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Science and
Health
with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Chapter 9
— Creation
Thy throne is established
of old: Thou art from
everlasting. —
PSALMS.
For we know that the whole
creation groaneth and travaileth
in pain together until now. And
not only they, but ourselves
also, which have the firstfruits
of the Spirit, even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, waiting
for the adoption, to wit, the
redemption of our body.
— PAUL.
Eternal Truth is changing the
universe. As mortals drop off
their mental swaddling-clothes,
thought expands into expression.
"Let there be light," is the
perpetual demand of Truth and
Love, changing chaos into order
and discord into the music of the
spheres. The mythical human
theories of creation, anciently
classified as the higher
criticism, sprang from cultured
scholars in Rome and in Greece,
but they afforded no foundation
for accurate views of creation by
the divine Mind.
Mortal man has made a covenant
with his eyes to belittle Deity
with human conceptions. In league
with material sense, mortals take
limited views of all things. That
God is corporeal or material, no
man should affirm.
The human form, or physical
finiteness, cannot be made the
basis of any true idea of the
infinite Godhead. Eye hath not
seen Spirit, nor hath ear heard
His voice.
Progress takes off human
shackles. The finite must yield
to the infinite. Advancing to a
higher plane of action, thought
rises from the material sense to
the spiritual, from the
scholastic to the inspirational,
and from the mortal to the
immortal. All things are created
spiritually. Mind, not matter, is
the creator. Love, the divine
Principle, is the Father and
Mother of the universe, including
man.
The theory of three persons in
one God (that is, a personal
Trinity or Tri-unity) suggests
polytheism, rather than the one
ever-present I AM. "Hear, O
Israel: the Lord our God is one
Lord."
The everlasting I AM is not
bounded nor compressed within the
narrow limits of physical
humanity, nor can He be
understood aright through mortal
concepts. The precise form of God
must be of small importance in
comparison with the sublime
question, What is infinite Mind
or divine Love?
Who is it that demands our
obedience? He who, in the
language of Scripture, "doeth
according to His will in the army
of heaven, and among the
inhabitants of the earth; and
none can stay His hand, or say
unto Him, What doest Thou?"
No form nor physical
combination is adequate to
represent infinite Love. A finite
and material sense of God leads
to formalism and narrowness; it
chills the spirit of
Christianity.
A limitless Mind cannot
proceed from physical
limitations. Finiteness cannot
present the idea or the vastness
of infinity. A mind originating
from a finite or material source
must be limited and finite.
Infinite Mind is the creator, and
creation is the infinite image or
idea emanating from this Mind. If
Mind is within and without all
things, then all is Mind; and
this definition is
scientific.
If matter, so-called, is
substance, then Spirit, matter's
unlikeness, must be shadow; and
shadow cannot produce substance.
The theory that Spirit is not the
only substance and creator is
pantheistic heterodoxy, which
ultimates in sickness, sin, and
death; it is the belief in a
bodily soul and a material mind,
a soul governed by the body and a
mind in matter. This belief is
shallow pantheism.
Mind creates His own likeness
in ideas, and the substance of an
idea is very far from being the
supposed substance of
non-intelligent matter. Hence the
Father Mind is not the father of
matter. The material senses and
human conceptions would translate
spiritual ideas into material
beliefs, and would say that an
anthropomorphic God, instead of
infinite Principle, — in
other words, divine Love, —
is the father of the rain, "who
hath begotten the drops of dew,"
who bringeth "forth Mazzaroth in
his season," and guideth
"Arcturus with his sons."
Finite mind manifests all
sorts of errors, and thus proves
the material theory of mind in
matter to be the antipode of
Mind. Who hath found finite life
or love sufficient to meet the
demands of human want and woe,
— to still the desires, to
satisfy the aspirations? Infinite
Mind cannot be limited to a
finite form, or Mind would lose
its infinite character as
inexhaustible Love, eternal Life,
omnipotent Truth.
It would require an infinite
form to contain infinite Mind.
Indeed, the phrase infinite
form involves a contradiction
of terms. Finite man cannot be
the image and likeness of the
infinite God. A mortal,
corporeal, or finite conception
of God cannot embrace the glories
of limitless, incorporeal Life
and Love. Hence the unsatisfied
human craving for something
better, higher, holier, than is
afforded by a material belief in
a physical God and man. The
insufficiency of this belief to
supply the true idea proves the
falsity of material belief.
