Mental Anatomy by Edyth Tollington

Edyth I. Tollington, C.S. was a teacher who taught Paul Ambuul. He stated he would drive hours getting to her house and said that “It was well worth it!”

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MENTAL ANATOMY

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, . . . learn of me; . . . For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” Matt. 11:28-30, is a promise and a command given by our great Teacher, Christ Jesus. The promise is that all burdens shall be made easy, and the command is, “Learn of me.”

The first part of this statement was based upon the physical concept, and indeed material existence is a heavy burden. When anyone has a problem confronting him, his first thought is, what an arduous task the solving will be. But when one learns the Christ, the Science given by Mrs. Eddy’s revelation through her book, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” and through her other writings; and the discernment that was coming to and proceeding from her consciousness, he, learning the Christ Truth from that standpoint, finds the weight lessening.

On page 462 of the textbook is the clarion statement: “Anatomy, when conceived of spiritually, is mental self-knowledge, and consists in the dissection of thoughts to discover their quality, quantity, and origin. Are thoughts divine or human? That is the important question. This branch of study is indispensable to the excision of error.” And on page 57 of “Unity of Good” is the rousing statement, “Anatomically considered, the design of the material senses is to warn mortals of the approach of danger . . . “

An example of this dissection is related in the healing of the woman with an issue of blood. Jesus felt the woman’s thoughts,

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and he asked the question, “Who touched me?” and then he said he felt virtue had gone out of him (Luke 8:46). This condition of thought was not his own; it was the sin being presented to consciousness to be destroyed. Every one of the healings of Jesus was accomplished by analyzing the impersonal evil, and by seeing it not as a person or a physical reality, but as a mental falsity which had to be detected, cast out, and replaced with the Truth.

If it were not for the fact that GOD IS: no suppositional evil could seem to be. In the statement of Jesus he “felt that virtue had gone out of him:” the counterfeit of virtue was sensuality, and Mrs. Eddy tells us: “His pure consciousness was discriminating. . . but he neither held her error by affinity nor by infirmity”, (it had no relation to her and it was not physical) “for it was detected and dismissed.” (Un. 57). In presenting mental anatomy, we must realize we are dealing wholly with the individual mentality, and with the concept of man and the universe, a concept which is either accepted or corrected in your consciousness and which is proceeding from your consciousness.

The ten plagues given in Exodus may represent or symbolize each step for the individual from the time of entering Christian Science to his transition; when the symbols disappear. These symbols are presented as physical, but as Jesus and our Leader did, we must consider them as mental, not physical, and we must detect them only as warnings to be recognized and cast out in order to heal.

The world has long been looking for salvation and is still looking for it. This salvation is gained through spiritualization of thought, and it is not the work of a moment but is the “emerging gently into Spirit.” Freedom is gained as we rise gradually out of

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seeing evil as being her, or him, or them. And as we deal with the latent or impersonal error, uprooting it, we are letting the real appear to consciousness.

Mrs. Eddy declares in “Miscellaneous Writings” (p. 284) “The hour has passed for this evil to be treated personally.” This evil is only the subtle, silent argument, making itself seen, heard and felt as a person. So, when we consider the plagues and discern the impersonal nature of the condition at that time, or at Moses’ and Aaron’s time, as well as the impersonal nature of animal magnetism at the present time, we must first consider what “The Lord” was that spoke to Moses.

Moses was a prophet or spiritual seer to the people of that time, and he lived in obedience to the law of God operating in consciousness; so “The Lord” was that impersonal good or law that reigned, controlling every act in the life of the prophet, and the Lord is that impersonal good that reigns, controlling every act or thought in the life of any spiritual seer. This law of God, good, was ever directing him to separate the sense of good from mortal mind, ignorance, and this law of good spoke to him through the Truth, which the Scriptures indicated as Aaron. (In the Hebrew tongue Aaron means teaching, elevated teaching, high above the human sense of person, place or things). And this law of God, good, is operating today directing us, all spiritual seers, to separate the sense of good from mortal mind’s ignorance.

Mrs. Eddy typifies the last appearing of Truth as the Comforter, even as Moses first typified the Law. So also Mrs. Eddy’s textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures voices the

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spoken word or teaching today, as Aaron voiced it in the first instance of Truth’s appearing. So it is with the revelation of the law that the human mind persists in making a reality of matter, and persists in following the physical man, rather than the idea he typified; and this resistance to the idea is the hardening, or rebellion, of mortal mind that the children of Israel were constantly striving to overcome. Today the resistance is against the spoken word as typified in a woman-teacher, our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy. She says of her own experience, “I have been learning the higher meaning of this book since writing it.” (My 114:25).

