good and evil, health and
sickness, life and death; making mortality the status and rule of
divinity,--such methods can never reach the perfection and demonstration of
metaphysical, or Christian Science.
Stating the divine Principle, omnipotence (_omnis potens_), and then
departing from this statement and taking the rule of finite matter, with
which to work out the problem of infinity or Spirit,--all this is like
trying to compensate for the absence of omnipotence by a physical, false,
and finite substitute.
With our Master, life was not merely a sense of existence, but an
accompanying sense of power that subdued matter and brought to light
immortality, insomuch that the people "were astonished at his doctrine: for
he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." Life, as
defined by Jesus, had no beginning; it was not the result of organization,
or infused into matter; it was Spirit.
THE GREAT REVELATION
Christian Science reveals the grand verity, that to believe man has a
finite and erring mind, and consequently a mortal mind and soul and life,
is error. Scientific terms have no contradictory significations.
In Science, Life is not temporal, but eternal, without beginning or ending.
The word _Life_ never means that which is the source of death, and of good
and evil. Such an inference is unscientific. It is like saying that
addition means subtraction in one instance and addition in another, and
then applying this rule to a demonstration of the science of numbers; even
as mortals apply finite terms to God, in demonstration of infinity. _Life_
is a term used to indicate Deity; and every other name for the Supreme
Being, if properly employed, has the signification of Life. Whatever errs
is mortal, and is the antipodes of Life, or God, and of health and
holiness, both in idea and demonstration.
Christian Science reveals Mind, the only living and true God, and all that
is made by Him, Mind, as harmonious, immortal, and spiritual: the five
material senses define Mind and matter as distinct, but mutually dependent,
each on the other, for intelligence and existence. Science defines man as
immortal, as coexistent and coeternal with God, as made in His own image
and likeness; material sense defines life as something apart from God,
beginning and ending, and man as very far from the divine likeness. Science
reveals Life as a complete sphere, as eternal, self-existent Mind; material
sense defines
|