Man is more than a material
form with a mind inside, which
must escape from its environments
in order to be immortal. Man
reflects infinity, and this
reflection is the true idea of
God.
God expresses in man the
infinite idea forever developing
itself, broadening and rising
higher and higher from a
boundless basis. Mind manifests
all that exists in the infinitude
of Truth. We know no more of man
as the true divine image and
likeness, than we know of
God.
The infinite Principle is
reflected by the infinite idea
and spiritual individuality, but
the material so-called senses
have no cognizance of either
Principle or its idea. The human
capacities are enlarged and
perfected in proportion as
humanity gains the true
conception of man and God.
Mortals have a very imperfect
sense of the spiritual man and of
the infinite range of his
thought. To him belongs eternal
Life. Never born and never dying,
it were impossible for man, under
the government of God in eternal
Science, to fall from his high
estate.
Through spiritual sense you
can discern the heart of
divinity, and thus begin to
comprehend in Science the generic
term man. Man is not
absorbed in Deity, and man cannot
lose his individuality, for he
reflects eternal Life; nor is he
an isolated, solitary idea, for
he represents infinite Mind, the
sum of all substance.
In divine Science, man is the
true image of God. The divine
nature was best expressed in
Christ Jesus, who threw upon
mortals the truer reflection of
God and lifted their lives higher
than their poor thought-models
would allow, — thoughts
which presented man as fallen,
sick, sinning, and dying. The
Christlike understanding of
scientific being and divine
healing includes a perfect
Principle and idea, —
perfect God and perfect man,
— as the basis of thought
and demonstration.
If man was once perfect but
has now lost his perfection, then
mortals have never beheld in man
the reflex image of God. The
lost image is no image.
The true likeness cannot be lost
in divine reflection.
Understanding this, Jesus said:
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as
your Father which is in heaven is
perfect."
Mortal thought transmits its
own images, and forms its
offspring after human illusions.
God, Spirit, works spiritually,
not materially. Brain or matter
never formed a human concept.
Vibration is not intelligence;
hence it is not a creator.
Immortal ideas, pure, perfect,
and enduring, are transmitted by
the divine Mind through divine
Science, which corrects error
with truth and demands spiritual
thoughts, divine concepts, to the
end that they may produce
harmonious results.
Deducing one's conclusions as
to man from imperfection instead
of perfection, one can no more
arrive at the true conception or
understanding of man, and make
himself like it, than the
sculptor can perfect his outlines
from an imperfect model, or the
painter can depict the form and
face of Jesus, while holding in
thought the character of
Judas.
The conceptions of mortal,
erring thought must give way to
the ideal of all that is perfect
and eternal. Through many
generations human beliefs will be
attaining diviner conceptions,
and the immortal and perfect
model of God's creation will
finally be seen as the only true
conception of being.
Science reveals the
possibility of achieving all
good, and sets mortals at work to
discover what God has already
done; but distrust of one's
ability to gain the goodness
desired and to bring out better
and higher results, often hampers
the trial of one's wings and
ensures failure at the
outset.
Mortals must change their
ideals in order to improve their
models. A sick body is evolved
from sick thoughts. Sickness,
disease, and death proceed from
fear. Sensualism evolves bad
physical and moral
conditions.
Selfishness and sensualism are
educated in mortal mind by the
thoughts ever recurring to one's
self, by conversation about the
body, and by the expectation of
perpetual pleasure or pain from
it; and this education is at the
expense of spiritual growth. If
we array thought in mortal
vestures, it must lose its
immortal nature.
If we look to the body for
pleasure, we find pain; for Life,
we find death; for Truth, we find
error; for Spirit, we find its
opposite, matter. Now reverse
this action. Look away from the
body into Truth and Love, the
Principle of all happiness,
harmony, and immortality. Hold
thought steadfastly to the
enduring, the good, and the true,
and you will bring these into
your experience proportionably to
their occupancy of your
thoughts.
The effect of mortal mind on
health and happiness is seen in
this: If one turns away from the
body with such absorbed interest
as to forget it, the body
experiences no pain. Under the
strong impulse of a desire to
perform his part, a noted actor
was accustomed night after night
to go upon the stage and sustain
his appointed task, walking about
as actively as the youngest
member of the company. This old
man was so lame that he hobbled
every day to the theatre, and sat
aching in his chair till his cue
was spoken, — a signal which
made him as oblivious of physical
infirmity as if he had inhaled
chloroform, though he was in the
full possession of his so-called
senses.
