Chapter XVII
Glossary
These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key
of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no
man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open
door, and no man can shut it. – REVELATION.
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IN Christian Science we learn that the substitution of
IN Christian Science we learn that the substitution of
the spiritual for the material definition of a Scrip-
tural word often elucidates the meaning of the inspired
writer. On this account this chapter is added. It con-
tains the metaphysical interpretation of Bible terms,
giving their spiritual sense, which is also their original
meaning.
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ABEL. Watchfulness; self-offering; surrendering to
ABEL. Watchfulness; self-offering; surrendering to
the creator the early fruits of experience.
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ABRAHAM. Fidelity; faith in the divine Life and in the
ABRAHAM. Fidelity; faith in the divine Life and in the
eternal Principle of being.
This patriarch illustrated the purpose of Love to create
trust in good, and showed the life-preserving power of
spiritual understanding.
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ADAM. Error; a falsity; the belief in "original sin,"
ADAM. Error; a falsity; the belief in "original sin,"
sickness, and death; evil; the opposite of good, – of God
and His creation; a curse; a belief in intelligent matter,
580:1
finiteness, and mortality; "dust to dust;" red sand-
finiteness, and mortality; "dust to dust;" red sand-
stone; nothingness; the first god of mythology; not
God's man, who represents the one God and is His own
image and likeness; the opposite of Spirit and His crea-
tions; that which is not the image and likeness of good,
but a material belief, opposed to the one Mind, or Spirit;
a so-called finite mind, producing other minds, thus mak-
ing "gods many and lords many" (I Corinthians viii. 5);
a product of nothing as the mimicry of something; an
unreality as opposed to the great reality of spiritual ex-
istence and creation; a so-called man, whose origin,
substance, and mind are found to be the antipode of
God, or Spirit; an inverted image of Spirit; the image
and likeness of what God has not created, namely, mat-
ter, sin, sickness, and death; the opposer of Truth,
termed error; Life's counterfeit, which ultimates in
death; the opposite of Love, called hate; the usurper
of Spirit's creation, called self-creative matter; immor-
tality's opposite, mortality; that of which wisdom saith,
"Thou shalt surely die."
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The name Adam represents the false supposition that
The name Adam represents the false supposition that
Life is not eternal, but has beginning and end; that the
infinite enters the finite, that intelligence passes into non‑
intelligence, and that Soul dwells in material sense; that
immortal Mind results in matter, and matter in mortal
mind; that the one God and creator entered what He cre-
ated, and then disappeared in the atheism of matter.
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ADVERSARY. An adversary is one who opposes, denies,
ADVERSARY. An adversary is one who opposes, denies,
disputes, not one who constructs and sustains reality and
Truth. Jesus said of the devil, "He was a murderer from
the beginning, . . . he is a liar and the father of it."