Our leader avers: “Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul.” (S & H 269). The personal sense of things must be exchanged for the impersonal or spiritual. Each of the plagues must be reduced from the thing as it appears objectively into thought, and it thereby becomes a lesson in mental anatomy. (Ex. 7:19-20) The Truth uncovers the false limitations of material, corporeal sense, or serpent. In the account of the plagues, the Scriptures indicate these limitations as “rivers, streams, ponds, and pools-vessels of wood and vessels of stone, because these things are always definitely bounded by edges or outlines thus exposing their limits. The Bible also relates that these were turned into blood. So when it says, one has a body with blood in it, it is the limited sense of life in matter, that is presented, to be accepted, as real. The very opposite of this limitation is symbolized by the ocean, whose boundaries cannot be visualized any more than God can be outlined.

“The Lord” is the Truth in each consciousness which uncovers and exchanges the false, limited sense of body with blood for the freedom of Life as God, good. In this allegory, plague one-“the fish that was in the river died”;–the belief of mind in matter, or brain, as thinking, dies;

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it is not the creator of ideas, with which all space is filled. “The Egyptians could not drink of it”-could not accept this falsity; because as thought becomes enlightened, thought loathes, turns from, the darkened material sense. Blood truly defined is “sacrifice” (S & H 25:3) and recalls our Leader’s further statement on the same page: “The efficacy of Jesus’ spiritual offering is infinitely greater than can be expressed by our sense of human blood”. When we see everything as thought, sacrifice becomes a holy thing, changing our sense of life, truth, intelligence, and substance as in matter, to Life, Truth, intelligence, and substance as Spirit.

In this vestibule of spiritual sense the material belief or “sense of things disappears”, (S & H 597:18), and the facts of our spiritual being appear. Thus we stand before Pharaoh or mortal mind “in the morning”, with a progressive attitude ready to accept ideas that are presented subjectively (Ex. 7:15) of this revealed light when Pharaoh presents its finite, limited belief of life in matter, and we use our spiritual understanding to speak with authority. This vestibule is the wilderness, or bewilderment, where we pause to contemplate the spiritual idea, and we must work to overcome the doubt and darkness, or ignorance about God; for the “morning”, the revelation of Christ, stands at the door for US to open: becomes the impersonal good developing spiritual sense and demonstrating Life as not in matter, and thus we are ready for progress.

Ideas are not in brains and nerves; That which was educated and taught to be ideas in brains was merely the belief of intelligence in matter. This fact understood enables us to work effectively, to destroy the aggressive mental suggestion claiming entrance through the false limited sense of the material human objective; Then sacrificing the material sense of things becomes easier.

This spiritual understanding, that Life is unlimited and that ideas are not in matter, brings us a broader, more universal

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view of mental conditions and with this we are equipped to go to Pharaoh, mortal mind, and to speak with authority. When we reach this progressive step in analysis we think not in ourselves but in the universe, and we deal not only with ourselves but with all mankind.

2^nd Plague: “And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bed chamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading troughs;” (Ex. 8:3). To the human mind frogs appear to be dissatisfaction, discontentment. Unless this evil is handled it manifests itself in such unsettled conditions as not wanting to keep the home orderly; as a fussiness in eating either too much or too little, gluttony or dieting; as disturbed sleeping, wanting to sleep all the time or none of the time; and as a false desire to be on the go, moving from place to place, either in home or in employment, seeking new places. When handled, thought is lifted up to the calm, serene, inspired consciousness which labors without fatigue; which meets another’s need as the “absolute formations instituted by Mind” replaces universal unrest; which rises to the height of the spiritual idea, which gleams in increased activity. Our Leader’s illuminating statement helpfully says: “The world could not interpret aright the discomfort which Jesus inspired, and the spiritual blessings which might flow from such discomfort. Science shows the cause of the shock so often produced by Truth, – namely, that this shock arises from the great distance between the individual and Truth.” (S & H, 53.)

When we see that such errors are not our own beliefs, even

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though they come as “I”, “we”, or “they”, either individually or collectively (for mortal mind cannot accomplish evil if we refuse to submit to any other ego than the one all good, the only EGO), we claim our divine right and we then heal to the extent that we rule out of our mentality the belief that material mindedness (false educational systems) is our own thinking. Instead we see this material mindedness to be illusory, foisted upon individuals through the belief of intelligence in matter. And we see individuals thus claiming their divine source of spirituality and all true being to be in God, where each idea of divine Mind knows no discontent and no dissatisfaction, instead of divine directed and willingly accepted. The mortal mind rebellion forces each student to lift his thought above the suggestions of evil; and by his analysis of these false thought conditions, greater growth in grace is gained.

