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Study
Topics
For
more information on the teachings of Christian
Science, explore the following study
topics:
Angels
Animal
Magnetism
Baptism
The
Bible
CS
vs. Evolution and
Creationism
Christ
Jesus
Death
Devil
God
Heaven
Hell
Holy
Ghost
Marriage
Mortals
and Immortals
The
New Tongue
Purity
Salvation
The
Term "Science"
"Science
and Health"
Stages
of Advancement
The
Tenets of Christian
Science
The
Trinity
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An Introduction to Christian
Science
MORTALS AND
IMMORTALS
References
for Study
The following passages are from the writings of
Mary Baker Eddy.
Unity
of Good, pp. 37:17-38:3
Human beings are physically mortal, but spiritually
immortal. The evil accompanying physical
personality is illusive and mortal; but the good
attendant upon spiritual individuality is immortal.
Existing here and now, this unseen individuality is
real and eternal. The so-called material senses,
and the mortal mind which is misnamed man,
take no cognizance of spiritual individuality,
which manifests immortality, whose Principle is
God.
To
God alone belong the indisputable realities of
being.
Science
and Health, p. 262:7
By putting "off the old man with his deeds,"
mortals "put on immortality."
Science
and Health, p. 409:20
The real man is spiritual and immortal, but the
mortal and imperfect so-called "children of men"
are counterfeits from the beginning, to be laid
aside for the pure reality. This mortal is put off,
and the new man or real man is put on, in
proportion as mortals realize the Science of man
and seek the true model.
Science
and Health, p. 285:2-4
Man's individuality is not material. This
Science of being obtains not alone hereafter in
what men call Paradise, but here and now; it is the
great fact of being for time and
eternity.
What,
then, is the material personality which suffers,
sins, and dies? It is not man, the image and
likeness of God, but man's counterfeit, the
inverted likeness, the unlikeness called
sin, sickness, and death. The unreality of the
claim that a mortal is the true image of God is
illustrated by the opposite natures of Spirit and
matter, Mind and body, for one is intelligence
while the other is
non-intelligence.
Science
and Health, p. 475:31
A mortal sinner is not God's man. Mortals are
the counterfeits of immortals. They are the
children of the wicked one, or the one evil, which
declares that man begins in dust or as a material
embryo. In divine Science, God and the real man are
inseparable as divine Principle and
idea.
Science
and Health, p. 476:9-5
God is the Principle of man, and man is the
idea of God. Hence man is not mortal nor material.
Mortals will disappear, and immortals, or the
children of God, will appear as the only and
eternal verities of man. Mortals are not fallen
children of God. They never had a perfect state of
being, which may subsequently be regained. They
were, from the beginning of mortal history,
"conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity."
Mortality is finally swallowed up in immortality.
Sin, sickness, and death must disappear to give
place to the facts which belong to immortal man.
Learn this, O mortal, and earnestly seek the
spiritual status of man, which is outside of all
material selfhood. Remember that the Scriptures say
of mortal man: "As for man, his days are as grass:
as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For
the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the
place thereof shall know it no more."
When
speaking of God's children, not the children of
men, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within
you;" that is, Truth and Love reign in the real
man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen
and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the perfect
man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man
appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour
saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of
man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the
kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man
is pure and holy.
Science
and Health, p. 253:32
The divine demand, "Be ye therefore perfect,"
is scientific, and the human footsteps leading to
perfection are indispensable. Individuals are
consistent who, watching and praying, can "run, and
not be weary; . . . walk, and not faint," who gain
good rapidly and hold their position, or attain
slowly and yield not to discouragement. God
requires perfection, but not until the battle
between Spirit and flesh is fought and the victory
won. To stop eating, drinking, or being clothed
materially before the spiritual facts of existence
are gained step by step, is not legitimate. When we
wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously,
He directs our path. Imperfect mortals grasp the
ultimate of spiritual perfection slowly; but to
begin aright and to continue the strife of
demonstrating the great problem of being, is doing
much.
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