The objection is seriously made against Christian Science that it insists that the universe, including man, is not seen or understood by mortals as it really is. This objection is not only made by the materialist and the atheist, but by ministers of the Christian churches; and the protests of the latter are even more vehement than those of the former.
It seems to the writer that this proposition of Christian Science will be recognized as self-evident by any one who gives it reasonable consideration.
It will be generally conceded that the so-called intelligence of mortal man to-day is very limited; that he knows but little about the universe and the laws that govern it. He cannot tell anything about the fundamental processes by which plants and animals are made to grow, much less whence or how they were brought into existence.
Recent discoveries show how finite was and still is our conception even of the extent and magnitude of what is called the material universe.
The greater the intelligence of man and the more profound his investigations of natural cause and phenomena, the more amazed is he at the grandeur, magnitude, and mystery of heaven and earth. The intelligence that must have conceived and that governs all, startles and staggers the finite mind. Even if we do not recognize this creative and governing Intelligence as absolutely infinite, still we accept it as immeasurably beyond our own. A mortal's conception of this universe must be as far from the true conception of it as his intelligence is below the creative Intelligence.
The Christian world theoretically admits that the Creator is an infinite Intelligence, which is unquestionably the true idea. Then what shall we say of the belief that the so-called intelligence of a mortal beholds and comprehends some of the works of this infinite Intelligence as this infinite God beholds them; and especially that he sees man, the highest work of Divinity, as this infinite Mind sees him?
Does not the claim bear on its face the self-evident marks of a stupendous error? Who can rightly or logically assert that this finite conception is not as far from the real and true one as the finite is from the infinite—a distance measured only by the line that can measure between error and Truth? Then how unspeakably erroneous must be the finite perception of the greatest and grandest work of the Infinite even His own image and likeness.
Some argue that the universe, including man, results from the action of material law that has no mind or intelligence of its own. Those who thus reason are involved in this apparent absurdity: that the Creator knows neither himself nor his creation, but that a mortal man, who is only a speck in this vast creation, knows creation and its Creator.
Again, it is universally conceded by the enlightened and progressive portion of mankind that no work of man can be truly called great and intelligent unless it is a good work, and brings to human beings more of good than evil. The purpose and fruit of the work must be for the weal and not the woe of men. No work of diabolism or evil, no matter how much wicked shrewdness or cunning may be employed in its conception or execution, would be today regarded as a work of intelligence.
To the glory of the enlightened twentieth century can it be said that works of intelligence cannot be separated from good works. To be certified as intelligent they must be for the amelioration or advancement of man's condition. Then, clearly the works of an infinite Intelligence must be works of infinite good, without any element of evil or destruction in them, and when seen and understood as the Infinite sees and understands them, His works must and will be found to bear the impress of infinite goodness and perfection.
What kind of reason is it which maintains that the works of men and the laws enacted by them, to be regarded as works and laws of intelligence, must operate for the good and the comfort of men, but that the works and laws of God, though they operate to the injury and discomfort of men, can nevertheless be named the works and laws of infinite Intelligence?
This kind of logic would leave us without any standard of right whereby to guide us over the sea of human error into the haven of Truth. Evil is error; and therefore an erroneous conception of Intelligence, or its laws and works, must in some degree be an evil conception. Hence man's finite and erroneous conception of God and His works must be to some extent an evil conception.
A belief that Good, as God, is finite must include also a belief in evil, for Good could not be limited except with an element of evil—its opposite in nature. And a belief in evil must deteriorate the sense of good to the extent that the belief in evil is held. Therefore the belief that Good is limited is the tree which bears the fruit that the serpent recommended to Eve, but which God forbade to be eaten.
Now if this belief that Good is limited could be made true, it would instantly annihilate God as Good, and make Him evil or a self-destroying and ever-warring belief of good and evil, a house divided against itself. The understanding that God is infinite Good, and this Good, infinite Mind, excludes the element of evil as a reality in the kingdom of being. The belief that Good can be infinite and yet evil exist as a reality, is a kingdom divided against itself, which to the glory of God, is rapidly being brought to desolation.
We could with equal force and propriety assert that light could be infinite and yet darkness exist. If light be infinite and darkness exist, then it must exist within the light, which is impossible.
It must be apparent to any thinker that a quality of being can be limited to human thought only as this thought takes to itself a belief in an opposite quality to that which it would limit; and that the understanding of a positive quality of mind must be diminished to the exact extent of the belief in the reality of a negative opposite. This explains why this human thought is a compound belief of incongruous and warring opposites, and must so remain until disciplined and corrected by Christ, the true idea of God.
This Christ idea, or Christian Science, will purify and improve the human mind until the fact is discerned that God, Good, is not a part, but the whole, of Being.
This will not annihilate man. It will bring immortal man to light; for Science deduces from the Scriptures as well as from reason the eternal fact that God is infinite Mind, and Mind is inconceivable without ideas; that the universe, including man, is the infinite idea of this infinite Mind, and that idea or thought must remain in Mind, which is its Principle and forever possess the nature and character thereof.
How thoroughly the works of Jesus, who came to voice and exemplify the nature and character of God to mankind, support the reasonable conclusions of Christian Science. Mankind, then, as now, was struggling in sore ignorance of true Mind, its works, ways, and laws. Throughout his wonderful ministry he went about destroying all forms of sin, disease, and discord, including tempest, wave, and death, thus showing mortals that the kingdom of God—infinite Intelligence—included none of the evils that are embraced in the realm of ignorance or finite belief. And what is even more important is the ever-cheering fact that in proportion as the human mind became cleansed from the errors of ignorance through a better understanding of God as the author of good, and not of evil, did this mind become wiser, purer, and better, blessing and elevating all who came within the domain of its influence.
It follows that the position of Christian Science is consistent with reason and Scripture. This exalted and exalting idea of God and His creation must continue to enlarge and improve our thought and diminish our ignorance and thereby our sin until man shall be found in the image and likeness of' his Maker.
The Bible faithfully studied by the aid and in the light shed upon it by "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker G. Eddy, lays a sure foundation for this understanding, points the way, and unfolds the means whereby it may be gradually but surely attained.
"Keep thine heart with all diligence," and entreat the holy Spirit to keep it full; for otherwise, the issues of thy life will be feeble, shallow, and superficial; and thou mayst as well not have lived at all.—
In the path of duty grows many a thorn,
And bleak is the scorn of a selfish world;
But there never was night without its morn,
And after the tempest the clouds are furled;
For over all spreadeth the bright blue sky.
And we trust in our God, who is always nigh!
