Chapter X - Science Of Being
Wrestling of Jacob
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.
Thought seen as substance
310:1
The artist is not in his painting. The picture is the
The artist is not in his painting. The picture is the
artist's thought objectified. The human belief fancies
that it delineates thought on matter, but what
is matter? Did it exist prior to thought?
Matter is made up of supposititious mortal mind-force;
but all might is divine Mind. Thought will finally be
understood and seen in all form, substance, and color, but
without material accompaniments. The potter is not in
the clay; else the clay would have power over the potter.
God is His own infinite Mind, and expresses all.
The central intelligence
310:11
Day may decline and shadows fall, but darkness flees
Day may decline and shadows fall, but darkness flees
when the earth has again turned upon its axis. The sun
is not affected by the revolution of the earth.
So Science reveals Soul as God, untouched
by sin and death, – as the central life and intelligence
around which circle harmoniously all things in the sys-
tems of Mind.
Soul imperishable
310:18
Soul changeth not. We are commonly taught that there
Soul changeth not. We are commonly taught that there
is a human soul which sins and is spiritually lost, – that
soul may be lost, and yet be immortal. If
Soul could sin, Spirit, Soul, would be flesh in-
stead of Spirit. It is the belief of the flesh and of mate-
rial sense which sins. If Soul sinned, Soul would die.
Sin is the element of self-destruction, and spiritual death
is oblivion. If there was sin in Soul, the annihilation of
Spirit would be inevitable. The only Life is Spirit, and
if Spirit should lose Life as God, good, then Spirit, which
has no other existence, would be annihilated.
310:29
Mind is God, and God is not seen by material sense,
Mind is God, and God is not seen by material sense,
because Mind is Spirit, which material sense cannot dis-
cern. There is neither growth, maturity, nor decay in
Soul. These changes are the mutations of material sense,