HOW often the student of Christian Science is faced with the argument of material sense, which seems ever to be endeavoring to refute his declarations of truth! It suggests, Well, if what you say is true, that God, Spirit, is good, and good is infinite, how did matter, evil, sin, sickness, originate? It is as if mortal mind were arrogantly asserting: Well, at least here I am! What are you going to do about me? So-called mortal mind would seem to be persistently tempting us into a bypath of useless questioning and searching, thereby leading us away from the path of light and truth into a labyrinth of futile conjecture.
The alert student, however, being ever on guard against these wiles of error which would sidetrack him. is not disturbed by such an argument as the above, and meets it with instant dismissal. Why? Because through Christian Science he learns that matter and evil, being the suppositional opposite of God, who is infinite Life, Truth, Love, Spirit, can have no reality, since there can be no opposite to God.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 468):"There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." There is no life in matter, no truth in it; neither has it intelligence or substance.
In the study of mathematics the student first learns the theory and rules governing numbers, and begins at the same time, step by step, to prove them for himself. He proves the soundness of the rules; and if in his work he sometimes makes a mistake, he is not so much concerned about the error as in perseveringly applying the rule that will remove it.
So it is in the study and practice of Christian Science. The student first grasps its teachings as revealed in Science and Health and our Leader's other writings and then puts these teachings into practice in all his affairs, striving to be obedient to the Scriptural injunction, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," and to love his neighbor as himself. Step by step, he proves for himself the wonderful truths of Christian Science, until he is confident that he has found the right way to health, harmony, and heaven. When he has gained this position and is firmly planted thereon, how much concern or attention is he likely to waste on the insistence of error that it is something? None, because he has realized the utter futility of seeking the origin of that which he has begun to prove has no reality!
If someone had given us information on a certain subject which we afterwards found to be false and misleading, should we waste our time wondering how and where that false information originated, or why it was presented to us? No. We should instantly dismiss it as unworthy of further thought or attention.
Again and again throughout her writings Mrs. Eddy insists that error is unreal; that matter and all its attendant evil beliefs are unreal. Let us, then, accept the truth, banish the temptation to listen to the serpent's voice, and set our whole thought and effort to seeking and gaining a higher understanding of God, Truth. "When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path," our Leader tells us (Science and Health, p. 254).
Earnestly seeking the truth, through conscientious daily study of the Lesson-Sermon, as provided in the Christian Science Quarterly, studying and reading the Bible and the writings of our revered Leader, and putting into practice what we learn and understand, we shall be led of God, until the Word is so fully established in our hearts that we shall no longer be in doubt, or troubled at the voice of error.
