When thinking from a material basis alone, mortals regard receiving as the coming into possession of something they did not have before. Also, they often regard giving as the conveying of something of their own without compensatory return, as though they were becoming separated from a substantial possession. From a material standpoint, receiving and giving seem to be separate from each other. In fact, from this false basis they seem to act oppositely. Thus covetousness, which is wholly material, may argue in favor of receiving, but against giving or imparting. So long as conclusions are based on the belief that material things are substantial, having beginning and ending, just so long will abide the belief that receiving and giving can conflict and be limited. Christian Science corrects these errors by revealing the truth about God and His creation, as divine and everlasting reflection.
Christian Science declares that Spirit is the only substance. Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 468): "Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are substance." Clearly there can be no real substance in whatever appears to change, to vanish, or to have beginning and ending. Substance eternally endures; which means that it has no limits of any kind. James writes, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." That which vanishes, begins, or ends certainly is not a "perfect gift." Perfection is the ultimate, the true substance, which cannot be anything else or less.
Let anyone gain in Christian Science the true understanding of God and of man in His image, and he will observe that this new light is accompanied by immovable conviction. The permanency of this conviction is recognized because it proceeds from divine Mind, eternal substance, which alone imparts whatever endures forever. It is Mind which reveals what substance is. One must gain the true idea of substance in order to have substantial convictions and their naturally substantial results.
