthat all are without excuse who walk not in it; but this way is not the\npath of physical science, human philosophy, or mystic psychology.\n\nThe talent and genius of the centuries have wrongly reckoned. They have not\nbased upon revelation their arguments and conclusions as to the source and\nresources of being,--its combinations, phenomena, and outcome,--but have\nbuilt instead upon the sand of human reason. They have not accepted the\nsimple teaching and life of Jesus as the only true solution of the\nperplexing problem of human existence.\n\nSometimes it is said, by those who fail to understand me, that I\n_monopolize_; and this is said because ideas akin to mine have been held by\na few spiritual thinkers in all ages. So they have, but in a far different\nform. Healing has gone on continually; yet healing, as I teach it, has not\nbeen practised since the days of Christ.\n\nWhat is the cardinal point of the difference in my metaphysical system?\nThis: that _by knowing the unreality of disease, sin, and death_, you\ndemonstrate the allness of God. This difference wholly separates my system\nfrom all others. The reality of these so-called existences I deny, because\nthey are not to be found in God, and this system is built on Him as the\nsole cause. It would be difficult to name any previous teachers, save Jesus\nand his apostles, who have thus taught.\n\nIf there be any _monopoly_ in my teaching, it lies in this utter reliance\nupon the one God, to whom belong all things.\n\nLife is God, or Spirit, the supersensible eternal. The universe and man are\nthe spiritual phenomena of this one infinite Mind. Spiritual phenomena\nnever converge toward aught but infinite Deity. Their gradations are\nspiritual and divine; they cannot collapse, or lapse into their opposites,\nfor God is their divine Principle. They live, because He lives; and they\nare eternally perfect, because He is perfect, and governs them in the Truth\nof divine Science, whereof God is the Alpha and Omega, the centre and\ncircumference.\n\nTo attempt the calculation of His mighty ways, from the evidence before the\nmaterial senses, is fatuous. It is like commencing with the minus sign, to\nlearn the principle of positive mathematics.\n\nGod was not in the whirlwind. He is not the blind force of a material\nuniverse. Mortals must learn this; unless, pursued by their fears, they\nwould endeavor to hide from His presence under their own falsities, and\ncall in vain for the mountains of unholiness to shield them from the\npenalty of error.\n\nJesus taught us to walk _over_, not _into_ or _with_, the currents of\nmatter, or mortal mind. His teachings beard the lions in their dens. He\nturned the water into wine, he commanded the winds, he healed the\nsick,--all in direct opposition to human philosophy and so-called natural\nscience. He annulled the laws of matter, showing them to be laws of mortal\nmind, not of God. He showed the need of changing this mind and its abortive\nlaws. He demanded a change of consciousness and evidence, and effected this\nchange through the higher laws of God. The palsied hand moved, despite the\nboastful sense of physical law and order. Jesus stooped not to human\nconsciousness, nor to the evidence of the senses. He heeded not the taunt,\n\"That withered hand looks very real and feels very real;\" but he cut off\nthis vain boasting and destroyed human pride by taking away the material\nevidence. If his patient was a theologian of some bigoted sect, a\nphysician, or a professor of natural philosophy,--according to the ruder\nsort then prevalent,--he never thanked Jesus for restoring his senseless\nhand; but neither red tape nor indignity hindered the divine process. Jesus\nrequired neither cycles of time nor thought in order to mature fitness for\nperfection and its possibilities. He said that the kingdom of heaven is\nhere, and is included in Mind; that while ye say, There are yet four\nmonths, and _then_ cometh the harvest, I say, Look up, not down, for your\nfields are already white for the harvest; and gather the harvest by mental,\nnot material processes. The laborers are few in this vineyard of\nMind-sowing and reaping; but let them apply to the waiting grain the\ncurving sickle of Mind's eternal circle, and bind it with bands of Soul.\n\n\n\n\nThe Deep Things of God\n\n\nScience reverses the evidence of the senses in theology, on the same\nprinciple that it does in astronomy. Popular theology makes God tributary\nto man, coming at human call; whereas the reverse is true in Science. Men\nmust approach God reverently, doing their own work in obedience to divine\nlaw, if they would fulfil the intended harmony of being.\n\nThe principle of music knows nothing of discord. God is harmony's selfhood.\nHis universal laws, His unchangeableness, are not infringed in ethics any\nmore than in music. To Him there is no moral inharmony; as we shall learn,\nproportionately as we gain the true understanding of Deity. If God could be\nconscious of sin, His infinite power would straightway reduce the universe\nto chaos.\n\nIf God has any real knowledge of sin, sickness, and death, they must be\neternal; since He is, in the very fibre of His being, \"without beginning of\nyears or end of days.\" If God knows that which is not permanent, it follows\nthat He knows something which He must learn to _unknow_, for the benefit of\nour race.\n\nSuch a view would bring us upon an outworn theological platform, which\ncontains such planks as the divine repentance, and the belief that God must\none day do His work over again, because it was not at first done aright.\n\nCan it be seriously held, by any thinker, that long after God made the\nuniverse,--earth, man, animals, plants, the sun, the moon, and \"the stars\nalso,\"--He should so gain wisdom and power from past experience that He\ncould vastly improve upon His own previous work,--as Burgess, the\nboatbuilder, remedies in the Volunteer the shortcomings of the Puritan's\nmodel?\n\nChristians are commanded to _grow in grace_. Was it necessary for God to\ngrow in grace, that He might rectify His spiritual universe?\n\nThe Jehovah of limited Hebrew faith might need repentance, because His\ncreated children proved sinful; but the New Testament tells us of \"the\nFather of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.\"\nGod is not the shifting vane on the spire, but the corner-stone of living\nrock, firmer than everlasting hills.\n\nAs God is Mind, if this Mind is familiar with evil, all cannot be good\ntherein. Our infinite model would be taken away. What is in eternal Mind\nmust be reflected in man, Mind's image. How then could man escape, or hope\nto escape, from a knowledge which is everlasting in his creator?\n\nGod never said that man would become better by learning to distinguish evil\nfrom good,--but the contrary, that by this knowledge, by man's first\ndisobedience, came \"death into the world, and all our woe.\"\n\n\"Shall mortal man be more just than God?\" asks the poet-patriarch. May men\nrid themselves of an incubus which God never can throw off? Do mortals know\nmore than God, that they may declare Him absolutely cognizant of sin?\n\nGod created all things, and pronounced them good. Was evil among these good\nthings? Man is God's child and image. If God knows evil, so must man, or\nthe likeness is incomplete, the image marred.\n\nIf man must be destroyed by the knowledge of evil, then his destruction\ncomes through the very knowledge caught from God, and the creature is\npunished for his likeness to his creator.\n\nGod is commonly called the _sinless_, and man the _sinful_; but if the\nthought of sin could be possible in Deity, would Deity then be sinless?\nWould God not of necessity take precedence as the infinite sinner, and\nhuman sin become only an echo of the divine?\n\nSuch vagaries are to be found in heathen religious history. There are, or\nhave been, devotees who worship not the good Deity, who will not harm them,\nbut the bad deity, who seeks to do them mischief, and whom therefore they\nwish to bribe with prayers into quiescence, as a criminal appeases, with a\nmoney-bag, the venal officer.\n\nSurely this is no Christian worship! In Christianity man bows to the\ninfinite perfection which he is bidden to imitate. In Truth, such\nterms as _divine sin_ and _infinite sinner_ are unheard-of\ncontradictions,--absurdities; but _would_ they be sheer nonsense, if God\nhas, or can have, a real knowledge of sin?\n\n\n\n\nWays Higher than Our Ways\n\n\nA lie has only one chance of successful deception,--to be accounted true.\nEvil seeks to fasten all error upon God, and so make the lie seem part of\neternal Truth.\n\nEmerson says, \"Hitch your wagon to a star.