Chapter IV - Christian Science Versus Spiritualism
72:1
There is but one spiritual existence, – the Life of
There is but one spiritual existence, – the Life of
which corporeal sense can take no cognizance. The
divine Principle of man speaks through immortal sense.
If a material body – in other words, mortal, material
sense – were permeated by Spirit, that body would
disappear to mortal sense, would be deathless. A con-
dition precedent to communion with Spirit is the gain of
spiritual life.
Spirits obsolete
72:9
So-called spirits are but corporeal communicators. As
So-called spirits are but corporeal communicators. As
light destroys darkness and in the place of darkness all
is light, so (in absolute Science) Soul, or God,
is the only truth-giver to man. Truth de-
stroys mortality, and brings to light immortality. Mortal
belief (the material sense of life) and immortal Truth
(the spiritual sense) are the tares and the wheat, which
are not united by progress, but separated.
72:17
Perfection is not expressed through imperfection.
Perfection is not expressed through imperfection.
Spirit is not made manifest through matter, the anti-
pode of Spirit. Error is not a convenient sieve through
which truth can be strained.
Scientific phenomena
72:21
God, good, being ever present, it follows in divine
God, good, being ever present, it follows in divine
logic that evil, the suppositional opposite of good, is never
present. In Science, individual good derived
from God, the infinite All-in-all, may flow
from the departed to mortals; but evil is neither com-
municable nor scientific. A sinning, earthly mortal is
not the reality of Life nor the medium through which
truth passes to earth. The joy of intercourse becomes
the jest of sin, when evil and suffering are communicable.
Not personal intercommunion but divine law is the com-
municator of truth, health, and harmony to earth and
humanity. As readily can you mingle fire and frost as
73:1
Spirit and matter. In either case, one does not support
Spirit and matter. In either case, one does not support
the other.
73:3
Spiritualism calls one person, living in this world, ma-
Spiritualism calls one person, living in this world, ma-
terial, but another, who has died to-day a sinner and sup-
posedly will return to earth to-morrow, it terms a spirit.
The fact is that neither the one nor the other is infinite
Spirit, for Spirit is God, and man is His likeness.
One government
73:8
The belief that one man, as spirit, can control an-
The belief that one man, as spirit, can control an-
other man, as matter, upsets both the individuality and
the Science of man, for man is image. God
controls man, and God is the only Spirit. Any
other control or attraction of so-called spirit is a mortal
belief, which ought to be known by its fruit, – the repe-
tition of evil.
73:15
If Spirit, or God, communed with mortals or controlled
If Spirit, or God, communed with mortals or controlled
them through electricity or any other form of matter, the
divine order and the Science of omnipotent, omnipresent
Spirit would be destroyed.
Incorrect theories
73:19
The belief that material bodies return to dust, hereafter
The belief that material bodies return to dust, hereafter
to rise up as spiritual bodies with material sensations and
desires, is incorrect. Equally incorrect is the
belief that spirit is confined in a finite, ma-
terial body, from which it is freed by death, and that, when
it is freed from the material body, spirit retains the sensa-
tions belonging to that body.
No me-diumship
73:26
It is a grave mistake to suppose that matter is any part
It is a grave mistake to suppose that matter is any part
of the reality of intelligent existence, or that Spirit and
matter, intelligence and non-intelligence, can
commune together. This error Science will
destroy. The sensual cannot be made the mouthpiece of
the spiritual, nor can the finite become the channel of
the infinite. There is no communication between so‑