We next come to Exodus 8:8, where Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, “Intreat the Lord.” This word INTREAT is tractable, and “tractable” defined, means capable of being handled, easily taught, led, managed or controlled; as, tractable or teachable children. So “Intreat the Lord” indicates that Pharaoh, or mortal mind, is calling for help; has reached the point where it is receptive to the divine idea. This receptivity is not human, it is divine. When the student of Christian Science is willing to turn away from the testimony of the physical senses, and look to the spiritual sense of being, he immediately places in consciousness a constant prayer to the divine Mind for help; and understanding that there is no intelligence in matter, spontaneously expresses praise mentally and audibly.

Our textbook, “Science and Health”, page 167, informs us:

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“If we rise no higher than blind faith, the Science of healing is not attained, and Soul-existence, in the place of sense-existence, is not comprehended. We apprehend Life in divine Science only as we live above corporeal sense and correct it.” This correcting gives us much cause for gratitude, as Moses said to Pharaoh, (Ex. 8:9) “Glory over me.” So this law of God when seen as permeating every act, is gratitude, gratitude that we have found the ever-living, ever-loving Christ-Truth as our own, gratitude that we are of one Shepherd and one fold. This recognition quiets the discontented, dissatisfied human mind, and becomes the “peace, be still” to consciousness through the law of God, Good. Gratitude, learning how to be grateful for Christian Science, is the first treatment and lesson we need to give ourselves. We find in studying the first chapter of our textbook that Mrs. Eddy placed decided importance on gratitude as well as on prayer. We should be grateful for the unfolding of divine Science instead of trying to attain only material possessions, which are fleeting and temporary.

But, are we not prone to procrastinate until we are forced to see a greater sense of the nothingness of matter, which sense is attained, through the third plague (Ex. 8:16): “Say unto Aaron, stretch out thy rod and smite the dust of the land that it may become lice throughout all the land.” At this advanced stage we learn that all things are mental, that there is no sensation in matter, no pain in matter, no pleasure in matter. But the Truth gained enables us to discern mortal mind as objectifying its belief through the subjective state. In this discovery of limited false illusion, we begin to see man and the universe through the divine Mind’s eye. Then we find substance was never in matter nor of matter.

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Although unknown to those not understanding the Science of being; when resolving things into thoughts, it is found-that lice symbolizes sensation in matter-manifesting the annoyances of the human mind: impatient, irritable dispositions. As one is willing to turn away from this phase of human belief,–appearing outwardly as a material pestilence, called lice – such as seeking excitement in material pleasures, mingling with the friction and tension of worldly events; – -he sees man, patient, poised, serene, and as the master of mortal mind instead of its servant. Then he can stand before error’s onslaught with confidence, just as Aaron and Moses stood before Pharaoh. Really, lice, from the Hebrew root word, means to set out, as to plant a vineyard. Is not analyzing mortal mind a preparation of the soil? We prepare ourselves to be workers in our Father’s vineyard by uprooting and casting out irritable dispositions, tempers, selfishness, self-righteousness, self-will. Thus our vineyard is free to bear fruit, much fruit.

These first three plagues are the three states that liberate the thought from physical wants and lifts it to the higher unfoldment of spiritual things. Mrs. Eddy writes in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 40:26: “In this Christian warfare the student or practitioner has to master those elements of evil too common to other minds.” A setting aside of self must precede the awakening of the individual. Mrs. Eddy continues on page 109 of Miscellaneous Writings: “Ignorance was the first condition of sin in the allegory of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Their mental state is not desirable, neither is a knowledge of sin and its consequences, repentance, per se; but, admitting the existence of both, mortals must hasten through the second to the third stage,–the knowledge of good; . . . . To understand good, one must discern the nothingness of evil, and consecrate one’s life anew.” Self-love, self-pity, self-will, self-aggrandizement, self-condemnation, self-justification, are the stumbling stones

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which must be unselfed, uprooted, to make room to sow the seeds of Truth.

Lice is the third plague. Metaphysically considered, it is the beginning of the resurrection that takes hold of life, and prays to become humble. With fervent praise it counts its blessings received. Resurrection out of matter comes with the enlightened thought, out of ignorance about God, and man as His image and likeness, to the true understanding of what Life is, and ever shall be, that Life which never came into matter and does not know of any death process out of matter.