\" I say, Be allied to the deific\npower, and all that is good will aid your journey, as the stars in their\ncourses fought against Sisera. (Judges v. 20.) Hourly, in Christian\nScience, man thus weds himself with God, or rather he ratifies a union\npredestined from all eternity; but evil ties its wagon-load of offal to the\ndivine chariots,--or seeks so to do,--that its vileness may be christened\npurity, and its darkness get consolation from borrowed scintillations.\n\nJesus distinctly taught the arrogant Pharisees that, from the beginning,\ntheir father, the devil, was the would-be murderer of Truth. A right\napprehension of the wonderful utterances of him who \"spake as never man\nspake,\" would despoil error of its borrowed plumes, and transform the\nuniverse into a home of marvellous light,--\"a consummation devoutly to be\nwished.\"\n\nError says God must know evil because He knows all things; but Holy Writ\ndeclares God told our first parents that in the day when they should\npartake of the fruit of evil, they must surely die. Would it not absurdly\nfollow that God must perish, if He knows evil and evil necessarily leads\nto extinction? Rather let us think of God as saying, I am infinite good;\ntherefore I know not evil. Dwelling in light, I can see only the brightness\nof My own glory.\n\nError may say that God can never save man from sin, if He knows and sees it\nnot; but God says, I am too pure to behold iniquity, and destroy everything\nthat is unlike Myself.\n\nMany fancy that our heavenly Father reasons thus: If pain and sorrow were\nnot in My mind, I could not remedy them, and wipe the tears from the eyes\nof My children. Error says you must know grief in order to console it.\nTruth, God, says you oftenest console others in troubles that you have not.\nIs not our comforter always from outside and above ourselves?\n\nGod says, I show My pity through divine law, not through human. It is My\nsympathy with and My knowledge of harmony (not inharmony) which alone\nenable Me to rebuke, and eventually destroy, every supposition of discord.\n\nError says God must know death in order to strike at its root; but God\nsaith, I am ever-conscious Life, and thus I conquer death; for to be ever\nconscious of Life is to be never conscious of death. I am All. A knowledge\nof aught beside Myself is impossible.\n\nIf such knowledge of evil were possible to God, it would lower His rank.\n\nWith God, _knowledge_ is necessarily _foreknowledge_; and _foreknowledge_\nand _foreordination_ must be one, in an infinite Being. What Deity\n_foreknows_, Deity must _foreordain_; else He is not omnipotent, and, like\nourselves, He foresees events which are contrary to His creative will, yet\nwhich He cannot avert.\n\nIf God knows evil at all, He must have had foreknowledge thereof; and if He\nforeknew it, He must virtually have intended it, or ordered it\naforetime,--foreordained it; else how could it have come into the world?\n\nBut this we cannot believe of God; for if the supreme good could predestine\nor foreknow evil, there would be sin in Deity, and this would be the end of\ninfinite moral unity. \"If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,\nhow great is that darkness!\" On the contrary, evil is only a delusive\ndeception, without any actuality which Truth can know.\n\n\n\n\nRectifications\n\n\nHow is a mistake to be rectified? By reversal or revision,--by seeing it in\nits proper light, and then turning it or turning from it.\n\nWe undo the statements of error by reversing them.\n\nThrough these three statements, or misstatements, evil comes into\nauthority:--\n\n    _First:_ The Lord created it.\n    _Second:_ The Lord knows it.\n    _Third:_ I am afraid of it.\n\nBy a reverse process of argument evil must be dethroned:--\n\n    _First:_ God never made evil.\n    _Second:_ He knows it not.\n    _Third:_ We therefore need not fear it.\n\nTry this process, dear inquirer, and so reach that perfect Love which\n\"casteth out fear,\" and then see if this Love does not destroy in you all\nhate and the sense of evil. You will awake to the perception of God as\nAll-in-all. You will find yourself losing the knowledge and the operation\nof sin, proportionably as you realize the divine infinitude and believe\nthat He can see nothing outside of His own focal distance.\n\n\n\n\nA Colloquy\n\n\nIn Romans (ii. 15) we read the apostle's description of mental processes\nwherein human thoughts are \"the mean while accusing or else excusing one\nanother.\" If we observe our mental processes, we shall find that we are\nperpetually arguing with ourselves; yet each mortal is not two\npersonalities, but one.\n\nIn like manner good and evil talk to one another; yet they are not two but\none, for evil is naught, and good only is reality.\n\n_Evil._ God hath said, \"Ye shall eat of every tree of the garden.\" If you\ndo not, your intellect will be circumscribed and the evidence of your\npersonal senses be denied. This would antagonize individual consciousness\nand existence.\n\n_Good._ The Lord is God. With Him is no consciousness of evil, because\nthere is nothing beside Him or outside of Him. Individual consciousness in\nman is inseparable from good. There is no sensible matter, no sense in\nmatter; but there is a spiritual sense, a sense of Spirit, and this is the\nonly consciousness belonging to true individuality, or a divine sense of\nbeing.\n\n_Evil._ Why is this so?\n\n_Good._ Because man is made after God's eternal likeness, and this likeness\nconsists in a sense of harmony and immortality, in which no evil can\npossibly dwell. You may eat of the fruit of Godlikeness, but as to the\nfruit of ungodliness, which is opposed to Truth,--ye shall not touch it,\nlest ye die.\n\n_Evil._ But I would taste and know error for myself.\n\n_Good._ Thou shalt not admit that error is something to know or be known,\nto eat or be eaten, to see or be seen, to feel or be felt. To admit the\nexistence of error would be to admit the truth of a lie.\n\n_Evil._ But there is something besides good. God knows that a knowledge of\nthis something is essential to happiness and life. A lie is as genuine as\nTruth, though not so legitimate a child of God. Whatever exists must come\nfrom God, and be important to our knowledge. Error, even, is His offspring.\n\n_Good._ Whatever cometh not from the eternal Spirit, has its origin in the\nphysical senses and material brains, called _human intellect_ and\n_will-power_,--_alias_ intelligent matter.\n\nIn Shakespeare's tragedy of King Lear, it was the traitorous and cruel\ntreatment received by old Gloster from his bastard son Edmund which makes\ntrue the lines:\n\n    The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices\n    Make instruments to scourge us.\n\nHis lawful son, Edgar, was to his father ever loyal. Now God has no\nbastards to turn again and rend their Maker. The divine children are born\nof law and order, and Truth knows only such.\n\nHow well the Shakespearean tale agrees with the word of Scripture, in\nHebrews xii. 7, 8: \"If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with\nsons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be\nwithout chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and\nnot sons.\"\n\nThe doubtful or spurious evidence of the senses is not to be\nadmitted,--especially when they testify concerning Spirit, whereof they are\nconfessedly incompetent to speak.\n\n_Evil._ But mortal mind and sin really exist!\n\n_Good._ How can they exist, unless God has created them? And how can He\ncreate anything so wholly unlike Himself and foreign to His nature? An evil\nmaterial mind, so-called, can conceive of God only as like itself, and\nknowing both evil and good; but a purely good and spiritual consciousness\nhas no sense whereby to cognize evil. Mortal mind is the opposite of\nimmortal Mind, and sin the opposite of goodness. I am the infinite All.\nFrom me proceedeth all Mind, all consciousness, all individuality, all\nbeing. My Mind is divine good, and cannot drift into evil. To believe in\nminds many is to depart from the supreme sense of harmony. Your assumptions\ninsist that there is more than the one Mind, more than the one God; but\nverily I say unto you, God is All-in-all; and you can never be outside of\nHis oneness.\n\n_Evil._ I am a finite consciousness, a material individuality,--a mind in\nmatter, which is both evil and good.\n\n_Good._ All consciousness is Mind; and Mind is God,--an infinite, and not a\nfinite consciousness. This consciousness is reflected in individual\nconsciousness, or man, whose source is infinite Mind. There is no really\nfinite mind, no finite consciousness. There is no material substance, for\nSpirit is all that endureth, and hence is the only substance. There is, can\nbe, no evil mind, because Mind is God. God and His ideas--that is, God and\nthe universe--constitute all that exists. Man, as God's offspring, must be\nspiritual, perfect, eternal.