Mankind is ever searching in matter for something that will bring it health when it is sick and strength when it is weak—for something that will restore it. From the dawn of time mankind has done this; for it believes that matter sustains and prolongs life, that matter is essential to its very existence. Sometimes mankind would fain believe it has found a material substance of the nature of an elixir which will prolong life indefinitely, and then its hopes rise high; but soon its trust is proved ill-founded, and its latest material panacea goes the way of all its predecessors—into oblivion.
Matter will never be found adequate to meeting the ofttimes crying need of humanity for better health and greater strength; and the sooner humanity recognizes this, and ceases to lean on a broken reed, the better. The reason for saying this is a metaphysical one, and Christian Science gives it. Simply stated, it is that matter is an erroneous concept of the human mind. When matter is recognized as such, that is, when matter is understood to be unreal, on sees the futility of regarding it as the sustainer of real life, as that which can produce health or increase strength. But if matter is not real substance, what is? Real substance is that which changes not, that which is eternally enduring: it is Spirit—God. Men need the understanding of true and enduring substance, Spirit, and of man's indissoluble relationship to it, to enable them to gain a right sense of health and a true sense of strength. Nothing can compare with this understanding as a means of restoration.
What does Christian Science tell us of God, Spirit, and of Spirit's creation, man? It declares that God is good; that He is Life and Love; that He is Mind; that He is infinite. This means that there is but one real power—God; that everywhere there is Life and Love; that everywhere there is Mind; that everywhere there is good, and, consequently, that the supposititious opposite of God is nowhere. Briefly, in declaring that God is infinite, Christian Science makes known the tremendously important fact that matter and evil are unreal.