Detach sense from the body, or
matter, which is only a form of
human belief, and you may learn
the meaning of God, or good, and
the nature of the immutable and
immortal. Breaking away from the
mutations of time and sense, you
will neither lose the solid
objects and ends of life nor your
own identity. Fixing your gaze on
the realities supernal, you will
rise to the spiritual
consciousness of being, even as
the bird which has burst from the
egg and preens its wings for a
skyward flight.
We should forget our bodies in
remembering good and the human
race. Good demands of man every
hour, in which to work out the
problem of being. Consecration to
good does not lessen man's
dependence on God, but heightens
it. Neither does consecration
diminish man's obligations to
God, but shows the paramount
necessity of meeting them.
Christian Science takes naught
from the perfection of God, but
it ascribes to Him the entire
glory. By putting "off the old
man with his deeds," mortals "put
on immortality."
We cannot fathom the nature
and quality of God's creation by
diving into the shallows of
mortal belief. We must reverse
our feeble flutterings — our
efforts to find life and truth in
matter — and rise above the
testimony of the material senses,
above the mortal to the immortal
idea of God. These clearer,
higher views inspire the God-like
man to reach the absolute centre
and circumference of his
being.
Job said: "I have heard of
Thee by the hearing of the ear:
but now mine eye seeth Thee."
Mortals will echo Job's thought,
when the supposed pain and
pleasure of matter cease to
predominate. They will then drop
the false estimate of life and
happiness, of joy and sorrow, and
attain the bliss of loving
unselfishly, working patiently,
and conquering all that is unlike
God. Starting from a higher
standpoint, one rises
spontaneously, even as light
emits light without effort; for
"where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also."
The foundation of mortal
discord is a false sense of man's
origin. To begin rightly is to
end rightly. Every concept which
seems to begin with the brain
begins falsely. Divine Mind is
the only cause or Principle of
existence. Cause does not exist
in matter, in mortal mind, or in
physical forms.
Mortals are egotists. They
believe themselves to be
independent workers, personal
authors, and even privileged
originators of something which
Deity would not or could not
create. The creations of mortal
mind are material. Immortal
spiritual man alone represents
the truth of creation.
When mortal man blends his
thoughts of existence with the
spiritual and works only as God
works, he will no longer grope in
the dark and cling to earth
because he has not tasted heaven.
Carnal beliefs defraud us. They
make man an involuntary
hypocrite, — producing evil
when he would create good,
forming deformity when he would
outline grace and beauty,
injuring those whom he would
bless. He becomes a general
mis-creator, who believes he is a
semi-god. His "touch turns hope
to dust, the dust we all have
trod." He might say in Bible
language: "The good that I would,
I do not: but the evil which I
would not, that I do."
There can be but one creator,
who has created all. Whatever
seems to be a new creation, is
but the discovery of some distant
idea of Truth; else it is a new
multiplication or self-division
of mortal thought, as when some
finite sense peers from its
cloister with amazement and
attempts to pattern the
infinite.
The multiplication of a human
and mortal sense of persons and
things is not creation. A sensual
thought, like an atom of dust
thrown into the face of spiritual
immensity, is dense blindness
instead of a scientific eternal
consciousness of creation.
The fading forms of matter,
the mortal body and material
earth, are the fleeting concepts
of the human mind. They have
their day before the permanent
facts and their perfection in
Spirit appear. The crude
creations of mortal thought must
finally give place to the
glorious forms which we sometimes
behold in the camera of divine
Mind, when the mental picture is
spiritual and eternal. Mortals
must look beyond fading, finite
forms, if they would gain the
true sense of things. Where shall
the gaze rest but in the
unsearchable realm of Mind? We
must look where we would walk,
and we must act as possessing all
power from Him in whom we have
our being.
As mortals gain more correct
views of God and man,
multitudinous objects of
creation, which before were
invisible, will become visible.
When we realize that Life is
Spirit, never in nor of matter,
this understanding will expand
into self-completeness, finding
all in God, good, and needing no
other consciousness.
Spirit and its formations are
the only realities of being.
Matter disappears under the
microscope of Spirit. Sin is
unsustained by Truth, and
sickness and death were overcome
by Jesus, who proved them to be
forms of error. Spiritual living
and blessedness are the only
evidences, by which we can
recognize true existence and feel
the unspeakable peace which comes
from an all-absorbing spiritual
love.