\n\n_Evil._ I am something separate from good or God. I am substance. My mind\nis more than matter. In my mortal mind, matter becomes conscious, and is\nable to see, taste, hear, feel, smell. Whatever matter thus affirms is\nmainly correct. If you, O good, deny this, then I deny your truthfulness.\nIf you say that matter is unconscious, you stultify my intellect, insult my\nconscience, and dispute self-evident facts; for nothing can be clearer than\nthe testimony of the five senses.\n\n_Good._ Spirit is the only substance. Spirit is God, and God is good; hence\ngood is the only substance, the only Mind. Mind is not, cannot be, in\nmatter. It sees, hears, feels, tastes, smells as Mind, and not as matter.\nMatter cannot talk; and hence, whatever it appears to say of itself is a\nlie. This lie, that Mind can be in matter,--claiming to be something beside\nGod, denying Truth and its demonstration in Christian Science,--this lie I\ndeclare an illusion. This denial enlarges the human intellect by removing\nits evidence from sense to Soul, and from finiteness into infinity. It\nhonors conscious human individuality by showing God as its source.\n\n_Evil._ I am a creator,--but upon a material, not a spiritual basis. I give\nlife, and I can destroy life.\n\n_Good._ Evil is not a creator. God, good, is the only creator. Evil is not\nconscious or conscientious Mind; it is not individual, not actual. Evil is\nnot spiritual, and therefore has no groundwork in Life, whose only source\nis Spirit. The elements which belong to the eternal All,--Life, Truth,\nLove,--evil can never take away.\n\n_Evil._ I am intelligent matter; and matter is egoistic, having its own\ninnate selfhood and the capacity to evolve mind. God is in matter, and\nmatter reproduces God. From Him come my forms, near or remote. This is my\nhonor, that God is my author, authority, governor, disposer. I am proud to\nbe in His outstretched hands, and I shirk all responsibility for myself as\nevil, and for my varying manifestations.\n\n_Good._ You mistake, O evil! God is not your authority and law. Neither is\nHe the author of the material changes, the _phantasma_, a belief in which\nleads to such teaching as we find in the hymn-verse so often sung in\nchurch:--\n\n    Chance and change are busy ever,\n      Man decays and ages move;\n    But His mercy waneth never,--\n      God is wisdom, God is love.\n\nNow if it be true that God's power _never waneth_, how can it be also true\nthat _chance_ and _change_ are universal factors,--that _man decays_? Many\nordinary Christians protest against this stanza of Bowring's, and its\nsentiment is foreign to Christian Science. If God be _changeless goodness_,\nas sings another line of this hymn, what place has _chance_ in the divine\neconomy? Nay, there is in God naught fantastic. All is real, all is\nserious. The phantasmagoria is a product of human dreams.\n\n\n\n\nThe Ego\n\n\nFrom various friends comes inquiry as to the meaning of a word employed in\nthe foregoing colloquy.\n\nThere are two English words, often used as if they were synonyms, which\nreally have a shade of difference between them.\n\nAn _egotist_ is one who talks much of himself. _Egotism_ implies vanity and\nself-conceit.\n\n_Egoism_ is a more philosophical word, signifying a passionate love of\nself, which doubts all existence except its own. An _egoist_, therefore, is\none uncertain of everything except his own existence.\n\nApplying these distinctions to evil and God, we shall find that evil is\n_egotistic_,--boastful, but fleeing like a shadow at daybreak; while God is\n_egoistic_, knowing only His own all-presence, all-knowledge, all-power.\n\n\n\n\nSoul\n\n\nWe read in the Hebrew Scriptures, \"The soul that sinneth, it shall die.\"\n\nWhat is Soul? Is it a reality within the mortal body? Who can prove that?\nAnatomy has not descried nor described Soul. It was never touched by the\nscalpel nor cut with the dissecting-knife. The five physical senses do not\ncognize it.\n\nWho, then, dares define Soul as something within man? As well might you\ndeclare some old castle to be peopled with demons or angels, though never a\nlight or form was discerned therein, and not a spectre had ever been seen\ngoing in or coming out.\n\nThe common hypotheses about souls are even more vague than ordinary\nmaterial conjectures, and have less basis; because material theories are\nbuilt on the evidence of the material senses.\n\nSoul must be God; since we learn Soul only as we learn God, by\nspiritualization. As the five senses take no cognizance of Soul, so they\ntake no cognizance of God. Whatever cannot be taken in by mortal mind--by\nhuman reflection, reason, or belief--must be the unfathomable Mind, which\n\"eye hath not seen, nor ear heard.\" Soul stands in this relation to every\nhypothesis as to its human character.\n\nIf Soul sins, it is a sinner, and Jewish law condemned the sinner to\ndeath,--as does all criminal law, to a certain extent.\n\nSpirit never sins, because Spirit is God. Hence, as Spirit, Soul is\nsinless, and is God. Therefore there is, there can be, no spiritual death.\n\nTranscending the evidence of the material senses, Science declares God to\nbe the Soul of all being, the only Mind and intelligence in the universe.\nThere is but one God, one Soul, or Mind, and that one is infinite,\nsupplying all that is absolutely immutable and eternal,--Truth, Life, Love.\n\nScience reveals Soul as that which the senses cannot define from any\nstandpoint of their own. What the physical senses miscall soul, Christian\nScience defines as material sense; and herein lies the discrepancy between\nthe true Science of Soul and that material sense of a soul which that very\nsense declares can never be seen or measured or weighed or touched by\nphysicality.\n\nOften we can elucidate the deep meaning of the Scriptures by reading\n_sense_ instead of _soul_, as in the Forty-second Psalm: \"Why art thou cast\ndown, O my soul [sense]?... Hope thou in God [Soul]: for I shall yet praise\nHim, who is the health of my countenance, and my God [my Soul,\nimmortality].\"\n\nThe Virgin-mother's sense being uplifted to behold Spirit as the sole\norigin of man, she exclaimed, \"My soul [spiritual sense] doth magnify the\nLord.\"\n\nHuman language constantly uses the word _soul_ for _sense_. This it does\nunder the delusion that the senses can reverse the spiritual facts of\nScience, whereas Science reverses the testimony of the material senses.\n\nSoul is Life, and being spiritual Life, never sins. Material sense is the\nso-called material life. Hence this lower sense sins and suffers, according\nto material belief, till divine understanding takes away this belief and\nrestores Soul, or spiritual Life. \"He restoreth my soul,\" says David.\n\nIn his first epistle to the Corinthians (xv. 45) Paul writes: \"The first\nman Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening\nspirit.\" The apostle refers to the second Adam as the Messiah, our blessed\nMaster, whose interpretation of God and His creation--by restoring the\nspiritual sense of man as immortal instead of mortal--made humanity\nvictorious over death and the grave.\n\nWhen I discovered the power of Spirit to break the cords of matter, through\na change in the mortal sense of things, then I discerned the last Adam as a\nquickening Spirit, and understood the meaning of the declaration of Holy\nWrit, \"The first shall be last,\"--the living Soul shall be found a\nquickening Spirit; or, rather, shall reflect the Life of the divine\nArbiter.\n\n\n\n\nThere is no Matter\n\n\n\"God is a Spirit\" (or, more accurately translated, \"God is Spirit\"),\ndeclares the Scripture (John iv. 24), \"and they that worship Him must\nworship Him in spirit and in truth.\"\n\nIf God is Spirit, and God is All, surely there can be no matter; for the\ndivine All must be Spirit.\n\nThe tendency of Christianity is to spiritualize thought and action. The\ndemonstrations of Jesus annulled the claims of matter, and overruled laws\nmaterial as emphatically as they annihilated sin.\n\nAccording to Christian Science, the _first_ idolatrous claim of sin is,\nthat matter exists; the _second_, that matter is substance; the _third_,\nthat matter has intelligence; and the _fourth_, that matter, being so\nendowed, produces life and death.\n\nHence my conscientious position, in the denial of matter, rests on the fact\nthat matter usurps the authority of God, Spirit; and the nature and\ncharacter of matter, the antipode of Spirit, include all that denies and\ndefies Spirit, in quantity or quality.