Chapter XIV - Recapitulation
Permanent sensibility
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drive mortals to seek and to find a higher sense of happi-
drive mortals to seek and to find a higher sense of happi-
ness and existence.
Exercise of Mind-faculties
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Life is deathless. Life is the origin and ultimate of
Life is deathless. Life is the origin and ultimate of
man, never attainable through death, but gained by walk-
ing in the pathway of Truth both before and
after that which is called death. There is more
Christianity in seeing and hearing spiritually
than materially. There is more Science in the perpetual
exercise of the Mind-faculties than in their loss. Lost
they cannot be, while Mind remains. The apprehension
of this gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf cen-
turies ago, and it will repeat the wonder.
Understanding versus belief
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Question. – You speak of belief. Who or what is it
Question. – You speak of belief. Who or what is it
that believes?
Answer. – Spirit is all-knowing; this precludes the
need of believing. Matter cannot believe, and Mind
understands. The body cannot believe. The
believer and belief are one and are mortal.
Christian evidence is founded on Science or
demonstrable Truth, flowing from immortal Mind, and
there is in reality no such thing as mortal mind. Mere
belief is blindness without Principle from which to ex-
plain the reason of its hope. The belief that life is sen-
tient and intelligent matter is erroneous.
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The Apostle James said, "Show me thy faith without
The Apostle James said, "Show me thy faith without
thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works."
The understanding that Life is God, Spirit, lengthens
our days by strengthening our trust in the deathless
reality of Life, its almightiness and immortality.
Confirmation by healing
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This faith relies upon an understood Principle. This
This faith relies upon an understood Principle. This
Principle makes whole the diseased, and brings out the
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enduring and harmonious phases of things. The result
enduring and harmonious phases of things. The result
of our teachings is their sufficient confirmation. When,
on the strength of these instructions, you are
able to banish a severe malady, the cure shows
that you understand this teaching, and therefore you re-
ceive the blessing of Truth.
Belief and firm trust
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The Hebrew and Greek words often translated belief
The Hebrew and Greek words often translated belief
differ somewhat in meaning from that conveyed by the
English verb believe; they have more the sig-
nificance of faith, understanding, trust, con-
stancy, firmness. Hence the Scriptures often appear in
our common version to approve and endorse belief, when
they mean to enforce the necessity of understanding.
All faculties from Mind
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Question. – Do the five corporeal senses constitute
Question. – Do the five corporeal senses constitute
man?
Answer. – Christian Science sustains with immortal
proof the impossibility of any material sense, and defines
these so-called senses as mortal beliefs, the
testimony of which cannot be true either of
man or of his Maker. The corporeal senses can take no
cognizance of spiritual reality and immortality. Nerves
have no more sensation, apart from what belief be-
stows upon them, than the fibres of a plant. Mind alone
possesses all faculties, perception, and comprehension.
Therefore mental endowments are not at the mercy of
organization and decomposition, – otherwise the very
worms could unfashion man. If it were possible for the
real senses of man to be injured, Soul could reproduce
them in all their perfection; but they cannot be dis-
turbed nor destroyed, since they exist in immortal Mind,
not in matter.