CHRISTIAN SCIENCE teaches that to spiritualize human consciousness, whereby thought is changed from a material to a spiritual basis, is mankind's great need. But so insistent is the testimony of physical sense that this reformation seems difficult of accomplishment. The overcoming of belief in material existence by spiritual truth apparently involves a battle ground where the struggle between matter and Spirit, between truth and error, takes place. When first giving attention to this problem, one may be inclined to the conclusion that somewhere, somehow, Spirit and matter must meet, must establish a relationship and enter into communication; that they must face each other. But the teachings of Christian Science emphatically deny this supposition.
No clearer distinction could be made between Spirit and matter than was drawn by Christ Jesus on that memorable night when Nicodemus interrogated him about this very situation. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," was the Nazarene's conclusive statement. Two entirely distinct propositions, Spirit and matter, the one real, the other purely illusory, altogether imaginary, were thus set squarely before the inquiring Pharisee. Therefore Spirit is faced with naught but an illusion, a false belief. Again, Jesus told his disciples, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." Spirit and spiritual ideas alone are real; moreover they alone are important. Spirit alone quickens. Flesh, that is, all materiality, profits nothing, is of no consequence, because it is unreal. The great conflict, then, is apparently between these two opposites, between Spirit, reality, and Spirit's supposititious opposite and unlikeness, matter; this is exactly equivalent to saying, between reality and unreality.
The conflict, however, is not real but seeming; for Spirit, being infinite, has no opponent, no antagonist. Mrs. Eddy's statement on page 288 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" thoroughly clarifies the situation: "The suppositional warfare between truth and error is only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spiritual senses and the testimony of the material senses, and this warfare between the Spirit and flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the understanding of divine Love." Since our Leader characterizes the conflict as mental, the so-called human mind is, then, the battle ground. There the conflict is drawn and there the victory won. The seeming battle is between the Christ, Truth, the truth about God and His universe, including man, and material sense, so called, which includes all the erroneous beliefs arising from the lie which posits life and intelligence in matter. The conflict, then, is wholly mental, and is waged between the Christ, Truth,—spiritual ideas,—and false beliefs regarding God, man, and the universe.