\n\nThis subject can be enlarged. It can be shown, in detail, that evil does\nnot obtain in Spirit, God; and that God, or good, is Spirit alone; whereas,\nevil _does_, according to belief, obtain in matter; and that evil is a\nfalse claim,--false to God, false to Truth and Life. Hence the claim of\nmatter usurps the prerogative of God, saying, \"I am a creator. God made me,\nand I make man and the material universe.\"\n\nSpirit is the only creator, and man, including the universe, is His\nspiritual concept. By matter is commonly meant mind,--not the highest Mind,\nbut a false form of mind. This so-called mind and matter cannot be\nseparated in origin and action.\n\nWhat is this mind? It is not the Mind of Spirit; for spiritualization of\nthought destroys all sense of matter as substance, Life, or intelligence,\nand enthrones God in the eternal qualities of His being.\n\nThis lower, misnamed mind is a false claim, a suppositional mind, which I\nprefer to call _mortal mind_. True Mind is immortal. This mortal mind\ndeclares itself material, in sin, sickness, and death, virtually saying, \"I\nam the opposite of Spirit, of holiness, harmony, and Life.\"\n\nTo this declaration Christian Science responds, even as did our Master:\n\"You were a murderer from the beginning. The truth abode not in you. You\nare a liar, and the father of it.\" Here it appears that a _liar_ was in the\nneuter gender,--neither masculine nor feminine. Hence it was not man (the\nimage of God) who lied, but the false claim to personality, which I call\n_mortal mind_; a claim which Christian Science uncovers, in order to\ndemonstrate the falsity of the claim.\n\nThere are lesser arguments which prove matter to be identical with mortal\nmind, and this mind a lie.\n\nThe physical senses (matter really having no sense) give the only pretended\ntestimony there can be as to the existence of a substance called _matter_.\nNow these senses, being material, can only testify from their own evidence,\nand concerning themselves; yet we have it on divine authority: \"If I bear\nwitness of myself, my witness is not true.\" (John v. 31.)\n\nIn other words: matter testifies of itself, \"I am matter;\" but unless\nmatter is mind, it cannot talk or testify; and if it is mind, it is\ncertainly not the Mind of Christ, not the Mind that is identical with\nTruth.\n\nBrain, thus assuming to testify, is only matter within the skull, and is\nbelieved to be mind only through error and delusion. Examine that form of\nmatter called _brains_, and you find no mind therein. Hence the logical\nsequence, that there is in reality neither matter nor mortal mind, but that\nthe self-testimony of the physical senses is false.\n\nExamine these witnesses for error, or falsity, and observe the foundations\nof their testimony, and you will find them divided in evidence, mocking the\nScripture (Matthew xviii. 16), \"In the mouth of two or three witnesses\nevery word may be established.\"\n\n\n_Sight._ Mortal mind declares that matter sees through the organizations of\nmatter, or that mind sees by means of matter. Disorganize the so-called\nmaterial structure, and then mortal mind says, \"I cannot see;\" and declares\nthat matter is the master of mind, and that non-intelligence governs.\nMortal mind admits that it sees only material images, pictured on the eye's\nretina.\n\nWhat then is the line of the syllogism? It must be this: That matter is not\nseen; that mortal mind cannot see without matter; and therefore that the\nwhole function of material sight is an illusion, a lie.\n\nHere comes in the summary of the whole matter, wherewith we started: that\nGod is All, and God is Spirit; therefore there is nothing but Spirit; and\nconsequently there is no matter.\n\n\n_Touch_. Take another train of reasoning. Mortal mind says that matter\ncannot feel matter; yet put your finger on a burning coal, and the nerves,\nmaterial nerves, _do_ feel matter.\n\nAgain I ask: What evidence does mortal mind afford that matter is\nsubstantial, is hot or cold? Take away mortal mind, and matter could not\nfeel what it calls _substance_. Take away matter, and mortal mind could not\ncognize its own so-called substance, and this so-called mind would have no\nidentity. Nothing would remain to be seen or felt.\n\nWhat is substance? What is the reality of God and the universe? Immortal\nMind is the real substance,--Spirit, Life, Truth, and Love.\n\n_Taste._ Mortal mind says, \"I taste; and this is sweet, this is sour.\" Let\nmortal mind change, and say that sour is sweet, and so it would be. If\nevery mortal mind believed sweet to be sour, it would be so; for the\nqualities of matter are but qualities of mortal mind. Change the mind, and\nthe quality changes. Destroy the belief, and the quality disappears.\n\nThe so-called material senses are found, upon examination, to be mortally\nmental, instead of material. Reduced to its proper denomination, matter is\nmortal mind; yet, strictly speaking, there is no mortal mind, for Mind is\nimmortal, and is not matter, but Spirit.\n\n_Force._ What is gravitation? Mortal mind says gravitation is a material\npower, or force. I ask, Which was first, matter or power? That which was\nfirst was God, immortal Mind, the Parent of _all_. But God is Truth, and\nthe forces of Truth are moral and spiritual, not physical. They are not the\nmerciless forces of matter. What then _are_ the so-called forces of matter?\nThey are the phenomena of mortal mind, and matter and mortal mind are one;\nand this one is a misstatement of Mind, God.\n\nA molecule, as matter, is not formed by Spirit; for Spirit is _spiritual_\nconsciousness alone. Hence this spiritual consciousness can form nothing\nunlike itself, Spirit, and Spirit is the only creator. The material atom is\nan outlined falsity of consciousness, which can gather additional evidence\nof consciousness and life only as it adds lie to lie. This process it names\nmaterial attraction, and endows with the double capacity of creator and\ncreation.\n\nFrom the beginning this lie was the false witness against the fact that\nSpirit is All, beside which there is no other existence. The use of a lie\nis that it unwittingly confirms Truth, when handled by Christian Science,\nwhich reverses false testimony and gains a knowledge of God from opposite\nfacts, or phenomena.\n\nThis whole subject is met and solved by Christian Science according to\nScripture. Thus we see that Spirit is Truth and eternal reality; that\nmatter is the opposite of Spirit,--referred to in the New Testament as the\nflesh at war with Spirit; hence, that matter is erroneous, transitory,\nunreal.\n\nA further proof of this is the demonstration, according to Christian\nScience, that by the reduction and the rejection of the claims of matter\n(instead of acquiescence therein) man is improved physically, mentally,\nmorally, spiritually.\n\nTo deny the existence or reality of matter, and yet admit the reality of\nmoral evil, sin, or to say that the divine Mind is conscious of evil, yet\nis not conscious of matter, is erroneous. This error stultifies the logic\nof divine Science, and must interfere with its practical demonstration.\n\n\n\n\nIs There no Death?\n\n\nJesus not only declared himself \"the way\" and \"the truth,\" but also \"the\nlife.\" God is Life; and as there is but one God, there can be but one Life.\nMust man die, then, in order to inherit eternal life and enter heaven?\n\nOur Master said, \"The kingdom of heaven is at hand.\" Then God and heaven,\nor Life, are present, and death is not the real stepping-stone to Life and\nhappiness. They are now and here; and a change in human consciousness, from\nsin to holiness, would reveal this wonder of being. Because God is ever\npresent, no boundary of time can separate us from Him and the heaven of His\npresence; and because God is Life, all Life is eternal.\n\nIs it unchristian to believe there is no death? Not unless it be a sin to\nbelieve that God is Life and All-in-all. Evil and disease do not testify of\nLife and God.\n\nHuman beings are physically mortal, but spiritually immortal. The evil\naccompanying physical personality is illusive and mortal; but the good\nattendant upon spiritual individuality is immortal. Existing here and now,\nthis unseen individuality is real and eternal. The so-called material\nsenses, and the mortal mind which is misnamed _man_, take no cognizance of\nspiritual individuality, which manifests immortality, whose Principle is\nGod.\n\nTo God alone belong the indisputable realities of being. Death is a\ncontradiction of Life, or God; therefore it is not in accordance with His\nlaw, but antagonistic thereto.\n\nDeath, then, is error, opposed to Truth,--even the unreality of mortal\nmind, not the reality of that Mind which is Life. Error has no life, and is\nvirtually without existence. Life is real; and all is real which proceeds\nfrom Life and is inseparable from it.