Chapter XIV - Recapitulation
Jesus not understood
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proofs, – namely, that Life, Truth, and Love (the Prin-
proofs, – namely, that Life, Truth, and Love (the Prin-
ciple of this unacknowledged Science) destroy all error,
evil, disease, and death.
Miracles rejected
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The reception accorded to Truth in the early Chris-
The reception accorded to Truth in the early Chris-
tian era is repeated to-day. Whoever introduces the
Science of Christianity will be scoffed at and
scourged with worse cords than those which
cut the flesh. To the ignorant age in which it first
appears, Science seems to be a mistake, – hence the
misinterpretation and consequent maltreatment which
it receives. Christian marvels (and marvel is the sim-
ple meaning of the Greek word rendered miracle in the
New Testament) will be misunderstood and misused
by many, until the glorious Principle of these marvels is
gained.
Divine fulfilment
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If sin, sickness, and death are as real as Life, Truth,
If sin, sickness, and death are as real as Life, Truth,
and Love, then they must all be from the same source;
God must be their author. Now Jesus came
to destroy sin, sickness, and death yet the
Scriptures aver, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."
Is it possible, then, to believe that the evils which Jesus
lived to destroy are real or the offspring of the divine
will?
Truth destroys falsity
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Despite the hallowing influence of Truth in the de-
Despite the hallowing influence of Truth in the de-
struction of error, must error still be immortal? Truth
spares all that is true. If evil is real, Truth
must make it so; but error, not Truth, is
the author of the unreal, and the unreal vanishes,
while all that is real is eternal. The apostle says that
the mission of Christ is to "destroy the works of the
devil." Truth destroys falsity and error, for light and
darkness cannot dwell together. Light extinguishes the
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darkness, and the Scripture declares that there is "no
darkness, and the Scripture declares that there is "no
night there." To Truth there is no error, – all is Truth.
To infinite Spirit there is no matter, – all is Spirit, divine
Principle and its idea.
Fleshly factors unreal
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Question. – What is man?
Question. – What is man?
Answer. – Man is not matter; he is not made up of
brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The
Scriptures inform us that man is made in
the image and likeness of God. Matter is
not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so
unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and be-
cause he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so under-
stood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of
Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of
God, including all right ideas; the generic term for
all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious
identity of being as found in Science, in which man is
the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal;
that which has no separate mind from God; that which
has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which
possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his
own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker.
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And God said: "Let us make man in our image, after
And God said: "Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth."
Man unfallen
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Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The
Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The
real man cannot depart from holiness, nor
can God, by whom man is evolved, engender
the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not