Chapter IV - Christian Science Versus Spiritualism
Scientific foreknowing
85:1
the stars or calculate an eclipse. This Mind-reading
the stars or calculate an eclipse. This Mind-reading
is the opposite of clairvoyance. It is the illumination of
the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the ca-
pacity of Soul, not of material sense. This Soul-sense
comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the
divine Mind.
Value of intuition
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Such intuitions reveal whatever constitutes and per-
Such intuitions reveal whatever constitutes and per-
petuates harmony, enabling one to do good, but not
evil. You will reach the perfect Science of
healing when you are able to read the human
mind after this manner and discern the error you would
destroy. The Samaritan woman said: "Come, see a
man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this
the Christ?"
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It is recorded that Jesus, as he once journeyed with his
It is recorded that Jesus, as he once journeyed with his
students, "knew their thoughts," – read them scientifi-
cally. In like manner he discerned disease and healed
the sick. After the same method, events of great mo-
ment were foretold by the Hebrew prophets. Our
Master rebuked the lack of this power when he said:
"O ye hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky;
but can ye not discern the signs of the times?"
Hypocrisy condemned
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Both Jew and Gentile may have had acute corporeal
Both Jew and Gentile may have had acute corporeal
senses, but mortals need spiritual sense. Jesus knew the
generation to be wicked and adulterous, seek-
ing the material more than the spiritual. His
thrusts at materialism were sharp, but needed. He never
spared hypocrisy the sternest condemnation. He said:
"These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other
undone." The great Teacher knew both cause and
effect, knew that truth communicates itself but never
imparts error.
Mental contact
86:1
Jesus once asked, "Who touched me?" Supposing
Jesus once asked, "Who touched me?" Supposing
this inquiry to be occasioned by physical contact alone,
his disciples answered, "The multitude throng
thee." Jesus knew, as others did not, that
it was not matter, but mortal mind, whose touch called
for aid. Repeating his inquiry, he was answered by the
faith of a sick woman. His quick apprehension of this
mental call illustrated his spirituality. The disciples'
misconception of it uncovered their materiality. Jesus
possessed more spiritual susceptibility than the disciples.
Opposites come from contrary directions, and produce
unlike results.
Images of thought
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Mortals evolve images of thought. These may appear
Mortals evolve images of thought. These may appear
to the ignorant to be apparitions; but they are myste-
rious only because it is unusual to see
thoughts, though we can always feel their
influence. Haunted houses, ghostly voices, unusual
noises, and apparitions brought out in dark seances
either involve feats by tricksters, or they are images and
sounds evolved involuntarily by mortal mind. Seeing
is no less a quality of physical sense than feeling. Then
why is it more difficult to see a thought than to feel one?
Education alone determines the difference. In reality
there is none.
Phenomena explained
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Portraits, landscape-paintings, fac-similes of penman-
Portraits, landscape-paintings, fac-similes of penman-
ship, peculiarities of expression, recollected sentences,
can all be taken from pictorial thought and
memory as readily as from objects cognizable
by the senses. Mortal mind sees what it believes as
certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and
sees its own thoughts. Pictures are mentally formed
before the artist can convey them to canvas. So is it