Chapter X - Science Of Being
Man reflects the perfect God
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sense, but not in any anthropomorphic sense. Therefore
sense, but not in any anthropomorphic sense. Therefore
man, reflecting God, cannot lose his individuality; but as
material sensation, or a soul in the body, blind
mortals do lose sight of spiritual individuality.
Material personality is not realism; it is not
the reflection or likeness of Spirit, the perfect God. Sen-
sualism is not bliss, but bondage. For true happiness,
man must harmonize with his Principle, divine Love; the
Son must be in accord with the Father, in conformity with
Christ. According to divine Science, man is in a degree
as perfect as the Mind that forms him. The truth of be-
ing makes man harmonious and immortal, while error is
mortal and discordant.
Purity the path to perfection
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XXVI. Christian Science demonstrates that none but
XXVI. Christian Science demonstrates that none but
the pure in heart can see God, as the gospel
teaches. In proportion to his purity is man
perfect; and perfection is the order of celestial
being which demonstrates Life in Christ, Life's spiritual
ideal.
True idea of man
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XXVII. The true idea of man, as the reflection of the
XXVII. The true idea of man, as the reflection of the
invisible God, is as incomprehensible to the limited senses
as is man's infinite Principle. The visible uni-
verse and material man are the poor counter-
feits of the invisible universe and spiritual man. Eternal
things (verities) are God's thoughts as they exist in the
spiritual realm of the real. Temporal things are the
thoughts of mortals and are the unreal, being the oppo-
site of the real or the spiritual and eternal.
Truth demonstrated
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XXVIII. Subject sickness, sin, and death to the rule
XXVIII. Subject sickness, sin, and death to the rule
of health and holiness in Christian Science,
and you ascertain that this Science is demon-
strably true, for it heals the sick and sinning as no
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other system can. Christian Science, rightly under-
other system can. Christian Science, rightly under-
stood, leads to eternal harmony. It brings to light the
only living and true God and man as made in His like-
ness; whereas the opposite belief – that man originates
in matter and has beginning and end, that he is both
soul and body, both good and evil, both spiritual and
material – terminates in discord and mortality, in the
error which must be destroyed by Truth. The mortality
of material man proves that error has been ingrafted
into the premises and conclusions of material and mortal
humanity.
Adam not ideal man
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XXIX. The word Adam is from the Hebrew adamah,
XXIX. The word Adam is from the Hebrew adamah,
signifying the red color of the ground, dust, nothingness.
Divide the name Adam into two syllables,
and it reads, a dam, or obstruction. This
suggests the thought of something fluid, of mortal mind
in solution. It further suggests the thought of that
"darkness . . . upon the face of the deep," when mat-
ter or dust was deemed the agent of Deity in creating
man, – when matter, as that which is accursed, stood
opposed to Spirit. Here a dam is not a mere play upon
words; it stands for obstruction, error, even the sup-
posed separation of man from God, and the obstacle
which the serpent, sin, would impose between man and
his creator. The dissection and definition of words,
aside from their metaphysical derivation, is not scien-
tific. Jehovah declared the ground was accursed; and
from this ground, or matter, sprang Adam, notwith-
standing God had blessed the earth "for man's sake."
From this it follows that Adam was not the ideal man
for whom the earth was blessed. The ideal man was
revealed in due time, and was known as Christ Jesus.