The teaching of Christian Science that matter is unreal and pain and suffering mere illusions, meets with opposition and incredulity from those to whose mortal sense matter is obviously real, and to whom pain and suffering are so manifest. Christian Scientists are, therefore, constantly called upon to defend their belief in the unreality of matter and its consequent evils, sin, disease, and death, and to explain what is meant in this connection by the claim of its unreality. They desire to be reasonable,—to take no position that cannot be logically sustained, and that is not upheld by divine Principle,—and every position taken by them that runs counter to the common notions of mankind is susceptible of explanation and defence. The stalking, sometimes hideous, presence of sin, and the effects of pain and suffering, are so palpable to human observation, that we cannot wonder when others question our assertion that these things are unreal, or illusory.
All Christian people agree that God is All and that He is good. The inevitable conclusion from this must be that all is good. They also agree in saying that this All, or God, is Spirit, and that we "must worship Him in spirit and in truth." They proceed a little farther, and maintain that man is the image and likeness of God. Would it not seem to follow inevitably from these premises that there is no place in God's kingdom for the opposite of good, called evil, including, of course, what all will agree are evils,—sin, sickness, and suffering? It is, however, this logical and inevitable conclusion that the world repudiates and denies. It is strenuously maintained by many preachers and others, that these evils are not only real, but that they are a part of God's economy, visited upon man for his punishment, chastening, and salvation. Christian Scientists agree, with all Christian people, in the premises, but they insist upon the logical conclusion to be drawn therefrom: that if All is good, there can be no evil in reality. Now what do we mean by this conclusion? We must admit that to the mortal suffering from a sense of pain, the pain is real, very real, but so are the hideous faces and crawling serpents real, very real, to the one suffering from delirium tremens. In the first instance, when the sufferer is relieved from the pain, it vanishes into nothingness. It has no visible existence, from the beginning, even to the sufferer, much less to any one else; and when relief comes to him it is but a hateful memory. The distorted vision and perverted sensibilities of the inebriate make his tormentors just as real as the pain is to the other sufferer, and the agony resulting therefrom is yet more intense and obvious to mortal sight and sense. It will be conceded that the visions of the latter are unreal, mere illusions, but is not the pain of the other so likewise? The visions, beliefs, and suffering of the victim of drink come from a perverted condition of thought. This all will admit. Then does not the pain of the other sufferer come from the same source? If mortal man is ignorant of the All-good, and thinks wrong and does wrong, will he not, as a consequence, necessarily suffer? Suppose that all men lived up to the generally received doctrine that man is the image and likeness of God; that they thought no evil and did no evil, but obeyed the divine command. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, . . . and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself," would there be any evil, pain, or suffering in the world? Does not the whole train of evils from which mankind suffer flow from the one prime fact that their ideas of God and man are false and illusory? The very belief that man is material and not spiritual is an illusion (or the Bible deceives us), and from this false belief flows naturally the delusion that because he is material, he must and will suffer from material ills. It is, therefore, from this false belief, or wrong condition of thought, that mortals suffer.
To maintain this position we must of course be able to uphold the position taken in Christian Science, that man is spiritual and not material. (Science and Health, p. 468.) If so, then the material body that sins, suffers, and dies is not of God's creation, it is no part of the all good, which must be real and eternal, but is an outgrowth of the false conception of man's creation and existence. This false conception of man is itself unreal, and subject to be destroyed by the revelation and understanding that man is the child of God, and therefore spiritual and perfect. If the ills from which mortals suffer can be destroyed in this way, they are unreal; and if mankind can be made to know and understand the perfection of God's creation, and man as a spiritual being, then the material sense or "matter" will be proved unreal in the sense that it is not of God and not eternal, but subject to destruction by Truth.
