The spiritual fact and the material belief of things are
contradictions; but the spiritual is true, and therefore the
289:27 material must be untrue. Life is not in matter.
Therefore it cannot be said to pass out of mat-
ter. Matter and death are mortal illusions. Spirit and
289:30 all things spiritual are the real and eternal.
Man is not the offspring of flesh, but of Spirit, - of
Life, not of matter. Because Life is God, Life must be
290:1 eternal, self-existent. Life is the everlasting I AM, the Be-
ing who was and is and shall be, whom nothing can erase.
Death no advantage
290:3 If the Principle, rule, and demonstration of man's being
are not in the least understood before what is termed death
overtakes mortals, they will rise no higher spir-
290:6 itually in the scale of existence on account of
that single experience, but will remain as material as be-
fore the transition, still seeking happiness through a ma-
290:9 terial, instead of through a spiritual sense of life, and from
selfish and inferior motives. That Life or Mind is finite
and physical or is manifested through brain and nerves,
290:12 is false. Hence Truth comes to destroy this error and
its effects, - sickness, sin, and death. To the spiritual
class, relates the Scripture: "On such the second death
290:15 hath no power."
Future purification
If the change called /death/ destroyed the belief in sin,
sickness, and death, happiness would be won at the mo-
290:18 ment of dissolution, and be forever permanent;
but this is not so. Perfection is gained only
by perfection. They who are unrighteous shall be un-
290:21 righteous still, until in divine Science Christ, Truth, re-
moves all ignorance and sin.
Sin is punished
The sin and error which possess us at the instant of
290:24 death do not cease at that moment, but endure until the
death of these errors. To be wholly spiritual,
man must be sinless, and he becomes thus only
290:27 when he reaches perfection. The murderer, though slain
in the act, does not thereby forsake sin. He is no more
spiritual for believing that his body died and learning that
290:30 his cruel mind died not. His thoughts are no purer until
evil is disarmed by good. His body is as material as his
mind, and /vice versa/.
291:1 The suppositions that sin is pardoned while unfor-
saken, that happiness can be genuine in the midst of
291:3 sin, that the so-called death of the body frees from sin,
and that God's pardon is aught but the destruction of
sin, - these are grave mistakes. We know that all will
291:6 be changed "in the twinkling of an eye," when the last
trump shall sound; but this last call of wisdom cannot
come till mortals have already yielded to each lesser call
291:9 in the growth of Christian character. Mortals need not
fancy that belief in the experience of death will awaken
them to glorified being.
Salvation and probation