Chapter XIV - Recapitulation
The kingdom within
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fect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal
fect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal
man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour
saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man
healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom
of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.
Man is not a material habitation for Soul; he is himself
spiritual. Soul, being Spirit, is seen in nothing imperfect
nor material.
Material body never God's idea
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Whatever is material is mortal. To the five corporeal
Whatever is material is mortal. To the five corporeal
senses, man appears to be matter and mind united; but
Christian Science reveals man as the idea of
God, and declares the corporeal senses to be
mortal and erring illusions. Divine Science
shows it to be impossible that a material body, though
interwoven with matter's highest stratum, misnamed
mind, should be man, – the genuine and perfect man,
the immortal idea of being, indestructible and eternal.
Were it otherwise, man would be annihilated.
Reflection of Spirit
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Question. – What are body and Soul?
Question. – What are body and Soul?
Answer. – Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the re-
flection in multifarious forms of the living Principle,
Love. Soul is the substance, Life, and intelli-
gence of man, which is individualized, but not
in matter. Soul can never reflect anything inferior to
Spirit.
Man inseparable from Spirit
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Man is the expression of Soul. The Indians caught
Man is the expression of Soul. The Indians caught
some glimpses of the underlying reality, when
they called a certain beautiful lake "the smile
of the Great Spirit." Separated from man,
who expresses Soul, Spirit would be a nonentity; man,
divorced from Spirit, would lose his entity. But there is,
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there can be, no such division, for man is coexistent with
there can be, no such division, for man is coexistent with
God.
A vacant domicile
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What evidence of Soul or of immortality have you
What evidence of Soul or of immortality have you
within mortality? Even according to the teachings of
natural science, man has never beheld Spirit
or Soul leaving a body or entering it. What
basis is there for the theory of indwelling spirit, except
the claim of mortal belief? What would be thought of
the declaration that a house was inhabited, and by a cer-
tain class of persons, when no such persons were ever seen
to go into the house or to come out of it, nor were they
even visible through the windows? Who can see a soul
in the body?
Harmonious functions
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Question. – Does brain think, and do nerves feel, and
Question. – Does brain think, and do nerves feel, and
is there intelligence in matter?
Answer. – No, not if God is true and mortal man a
liar. The assertion that there can be pain or pleasure
in matter is erroneous. That body is most
harmonious in which the discharge of the nat-
ural functions is least noticeable. How can intelligence
dwell in matter when matter is non-intelligent and
brain-lobes cannot think? Matter cannot perform the
functions of Mind. Error says, "I am man;" but this
belief is mortal and far from actual. From beginning
to end, whatever is mortal is composed of material hu-
man beliefs and of nothing else. That only is real which
reflects God. St. Paul said, "But when it pleased God,
who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me
by His grace, . . . I conferred not with flesh and blood."
Immortal birthright
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Mortal man is really a self-contradictory phrase, for
Mortal man is really a self-contradictory phrase, for
man is not mortal, "neither indeed can be;" man is im-