Chapter VIII - Footsteps Of Truth
Deformity and perfection
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good and the fount of all being, He does not produce
good and the fount of all being, He does not produce
moral or physical deformity; therefore such deformity is
not real, but is illusion, the mirage of error.
Divine Science reveals these grand facts. On
their basis Jesus demonstrated Life, never
fearing nor obeying error in any form.
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If we were to derive all our conceptions of man from
If we were to derive all our conceptions of man from
what is seen between the cradle and the grave, happi-
ness and goodness would have no abiding-place in man,
and the worms would rob him of the flesh; but Paul
writes: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
made me free from the law of sin and death."
Man never less than man
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Man undergoing birth, maturity, and decay is like the
Man undergoing birth, maturity, and decay is like the
beasts and vegetables, – subject to laws of decay. If
man were dust in his earliest stage of exist-
ence, we might admit the hypothesis that he
returns eventually to his primitive condition;
but man was never more nor less than man.
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If man flickers out in death or springs from matter into
If man flickers out in death or springs from matter into
being, there must be an instant when God is without His
entire manifestation, – when there is no full reflection
of the infinite Mind.
Man not evolved
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Man in Science is neither young nor old. He has
Man in Science is neither young nor old. He has
neither birth nor death. He is not a beast, a vegetable,
nor a migratory mind. He does not pass from
matter to Mind, from the mortal to the im-
mortal, from evil to good, or from good to evil. Such
admissions cast us headlong into darkness and dogma.
Even Shakespeare's poetry pictures age as infancy, as
helplessness and decadence, instead of assigning to man
the everlasting grandeur and immortality of development,
power, and prestige.
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The error of thinking that we are growing old, and the
The error of thinking that we are growing old, and the
benefits of destroying that illusion, are illustrated in a
sketch from the history of an English woman, published
in the London medical magazine called The Lancet.
Perpetual youth
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Disappointed in love in her early years, she became
Disappointed in love in her early years, she became
insane and lost all account of time. Believing that she
was still living in the same hour which parted
her from her lover, taking no note of years,
she stood daily before the window watching for her
lover's coming. In this mental state she remained young.
Having no consciousness of time, she literally grew no
older. Some American travellers saw her when she was
seventy-four, and supposed her to be a young woman.
She had no care-lined face, no wrinkles nor gray hair, but
youth sat gently on cheek and brow. Asked to guess her
age, those unacquainted with her history conjectured that
she must be under twenty.
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This instance of youth preserved furnishes a useful
This instance of youth preserved furnishes a useful
hint, upon which a Franklin might work with more cer-
tainty than when he coaxed the enamoured lightning
from the clouds. Years had not made her old, because
she had taken no cognizance of passing time nor thought
of herself as growing old. The bodily results of her belief
that she was young manifested the influence of such a be-
lief. She could not age while believing herself young, for
the mental state governed the physical.
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Impossibilities never occur. One instance like the
Impossibilities never occur. One instance like the
foregoing proves it possible to be young at seventy-four;
and the primary of that illustration makes it plain that
decrepitude is not according to law, nor is it a necessity of
nature, but an illusion.
Man reflects God
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The infinite never began nor will it ever end. Mind
The infinite never began nor will it ever end. Mind