The fourth plague is flies. We are told “The Lord” said unto Moses rise up “early in the morning,” whereas in making the command before He had used the statement “in the morning.” Is it not clear that this progressive mental step has required more alertness to recognize the Truth and to deny the error? But is it personal error? NO! because the unselfing has shown this Truth to us; that Christ-likeness accomplishes this unselfing. This points to a great fact: i.e., that in order to do the will of God we must set aside cherished beliefs. As a result error loses its belief of animated matter and the will of wisdom is established. The flies covering the ground (Ex. 8:21) lead thought back to Adam, dust, nothingness. Thus the work is seen to be the destruction of elementary, latent evil: the mortal mind in solution, which said it made man, not God’s man, but the Adam dream.

Did you ever try to do analytical work only to find mortal mind telling you to telephone this person, to visit that person, etc. Inwardly mortal mind is striving in this way to obstruct, prevent, and reverse the work of removing the SELF-the dust dream of pity, praise, justification, will, condemnation, etc., which

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would prevent the mental preparation of the worker. “They cover the ground,” that is, they are the flies or tormenting, disturbing annoyances of the plagues that must be overcome. Outwardly and negatively they are material insects that disturb or annoy a household; but inwardly and positively from the analytical sense, they are states and conditions of the human mind. Flies, from an unused root in the Hebrew, was “Aneph”, meaning to “cover the limbs”, as of trees; or “full of branches”. Our previous positive analysis of lice was shown to be symbolical of the vineyard. As the unselfing takes place, we find the vineyard bringing forth or manifesting, demonstrating, Christian Science; bearing fruit.

Throughout the plagues the separation between the real and the unreal, the human and the divine, is vividly described in the word “SEVER. . . . the land of Goshen” (which is only the better part of the human mind). Sever, in the Hebrew root, was to distinguish, show a marvelous separation. And the description in the Bible shows plainly the spontaneity and advanced mental position attained thus far in this unfoldment or analysis.

For example, Pharaoh, or mortal mind, said: “I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord YOUR God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away.” The Israelites said they would go three days’ journey to sacrifice to God. They met their difficulties, on the way, through deception. Exodus 8:29, “Let not Pharaoh (mortal mind) deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” To the advanced student, the subtlety of animal magnetism is seen in the effort to deceive by means of personality or animated matter. To attach one closely to some personality or thing; such as family, friends or pets, provides a place through which animal magnetism can claim to work. Thus it

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presents its discordant phases in sickness, sin or idolatry, for it is only through the human sense of love or goodness that deception can seem to operate. The purpose of its deception is to stop or retard the higher demonstration. If the Israelites of today, typified by Christian Science students, question why their demonstrations are at times protracted, let them ponder our Leader’s allegory, “The Fruit of Spirit”, especially noting the paragraph on page 327 of Miscellaneous Writings: “The journey commences. The encumbered travelers halt and disagree. They stoutly belay those who, having less baggage, ascend faster than themselves, and betimes burden them with their own. Despairing of gaining the summit, loaded as they are, they conclude to stop and lay down a few of the heavy weights, – but only to take them up again, more than ever determined not to part with their baggage.”

We need to examine ourselves. Are we ready to follow the Master, to set aside human opinions, and to cease letting others less interested in Christian Science put hindrances in our way? Paul wrote to the Hebrews: “Today if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, for some when they had heard did provoke:” (provoke spiritual sense) and Jesus spoke of those, as they “who provoked him in the wilderness.”

Gaining a higher sense of substance is faith, an all-pervading faith so established in consciousness as instantly to turn thought to our goal and to look at “the things hoped for”, “the evidence of things not seen,” the substance of Life, Truth, and Love where there is no matter.

In following this revelation of enlightened thought, the fifth plague (Ex. 9:3-4) represents a higher sense of substance. This

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plague of murrain, that was brought upon the animals of the Israelites, “upon their cattle which were in the field”, their horses, asses, camels, oxen, even sheep, typifies distemper. “The Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt:” This distemper is the anger of error stirring up thought forcing it to carry the higher concept of substance. -“Nothing dies of all that is Israel’s,” that is the higher sense of substance thus gained does not die. This classification as of animals signifies a discernment of a higher sense of substance. But first let us resolve them into thoughts to see why this plague represents a higher mental sense of substance.

