350:24 "The Word was made flesh." Divine Truth must be
known by its effects on the body as well as on the mind,
before the Science of being can be demon-
350:27 strated. Hence its embodiment in the incar-
nate Jesus, - that life-link forming the connection through
which the real reaches the unreal, Soul rebukes sense, and
350:30 Truth destroys error.
Truth a present help
In Jewish worship the Word was materially explained,
and the spiritual sense was scarcely perceived. The
351:1 religion which sprang from half-hidden Israelitish history
was pedantic and void of healing power. When we lose
351:3 faith in God's power to heal, we distrust the
divine Principle which demonstrates Christian
Science, and then we cannot heal the sick. Neither can
351:6 we heal through the help of Spirit, if we plant ourselves
on a material basis.
The author became a member of the orthodox Con-
351:9 gregational Church in early years. Later she learned
that her own prayers failed to heal her as did the prayers
of her devout parents and the church; but when the
351:12 spiritual sense of the creed was discerned in the Science
of Christianity, this spiritual sense was a/ present help/. It
was the living, palpitating presence of Christ, Truth, which
351:15 healed the sick.
Fatal premises
We cannot bring out the practical proof of Christianity,
which Jesus required, while error seems as potent and
351:18 real to us as Truth, and while we make a per-
sonal devil and an anthropomorphic God our
starting-points, - especially if we consider Satan as a
351:21 being coequal in power with Deity, if not superior to Him.
Because such starting-points are neither spiritual nor
scientific, they cannot work out the Spirit-rule of Christian
351:24 healing, which proves the nothingness of error, discord,
by demonstrating the all-inclusiveness of harmonious
Truth.
Fruitless worship
351:27 The Israelites centred their thoughts on the material
in their attempted worship of the spiritual. To them
matter was substance, and Spirit was shadow.
351:30 They thought to worship Spirit from a ma-
terial standpoint, but this was impossible. They might
appeal to Jehovah, but their prayer brought down no
352:1 proof that it was heard, because they did not sufficiently
understand God to be able to demonstrate His power
352:3 to heal, - to make harmony the reality and discord the
unreality.
Spirit the tangible
Our Master declared that his material body was not
352:6 spirit, evidently considering it a mortal and material be-
lief of flesh and bones, whereas the Jews took
a diametrically opposite view. To Jesus, not
352:9 materiality, but spirituality, was the reality of man's ex-
istence, while to the rabbis the spiritual was the intangi-
ble and uncertain, if not the unreal.