When we learn the way in
Christian Science and recognize
man's spiritual being, we shall
behold and understand God's
creation, — all the glories
of earth and heaven and man.
The universe of Spirit is
peopled with spiritual beings,
and its government is divine
Science. Man is the offspring,
not of the lowest, but of the
highest qualities of Mind. Man
understands spiritual existence
in proportion as his treasures of
Truth and Love are enlarged.
Mortals must gravitate Godward,
their affections and aims grow
spiritual, — they must near
the broader interpretations of
being, and gain some proper sense
of the infinite, — in order
that sin and mortality may be put
off.
This scientific sense of
being, forsaking matter for
Spirit, by no means suggests
man's absorption into Deity and
the loss of his identity, but
confers upon man enlarged
individuality, a wider sphere of
thought and action, a more
expansive love, a higher and more
permanent peace.
The senses represent birth as
untimely and death as
irresistible, as if man were a
weed growing apace or a flower
withered by the sun and nipped by
untimely frosts; but this is true
only of a mortal, not of a man in
God's image and likeness. The
truth of being is perennial, and
the error is unreal and
obsolete.
Who that has felt the loss of
human peace has not gained
stronger desires for spiritual
joy? The aspiration after
heavenly good comes even before
we discover what belongs to
wisdom and Love. The loss of
earthly hopes and pleasures
brightens the ascending path of
many a heart. The pains of sense
quickly inform us that the
pleasures of sense are mortal and
that joy is spiritual.
The pains of sense are
salutary, if they wrench away
false pleasurable beliefs and
transplant the affections from
sense to Soul, where the
creations of God are good,
"rejoicing the heart." Such is
the sword of Science, with which
Truth decapitates error,
materiality giving place to man's
higher individuality and
destiny.
Would existence without
personal friends be to you a
blank? Then the time will come
when you will be solitary, left
without sympathy; but this
seeming vacuum is already filled
with divine Love. When this hour
of development comes, even if you
cling to a sense of personal
joys, spiritual Love will force
you to accept what best promotes
your growth. Friends will betray
and enemies will slander, until
the lesson is sufficient to exalt
you; for "man's extremity is
God's opportunity." The author
has experienced the foregoing
prophecy and its blessings. Thus
He teaches mortals to lay down
their fleshliness and gain
spirituality. This is done
through self-abnegation.
Universal Love is the divine way
in Christian Science.
The sinner makes his own hell
by doing evil, and the saint his
own heaven by doing right. The
opposite persecutions of material
sense, aiding evil with evil,
would deceive the very elect.
Mortals must follow Jesus'
sayings and his demonstrations,
which dominate the flesh. Perfect
and infinite Mind enthroned is
heaven. The evil beliefs which
originate in mortals are hell.
Man is the idea of Spirit; he
reflects the beatific presence,
illuming the universe with light.
Man is deathless, spiritual. He
is above sin or frailty. He does
not cross the barriers of time
into the vast forever of Life,
but he coexists with God and the
universe.
Every object in material
thought will be destroyed, but
the spiritual idea, whose
substance is in Mind, is eternal.
The offspring of God start not
from matter or ephemeral dust.
They are in and of Spirit, divine
Mind, and so forever continue.
God is one. The allness of Deity
is His oneness. Generically man
is one, and specifically man
means all men.
It is generally conceded that
God is Father, eternal,
self-created, infinite. If this
is so, the forever Father must
have had children prior to Adam.
The great I AM made all "that was
made." Hence man and the
spiritual universe coexist with
God.
Christian Scientists
understand that, in a religious
sense, they have the same
authority for the appellative
mother, as for that of brother
and sister. Jesus said: "For
whosoever shall do the will of my
Father which is in heaven, the
same is my brother, and sister,
and mother."
When examined in the light of
divine Science, mortals present
more than is detected upon the
surface, since inverted thoughts
and erroneous beliefs must be
counterfeits of Truth. Thought is
borrowed from a higher source
than matter, and by reversal,
errors serve as waymarks to the
one Mind, in which all error
disappears in celestial Truth.
The robes of Spirit are "white
and glistering," like the raiment
of Christ. Even in this world,
therefore, "let thy garments be
always white." "Blessed is the
man that endureth
[overcometh] temptation:
for when he is tried, [proved
faithful], he shall receive
the crown of life, which the Lord
hath promised to them that love
him." (James 1: 12.)
Go
to Chapter 10: Science of
Being
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