Our leader when examining the word cattle compared it to “diligence, promptness and perseverance”, and she added they “carry the baggage of stern resolve.” Horses and asses which labor for mankind-especially asses-have endurance when working, so we add endurance to diligence and promptness and perseverance. The camel more than any other animal that labors for man can go longer than any other beast without water, so sustenance is added, a quality which supports. Oxen, used in olden times as a laborer for man, were castrated bulls; symbolize that the animality is taken out of the belief of male in order to make it more persevering and mentally consecrated. The sheep as our Leader gives us in the Glossary typify “Innocence; inoffensiveness; those who follow their leader.” The Scriptures add “The Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt; and nothing shall die of all that is the children of Israel.”

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A purifying process is thus taking place in thought. We are experiencing a greater sense of harmony, so we are ready for another step of progress. This step of progression is our recognition of our purified thought from which we can glimpse a higher sense of what reflection really means, a meaning that only a purified thought can know.

The sixth plague of boils bringing forth blains is the submerging of the human into the divine idea. A desired purification of the heart, giving us the true sense of man and an understanding of the reflection of God, which heals. Analyzing boils: to us outwardly is something that needs to be healed, we find an unused root meaning “to burn”. Blains is also outwardly something to be healed, but in the Hebrew it means “to belch forth, as an eruption”. Mental anatomy of “boils that brought forth blains” is that purification of thought referred to in the Scriptures: “The pure in heart see God” and seeing God is manifesting, demonstrating God’s outpouring love. Every individual entering Christian Science finds himself pondering and testifying to the healing work of the Master, and he desires within his heart to demonstrate that healing work. He has proven many times through the study of our Leader’s books that this Science is the Science of healing taught by Jesus, but he also knows that a sacrifice of material ways and means must be made in order to attain this consciousness; and he gains this higher sense of substance illustrated by the plague of murrain. The natural result is a purification, a purified consciousness symbolized by the boils and blains.

In Exodus 9:16 we read: “And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power; and that my name

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may be declared throughout all the earth.” Thus we see the reality of our being upright, pure, free, not measuring our own or anyone else’s life by birth or death, but recognizing our sonship with God. This is the healing Truth, God’s law everpresent.

The seventh plague was hail. (Ex. 9:18) We read that the Israelites were told to gather their cattle that were in the field and were commanded to take them home. The Scripture records: “He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle to flee unto the houses.” (Ex. 9:19-20) Just as the Israelites took their cattle into the houses to save them, so must we take our demonstrations into the house of the Lord, Christ consciousness, Mind, to protect them and to have them made manifest so that no reversal can take place. Hail when outwardly viewed is destructive frozen rain; but when mentally resolved is mental suggestions of self, and self’s sharp experiences which it has seemed to have had in the past. The review of the past produces a state of self-pity which is further resistance to Truth (further hail). On page 260 of Science and Health, our Leader declares: “Sensualism evolves bad physical and moral conditions. Selfishness and sensualism are educated in mortal mind by the thoughts ever recurring to one’s self, by conversation about the body, and by the expectation of perpetual pleasure or pain from it; . . .” She gave the remedy for this condition of thought when she commanded us to “Look away from the body into Truth and Love.” If, when making a demonstration, we look over the past mortal experiences whether they were sad or joyous, rich or poor, sick or healthy, we leave true substance, symbolized by cattle, etc., open to pelting destructive animal magnetism

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symbolized by stinging hail. Thus individual demonstration is left unprotected; and is subject to reversal; instead of to the proof and presence of God’s governing law.

The progressive step we are forced to take at this juncture uncovers to us that this recalling of past experiences is sin – not our sin, for we Christian Science students who have advanced this far are done with mingling in the carnal ways and beliefs. So these recurring thoughts are world beliefs of joy and sorrow, health and sickness, riches and poverty, being presented by I, You, We, or They.

After the plague of hail had disappeared, the Scriptures inform us that Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron and said unto them: “I have sinned this time. The Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked.” What a clear statement of the recognition in consciousness of what mortal mind has been trying to foist upon us from the beginning of human experience; a false conception of a matter body, “conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity.” Even the victim sees the deception. But until “the Lord” or law of God is established, the mesmerism is so pronounced it isn’t recognized, and thus is learned the method of animal magnetism handling its victim. When the error is self-seen it is self-destroyed.

