Chapter XIV - Recapitulation
Confirmation by healing
488:1
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
488:7
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
488:14
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.
Possibilities of Life
489:1
The less mind there is manifested in matter the better.
The less mind there is manifested in matter the better.
When the unthinking lobster loses its claw, the claw grows
again. If the Science of Life were understood,
it would be found that the senses of Mind are
never lost and that matter has no sensation. Then the
human limb would be replaced as readily as the lobster's
claw, – not with an artificial limb, but with the genuine
one. Any hypothesis which supposes life to be in matter
is an educated belief. In infancy this belief is not equal
to guiding the hand to the mouth; and as consciousness
develops, this belief goes out, – yields to the reality of
everlasting Life.
Decalogue disregarded
489:13
Corporeal sense defrauds and lies; it breaks all the
Corporeal sense defrauds and lies; it breaks all the
commands of the Mosaic Decalogue to meet its own de-
mands. How then can this sense be the God‑
given channel to man of divine blessings or
understanding? How can man, reflecting God, be de-
pendent on material means for knowing, hearing, seeing?
Who dares to say that the senses of man can be at one time
the medium for sinning against God, at another the me-
dium for obeying God? An affirmative reply would con-
tradict the Scripture, for the same fountain sendeth not
forth sweet waters and bitter.
Organic construction valueless
489:24
The corporeal senses are the only source of evil or
The corporeal senses are the only source of evil or
error. Christian Science shows them to be false, be-
cause matter has no sensation, and no organic
construction can give it hearing and sight nor
make it the medium of Mind. Outside the
material sense of things, all is harmony. A wrong sense
of God, man, and creation is non-sense, want of sense.
Mortal belief would have the material senses sometimes
good and sometimes bad. It assures mortals that there