Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1898).djvu/279

Rh Good does not create a mind susceptible of causing evil, for evil is the opposing error, and not the Truth of creation. Destructive electricity is not the offspring of infinite Good. Whatever contradicts the real nature of the divine esse, though human faith may clothe it with angelic vestments, is without foundation.

The belief that Spirit is finite as well as infinite has darkened all history. In Christian Science, Spirit, as a

proper noun, is the name of Being. It means quantity and quality, and applies exclusively to God. The modifying derivatives of the word spirit refer only to quality, not Being. Man is spiritual. He is not God, Spirit. If man were Spirit, then men would be spirits, gods. Finite spirit would be mortal; and this is the error embodied in the belief that the Infinite can be contained in the finite. This belief tends to becloud our apprehension of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the reign of harmony in the Science of Being.

Jesus taught but one God, one Spirit. Spirit makes man in the image and likeness of Himself, — of Spirit,

not of matter. Man reflects infinite Truth, Life, and Love. The nature of man, thus understood, includes more than is implied by the term person as commonly used. The truly Christian and Scientific statement of personality, and the relation of man to God, with the demonstration which accompanied it, incensed the rabbis, and they said: “Crucify him! He maketh himself as God. What further witness need we against him?”

The eastern Empires and nations owe their false government to the misconceptions of Deity there prevalent. Tyranny, intolerance, and bloodshed, wherever found,