IT can be said without much fear of contradiction that the great majority of mankind are oblivious to the power of God. They believe tremendously in the power of matter, in what they call the forces of nature, manifested, for example, in the electric current, gravity, and so forth; and those among them who are versed in so-called physical science are firmly persuaded that what mortals call matter has stored up in it incalculable power, which some day may be liberated and harnessed in the service of men. Many believe so strongly in the reality of matter and material power that they will hardly admit the existence of any power outside of matter. When one thinks of it, does it not seem extraordinary that such should be the case? Where does God come in; where does the power of God come in, with the majority of mankind?
It has to be said at once that the reason why the power of God is obscured to mankind arises from the fact that the so-called material senses take cognizance of nothing outside of their own finite range. Indeed, these same senses, with the so-called mind which mortals believe is informed by them, constitute what goes by the name of matter. Assume their destruction, or the destruction of the so-called human mind, and what becomes of matter? It vanishes. And so, viewed even from the standpoint of the human mind itself, matter is exactly what Christian Science declares it to be,—namely, that which the physical senses supposititiously evidence. Everybody knows how matter varies according to the conditions under which these senses survey it. It is one thing to the unaided eye; another to the eye which sees it through the microscope; quite another when viewed through the latest theories of the natural scientist, which declare it to be entirely electrical in its nature, something altogether unrecognizable by superficial sense-perception. But even then, all the deductions of the natural scientist upon which his theories are reared are based upon the data collected by the aid of the so-called physical senses. The point for the student of Christian Science is that matter is a subjective state of supposititious consciousness determined by variable sense-perception.
Now, there is a substantial universe altogether independent of the seeming universe of material sense. It is the spiritual universe, the universe of God,—the real universe. This real spiritual universe, which is cognized or known through spiritual sense, has been glimpsed by men, possibly from the beginning of human existence. The first touch of tenderness in the relationship of mother and father to child, of brother to sister, of neighbor to neighbor, betokened it. The first recognition of beauty in the dawn or the sunset, in the floweret or the running stream, bespoke its presence. Joy, happiness, courage, loving-kindness, mercifulness, gentleness, all told of the presence of the universe of Spirit; all alike tell of the universe of Spirit still. The feeling after the spiritual universe, the effort to discover it and its eternal laws have occupied the lives of the spiritually-minded in all ages; and in the Bible, more than anywhere else in literature, these discoveries are set forth. They are open for all to make their own. And pulsing through that wonderful Book with a throb that will not be stilled is the message of the creative power of God. "God hath spoken once," says the Psalmist; "twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God;" and John has written, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."