\n\nIt is unchristian to believe in the transition called _material death_,\nsince matter has no life, and such misbelief must enthrone another power,\nan imaginary life, above the living and true God. A material sense of life\nrobs God, by declaring that not He alone is Life, but that something else\nalso is life,--thus affirming the existence and rulership of more gods than\none. This idolatrous and false sense of life is all that dies, or appears\nto die.\n\nThe opposite understanding of God brings to light Life and immortality.\nDeath has no quality of Life; and no divine fiat commands us to believe in\naught which is unlike God, or to deny that He is Life eternal.\n\nLife as God, moral and spiritual good, is not seen in the mineral,\nvegetable, or animal kingdoms. Hence the inevitable conclusion that Life is\nnot in these kingdoms, and that the popular views to this effect are not up\nto the Christian standard of Life, or equal to the reality of being, whose\nPrinciple is God.\n\nWhen \"the Word\" is \"made flesh\" among mortals, the Truth of Life is\nrendered practical on the body. Eternal Life is partially understood; and\nsickness, sin, and death yield to holiness, health, and Life,--that is, to\nGod. The lust of the flesh and the pride of physical life must be quenched\nin the divine essence,--that omnipotent Love which annihilates hate, that\nLife which knows no death.\n\n\"Who hath believed our report?\" Who understands these sayings? He to whom\nthe arm of the Lord is revealed. He loves them from whom divine Science\nremoves human weakness by divine strength, and who unveil the Messiah,\nwhose name is Wonderful.\n\nMan has no underived power. That selfhood is false which opposes itself to\nGod, claims another father, and denies spiritual sonship; but as many as\nreceive the knowledge of God in Science must reflect, in some degree, the\npower of Him who gave and giveth man dominion over all the earth.\n\nAs soldiers of the cross we must be brave, and let Science declare the\nimmortal status of man, and deny the evidence of the material senses, which\ntestify that man dies.\n\nAs the image of God, or Life, man forever reflects and embodies Life, not\ndeath. The material senses testify falsely. They presuppose that God is\ngood and that man is evil, that Deity is deathless, but that man dies,\nlosing the divine likeness.\n\nScience and material sense conflict at all points, from the revolution of\nthe earth to the fall of a sparrow. It is mortality only that dies.\n\nTo say that you and I, as mortals, will not enter this dark shadow of\nmaterial sense, called _death_, is to assert what we have not proved; but\nman in Science never dies. Material sense, or the belief of life in matter,\nmust perish, in order to prove man deathless.\n\nAs Truth supersedes error, and bears the fruits of Love, this understanding\nof Truth subordinates the belief in death, and demonstrates Life as\nimperative in the divine order of being.\n\nJesus declares that they who believe his sayings will never die; therefore\nmortals can no more receive everlasting life by believing in death, than\nthey can become perfect by believing in imperfection and living\nimperfectly.\n\nLife is God, and God is good. Hence Life abides in man, if man abides in\ngood, if he lives in God, who holds Life by a spiritual and not by a\nmaterial sense of being.\n\nA sense of death is not requisite to a proper or true sense of Life, but\nbeclouds it. Death can never alarm or even appear to him who fully\nunderstands Life. The death-penalty comes through our ignorance of\nLife,--of that which is without beginning and without end,--and is the\npunishment of this ignorance.\n\nHolding a material sense of Life, and lacking the spiritual sense of it,\nmortals die, in belief, and regard all things as temporal. A sense material\napprehends nothing strictly belonging to the nature and office of Life. It\nconceives and beholds nothing but mortality, and has but a feeble concept\nof immortality.\n\nIn order to reach the true knowledge and consciousness of Life, we must\nlearn it of good. Of evil we can never learn it, because sin shuts out the\nreal sense of Life, and brings in an unreal sense of suffering and death.\n\nKnowledge of evil, or belief in it, involves a loss of the true sense of\ngood, God; and to know death, or to believe in it, involves a temporary\nloss of God, the infinite and only Life.\n\nResurrection from the dead (that is, from the belief in death) must come to\nall sooner or later; and they who have part in this resurrection are they\nupon whom the second death has no power.\n\nThe sweet and sacred sense of the permanence of man's unity with his Maker\ncan illumine our present being with a continual presence and power of good,\nopening wide the portal from death into Life; and when this Life shall\nappear \"we shall be like Him,\" and we shall go to the Father, not through\ndeath, but through Life; not through error, but through Truth.\n\nAll Life is Spirit, and Spirit can never dwell in its antagonist, matter.\nLife, therefore, is deathless, because God cannot be the opposite of\nHimself. In Christian Science there is no matter; hence matter neither\nlives nor dies. To the senses, matter appears to both live and die, and\nthese phenomena appear to go on _ad infinitum_; but such a theory implies\nperpetual disagreement with Spirit.\n\nLife, God, being everywhere, it must follow that death can be nowhere;\nbecause there is no place left for it.\n\nSoul, Spirit, is deathless. Matter, sin, and death are not the outcome of\nSpirit, holiness, and Life. What then are matter, sin, and death? They can\nbe nothing except the results of material consciousness; but material\nconsciousness can have no real existence, because it is not a living--that\nis to say, a divine and intelligent--reality.\n\nThat man must be vicious before he can be virtuous, dying before he can be\ndeathless, material before he can be spiritual, is an error of the senses;\nfor the very opposite of this error is the genuine Science of being.\n\nMan, in Science, is as perfect and immortal now, as when \"the morning stars\nsang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.\"\n\nWith Christ, Life was not merely a sense of existence, but a sense of might\nand ability to subdue material conditions. No wonder \"people were\nastonished at his doctrine; for he taught them as one having authority, and\nnot as the scribes.\"\n\nAs defined by Jesus, Life had no beginning; nor was it the result of\norganization, or of an infusion of power into matter. To him, Life was\nSpirit.\n\nTruth, defiant of error or matter, is Science, dispelling a false sense and\nleading man into the true sense of selfhood and Godhood; wherein the mortal\ndoes not develop the immortal, nor the material the spiritual, but wherein\ntrue manhood and womanhood go forth in the radiance of eternal being and\nits perfections, unchanged and unchangeable.\n\nThis generation seems too material for any strong demonstration over death,\nand hence cannot bring out the infinite reality of Life,--namely, that\nthere is no death, but only Life. The present mortal sense of being is too\nfinite for anchorage in infinite good, God, because mortals now believe in\nthe possibility that Life can be evil.\n\nThe achievement of this ultimatum of Science, complete triumph over death,\nrequires time and immense spiritual growth.\n\nI have by no means spoken of myself, I _cannot_ speak of myself as\n\"sufficient for these things.\" I insist only upon the fact, as it exists in\ndivine Science, that man dies not, and on the words of the Master in\nsupport of this verity,--words which can never \"pass away till all be\nfulfilled.\"\n\nBecause of these profound reasons I urge Christians to have more faith in\nliving than in dying. I exhort them to accept Christ's promise, and unite\nthe influence of their own thoughts with the power of his teachings, in the\nScience of being. This will interpret the divine power to human capacity,\nand enable us to _apprehend_, or lay hold upon, \"that for which,\" as Paul\nsays in the third chapter of Philippians, we are also \"apprehended of [or\ngrasped by] Christ Jesus,\"--the ever-present Life which knows no death, the\nomnipresent Spirit which knows no matter.\n\n\n\n\nPersonal Statements\n\n\nMany misrepresentations are made concerning my doctrines, some of which are\nas unkind and unjust as they are untrue; but I can only repeat the Master's\nwords: \"They know not what they do.\"\n\nThe foundations of these assertions, like the structure raised thereupon,\nare vain shadows, repeating--if the popular couplet may be so paraphrased--\n\n            The old, old story,\n    Of _Satan_ and his _lie_.