Credo

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1      IT is fair to ask of every one a reason for the faith within.
         Though it be but to repeat my twice-told tale, — nay,
3      the tale already told a hundred times, — yet ask, and I
         will answer.


         Do you believe in God?


6      I believe more in Him than do most Christians, for I
         have no faith in any other thing or being. He sustains
         my individuality. Nay, more — He is my individuality
9      and my Life. Because He lives, I live. He heals all my
         ills, destroys my iniquities, deprives death of its sting, and
         robs the grave of its victory.

12    To me God is All. He is best understood as Supreme
         Being, as infinite and conscious Life, as the affectionate
         Father and Mother of all He creates; but this divine
15    Parent no more enters into His creation than the human
         father enters into his child. His creation is not the Ego,
         but the reflection of the Ego. The Ego is God Himself,
18    the infinite Soul.

         I believe that of which I am conscious through the
         understanding, however faintly able to demonstrate Truth
21    and Love.


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         Do you believe in man?


         I believe in the individual man, for I understand that
3      man is as definite and eternal as God, and that man is
         coexistent with God, as being the eternally divine idea.
         This is demonstrable by the simple appeal to human
6      consciousness.

         But I believe less in the sinner, wrongly named man.
         The more I understand true humanhood, the more I see it
9      to be sinless, — as ignorant of sin as is the perfect Maker.

         To me the reality and substance of being are good, and
         nothing else. Through the eternal reality of existence I
12    reach, in thought, a glorified consciousness of the only
         living God and the genuine man. So long as I hold evil
         in consciousness, I cannot be wholly good.

15    You cannot simultaneously serve the mammon of
         materiality and the God of spirituality. There are not
         two realities of being, two opposite states of existence.
18    One should appear real to us, and the other unreal, or we
         lose the Science of being. Standing in no basic Truth, we
         make "the worse appear the better reason," and the un-
21    real masquerades as the real, in our thought.

         Evil is without Principle. Being destitute of Principle,
         it is devoid of Science. Hence it is undemonstrable, with-
24    out proof. This gives me a clearer right to call evil a nega-
         tion, than to affirm it to be something which God sees and
         knows, but which He straightway commands mortals to
27    shun or relinquish, lest it destroy them. This notion of


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1      the destructibility of Mind implies the possibility of its
         defilement; but how can infinite Mind be defiled?


3      Do you believe in matter?


         I believe in matter only as I believe in evil, that it is
         something to be denied and destroyed to human conscious-
6      ness, and is unknown to the Divine. We should watch
         and pray that we enter not into the temptation of panthe-
         istic belief in matter as sensible mind. We should sub-
9      jugate it as Jesus did, by a dominant understanding of
         Spirit.

         At best, matter is only a phenomenon of mortal mind,
12    of which evil is the highest degree; but really there is no
         such thing as mortal mind, — though we are compelled
         to use the phrase in the endeavor to express the underlying
15    thought.

         In reality there are no material states or stages of con-
         sciousness, and matter has neither Mind nor sensation.
18    Like evil, it is destitute of Mind, for Mind is God.

         The less consciousness of evil or matter mortals have,
         the easier it is for them to evade sin, sickness, and death,
21    — which are but states of false belief, — and awake from
         the troubled dream, a consciousness which is without
         Mind or Maker.

24    Matter and evil cannot be conscious, and consciousness
         should not be evil. Adopt this rule of Science, and you
         will discover the material origin, growth, maturity, and
27    death of sinners, as the history of man, disappears, and the


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1      everlasting facts of being appear, wherein man is the re-
         flection of immutable good.

3      Reasoning from false premises, — that Life is material,
         that immortal Soul is sinful, and hence that sin is eternal,
         — the reality of being is neither seen, felt, heard, nor un-
6      derstood. Human philosophy and human reason can
         never make one hair white or black, except in belief;
         whereas the demonstration of God, as in Christian Science,
9      is gained through Christ as perfect manhood.

         In pantheism the world is bereft of its God, whose
         place is ill supplied by the pretentious usurpation, by
12    matter, of the heavenly sovereignty.


         What say you of woman?


         Man is the generic term for all humanity. Woman is
15    the highest species of man, and this word is the generic
         term for all women; but not one of all these individualities
         is an Eve or an Adam. They have none of them lost their
18    harmonious state, in the economy of God’s wisdom and
         government.

