ON page 269 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy makes a statement which sets forth the fundamentals of scientific practice and lifts its problems into a mental atmosphere. "Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts," she declares, "and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul." The statement appears under the marginal heading, "Divine metaphysics," a fact of much significance. Metaphysics in its ordinary meaning pertains to the phenomena of the human mind, so called. Until Mrs. Eddy in Christian Science revealed God as infinite Mind and the universe as consisting of spiritual ideas, none had applied the word "metaphysics" to the categories of divine Mind.
Since the world of time and sense is objectified mortal belief, its supposititious origin or subjective state is found in the material beliefs of this mortal or carnal mind. Then, obviously, as beliefs change, the objective manifestation will correspondingly change. Since its seeming origin is so ephemeral a concept as mortal belief, how unstable is the world of materiality! Human experience in itself proves the mutable and temporal nature of the concepts of mortal mind.
In the second clause of the quotation under consideration we find a perfect solution for all our problems. Exchange of the objects of sense for divine ideas is the scientific method of transforming consciousness from a material to a spiritual basis; and as thought is spiritualized, its objectification will change its outward aspect. How is this done? By gaining the understanding that God and His perfect ideas constitute the universe, substituting these divine ideas for erroneous material beliefs. When spiritual ideas are put in place of material beliefs, the thought is changed from a material to a spiritual basis.