\n\nIn the days of Eden, humanity was misled by a false personality,--a talking\nsnake,--according to Biblical history. This pretender taught the opposite\nof Truth. This abortive ego, this fable of error, is laid bare in Christian\nScience.\n\nHuman theories call, or miscall, this evil a child of God. Philosophy would\nmultiply and subdivide personality into everything that exists, whether\nexpressive or not expressive of the Mind which is God. Human wisdom says of\nevil, \"The Lord knows it!\" thus carrying out the serpent's assurance: \"In\nthe day ye eat thereof [when you, lie, get the floor], then your eyes shall\nbe opened [you shall be conscious matter], and ye shall be as gods, knowing\ngood and evil [you shall believe a lie, and this lie shall seem truth].\"\n\nBruise the head of this serpent, as Truth and \"the woman\" are doing in\nChristian Science, and it stings your heel, rears its crest proudly, and\ngoes on saying, \"Am I not myself? Am I not mind and matter, person and\nthing?\" We should answer: \"Yes! you are indeed yourself, and need most of\nall to be rid of this self, for it is very far from God's likeness.\"\n\nThe egotist must come down and learn, in humility, that God never made\nevil. An evil ego, and his assumed power, are falsities. These falsities\nneed a denial. The falsity is the teaching that matter can be conscious;\nand conscious matter implies pantheism. This pantheism I unveil. I try to\nshow its all-pervading presence in certain forms of theology and\nphilosophy, where it becomes error's affirmative to Truth's negative.\nAnatomy and physiology make mind-matter a habitant of the cerebellum,\nwhence it telegraphs and telephones over its own body, and goes forth into\nan imaginary sphere of its own creation and limitation, until it finally\ndies in order to better itself. But Truth never dies, and death is not the\ngoal which Truth seeks.\n\nThe evil ego has but the visionary substance of matter. It lacks the\nsubstance of Spirit,--Mind, Life, Soul. Mortal mind is self-creative and\nself-sustained, until it becomes non-existent. It has no origin or\nexistence in Spirit, immortal Mind, or good. Matter is not truly conscious;\nand mortal error, called _mind_, is not Godlike. These are the shadowy and\nfalse, which neither think nor speak.\n\nAll Truth is from inspiration and revelation,--from Spirit, not from flesh.\n\nWe do not see much of the real man here, for he is God's man; while ours is\nman's man.\n\nI do not deny, I maintain, the individuality and reality of man; but I do\nso on a divine Principle, not based on a human conception and birth. The\nscientific man and his Maker are here; and you would be none other than\nthis man, if you would subordinate the fleshly perceptions to the spiritual\nsense and source of being.\n\nJesus said, \"I and my Father are one.\" He taught no selfhood as existent in\nmatter. In his identity there is no evil. Individuality and Life were real\nto him only as spiritual and good, not as material or evil. This incensed\nthe rabbins against Jesus, because it was an indignity to their\npersonality; and this personality they regarded as both good and evil, as\nis still claimed by the worldly-wise. To them evil was even more the ego\nthan was the good. Sin, sickness, and death were evil's concomitants. This\nevil ego they believed must extend throughout the universe, as being\nequally identical and self-conscious with God. This ego was in the\nearthquake, thunderbolt, and tempest.\n\nThe Pharisees fought Jesus on this issue. It furnished the battle-ground of\nthe past, as it does of the present. The fight was an effort to enthrone\nevil. Jesus assumed the burden of disproof by destroying sin, sickness,\nand death, to sight and sense.\n\nNowhere in Scripture is evil connected with good, the being of God, and\nwith every passing hour it is losing its false claim to existence or\nconsciousness. All that can exist is God and His idea.\n\n\n\n\nCredo\n\n\nIt is fair to ask of every one a reason for the faith within. Though it be\nbut to repeat my twice-told tale,--nay, the tale already told a hundred\ntimes,--yet ask, and I will answer.\n\n_Do you believe in God?_\n\nI believe more in Him than do most Christians, for I have no faith in any\nother thing or being. He sustains my individuality. Nay, more--He _is_ my\nindividuality and my Life. Because He lives, I live. He heals all my ills,\ndestroys my iniquities, deprives death of its sting, and robs the grave of\nits victory.\n\nTo me God is All. He is best understood as Supreme Being, as infinite and\nconscious Life, as the affectionate Father and Mother of all He creates;\nbut this divine Parent no more enters into His creation than the human\nfather enters into his child. His creation is not the Ego, but the\nreflection of the Ego. The Ego is God Himself, the infinite Soul.\n\nI believe that of which I am conscious through the understanding, however\nfaintly able to demonstrate Truth and Love.\n\n_Do you believe in man?_\n\nI believe in the individual man, for I understand that man is as definite\nand eternal as God, and that man is coexistent with God, as being the\neternally divine idea. This is demonstrable by the simple appeal to human\nconsciousness.\n\nBut I believe less in the sinner, wrongly named _man_. The more I\nunderstand true humanhood, the more I see it to be sinless,--as ignorant of\nsin as is the perfect Maker.\n\nTo me the reality and substance of being are _good_, and nothing else.\nThrough the eternal reality of existence I reach, in thought, a glorified\nconsciousness of the only living God and the genuine man. So long as I hold\nevil in consciousness, I cannot be wholly good.\n\nYou cannot simultaneously serve the mammon of materiality and the God of\nspirituality. There are not two realities of being, two opposite states of\nexistence. One should appear real to us, and the other unreal, or we lose\nthe Science of being. Standing in no basic Truth, we make \"the worse appear\nthe better reason,\" and the unreal masquerades as the real, in our thought.\n\nEvil is without Principle. Being destitute of Principle, it is devoid of\nScience. Hence it is undemonstrable, without proof. This gives me a clearer\nright to call evil a negation, than to affirm it to be something which God\nsees and knows, but which He straightway commands mortals to shun or\nrelinquish, lest it destroy them. This notion of the destructibility of\nMind implies the possibility of its defilement; but how can infinite Mind\nbe defiled?\n\n_Do you believe in matter_?\n\nI believe in matter only as I believe in evil, that it is something to be\ndenied and destroyed to human consciousness, and is unknown to the Divine.\nWe should watch and pray that we enter not into the temptation of\npantheistic belief in matter as sensible mind. We should subjugate it as\nJesus did, by a dominant understanding of Spirit.\n\nAt best, matter is only a phenomenon of mortal mind, of which evil is the\nhighest degree; but really there is no such thing as _mortal mind_,--though\nwe are compelled to use the phrase in the endeavor to express the\nunderlying thought.\n\nIn reality there are no material states or stages of consciousness, and\nmatter has neither Mind nor sensation. Like evil, it is destitute of Mind,\nfor Mind is God.\n\nThe less consciousness of evil or matter mortals have, the easier it is for\nthem to evade sin, sickness, and death,--which are but states of false\nbelief,--and awake from the troubled dream, a consciousness which is\nwithout Mind or Maker.\n\nMatter and evil cannot be conscious, and consciousness should not be evil.\nAdopt this rule of Science, and you will discover the material origin,\ngrowth, maturity, and death of sinners, as the history of man, disappears,\nand the everlasting facts of being appear, wherein man is the reflection\nof immutable good.\n\nReasoning from false premises,--that Life is material, that immortal Soul\nis sinful, and hence that sin is eternal,--the reality of being is neither\nseen, felt, heard, nor understood. Human philosophy and human reason can\nnever make one hair white or black, except in belief; whereas the\ndemonstration of God, as in Christian Science, is gained through Christ as\nperfect manhood.\n\nIn pantheism the world is bereft of its God, whose place is ill supplied by\nthe pretentious usurpation, by matter, of the heavenly sovereignty.\n\n_What say you of woman?_\n\nMan is the generic term for all humanity. Woman is the highest species of\nman, and this word is the generic term for all women; but not one of all\nthese individualities is an Eve or an Adam. They have none of them lost\ntheir harmonious state, in the economy of God's wisdom and government.