With a definiteness of statement which carries conviction to the reader Mrs. Eddy, under the marginal heading "A closed question," states in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 171): "Mind's control over the universe, including man, is no longer an open question, but is demonstrable Science. Jesus illustrated the divine Principle and the power of immortal Mind by healing sickness and sin and destroying the foundations of death." In these brief sentences our Leader has stated a fact of such tremendous import that were it really understood and put into operation by mankind, harmony would supplant every phase of error, and the kingdom of heaven would be established here and now. To be sure, prophets and seers, the holy men of the Bible, long ago recognized God's government of the universe; and Christ Jesus put his supreme knowledge of this fact to practical use with results so marvelous that they were called miracles. And again, through the discovery of our revered Leader, God's control of the universe is now being made manifest after the same manner as prevailed in the beginnings of Christianity.
Christian Science insists that God is the only power, always good and beneficent, and, in consequence, holds that any claim of power apart from God is without reality. This understanding destroys all belief in other forms of seeming power, some of which work evil, even to the destruction of mortals and their most cherished works. That this claim of power, whatever type it may assume, has no basis of reality is demonstrated beyond the possibility of argument. Popular thought, for example, attributes to electricity many uses, and the belief is very general that it will become the great motive energy of the future, supplying heat, light, and power for general use, and that it will be developed in many untold ways that have scarcely as yet been hinted at.
In one particular, this new accession of simulated power has already become manifest. The claim is made by a foremost experimenter that electrical power can be transmitted without wires, even to great distances with scarcely perceptible loss. It is also claimed that this subtle energy may be used to control airplanes and battleships at long distances. Electricity under different names is also widely used as a healing agency in the treatment of disease. In these and other ways a seeming force is endowed with qualities which appear to approximate the omnipresence and omnipotence of divine power; that is to say, mortals are according to electricity an almost universal scope, approximating, as it were, the divine All-power. So general has become the belief in this claim of power and its universal diffusion that its effects are believed to be manifest under many and widely varying conditions. A situation thus arises calling for the thoughtful attention of Christian Scientists. Following the wise and spiritually scientific statements of our Leader, we may know the subtlety of this error, and meet it in its harmful aspects as we would meet any false claim of power which manifests itself in baneful results.
