A KNOWLEDGE of what constitutes reality is a primary essential in all metaphysical study. Every system of religion and philosophy has attempted to define reality. When we understand what is real, we know what is unreal, and we can no longer be deceived by a false claim to reality. Salvation depends upon a knowledge of what is real and what is not real. Jesus performed acts which seemed wonderful to the ignorant and unspiritual. What he did was based upon a knowledge of the difference between the real and the unreal. Life meant vastly more to him than it did to the materialist, whose concept of God was material, who lived for matter, and believed that he lived by it. Christ Jesus had experiences which could not possibly come to his less spiritual followers, hence his lofty isolation and their failure to understand him. His healings were possible because he saw clearly the difference between the real and the unreal. The same clear spiritual vision heals to-day, and the mission of Christian Science is to restore such spiritual vision.
If the doctrines of Christian Science were to be reduced to the form of a syllogism, they would appear somewhat like this:First premise: "There is one God." Second premise: "God is Spirit;" infinite, individual being; the only creator of all that is. Conclusion: All that is, all that has genuine being, is like God, like Spirit. Nothing exists which is unlike or contrary to this great First Cause.
It will be observed that, theologically speaking, there is nothing unique about Mrs. Eddy's premises They are Scriptural, and are the same premises which lie, in theory at least, at the base of all Christian creeds. The only difference between Christian Scientists and other orthodox Christians seems to be that Christian Scientists do not hesitate to adopt the conclusion which inevitably follows their Scriptural premises, while other religionists seek to avoid the results of an inexorable logic. One writer has very well said, "We must never forget that a complete conclusion is just as binding as the premises from which we reason; and, no matter how daring it appears, we should never falter before that conclusion."
The great difference between the spiritual idealist and the materialist is to be found in the fact that the latter believes our material sensations to be real experiences, while the idealist rejects as real all that is inconsistent with the nature of an infinite, good creator. "All our thinking about life and the world," says one writer, "must begin with experience, and that experience itself must be accepted as real." It has been argued that no amount of metaphysical explanation can alter the facts, which remain the same, no matter what we call them. To this latter statement Christian Scientists agree, but the question promptly presents itself, how can we be sure that our experiences are genuine, that they proceed from a legitimate cause, that they have the quality of reality in the sense that they are immortal, that they have the power of endurance or continuance? Isaiah foresaw an entirely new set of experiences when he gave the divine message: "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former [the present concepts of heaven and earth, constituting mortal existence] shall not be remembered, nor come into mind."
Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away;" and in another place he said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." The Christian Scientist does not think that Jesus implied in these words the destruction or passing away of any substance, of any reality, but that he referred to that change in consciousness by which man becomes more spiritual and sees heaven and earth, not as matter, but as divine ideas, as the spiritual manifestation of the one infinite creator, who is Spirit. Paul expressed this thought admirably when he said, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." A recent writer in The Christian Science Journal says, "The position of Christian Science is, not that we do not see objects and things when we think we see them : but that these objects are not seen by us in the form in which they really exist, —the reality of the object does not appear to us, but only its sense phenomenon."
The materialist contends that life is made up of a series of experiences, all arriving by way of our material senses. Christian Science takes an opposite view, and agrees with Paul that "to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." According to this view, the real life of man is not made up of sense perceptions, but of spiritual concepts of being, or a spiritualized outlook upon creation, as well as a spiritualized introspection.
Christian Science does not deny that the experiences of human existence are real enough to mortal belief. It does not deny that a man who is cold can change that sensation to one of warmth, by approaching a fire; that a man who believes in the fatality of disease may suffer the usual consequences of that belief. What it does affirm is this: Given another view-point, namely, the divine, and all of these experiences, including the elaborate network of asserted laws by means of which these experiences are induced, will disappear, just as all of the intricate details of our sleeping existence cease to be, cease to have even an appearance of reality, the moment we come out of that state of consciousness in which they seemed real, natural, and orderly. Science attaches the term "reality" only to that which is spiritual and eternal.
Even the materialist who contends so persistently for the reality of our sense perceptions, knows that our material experiences are not reliable or trustworthy. We see a mirage. The distant city looks substantial enough, real enough, and we see it with the same eyes that inform us of the reality of a cancer or a shortened limb or a dead body. There is an explanation for the sense testimony in the case of the mirage, and the material philosopher does not hesitate to admit that what he sees does not actually exist,—that it is unreal, unsubstantial; but there is the experience, just the same. It is difficult to understand why our thinkers cannot take the next step with Christian Science, and admit the uncertain, illusive, and unreal nature of all material experiences, and seek to become acquainted with the things of God.
Christian Science contends for the reality of experience, but not for the reality of evil experience.—of sin, insanity, depravity, pain, disease, and death. The very nature of our human experiences proves them to be un-derived from God, who is admitted to be the only creator, hence our conclusion as to their unreality or mythical existence. Jesus performed his cures on this basis, and to-day the healing in Christian Science is found to be possible for the same reason that it was possible to Jesus, because of the recognition of the allness of God and His creation, and the consequent nothingness of God's supposed opposites. Jesus was constantly proving that the experiences which are so generally supposed by mortals to make up "the great contents of life," were illegitimate, untrue, and destructible.
Some one has said, "It is certainly true that, however much a thing may exist in reality, it exists for us to the extent only that we are aware of its existence." Jesus was so fully aware of the beneficent nature of his Father, and of the universe and its laws, that when the mirage experiences of sin and disease, and even death, presented themselves to him in personified forms, he understood their phenomenal character and explained their appearance just as the material scientist to-day would understand and explain the mirage. Jesus did not fear what he knew to be unreal, and he proved, by healing the sick and raising the dead, that to be spiritually minded is and means life, just as a belief in the reality of diseased and sinful experiences is and means death.
The phenomena of material existence seem to mortals so stupendous, so fixed and irrevocable, so unalterable, that it is not easy for such an one to believe that this "order of life" can be changed by such an impalpable process as right thinking. And yet, a careful study of the life of Jesus, in the light of Christian Science, will show that he gave conclusive evidence of the power of Spirit to overcome all material discord and to set aside every material law which is in conflict with spiritual being. When he walked on the water, he proved himself superior to the limitations of the material concept of the law of gravitation. When he stilled the tempest, he proved that atmospheric conditions can be controlled by one who knows enough of spiritual law. When he appeared to the disciples through closed doors, he did something contrary to the common belief about the impenetrability of material bodies. These are only a few of his demonstrations of the superiority of spiritual consciousness to the phenomena of material existence. And it must be remembered that others before him had in a lesser degree apprehended this metaphysical truth. There are accounts of prophets who caused iron to swim, who healed incurable disease and raised the dead, whose sense of supply was not confined to the limits of a cruse of oil or a handful of meal, and who saw the bare hillside full of horsemen and. chariots.
Christian Scientists believe that what Jesus knew was definite, precise, and orderly, and that his acts were not by way of what one writer calls "spasmodic empiricism," nor yet because of a special divine endowment, but that they were according to law and divinely natural. We believe that what he knew about God and His government of the universe was very different from the common outlook on life; hence his so-called miracles. We believe that what Jesus knew and practised may be known and practised today; that the value and comfort of his matchless career exist not in any sentimental attachment that career may create in the minds of his followers, but rather in the example he gave of the ability of something to overcome the disease and sin and discord of the world. He said, "I am the way," and a "way" is a means of progression, that by which we progress. If Christ is "the way," it must be because the Master's experiences can be repeated: and his experiences will be repeated when the same Mind is in us "which was also in Christ Jesus."
