490:12 The Science of Mind needs to be understood. Until
it is understood, mortals are more or less deprived of
Truth. Human theories are helpless to make
490:15 man harmonious or immortal, since he is so
already, according to Christian Science. Our only need
is to know this and reduce to practice the real man's di-
490:18 vine Principle, Love
True nature and origin
"Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings."
Human belief - or knowledge gained from the so-called
490:21 material senses - would, by fair logic, anni-
hilate man along with the dissolving elements
of clay. The scientifically Christian explanations of the
490:24 nature and origin of man destroy all material sense with
immortal testimony. This immortal testimony ushers
in the spiritual sense of being, which can be obtained
490:27 in no other way.
Sleep an illusion
Sleep and mesmerism explain the mythical nature of
material sense. Sleep shows material sense as either
490:30 oblivion, nothingness, or an illusion or dream.
Under the mesmeric illusion of belief, a man
will think that he is freezing when he is warm, and that he
491:1 is swimming when he is on dry land. Needle-thrusts will
not hurt him. A delicious perfume will seem intolerable.
491:3 Animal magnetism thus uncovers material sense, and
shows it to be a belief without actual foundation or va-
lidity. Change the belief, and the sensation changes.
491:6 Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears.
Man linked with Spirit
Material man is made up of involuntary and voluntary
error, of a negative right and a positive wrong, the latter
491:9 calling itself right. Man's spiritual individual-
ity is never wrong. It is the likeness of man's
Maker. Matter cannot connect mortals with the true
491:12 origin and facts of being, in which all must end. It is only
by acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annuls
the claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and
491:15 find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man
forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator.
Material man as a dream
The belief that matter and mind are one, - that mat-
491:18 ter is awake at one time and asleep at another, some-
times presenting no appearance of mind, -
this belief culminates in another belief, that
491:21 man dies. Science reveals material man as never the real
being. The dream or belief goes on, whether our eyes are
closed or open. In sleep, memory and consciousness are
491:24 lost from the body, and they wander whither they will
apparently with their own separate embodiment. Per-
sonality is not the individuality of man. A wicked man
491:27 may have an attractive personality.
Spiritual existence the one fact