the very opposite of that Maker, by claiming that G.o.d is [1]
Spirit, while man is matter; that G.o.d is good, but man is evil; that Deity is deathless, but man dies. Science and sense conflict, from the revolving of worlds to the death of a sparrow.
The Word will be made flesh and dwell among mortals, only when man reflects G.o.d in body as well as in mind.
The child born of a woman has the formation of his parents; the man born of Spirit is spiritual, not material.
Paul refers to this when speaking of presenting our bodies [10]
holy and acceptable, which is our reasonable service; and this brings to remembrance the Hebrew strain, "Who healeth all thy diseases."
If man should say of the power to be perfect which he possesses, "I am the power," he would trespa.s.s upon [15]
divine Science, yield to material sense, and lose his power; even as when saying, "I have the power to sin and be sick," and persisting in believing that he is sick and a sinner. If he says, "I am of G.o.d, therefore good," yet persists in evil, he has denied the power of Truth, and [20]
must suffer for this error until he learns that all power is good because it is of G.o.d, and so destroys his self-de- ceived sense of power in evil. The Science of being gives back the lost likeness and power of G.o.d as the seal of man"s adoption. Oh, for that light and love ineffable, [25]
which casteth out all fear, all sin, sickness, and death; that seeketh not her own, but another"s good; that saith Abba, Father, and _is_ born of G.o.d!
John came baptizing with water. He employed a type of physical cleanliness to foreshadow metaphysical purity, [30]
even mortal mind purged of the animal and human, and submerged in the humane and divine, giving back the
[Page 185.]
lost sense of man in unity with, and reflecting, his Maker. [1]
None but the pure in heart shall see G.o.d,-shall be able to discern fully and demonstrate fairly the divine Principle of Christian Science. The will of G.o.d, or power of Spirit, is made manifest as Truth, and through righteousness,- [5]
not as or through matter,-and it strips matter of all claims, abilities or disabilities, pains or pleasures. Self- renunciation of all that const.i.tutes a so-called material man, and the acknowledgment and achievement of his spiritual ident.i.ty as the child of G.o.d, is Science that [10]
opens the very flood-gates of heaven; whence good flows into every avenue of being, cleansing mortals of all uncleanness, destroying all suffering, and demon- strating the true image and likeness. There is no other way under heaven whereby we can be saved, and man [15]
be clothed with might, majesty, and immortality.
"As many as received him,"-as accept the truth of being,-"to them gave he power to become the sons of G.o.d." The spiritualization of our sense of man opens the gates of paradise that the so-called material senses [20]
would close, and reveals man infinitely blessed, upright, pure, and free; having no need of statistics by which to learn his origin and age, or to measure his manhood, or to know how much of a man he ever has been: for, "as many as received him, to them gave he power to become [25]
the sons of G.o.d."
_And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul;_ _the last Adam was made a quickening spirit._-1 COR. xv. 45.
When reasoning on this subject of man with the Corin- thian brethren, the apostle first spake from their stand- [30]
point of thought; namely, that creation is material:
[Page 186.]
he was not at this point giving the history of the spiritual [1]
man who originates in G.o.d, Love, who created man in His own image and likeness. In the creation of Adam from dust,-in which Soul is supposed to enter the embryo-man after his birth,-we see the material self- [5]
const.i.tuted belief of the Jews as referred to by St. Paul.
Their material belief has fallen far below man"s original standard, the spiritual man made in the image and like- ness of G.o.d; for this erring belief even separates its conception of man from G.o.d, and ultimates in the opposite [10]
of _im_mortal man, namely, in a sick and sinning mortal.
We learn in the Scriptures, as in divine Science, that G.o.d made all; that He is the universal Father and Mother of man; that G.o.d is divine Love: therefore divine Love [15]
is the divine Principle of the divine idea named man; in other words, the spiritual Principle of spiritual man.
Now let us not lose this Science of man, but gain it clearly; then we shall see that man cannot be separated from his perfect Principle, G.o.d, inasmuch as an idea cannot [20]
be torn apart from its fundamental basis. This scien- tific knowledge affords self-evident proof of immortality; proof, also, that the Principle of man cannot produce a less perfect man than it produced in the beginning. A material sense of existence is not the scientific fact of [25]
being; whereas, the spiritual sense of G.o.d and His universe is the immortal and true sense of being.