         The Ego is divine consciousness, eternally radiating
21    throughout all space in the idea of God, good, and not of
         His opposite, evil. The Ego is revealed as Father, Son,
         and Holy Ghost; but the full Truth is found only in
24    divine Science, where we see God as Life, Truth, and
         Love. In the scientific relation of man to God, man is
         reflected not as human soul, but as the divine ideal, whose
27    Soul is not in body, but is God, — the divine Principle of


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1      man. Hence Soul is sinless and immortal, in contradis-
         tinction to the supposition that there can be sinful souls or
3      immortal sinners.

         This Science of God and man is the Holy Ghost, which
         reveals and sustains the unbroken and eternal harmony
6      of both God and the universe. It is the kingdom of heaven,
         the ever-present reign of harmony, already with us. Hence
         the need that human consciousness should become divine,
9      in the coincidence of God and man, in contradistinction
         to the false consciousness of both good and evil, God and
         devil, — of man separated from his Maker. This is the
12    precious redemption of soul, as mortal sense, through
         Christ’s immortal sense of Truth, which presents Truth’s
         spiritual idea, man and woman.


         What say you of evil?


         God is not the so-called ego of evil; for evil, as a sup-
         position, is the father of itself, — of the material world,
18    the flesh, and the devil. From this falsehood arise the
         self-destroying elements of this world, its unkind forces,
         its tempests, lightnings, earthquakes, poisons, rabid
21    beasts, fatal reptiles, and mortals.

         Why are earth and mortals so elaborate in beauty, color,
         and form, if God has no part in them? By the law of
24    opposites. The most beautiful blossom is often poisonous,
         and the most beautiful mansion is sometimes the home of
         vice. The senses, not God, Soul, form the condition of
27    beautiful evil, and the supposed modes of self-conscious


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1      matter, which make a beautiful lie. Now a lie takes its
         pattern from Truth, by reversing Truth. So evil and all
3      its forms are inverted good. God never made them; but
         the lie must say He made them, or it would not be evil.
         Being a lie, it would be truthful to call itself a lie; and by
6      calling the knowledge of evil good, and greatly to be de-
         sired, it constitutes the lie an evil.

         The reality and individuality of man are good and God-
9      made, and they are here to be seen and demonstrated; it
         is only the evil belief that renders them obscure.

         Matter and evil are anti-Christian, the antipodes of
12    Science. To say that Mind is material, or that evil is
         Mind, is a misapprehension of being, — a mistake which
         will die of its own delusion; for being self-contradictory,
15    it is also self-destructive. The harmony of man’s being is
         not built on such false foundations, which are no more
         logical, philosophical, or scientific than would be the as-
18    sertion that the rule of addition is the rule of subtraction,
         and that sums done under both rules would have one
         quotient.

21    Man’s individuality is not a mortal mind or sinner; or
         else he has lost his true individuality as a perfect child of
         God. Man’s Father is not a mortal mind and a sinner;
24    or else the immortal and unerring Mind, God, is not his
         Father; but God is man’s origin and loving Father,
         hence that saying of Jesus, "Call no man your father
27    upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in
         heaven."


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1      The bright gold of Truth is dimmed by the doctrine of
         mind in matter.

3      To say there is a false claim, called sickness, is to admit
         all there is of sickness; for it is nothing but a false claim.
         To be healed, one must lose sight of a false claim. If the
6      claim be present to the thought, then disease becomes as
         tangible as any reality. To regard sickness as a false
         claim, is to abate the fear of it; but this does not destroy
9      the so-called fact of the claim. In order to be whole, we
         must be insensible to every claim of error.

         As with sickness, so is it with sin. To admit that sin
12    has any claim whatever, just or unjust, is to admit a dan-
         gerous fact. Hence the fact must be denied; for if sin’s
         claim be allowed in any degree, then sin destroys the
15    at-one-ment, or oneness with God, — a unity which sin
         recognizes as its most potent and deadly enemy.

         If God knows sin, even as a false claimant, then ac-
18    quaintance with that claimant becomes legitimate to
         mortals, and this knowledge would not be forbidden; but
         God forbade man to know evil at the very beginning,
21    when Satan held it up before man as something desirable
         and a distinct addition to human wisdom, because the
         knowledge of evil would make man a god, — a representa-
24    tion that God both knew and admitted the dignity of evil.

         Which is right, — God, who condemned the knowledge
         of sin and disowned its acquaintance, or the serpent, who
27    pushed that claim with the glittering audacity of diabolical
         and sinuous logic?




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Love is the liberator.