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.
