Chapter XI - Some Objections Answered
Two different artists
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know that these ideals are real and eternal because drawn
know that these ideals are real and eternal because drawn
from Truth, – they will find that nothing is lost, and all
is won, by a right estimate of what is real."
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The other artist replies: "You wrong my experience.
The other artist replies: "You wrong my experience.
I have no mind-ideals except those which are both mental
and material. It is true that materiality renders these
ideals imperfect and destructible; yet I would not ex-
change mine for thine, for mine give me such personal
pleasure, and they are not so shockingly transcendental.
They require less self-abnegation, and keep Soul well out
of sight. Moreover, I have no notion of losing my old
doctrines or human opinions."
Choose ye to-day
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Dear reader, which mind-picture or externalized thought
Dear reader, which mind-picture or externalized thought
shall be real to you, – the material or the spiritual?
Both you cannot have. You are bringing out
your own ideal. This ideal is either temporal
or eternal. Either Spirit or matter is your model. If you
try to have two models, then you practically have none.
Like a pendulum in a clock, you will be thrown back and
forth, striking the ribs of matter and swinging between the
real and the unreal.
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Hear the wisdom of Job, as given in the excellent trans-
Hear the wisdom of Job, as given in the excellent trans-
lation of the late Rev. George R. Noyes, D.D.: –
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Shall mortal man be more just than God?
Shall mortal man be more just than God?
Shall man be more pure than his Maker?
Behold, He putteth no trust in His ministering spirits,
And His angels He chargeth with frailty.
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Of old, the Jews put to death the Galilean Prophet,
Of old, the Jews put to death the Galilean Prophet,
the best Christian on earth, for the truth he spoke and
demonstrated, while to-day, Jew and Christian can unite
in doctrine and denomination on the very basis of Jesus'
words and works. The Jew believes that the Messiah or
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Christ has not yet come; the Christian believes that
Christ has not yet come; the Christian believes that
Christ is God. Here Christian Science intervenes, ex-
plains these doctrinal points, cancels the disagreement,
and settles the question. Christ, as the true spiritual idea,
is the ideal of God now and forever, here and everywhere.
The Jew who believes in the First Commandment is a
monotheist; he has one omnipresent God. Thus the Jew
unites with the Christian's doctrine that God is come and
is present now and forever. The Christian who believes
in the First Commandment is a monotheist. Thus he
virtually unites with the Jew's belief in one God, and
recognizes that Jesus Christ is not God, as Jesus himself
declared, but is the Son of God. This declaration of
Jesus, understood, conflicts not at all with another of his
sayings: "I and my Father are one," – that is, one in
quality, not in quantity. As a drop of water is one with
the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God
and man, Father and son, are one in being. The Scrip-
ture reads: "For in Him we live, and move, and have
our being."
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I have revised Science and Health only to give a
I have revised Science and Health only to give a
clearer and fuller expression of its original meaning. Spir-
itual ideas unfold as we advance. A human perception of
divine Science, however limited, must be correct in order
to be Science and subject to demonstration. A germ of in-
finite Truth, though least in the kingdom of heaven is the
higher hope on earth, but it will be rejected and reviled
until God prepares the soil for the seed. That which
when sown bears immortal fruit, enriches mankind only
when it is understood, – hence the many readings given
the Scriptures, and the requisite revisions of Science and
Health with Key to the Scriptures.