The importance to all students of Christian Science of a clear understanding of divine or true metaphysics is apparent from a single paragraph in the Christian Science textbook. On page 111 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy says, "The Principle of divine metaphysics is God; the practice of divine metaphysics is the utilization of the power of Truth over error; its rules demonstrate its Science. Divine metaphysics reverses perverted and physical hypotheses as to Deity, even as the explanation of optics rejects the incidental or inverted image and shows what this inverted image is meant to represent." Here are stated in terms both clear and cogent the fundamentals of Christian Science. In what striking contrast does our Leader place the true and the false, the divinely true and the materially false! The categories of divine metaphysics are set forth in the Christian Science textbook in scientific terms, expressed as self-evident propositions upon which rests the entire field of demonstration of this Science. These categories present the facts of true being, the truth about God and the spiritual universe, including man, in the one true Science.
The better to discriminate between true metaphysics and false, let us for a moment examine the situation as to the systems of metaphysics promulgated by the learned men of the ages. "Metaphysics" is derived from two Greek words which signify "beyond the material,"—that is, it deals wholly with mind and its phenomena; albeit, until Mrs. Eddy made her discovery, clarity of distinction was lacking between the divine Mind, the only Mind, and its supposititious opposite, the mortal, carnal, or human mind. The use of the word "metaphysics" has varied greatly through the ages. With some philosophers, it has related only to ontology, the science of being; with others it has taken on a meaning closely akin to that of psychology, the so-called science of mind; while others have conceived its chief meaning to be epistemology, or the science of knowledge.
In general, it may be said, metaphysics posits the universe as mental, and conceives the natural or material universe to be the objective state of the physical senses. This was, in brief, Aristotle's theory, for, apparently, he had no concept, or at least no adequate idea, of God as divine Mind. On the other hand, Bishop Berkeley, introducing Deity into his scheme of philosophy, saw God in all, including the material universe, thus not only hypothetically materializing Deity, but thereby making God responsible for the ills of the flesh, and likewise for the sins of humanity. Later idealistic philosophers made no clearer distinction between the divine Mind and the human mind, in which they saw the subjective state of mortal existence and the material universe. These philosophies, manifestly impossible of demonstration, were so many speculative theories, with no possibility of establishing that degree of proof which would entitle them to admission into the realm of true Science, which deals only with facts and proofs.
It was into this state of uncertainty that Mrs. Eddy projected her discovery, proclaiming that not only is God All, but since He is Spirit and His nature spiritual, there can be, in consequence, no other creation than the spiritual. The allness of God precludes the existence of any other than His spiritual universe; and since God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, there can be no other power, intelligence, and presence, "for God is All-in-all" (Science and Health, p. 468), as Mrs. Eddy so tersely puts it. Where the idealistic philosophers had seen matter as mental and, in consequence, the only universe of which they were cognizant also as materially mental, Mrs. Eddy saw the true universe as spiritual, and the universe of mortal mind,—that is, the mental concept of creation claimed by the philosophers to be real,—she conceived to be as lacking in reality as the material universe itself, even though matter was declared by them to be merely a mental state. In brief, Christian Science places all existence, cause, effect, power, and reality strictly in divine Mind, God, the All-in-all. Hence, no system deals with reality except in proportion to its conformity to these fundamental facts.
Now, let us for a moment again examine metaphysics in its common significance. At most, it has to do only with the supposititious opposite of divine Mind, the human or mortal mind, the belief in a mind apart from God,—that is, something claiming to be an addition to, a supplement of, the Mind which is infinite. Since it does not deal with reality, its categories are necessarily false propositions which are claimed to be true. Its laws are the seeming laws of the so-called material universe; and its substance is a false claim of mortal mind, an objectified state which has no true entity or being. This situation must be clearly understood by the student of Christian Science. Philosophers claim to reduce the world of matter to a mental state, to be sure; but this seeming mental state is that of the mortal, human, or carnal mind, which Mrs. Eddy has definitely told us is no less material, and therefore no less false, than matter itself; for she declared that mortal mind and matter are one. In consequence, however far the range of metaphysics, in its common meaning, may be carried, it will never enable one to escape from the limits of the so-called world of materiality, at once the subjective and objective states of mortal mind.
On page 116 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy states, "Works on metaphysics leave the grand point untouched. They never crown the power of Mind as the Messiah, nor do they carry the day against physical enemies,—even to the extinction of all belief in matter, evil, disease, and death,—nor insist upon the fact that God is all, therefore that matter is nothing beyond an image in mortal mind." The belief of a mind apart from Truth can possess no healing quality, for divine Mind alone heals.
False metaphysics, then, is based entirely upon erroneous postulates. With false premises, how can true results follow? Would not such a situation appear completely to nullify the familiar teachings of Jesus? "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" he queried. "Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit."
Accordingly, Christian Science, that is, divine metaphysics, deals wholly with divine Mind and its spiritual ideas, which constitute the only true universe. Its laws are the laws of God; its substance is Spirit; and it relates not at all to the beliefs of a material universe. This is, as we see, the absolute truth, the realm of the perfect man, who is God's image. Moreover, its healing ministry is purely a spiritual experience exercised through gaining the Mind of Christ. Divine metaphysics furnishes the logic of events, the truth of creation; false metaphysics having no element of Truth in its premises, arrives at no sound conclusions.