\n\nThe Ego is divine consciousness, eternally radiating throughout all space\nin the idea of God, good, and not of His opposite, evil. The Ego is\nrevealed as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; but the full Truth is found only\nin divine Science, where we see God as Life, Truth, and Love. In the\nscientific relation of man to God, man is reflected not as human soul, but\nas the divine ideal, whose Soul is not in body, but is God,--the divine\nPrinciple of man. Hence Soul is sinless and immortal, in contradistinction\nto the supposition that there can be sinful souls or immortal sinners.\n\nThis Science of God and man is the Holy Ghost, which reveals and sustains\nthe unbroken and eternal harmony of both God and the universe. It is the\nkingdom of heaven, the ever-present reign of harmony, already with us.\nHence the need that human consciousness should become divine, in the\ncoincidence of God and man, in contradistinction to the false consciousness\nof both good and evil, God and devil,--of man separated from his Maker.\nThis is the precious redemption of soul, as mortal sense, through Christ's\nimmortal sense of Truth, which presents Truth's spiritual idea, _man_ and\n_woman_.\n\n_What say you of evil?_\n\nGod is not the so-called ego of evil; for evil, as a supposition, is the\nfather of itself,--of the material world, the flesh, and the devil. From\nthis falsehood arise the self-destroying elements of this world, its unkind\nforces, its tempests, lightnings, earthquakes, poisons, rabid beasts, fatal\nreptiles, and mortals.\n\nWhy are earth and mortals so elaborate in beauty, color, and form, if God\nhas no part in them? By the law of opposites. The most beautiful blossom is\noften poisonous, and the most beautiful mansion is sometimes the home of\nvice. The senses, not God, Soul, form the condition of beautiful evil, and\nthe supposed modes of self-conscious matter, which make a beautiful lie.\nNow a lie takes its pattern from Truth, by reversing Truth. So evil and all\nits forms are inverted good. God never made them; but the lie must say He\nmade them, or it would not be evil. Being a lie, it would be truthful to\ncall itself a lie; and by calling the knowledge of evil good, and greatly\nto be desired, it constitutes the lie an evil.\n\nThe reality and individuality of man are good and God-made, and they are\nhere to be seen and demonstrated; it is only the evil belief that renders\nthem obscure.\n\nMatter and evil are anti-Christian, the antipodes of Science. To say that\nMind is material, or that evil is Mind, is a misapprehension of being,--a\nmistake which will die of its own delusion; for being self-contradictory,\nit is also self-destructive. The harmony of man's being is not built on\nsuch false foundations, which are no more logical, philosophical, or\nscientific than would be the assertion that the rule of addition is the\nrule of subtraction, and that sums done under both rules would have one\nquotient.\n\nMan's individuality is not a mortal mind or sinner; or else he has lost his\ntrue individuality as a perfect child of God. Man's Father is not a mortal\nmind and a sinner; or else the immortal and unerring Mind, God, is not his\nFather; but God _is_ man's origin and loving Father, hence that saying of\nJesus, \"Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father,\nwhich is in heaven.\"\n\nThe bright gold of Truth is dimmed by the doctrine of mind in matter.\n\nTo say there _is_ a false claim, called _sickness_, is to admit all there\nis of sickness; for it is nothing but a false claim. To be healed, one must\nlose sight of a false claim. If the claim be present to the thought, then\ndisease becomes as tangible as any reality. To regard sickness as a false\nclaim, is to abate the fear of it; but this does not destroy the so-called\nfact of the _claim_. In order to be whole, we must be insensible to every\nclaim of error.\n\nAs with sickness, so is it with sin. To admit that sin has any claim\nwhatever, just or unjust, is to admit a dangerous fact. Hence the fact must\nbe denied; for if sin's claim be allowed in any degree, then sin destroys\nthe _at-one-ment_, or oneness with God,--a unity which sin recognizes as\nits most potent and deadly enemy.\n\nIf God knows sin, even as a false claimant, then acquaintance with that\nclaimant becomes legitimate to mortals, and this knowledge would not be\nforbidden; but God forbade man to know evil at the very beginning, when\nSatan held it up before man as something desirable and a distinct addition\nto human wisdom, because the knowledge of evil would make man a god,--a\nrepresentation that God both knew and admitted the dignity of evil.\n\nWhich is right,--God, who condemned the knowledge of sin and disowned its\nacquaintance, or the serpent, who pushed that claim with the glittering\naudacity of diabolical and sinuous logic?\n\n\n\n\nSuffering from Others' Thoughts\n\n\nJesus accepted the one fact whereby alone the rule of Life can be\ndemonstrated,--namely, that there is no death.\n\nIn his real self he bore no infirmities. Though \"a man of sorrows, and\nacquainted with grief,\" as Isaiah says of him, he bore not _his_ sins, but\n_ours_, \"in his own body on the tree.\" \"He was bruised for _our_\niniquities; ... and with his stripes we are healed.\"\n\nHe was the Way-shower; and Christian Scientists who would demonstrate \"the\nway\" must keep close to his path, that they may win the prize. \"The way,\"\nin the flesh, is the suffering which leads out of the flesh. \"The way,\" in\nSpirit, is \"the way\" of Life, Truth, and Love, redeeming us from the false\nsense of the flesh and the wounds it bears. This threefold Messiah reveals\nthe self-destroying ways of error and the life-giving way of Truth.\n\nJob's faith and hope gained him the assurance that the so-called sufferings\nof the flesh are unreal. We shall learn how false are the pleasures and\npains of material sense, and behold the truth of being, as expressed in his\nconviction, \"Yet in my flesh shall I see God;\" that is, Now and here shall\nI behold God, divine Love.\n\nThe chaos of mortal mind is made the stepping-stone to the cosmos of\nimmortal Mind.\n\nIf Jesus suffered, as the Scriptures declare, it must have been from the\nmentality of others; since all suffering comes from mind, not from matter,\nand there could be no sin or suffering in the Mind which is God. Not his\nown sins, but the sins of the world, \"crucified the Lord of glory,\" and\n\"put him to an open shame.\"\n\nHolding a quickened sense of false environment, and suffering from\nmentality in opposition to Truth, are significant of that state of mind\nwhich the actual understanding of Christian Science first eliminates and\nthen destroys.\n\nIn the divine order of Science every follower of Christ shares his cup of\nsorrows. He also suffereth in the flesh, and from the mentality which\nopposes the law of Spirit; but the divine law is supreme, for it freeth him\nfrom the law of sin and death.\n\nProphets and apostles suffered from the thoughts of others. Their conscious\nbeing was not fully exempt from physicality and the sense of sin.\n\nUntil he awakes from his delusion, he suffers least from sin who is a\nhardened sinner. The hypocrite's affections must first be made to fret in\ntheir chains; and the pangs of hell must lay hold of him ere he can change\nfrom flesh to Spirit, become acquainted with that Love which is without\ndissimulation and endureth all things. Such mental conditions as\ningratitude, lust, malice, hate, constitute the miasma of earth. More\nobnoxious than Chinese stenchpots are these dispositions which offend the\nspiritual sense.\n\nAnatomically considered, the design of the material senses is to warn\nmortals of the approach of danger by the pain they feel and occasion; but\nas this sense disappears it foresees the impending doom and foretells the\npain. Man's refuge is in spirituality, \"under the shadow of the Almighty.\"\n\nThe cross is the central emblem of human history. Without it there is\nneither temptation nor glory. When Jesus turned and said, \"Who hath touched\nme?\" he must have felt the influence of the woman's thought; for it is\nwritten that he felt that \"virtue had gone out of him.\" His pure\nconsciousness was discriminating, and rendered this infallible verdict; but\nhe neither held her error by affinity nor by infirmity, for it was detected\nand dismissed.\n\nThis gospel of suffering brought life and bliss. This is earth's Bethel in\nstone,--its pillow, supporting the ladder which reaches heaven.\n\nSuffering was the confirmation of Paul's faith. Through \"a thorn in the\nflesh\" he learned that spiritual grace was sufficient for him.\n\nPeter rejoiced that he was found worthy to suffer for Christ; because to\nsuffer with him is to reign with him.