Chapter X - Science Of Being
The great question
308:1
ness, where art thou? Art thou dwelling in the belief
ness, where art thou? Art thou dwelling in the belief
that mind is in matter, and that evil is mind, or art thou
in the living faith that there is and can be but
one God, and keeping His commandment?"
Until the lesson is learned that God is the only Mind gov-
erning man, mortal belief will be afraid as it was in the
beginning, and will hide from the demand, "Where art
thou?" This awful demand, "Adam, where art thou?"
is met by the admission from the head, heart, stomach,
blood, nerves, etc.: "Lo, here I am, looking for happiness
and life in the body, but finding only an illusion, a blend-
ing of false claims, false pleasure, pain, sin, sickness, and
death."
308:14
The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth,
The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth,
and talked with God as consciously as man talks with man.
Wrestling of Jacob
308:16
Jacob was alone, wrestling with error, – struggling
Jacob was alone, wrestling with error, – struggling
with a mortal sense of life, substance, and intelligence
as existent in matter with its false pleasures
and pains, – when an angel, a message from
Truth and Love, appeared to him and smote the sinew,
or strength, of his error, till he saw its unreality; and
Truth, being thereby understood, gave him spiritual
strength in this Peniel of divine Science. Then said
the spiritual evangel: "Let me go, for the day breaketh;"
that is, the light of Truth and Love dawns upon thee.
But the patriarch, perceiving his error and his need
of help, did not loosen his hold upon this glorious light
until his nature was transformed. When Jacob was
asked, "What is thy name?" he straightway answered;
and then his name was changed to Israel, for "as a prince"
had he prevailed and had "power with God and with
men." Then Jacob questioned his deliverer, "Tell me,
309:1
I pray thee, thy name;" but this appellation was withheld,
I pray thee, thy name;" but this appellation was withheld,
for the messenger was not a corporeal being, but a name-
less, incorporeal impartation of divine Love to man, which,
to use the word of the Psalmist, restored his Soul, – gave
him the spiritual sense of being and rebuked his material
sense.
Israel the new name
309:7
The result of Jacob's struggle thus appeared. He had
The result of Jacob's struggle thus appeared. He had
conquered material error with the understanding of Spirit
and of spiritual power. This changed the man.
He was no longer called Jacob, but Israel, –
a prince of God, or a soldier of God, who had fought
a good fight. He was to become the father of those, who
through earnest striving followed his demonstration of the
power of Spirit over the material senses; and the children
of earth who followed his example were to be called the
children of Israel, until the Messiah should rename them.
If these children should go astray, and forget that Life
is God, good, and that good is not in elements which are
not spiritual, – thus losing the divine power which heals
the sick and sinning, – they were to be brought back
through great tribulation, to be renamed in Christian
Science and led to deny material sense, or mind in matter,
even as the gospel teaches.
Life never structural
309:24
The Science of being shows it to be impossible for in-
The Science of being shows it to be impossible for in-
finite Spirit or Soul to be in a finite body or for man to
have an intelligence separate from his Maker.
It is a self-evident error to suppose that there
can be such a reality as organic animal or vegetable life,
when such so-called life always ends in death. Life is
never for a moment extinct. Therefore it is never struc-
tural nor organic, and is never absorbed nor limited by its
own formations.