The psalmist, beholding the wonders of the universe about him, and contemplating its great extent, exclaimed, "Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done." Job was no less impressed with the extent and magnificence of the universe as he beheld it: "Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!" Yet, how limited the scope of their vision as compared with the present knowledge of mankind!
Mortal man has long striven to enlarge his mental horizon. By numerous inventions he has extended the range of the physical senses and pro-portionably increased their scope, until at times it has seemed that in the material universe no unexplored regions remained, that there was nothing beyond his ken. But the process of expansion still goes on, as inventions multiply, and new revelations follow one another with a rapidity that compels constant readjustment of knowledge to keep abreast of the times. By means of the increased power of the telescope, new worlds are discovered, so distant and so stupendous as quite to baffle the imagination. Just now comes the word that far off in interstellar space, one hundred and ten thousand light-years away we are told, suns have been discovered incomparably larger than the luminary of our own stellar system and so remote that the distances represented are beyond the possibility of human comprehension. By means of the photographic plate the number of known stars has increased from a few thousand seen by the unaided eye to scores of millions; and it is claimed that but a small portion of all that may be discovered have thus far been revealed. Through the invention of the microscope another wonder-world, quite unknown to the unaided senses, has been disclosed. Furthermore, an English professor describes the constituent atoms of matter as impossible of recognition by any human instrumentality, so infinitesimal as to baffle the grasp of mortal thought. He also states that following Einstein's theory of relativity, energy to a degree quite impossible to apprehend results from the annihilation of matter. Moreover, it is commonly held by physicists to-day that, in the ultimate, matter is energy, losing its character as substance cognized through the agency of the physical senses.
The Christian metaphysician, however, comes to regard all these discoveries, whether of new worlds, of infinitesimal atoms, or of startling claims of energy, as pertaining only to the material realm, a universe which is but a counterfeit of the infinite universe of Spirit. He learns that the atom, claimed to be the basis of matter, is but an illusion, a false concept of the material senses, hence having no existence as an entity or reality. On page 35 of "Unity of Good" Mrs. Eddy says, "The material atom is an outlined falsity of consciousness, which can gather additional evidence of consciousness and life only as it adds lie to lie." Manifestly, then, the basis of the belief of matter being a falsity, the multiplication of that basis by a factor ever so large can never result in the production of true substance. No more real is the seeming energy said to underlie the constituent atoms of matter. Mrs. Eddy has fully stated the case on page 293 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" in an explanation of the false claim to energy and power of the seeming forces of nature.
The Christian metaphysician, in all this reaching out of material sense, finds a valuable lesson. For is it not, in the last analysis, but the effort of mortal thought to approximate the infinite? Yet how futile the attempt! The utmost endeavor of material sense to compass infinite space or the infinitesimal atom is but to reveal its own inadequacy and nothingness. However far afield the telescope extends the vision, however many new celestial bodies it may reveal, yet the farthest range of human thought is but a phase of the belief in a limited, material universe. This seeming creation, Christian Science conclusively teaches, is but a counterfeit, a simulation, a false representation of the true universe, which, being spiritual and infinite, is beyond the possibility of the recognition of material sense, however enhanced in its claim of power. The infinitesimal atom and the huge celestial body are each in turn counterfeits of reality, the latter no less than the former. Of reality,—Spirit and its perfect creation,—Mrs. Eddy says in the Christian Science textbook (p. 336), "The divine Ego, or individuality, is reflected in all spiritual individuality from the infinitesimal to the infinite." Manifestly, if the divine Ego, God, who is Spirit, is expressed in infinite individuality which includes the infinitesimal, there is no possibility of a material creation outside, beyond, or within this spiritual infinitude, which includes all.
What, then, one may ask, is the importance of these new discoveries in the revelation of reality? What value have they to humankind? What application have they to the solution of the problem of Life, and the gaining of the kingdom of heaven,—perpetual harmony? Is it not that from a contemplation of the seeming vast-ness of the material universe, thought is lifted above material selfhood and sense-testimony with their limitations, and in some degree prepared for the concept of spiritual truth? Through these many wonderful inventions, mortal mind expands and throws off something of its limited sense. Furthermore, since a counterfeit is the false representation of a reality, by wise reversal, may not these so-called material objects become the waymarks to the comprehension of infinite Truth? Christian Scientists do not fall into the error of seeing in these distant bodies new phases of God's creation, but rather counterfeits of that creation. They well know that since infinite Mind and its expression constitute the real or spiritual universe, the distant luminaries apparently moving so majestically through stellar space are no more real—that is, they partake no more of true substance—than the clod of earth beneath one's feet. Both are counterfeits of real substance, and neither is even a seeming entity outside the beliefs of the material senses.
In the radio is seen a bold attempt of mortal thought to encompass space without the use of material wires. But, again, it is to be recalled that this effort in its vast results by no means approximates the infinite. Belief is merely enlarging its borders, as the carnal mind in its efforts to encompass the infinity of divine Mind casts off the bonds of its own making; but it is still mortal mind, so long as its subjective state is a belief of materiality. There is no need of confusion regarding these developments, if one but keep a clear distinction between the real,—the spiritual,—which alone is infinite, and the belief of a material universe which claims to be God's handiwork. In speaking of Mind, God, as never limited, Mrs. Eddy writes on page 284 of Science and Health: "Infinite Mind can have no starting-point, and can return to no limit. It can never be in bonds, nor be fully manifested through corporeality." The infinite, then, is not to be encompassed by material sense, however persistent the attempt to aid it by human inventions.