After this Pharaoh said (Ex. 9:28): “I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.” This is another statement that one is rising to the point where animal magnetism cannot abide. It cannot abide in the exalted thought. Then comes the harvest as Ex. 9:31 states: “And the flax and barley was smitten for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.” Flax (stupidity-roughness) and barley appear as full grown, luscious temptations, looking desirable-

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but they are bolled (in the pod and dried up, smitten)-they lose their attractiveness. (S&H 66:11) Anything that is smitten has been touched, and of course this is all the belief of human experience, analyzed and seen mentally for what it is. It says to you when you come through the hail, you have a rough time, and you have a hard time, your whole life has been a stormy experience and you are afraid to face the future. At this point we are ready to profit by it, the exposé of its evil, not because it is true, but because we cannot be deceived further by mortal mind. This uncovering naturally brings a great harvest, for the only profitable part of human experience is the lesson learned which enables one to heal mankind. In the next verse which bears an important place in mental anatomy is this statement: “But the wheat and the rye were not smitten: for they were not grown up.”

These, (the wheat and rye, symbols) are new views not yet touched upon in metaphysics. Mrs. Eddy clearly explains these new views in her statement on page 66 of our textbook: “Spiritual development germinates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes, but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love.” And again on that same page she adds, “It is well to hope, pray, and wait patiently on divine wisdom to point out the path.”

Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. The children of Israel had to work to be released from Pharaoh’s holding. They were forced to go still higher. So it is with us; we must work to be released. But the signs or proofs of our understanding can next show up mortal mind as nothing. The resistance to Truth and this showing of proofs

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goes on until every belief of materiality has gone to its nothingness. But at this step we have our armour on, so we need not fear the eighth plague, which was locusts.

The resolving of these things into thought is done only when one is contrasting the material with the spiritual; i.e., one is recognizing what mortal mind is telling to be only lies; and error uncovered is two-thirds destroyed. (Exodus 10:1) “And the Lord said unto Moses: “GO IN UNTO PHARAOH:” that is, face the situation and handle it. Many times we hear it said: “It is all in your own consciousness.” How untrue that is, for error never occupied the consciousness of Truth, and there is no other consciousness. The law of God is so established in consciousness that one can indeed go with the Truth to destroy every belief of animal magnetism. Locusts symbolize the RAPID destruction of every belief growing out of matter. Locusts typify rapidity of destruction. From the unfoldment of mental anatomy thus far we now know how to handle sin, since we see that we were not born into matter. In Ex. 10:5&6 we read: “They shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which has escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, . . . which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.” From this point we roll back the centuries; all the beliefs of heredity, and belief that there ever was a mortal mind or Adam dream. Thus effectually we do destroy the belief of old age, decrepitude, and an accumulated past.

Mrs. Eddy states on page 247 of Science and Health: “The acute belief of physical life comes on at a remote period, and is not

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so disastrous as the chronic belief.” A mortal at the point of birth believes it knows little, that it has had no physical life. But at a remoter period of acute belief, it believes it has, through years, accumulated experiences; and to the extent of its accumulation, it dies out. The chronic belief, which is disastrous, is the lie that says it was born. In order to rid one’s self of this false education, one must recognize God as the Father-Mother of all, and in so doing one governs the carnal suggestion of accumulated experiences. To destroy the error one must look at the spiritual fact, and deny the error. This confident affirming, and denying, is not done effectually while one holds in thought, person, place, or thing. But when these are thrust out, the relinquishment of a material experience is accomplished as quickly as a swarm of locusts can destroy a wheat field. Looking beyond material existence into pre-existence, we sustain the spiritual sense with the First Commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Mrs. Eddy’s statement in Unity of Good, page 60, further clarifies: “This false sense of substance must yield to His eternal presence and so dissolve. Rising above the false substance to the true evidence of Life, is the resurrection that takes hold of eternal Truth. Coming and going belong to mortal consciousness.” Birth and death have no place in the spiritual man.

“And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, how long shall this man be a snare (the belief that it has a matter body is the snare) unto us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?” (Ex. 10:7) The human mind at once gives the answer, “Don’t you see it is destroyed?” Yes, ignorance is destroyed, ignorance about God and man. And as soon as the ignorance about God and man is destroyed, the argument of the five corporeal senses is eliminated. Pharaoh asked: “But who are they

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that shall go?” What matter bodies are there to come or go.

We must not lose our hold upon Moses’ and Aaron’s place in thought. We must keep it impersonal and constant; Moses, as the Law, and Aaron as the Truth unfolding or teaching that law to us, which destroys every opposite law claiming existence in the thought of human kind. Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy heard, recognized, and obeyed, in the present age, the voice of Truth giving this law through Christian Science, and with this divine revelation gave to mankind the Christian Science textbook, even as Moses gave The Ten Commandments to be obeyed, in order to lift mankind to the mount to overcome the false beliefs of a life apart from God.