\n\nSorrow is the harbinger of joy. Mortal throes of anguish forward the birth\nof immortal being; but divine Science wipes away all tears.\n\nThe only conscious existence in the flesh is error of some sort,--sin,\npain, death,--a false sense of life and happiness. Mortals, if at ease in\nso-called existence, are in their native element of error, and must become\n_dis-eased_, dis-quieted, before error is annihilated.\n\nJesus walked with bleeding feet the thorny earth-road, treading \"the\nwinepress alone.\" His persecutors said mockingly, \"Save thyself, and come\ndown from the cross.\" This was the very thing he _was_ doing, coming down\nfrom the cross, saving himself after the manner that he had taught, by the\nlaw of Spirit's supremacy; and this was done through what is humanly called\n_agony_.\n\nEven the ice-bound hypocrite melts in fervent heat, before he apprehends\nChrist as \"the way.\" The Master's sublime triumph over all mortal mentality\nwas immortality's goal. He was too wise not to be willing to test the full\ncompass of human woe, being \"in all points tempted like as we are, yet\nwithout sin.\"\n\nThus the absolute unreality of sin, sickness, and death was revealed,--a\nrevelation that beams on mortal sense as the midnight sun shines over the\nPolar Sea.\n\n\n\n\nThe Saviour's Mission\n\n\nIf there is no reality in evil, why did the Messiah come to the world, and\nfrom what evils was it his purpose to save humankind? How, indeed, is he a\nSaviour, if the evils from which he saves are nonentities?\n\nJesus came to earth; but the Christ (that is, the divine idea of the divine\nPrinciple which made heaven and earth) was never absent from the earth and\nheaven; hence the phraseology of Jesus, who spoke of the Christ as one who\ncame down from heaven, yet as \"the Son of man _which is in heaven_.\" (John\niii. 13.) By this we understand Christ to be the divine idea brought to the\nflesh in the son of Mary.\n\nSalvation is as eternal as God. To mortal thought Jesus appeared as a\nchild, and grew to manhood, to suffer before Pilate and on Calvary, because\nhe could reach and teach mankind only through this conformity to mortal\nconditions; but Soul never saw the Saviour come and go, because the divine\nidea is always present.\n\nJesus came to rescue men from these very illusions to which he seemed to\nconform: from the illusion which calls sin real, and man a sinner, needing\na Saviour; the illusion which calls sickness real, and man an invalid,\nneeding a physician; the illusion that death is as real as Life. From such\nthoughts--mortal inventions, one and all--Christ Jesus came to save men,\nthrough ever-present and eternal good.\n\nMortal man is a kingdom divided against itself. With the same breath he\narticulates truth and error. We say that God is All, and there is none\nbeside Him, and then talk of sin and sinners as real. We call God\nomnipotent and omnipresent, and then conjure up, from the dark abyss of\nnothingness, a powerful presence named _evil_. We say that harmony is real,\nand inharmony is its opposite, and therefore unreal; yet we descant upon\nsickness, sin, and death as realities.\n\nWith the tongue \"bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men,\nwho are made after the similitude [human concept] of God. Out of the same\nmouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not\nso to be.\" (James iii. 9, 10.) Mortals are free moral agents, to choose\nwhom they would serve. If God, then let them serve Him, and He will be unto\nthem All-in-all.\n\nIf God is ever present, He is neither absent from Himself nor from the\nuniverse. Without Him, the universe would disappear, and space, substance,\nand immortality be lost. St. Paul says, \"And if Christ be not raised, your\nfaith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.\" (1 Corinthians xv. 17.) Christ\ncannot come to mortal and material sense, which sees not God. This false\nsense of substance must yield to His eternal presence, and so dissolve.\nRising above the false, to the true evidence of Life, is the resurrection\nthat takes hold of eternal Truth. Coming and going belong to mortal\nconsciousness. God is \"the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.\"\n\nTo material sense, Jesus first appeared as a helpless human babe; but to\nimmortal and spiritual vision he was one with the Father, even the eternal\nidea of God, that was--and is--neither young nor old, neither dead nor\nrisen. The mutations of mortal sense are the evening and the morning of\nhuman thought,--the twilight and dawn of earthly vision, which precedeth\nthe nightless radiance of divine Life. Human perception, advancing toward\nthe apprehension of its nothingness, halts, retreats, and again goes\nforward; but the divine Principle and Spirit and spiritual man are\nunchangeable,--neither advancing, retreating, nor halting.\n\nOur highest sense of infinite good in this mortal sphere is but the sign\nand symbol, not the substance of good. Only faith and a feeble\nunderstanding make the earthly acme of human sense. \"The life which I now\nlive in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.\" (Galatians ii.\n20.)\n\nChristian Science is both demonstration and fruition, but how attenuated\nare our demonstration and realization of this Science! Truth, in divine\nScience, is the stepping-stone to the understanding of God; but the broken\nand contrite heart soonest discerns this truth, even as the helpless sick\nare soonest healed by it. Invalids say, \"I have recovered from sickness;\"\nwhen the fact really remains, in divine Science, that they never were sick.\n\nThe Christian saith, \"Christ (God) died for me, and came to save me;\" yet\nGod dies not, and is the ever-presence that neither comes nor goes, and man\nis forever His image and likeness. \"The things which are seen are temporal;\nbut the things which are not seen are eternal.\" (2 Corinthians iv. 18.)\nThis is the mystery of godliness--that God, good, is never absent, and\nthere is none beside good. Mortals can understand this only as they reach\nthe Life of good, and learn that there is no Life in evil. Then shall it\nappear that the true ideal of omnipotent and ever-present good is an ideal\nwherein and wherefor there is no evil. Sin exists only as a sense, and not\nas Soul. Destroy this sense of sin, and sin disappears. Sickness, sin, or\ndeath is a false sense of Life and good. Destroy this trinity of error, and\nyou find Truth.\n\nIn Science, Christ never died. In material sense Jesus died, and lived. The\nfleshly Jesus seemed to die, though he did not. The Truth or Life in divine\nScience--undisturbed by human error, sin, and death--saith forever, \"I am\nthe living God, and man is My idea, never in matter, nor resurrected from\nit.\" \"Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen.\"\n(Luke xxiv. 5, 6.) Mortal sense, confining itself to matter, is all that\ncan be buried or resurrected.\n\nMary had risen to discern faintly God's ever-presence, and that of His\nidea, man; but her mortal sense, reversing Science and spiritual\nunderstanding, interpreted this appearing as a risen Christ. The I\nAM was neither buried nor resurrected. The Way, the Truth, and the\nLife were never absent for a moment. This trinity of Love lives and reigns\nforever. Its kingdom, not apparent to material sense, never disappeared to\nspiritual sense, but remained forever in the Science of being. The\nso-called appearing, disappearing, and reappearing of ever-presence, in\nwhom is no variableness or shadow of turning, is the false human sense of\nthat light which shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it\nnot.\n\n\n\n\nSummary\n\n\nAll that _is_, God created. If sin has any pretense of existence, God is\nresponsible therefor; but there is no reality in sin, for God can no more\nbehold it, or acknowledge it, than the sun can coexist with darkness.\n\nTo build the individual spiritual sense, conscious of only health,\nholiness, and heaven, on the foundations of an eternal Mind which is\nconscious of sickness, sin, and death, is a moral impossibility; for \"other\nfoundation can no man lay than that is laid.\" (1 Corinthians iii. 11.) The\nnearer we approximate to such a Mind, even if it were (or could be) God,\nthe more real those mind-pictures would become to us; until the hope of\never eluding their dread presence must yield to despair, and the haunting\nsense of evil forever accompany our being.\n\nMortals may climb the smooth glaciers, leap the dark fissures, scale the\ntreacherous ice, and stand on the summit of Mont Blanc; but they can never\nturn back what Deity knoweth, nor escape from identification with what\ndwelleth in the eternal Mind.","title":"Unity of Good","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":14013}