Chapter IV - Christian Science Versus Spiritualism
Spiritual awakening
96:1
slowly out of sinning sense into spiritual understanding;
slowly out of sinning sense into spiritual understanding;
unwillingness to learn all things rightly, binds Christen-
dom with chains.
The darkest hours of all
96:4
Love will finally mark the hour of harmony, and spir-
Love will finally mark the hour of harmony, and spir-
itualization will follow, for Love is Spirit. Before error
is wholly destroyed, there will be interrup-
tions of the general material routine. Earth
will become dreary and desolate, but summer and winter,
seedtime and harvest (though in changed forms), will
continue unto the end, – until the final spiritualization of
all things. "The darkest hour precedes the dawn."
Arena of contest
96:12
This material world is even now becoming the arena
This material world is even now becoming the arena
for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord
and dismay; on the other side there will be
Science and peace. The breaking up of mate-
rial beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want
and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new
phases until their nothingness appears. These disturb-
ances will continue until the end of error, when all
discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.
Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization.
This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue
until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is
changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.
Millennial glory
96:25
As this consummation draws nearer, he who has
As this consummation draws nearer, he who has
shaped his course in accordance with divine Science
will endure to the end. As material knowl-
edge diminishes and spiritual understanding
increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally
instead of materially.
96:31
During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor
During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor
to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but
97:1
those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in
those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in
check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They
will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the
certainty of ultimate perfection.
Dangerous resemblances
97:5
In reality, the more closely error simulates truth and
In reality, the more closely error simulates truth and
so-called matter resembles its essence, mortal mind, the
more impotent error becomes as a belief. Ac-
cording to human belief, the lightning is fierce
and the electric current swift, yet in Christian Science
the flight of one and the blow of the other will become
harmless. The more destructive matter becomes, the
more its nothingness will appear, until matter reaches
its mortal zenith in illusion and forever disappears. The
nearer a false belief approaches truth without passing
the boundary where, having been destroyed by divine
Love, it ceases to be even an illusion, the riper it becomes
for destruction. The more material the belief, the more
obvious its error, until divine Spirit, supreme in its do-
main, dominates all matter, and man is found in the like-
ness of Spirit, his original being.
97:21
The broadest facts array the most falsities against
The broadest facts array the most falsities against
themselves, for they bring error from under cover. It
requires courage to utter truth; for the higher Truth
lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its in-
articulate sound is forever silenced in oblivion.
97:26
"He uttered His voice, the earth melted." This Scrip-
"He uttered His voice, the earth melted." This Scrip-
ture indicates that all matter will disappear before the
supremacy of Spirit.
Christianity still rejected
97:29
Christianity is again demonstrating the Life that is
Christianity is again demonstrating the Life that is
Truth, and the Truth that is Life, by the apos-
tolic work of casting out error and healing the
sick. Earth has no repayment for the persecutions which