When working from the universal sense, we see that Moses told them they would go with their young and old, flocks and herds, sons and daughters and little ones, to hold a feast unto the Lord. Truly is this “a feast of Soul and a famine of sense.” (My. 203) And the Bible relates they were driven out of Pharaoh’s, mortal mind’s, presence. Everything in consciousness at this point in our allegory maintains, sustains, and demonstrates the spiritual idea of all that exists; because the ebbing and flowing tides of mortal mind have lost their power to stir. When we see that the argument is destroyed in our own thought, we do not believe that it exists for any one.

To summarize, we have an account of the Lord’s East Wind bringing the locusts to take out of memory all that is left of the experiences, even those seeming to have been pleasant, those that would grow upon us; the growing things indicating mortal mind claiming to think over and remember the past; while constantly saying, “I am losing my memory, I can’t remember.” (Mrs. Eddy’s marginal note

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“Immortal memory” – S&H p. 407). Mrs. Eddy also defines “wind” in part in the Glossary (S&H p. 597): “That which indicates the might of omnipotence and the movements of God’s spiritual government, encompassing all things.” And on page 575 of the textbook, under the marginal heading, “The royally divine gates”, she speaks of “eastward” as pointing “to the star seen by the Wisemen of the Orient, who followed it to the manger of Jesus.” This exemplifies the new birth taking place; for it brings us into His presence. Aggressive suggestion having lost its belief of power in the human mind, and very quickly (the quickness symbolized by the locusts) does divine Science overcome the belief that we live in a material body or that there is anything in it to be healed. (Ex. 10:16) So then Pharaoh called for Moses and said: “I have sinned . . . . against you”, and he added: “Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the Lord your God, that he may take away from me this death only.” The sin that man is a creator brought death, because God is Life and life never was in matter, and this was what Pharaoh acknowledged, namely that there is no mortal mind or matter.

On page 68 of our textbook, Mrs. Eddy declares: “Proportionately as human generation ceases, the unbroken links of eternal, harmonious being will be spiritually discerned; and man, not of the earth earthly but coexistent with God, will appear. . . . Mortals can understand God’s creation while believing that man is a creator.” In the preceding sentence to this, Mrs. Eddy has stated: “Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion; it manifests no material growth from molecule to mind, but an impartation of the divine Mind to man and the universe.” In other words the acknowledgment that neither Adam was the male, nor Eve the female of God’s creating. She was the woe that was proceeding from

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the Adam dream; he was the obstruction between God and man. Eve was not the female of God’s creating. This understanding permeating consciousness with the Truth of being will give that sweet assurance of eternal Life which will abolish death, the one sin, that believes in mortal birth.

Our Leader states on page 19 (ibid): “Every pang of repentance and suffering, every effort for reform, every good thought and deed, will help us to understand Jesus’ atonement for sin and aid its efficacy; but if the sinner continues to pray and repent, sin and be sorry, he has little part in the atonement,–in the at-one-ment with God,–for he lacks the practical repentance, which reforms the heart and enables man to do the will of wisdom.” And on page 204 of Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy states: “Through the accession of spirituality, God, the divine Principle of Christian Science, literally governs the aims, ambition, and acts of the Scientist.” The eighth plague, locusts, symbolizing rapidity of the sharp, pelting experiences of the past, and destroying all that the hail had left, is wrought by the east wind, the omnipotent guidance of divine Mind, and it literally governs the aims, ambitions, and acts of the individual. Consciousness is purified; the capacity for mental activity is increased and quickened, to the point where self is put aside and stands at those “royally divine gates” that open to a more beautiful realization of divine Love, the Father-Mother Love of God.

The Lord sent a mighty strong west wind, (according to the Bible (Ex. 10:19), that swept the locusts into the Red Sea and not one remained. So can it be with us on our journey. We can know through the Christ Mind that we stand on the shores of existence and watch

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the receding beliefs fade from thought and disappear forever. On page 575, our Leader defines “westward” as “the grand realization of the Golden Shore of Love and the Peaceful Sea of Harmony.” And she continues: “—this New Jerusalem, this infinite All, which to us seems hidden in the mist of remoteness,–reached St. John’s vision while yet he tabernacled with mortals.” Therefore, it is possible for us to reach that understanding of divine Love so as to bring this to our consciousness here and now.