As the apostle proceeds in this line of thought, he undoubtedly refers to the last Adam represented by the Messias, whose demonstration of G.o.d restored to mortals [30]
the lost sense of man"s perfection, even the sense of the real man in G.o.d"s likeness, who restored this sense by
[Page 187.]
the spiritual regeneration of both mind and body,- [1]
casting out evils, _healing the sick_, and raising the dead.
The man Jesus demonstrated over sin, sickness, disease, and death. The great Metaphysician wrought, over and above every sense of matter, into the proper sense of the [5]
possibilities of Spirit. He established health and har- mony, the perfection of mind and body, as the reality of man; while discord, as seen in disease and death, was to him the opposite of man, hence the unreality; even as in Science a chord is manifestly the reality of music, and [10]
discord the unreality. This rule of harmony must be ac- cepted as true relative to man.
The translators of the older Scriptures presuppose a material man to be the first man, solely because their transcribing thoughts were not lifted to the inspired sense [15]
of the spiritual man, as set forth in original Holy Writ.
Had both writers and translators in that age fully com- prehended the later teachings and demonstrations of our human and divine Master, the Old Testament might have been as spiritual as the New. [20]
The origin, substance, and life of man are one, and that one is G.o.d,-Life, Truth, Love. The self-existent, perfect, and eternal are G.o.d; and man is their reflection and glory. Did the substance of G.o.d, Spirit, become a clod, in order to create a sick, sinning, dying man? The [25]
primal facts of being are eternal; they are never extin- guished in a night of discord.
That man must be evil before he can be good; dying, before deathless; material, before spiritual; sick and a sinner in order to be healed and saved, is but the declara- [30]
tion of the material senses transcribed by pagan religion- ists, by wicked mortals such as crucified our Master,-
[Page 188.]
whose teachings opposed the doctrines of Christ that [1]
demonstrated the opposite, Truth.
Man is as perfect now, and henceforth, and forever, as when the stars first sang together, and creation joined in the grand chorus of harmonious being. It is the trans- lator, not the original Word, who presents as being first [5]
that which appears second, material, and mortal; and as last, that which is primal, spiritual, and eternal. Be- cause of human misstatement and misconception of G.o.d and man, of the divine Principle and idea of being, there [10]
seems to be a war between the flesh and Spirit, a contest between Truth and error; but the apostle says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." [15]
On our subject, St. Paul first reasons upon the basis of what is seen, the effects of Truth on the material senses; thence, up to the unseen, the testimony of spiritual sense; and right there he leaves the subject.
Just there, in the intermediate line of thought, is where [20]
the present writer found it, when she discovered Christian Science. And she has _not_ left it, but continues the ex- planation of the power of Spirit up to its infinite meaning, its allness. The recognition of this power came to her through a spiritual sense of the real, and of the unreal [25]
or mortal sense of things; not that there is, or can be, an actual change in the realities of being, but that we can discern more of them. At the moment of her discovery, she knew that the last Adam, namely, the true likeness of G.o.d, was the first, the only man. [30]
This knowledge did become to her "a quickening spirit;" for she beheld the meaning of those words
[Page 189.]
of our Master, "The last shall be first, and the first [1]
last."
When, as little children, we are receptive, become willing to accept the divine Principle and rule of being, as unfolded in divine Science, the interpretation therein will be found to be the Comforter that leadeth into all truth. [5]
The meek Nazarene"s steadfast and true knowledge of preexistence, of the nature and the inseparability of G.o.d and man,-made him mighty. Spiritual insight of [10]
Truth and Love antidotes and destroys the errors of flesh, and brings to light the true reflection: man as G.o.d"s image, or "the first man," for Christ plainly declared, through Jesus, "Before Abraham was, I am."
The supposition that Soul, or Mind, is breathed into [15]
matter, is a pantheistic doctrine that presents a false sense of existence, and the quickening spirit takes it away: revealing, in place thereof, the power and per- fection of a released sense of Life in G.o.d and Life _as_ G.o.d. The Scriptures declare Life to be the infinite I [20]
AM,-not a dweller in matter. For man to know Life as it is, namely G.o.d, the eternal good, gives him not merely a sense of existence, but an accompanying con- sciousness of spiritual power that subordinates matter and destroys sin, disease, and death. This, Jesus demon- [25]
strated; insomuch that St. Matthew wrote, "The people were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." This spiritual power, healing sin and sickness, was not con- fined to the first century; it extends to all time, inhabits [30]
eternity, and demonstrates Life without beginning or end.