It is the prerogative of Truth to destroy all sense of mortality and materiality. This, however, is not the first effect of Truth realized; it is not the first manifestation of its divine influence in human affairs. The first effect is a restoration of human existence to a sense of normalcy—to its highest concept of harmony.
Such a result may seem anomalous to the neophyte in Christian Science who is beginning to learn that because God is infinite Spirit and man God's perfect likeness, there is in reality no place or opportunity for either materiality or mortality, whether discordant or apparently harmonious. And he may ask why he cannot at once exclude all sense of the human or material and demonstrate his true spiritual existence.
In replying to this query let us ask: Did you ever listen to a musician teaching a beginner the rules of music? Did you expect that this pupil would immediately grasp the full scope of music and exhibit the technique and ability of a master musician? No. Neither can one grasp at once the full Science of Christianity, and demonstrate the complete harmony it includes. This may be accomplished little by little, in the same way the musician claims the knowledge that enables him to replace each discordant note with one of harmony. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 213) Mrs. Eddy writes, "Mental melodies and strains of sweetest music supersede conscious sound." So, as we learn to displace the discords of human existence by the demonstration of the divine Science of being, we shall finally reach the understanding of the perfect state of spiritual man and the universe, without the material accompaniment of mortality and materiality. In the experience of the ascension, our great Master had grasped and lived the spiritual so completely as to lose the consciousness of mortality.
