Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/71

Rh God as not acting, as to conceive him as non-existing,” and that God “cannot be passive.” That Mrs. Eddy simply reproduces the thought of the Neoplatonists and Spinoza is evident.

From this metaphysical principle that God is ever active and never passive, several conclusions are logically drawn by the Neoplatonists and Mrs. Eddy, two of which I proceed to give, showing Mrs. Eddy's dependence on them.

The first is that the divine being does not suffer. Distinguishing Christ from Jesus, who, she confesses, suffered, Mrs. Eddy says: “The eternal Christ, his spiritual selfhood, never suffered.” Plotinus says: “It (being or that which always is in contrast with anything that begins to be or has a temporal existence) suffers nothing.” Spinoza says: God is not “susceptible of passions.” Some teachers of the Bible are found stating with a show of profoundness that the divine nature cannot suffer. They ought to learn that the Bible teaches no such thing but that pagan philosophy does, whence it came to Mrs. Eddy and to a few theologians also who in this matter are more under the sway of Plato than Christ.

If God cannot suffer it must follow that he cannot have sympathy, that is, he cannot suffer