Ex. 10:20: “But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not let the children of Israel go.”-Because the belief in matter was still there. It says: “Yes you have the Christ consciousness, but you still see matter.” And the Lord said unto Moses: “Stretch out thine hand toward heaven that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness that may be felt.” When animated matter, or personality, is taken out of human experience, there still remains in belief a surrounding world of inanimate matter-“darkness that may be felt”. John saw this on Patmos, as also did Jesus when he passed through walls, after his resurrection from the grave (inanimate matter). That darkness was doubt and fear. (See Mrs. Eddy’s definition of “darkness” in the Glossary.) In its recorded order it seems to have preceded the “morning” as spoken of in the first chapter of Genesis; the morning-that enlightenment which is reaching to heaven and separates individual consciousness from matter, error, by lifting it up; and also inevitably dissolves the mist, or mistification, matter.

We, as students, know that error cannot enter heaven. We early learn this, but at this period in our mental analysis, where the world’s beliefs are breaking up, we seem to be surrounded by

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discordant conditions. However, they are only the world’s beliefs of moral chemicalization. Jesus’ experience in Gethsemane is paralleled by the period of the Christian Science students’ purified life, and typifies the cup “which Jesus prayed might pass from him”. Our Leader says: “Who that has felt the loss of human peace has not gained stronger desires for spiritual joy”. The joy of letting matter go indicates the willingness to leave the present mental erroneous standpoint and lift the “son of man”, one’s true being, up to where there are no sinful world beliefs. This is the ultimate, not of death but of life eternal, and is the inevitable effect of at-one-ment.

Exodus 10:23-25. In the tenth plague, the Bible says: “They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days, but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.” And it is added: “Pharaoh called unto Moses and said, ‘Go ye, and serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed; let your little ones also go with you’.” When mortal mind said the little ones could go, mortal mind was willing all personality should go; but to let the flocks and herds be stayed, showed the human mind still longed to keep inanimate matter. It is still believing that matter is substance-the quality of divine Principle-instead of understanding that patience, promptness, diligence, perseverance, sustenance, moral courage, strength, tenderness, compassion, adroitness, and endurance constitute substance. These are purely mental and spiritual. They are not physical, nor are they expressed through so-called intelligent matter. But, the tenacious belief of animal magnetism still suggests, “just hold on to matter” as being substantial so that it can be entertained

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or “stayed” a little longer. This is also the darkness as referred to in the ninth plague.

Exodus 11:1: “And the Lord said, ‘Yet will I bring one more plague upon Pharaoh, (mortal mind) and upon Egypt, (ignorance); afterwards he will let you go hence; when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether’.” (Mortal mind ceases to be.) The sustaining strength of the spiritual sense of substance as divinely mental enables one to abolish death, the tenth or last plague, which to the Christian Science student evinces translation.

Anatomy dissects and separates the thought of the material selfhood from that of the spiritual. For instance, Mrs. Eddy states in Miscellaneous Writings, page 42: “After the momentary belief of dying passes from mortal mind, this mind is still in a conscious state of existence; and the individual has but passed through a moment of extreme mortal fear, to awaken with thoughts, and being, as material as before.”

Now who is this individual? Is this individual physical or mental? This question is answered for us in a few words: sin is death; conception of matter or believing in matter is death; believing good and evil combine or mingle is death. Mrs. Eddy affirms in Retrospection and Introspection, page 67: “The human thought does not constitute SIN, but vice versa, SIN constitutes the human or physical concept.” (But they didn’t see it in one another. The last thing to be overcome is the belief that life exists as animated matter FOR THE INDIVIDUAL.) From the beginning of the resurrecting thought in consciousness, mortal mind has been dying and continues to die until inanimate matter disappears.

The moments of divine consciousness will increase as we understand mental anatomy which takes out of thought animated and inanimated organism. As this firm, spiritual foundation is obtained and retained that God, man, and the universe are spiritual, we shall PASS OVER

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a bridge of illimitable spiritual love, not pass on or die out of matter. We shall see and know ourselves and all true being to have had no birth nor death. Then every human experience of vain-glory and vain knowledge is completely destroyed. It cannot come to remembrance, because it never was in consciousness. Our leader declares in Science and Health: “Death cannot hasten this state of existence, for death must be overcome, not submitted to, before immortality appears.” We see male and female as the reflection of God in spiritual qualities. Sex is eliminated.

Divine Science understood, lived, practiced daily, yea, hourly, is the triumph over the belief of death; for in reality there is no death; and we can work freely when THRUST OUT of the belief that we were ever born into matter.

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