St. Paul stated a vital truth when he said that spiritual things must be "spiritually discerned." The materialist fails to see that material things never meet our real need, and that the more we seek knowledge in a material way the less likely are we to grasp the fact that man is spiritual, not material. Many are willing to compromise at this point by admitting that man is both material and spiritual, while the majority would contend that man is material until death, and that he then becomes spiritual. Christian Science, however, holds fast by the allness of Spirit and spiritual law. On page 274 of Science and Health we read, "Divine Science is absolute, and permits no half-way position in learning its Principle and rule."
The materialist, whether religious or otherwise, believes that matter is substantial and spirit not so, and matter constitutes his standard of reality. The one, however, who probes more deeply the theory of substance, learns that he must go beyond matter to find it, although he may not be at all ready to seek ultimate reality along spiritual lines. But in spite of the tendencies of material belief, no one can deny that there is something in humanity which refuses to be satisfied with material things or a material explanation as to man's origin and destiny. Wordsworth tells us of
obstinate questionings
Of sense and outward things,...
High instincts before which our mortal nature
Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised.
