Chapter IV - Christian Science Versus Spiritualism
Vision of the dying
76:1
who have gone before. The ones departing may whisper
who have gone before. The ones departing may whisper
this vision, name the face that smiles on them and the
hand which beckons them, as one at Niagara, with eyes
open only to that wonder, forgets all else and breathes
aloud his rapture.
Real Life is God
76:6
When being is understood, Life will be recognized as
When being is understood, Life will be recognized as
neither material nor finite, but as infinite, – as God,
universal good; and the belief that life, or
mind, was ever in a finite form, or good in
evil, will be destroyed. Then it will be understood that
Spirit never entered matter and was therefore never
raised from matter. When advanced to spiritual being
and the understanding of God, man can no longer com-
mune with matter; neither can he return to it, any more
than a tree can return to its seed. Neither will man seem
to be corporeal, but he will be an individual conscious-
ness, characterized by the divine Spirit as idea, not matter.
76:18
Suffering, sinning, dying beliefs are unreal. When
Suffering, sinning, dying beliefs are unreal. When
divine Science is universally understood, they will have
no power over man, for man is immortal and lives by
divine authority.
Immaterial pleasure
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The sinless joy, – the perfect harmony and immortality
The sinless joy, – the perfect harmony and immortality
of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness
without a single bodily pleasure or pain, –
constitutes the only veritable, indestructible
man, whose being is spiritual. This state of existence
is scientific and intact, – a perfection discernible only
by those who have the final understanding of Christ in
divine Science. Death can never hasten this state of
existence, for death must be overcome, not submitted to,
before immortality appears.
76:32
The recognition of Spirit and of infinity comes not
The recognition of Spirit and of infinity comes not
77:1
suddenly here or hereafter. The pious Polycarp said:
suddenly here or hereafter. The pious Polycarp said:
"I cannot turn at once from good to evil." Neither do
other mortals accomplish the change from error to truth
at a single bound.
Second death
77:5
Existence continues to be a belief of corporeal sense
Existence continues to be a belief of corporeal sense
until the Science of being is reached. Error brings its
own self-destruction both here and hereafter,
for mortal mind creates its own physical con-
ditions. Death will occur on the next plane of existence
as on this, until the spiritual understanding of Life is
reached. Then, and not until then, will it be demon-
strated that "the second death hath no power."
A dream vanishing
77:13
The period required for this dream of material life,
The period required for this dream of material life,
embracing its so-called pleasures and pains, to vanish
from consciousness, "knoweth no man . . .
neither the Son, but the Father." This period
will be of longer or shorter duration according to the
tenacity of error. Of what advantage, then, would it be
to us, or to the departed, to prolong the material state and
so prolong the illusion either of a soul inert or of a sinning,
suffering sense, – a so-called mind fettered to matter.
Progress and purgatory
77:22
Even if communications from spirits to mortal con-
Even if communications from spirits to mortal con-
sciousness were possible, such communications would
grow beautifully less with every advanced stage
of existence. The departed would gradually
rise above ignorance and materiality, and Spiritualists
would outgrow their beliefs in material spiritualism.
Spiritism consigns the so-called dead to a state resembling
that of blighted buds, – to a wretched purgatory, where
the chances of the departed for improvement narrow
into nothing and they return to their old standpoints of
matter.