As one looks upon the complex condition surrounding us, and dwells thoughtfully upon the verdict of the senses, the impression is,—there must exist a power, in comparison to which man (mortal mind) sinks into utter insignificance; and yet, to the senses, man has made great and wonderful inventions. Man supposes the primitive cause of all knowledge to be based on material law, and he saps this supposed law for his benefit, receiving for a time, perhaps, a gratification of the desires of sense.
The great English scientist, Professor Tyndall, tells us that all force is derived directly or indirectly from the sun; that in all forms of life the sun is the primeval cause; that heat is a mode of motion; that thought is merely the clashing together of molecules in the brain, induced by latent heat received in some manner from the solar lays. As to the modus operandi of this force, natural scientists are silent.
It is acknowledged at the present day, by our most noted scientific men, that our solar system, as well as other systems in the universe, can be traced back, through successive changes, till a condition is reached, even now to be seen in some part of the heavens, of a primitive source of matter, defined as nebulae,—a state in which (as above stated) our own system appeared at a very remote period, and which is called fire-mist. If the mind of man can trace the world's epochs back to its first material manifestation, fire-mist, there it halts. Mortal mind has found its limit.
But man is not satisfied with this definition of the first cause of all things. It is too material; it leaves Mind out of the premises. It does not satisfy. Man still reaches out for some cause of the fire-mist, and just here Divine Science comes to his aid, introducing itself as the explanation of the Eternal Cause,—not of the fire-mist, but of the spiritual substance which mortal man has materialized as fire-mist; for that is the location of man's acknowledgment of primitive error. As man admits the reality of matter in the nebulæ, so, of a surety, he must admit all its developments in conclusion. These developments comprise the whole catalogue of evils.
Nothing of a material nature can ever truly satisfy man. The best intellect admits the discord of material things,— that "the world is out of joint." The bards sing the sad song of defeat. Music,—which stills the desire, and is but the echo of infinite harmony,—if it does not elevate to purer thought, is heard in vain. Therefore do we look beyond the physical to Infinite Mind, for the expression of peace and contentment, and release from all discord. As we understand the Principle, we lose the reality of matter; and harmony takes the place of discord, sickness, and all evil, dependent upon the so-called Laws of Matter.
Divine Science is not a religion of sentiment and inaction, but a religion immensely practical. It requires something more than belief merely. It must be understood, if we are to become the possessors of its fruit. The distance between the true import of Divine Science and so-called Orthodoxy is so vast, that to measure it by human estimates of wisdom is out of the question. They are built upon entirely different foundations. The first embraces all harmonic action, absorbing Life, Truth, and Love,—to be partaken of by all who study and understand its Principle; while the second promises, to the majority of a sick and tired race, a hopeless state of eternal misery. When we emerge from this dark superstition, into the calm, bright atmosphere of Truth, the feeling is analogous to an escape from the tortures of a Nero.
Humanity must drop the anthropomorphic conception of Deity, before a substantial reality, that all is Mind, can be assimilated; for anthropomorphism is the fruitful source of all notions of a revengeful God, debarring humanity from absorbing the healthful influence which flows from Omnipresent Intelligence. When humanity, as a whole, has made a decided advance in this direction, conflicting religious opinions, with the evil they bring, together with Polytheism, Pantheism, and kindred beliefs, will recede farther and farther from mortal vision, till the last type of anthropomorphism is buried in the grave of oblivion, never again to appear as the merest shadow to obscure the light that opens the understanding to the truth that All is Mind.
