All that really exists is God and His perfect, infinite spiritual creation. Our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in a very-brief dynamic statement in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" says (p. 226): "Withdraw God, divine Principle, from man and the universe, and man and the universe would no longer exist. But annihilate matter, and man and the universe would remain the forever fact, the spiritual 'substance of things hoped for;' and the evidence of the immortality of man and the cosmos is sustained by the intelligent divine Principle, Love." This helps us grasp the significance of what Paul held in consciousness when he said in his letter to the Ephesians (4:6) that there is "one God and Father of all who is above all, and through all, and in you all."
Mrs. Eddy further states (Miscellany, p. 178), "If the world were in ashes, the contents of 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures' would remain immortal." A dictionary defines "world" as "the earth and its inhabitants, with their concerns; the sum of human affairs and interests." Most assuredly, if the world of material sense, human concerns, blunders, wars, afflictions, destruction, hate, lack, sin, disease, and death were "in ashes," the universe of God's creating, the one and only universe existing, would remain complete, harmonious, and immortal. Is it not true that the spiritual creation—man, tree, flower, all that is real, useful, and beautiful, all that God created and pronounced good, all that expresses Him, His eternal nature and being—would remain perfect, immortal, unchanged, and eternal?
Man is the highest idea of God, the only idea given dominion over the works of God's hands. Jesus said (John 10:30), "I and my Father are one," and he proved his oneness, or unity, with eternal Life, infinite Mind, by his dominion over evil and death. The Psalmist questions (Ps. 8:4), "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" And he declares: "Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet." God crowns man with glory and honor. Do we at times in our thinking crown ourselves and our brother men with dishonesty, dishonor, sin, disease, and death? These aggressive suggestions are from mortal mind and are never any part of man or his experience. God, being infinite Life, permits of no opposing mind, no death mind, for the term mortal concerns death.
At one time it was believed that the earth was flat and that the sun rose in the east and set in the west. This belief in a flat earth did not in any way change the form, substance, or activity of the earth, but it kept men from progress, from sailing across the ocean to discover new territory. Neither did the false belief that the sun rose in the east and set in the west hinder in any way the rotation of the earth around the sun. Likewise, the belief that man and the universe are material, made of matter and governed by material laws, has not in any way affected or changed the perfect spiritual universe and man. However, material false beliefs would prevent humanity from discerning the real, harmonious man and universe and place men at the mercy of the many afflictive and disastrous so-called laws of mortal mind.
It is the false concept, the finite, imperfect comprehension of the one eternal spiritual universe and man, which must be dissolved into the ashes of false belief and replaced by the spiritual facts of being, eternally existing, tangible to spiritual sense, and just at hand. Where the error, or false concept, seems to be, there is God—infinite, self-existent Being—expressed through man and the universe.
In "The Universe and Dr. Einstein" by Lincoln Barnett, the author says, "The certainty that science can explain 'how' things happen began to dim about twenty years ago. And right now it is a question whether scientific man is in touch with reality at all—or can ever hope to be." After explaining that the qualities of matter are not independent of the senses which cognize them, he says, "Thus gradually philosophers and scientists arrived at the startling conclusion that since every object is simply the sum of its qualities, and since qualities exist only in the mind, the whole objective universe of matter and energy, atoms and stars, does not exist except as a construction of the consciousness, an edifice of conventional symbols shaped by the senses of man." He continues, "Einstein carried this train of logic to its ultimate limits by showing that even space and time are forms of intuition, which can no more be divorced from consciousness than can our concepts of color, shape, or size."
How clearly our revered Leader explained these facts to us nearly eighty years ago! Mrs. Eddy unfolded to us the real spiritual universe, while the material scientists resolve their sense world into shadow, but fail to reveal substantial evidence of the spiritual universe and man. Most assuredly, the unfolding of a higher spiritual understanding of God and of man's real being and his relationship to God, which Christian Science reveals, dissolves the false material sense of man and the universe into the ashes of supposition and imposition and drops the world of material concerns and human strife.
Everything is just the same as when the material scientists were believing that matter was solid substance and wholly external to thought. Nothing real is changed when Christian Science replaces the false concept of man and the universe with the spiritual facts. When a healing in Christian Science is accomplished, the picture of disease and suffering is eliminated as nothing and replaced by the spiritual fact of health and freedom.
More and more it is becoming understood in Christian Science that one can demonstrate only that which is eternally ever present and true. Losing sight of material selfhood is the greater part of the process by which the real man and universe appear. The spiritual universe, which we think about and now slightly know, is included in real consciousness by reflection and is eternally unfolding there.
With wonderful wisdom Mrs. Eddy says in Miscellany (p. 162), "Strength is in man not in muscles; unity and power are not in atom or in dust." Through the revelation of Christian Science we understand man's identity to be the individual idea, the manifestation, or reflection, of God appearing. One works effectively and with power as Science reveals to him the presence and availability of infinite Mind through the Word, which is God. Obedience to the rules of Christian Science is bringing man's real selfhood to light. This selfhood has no relation to corporeality. Even in human character the finest, noblest, and most substantial qualities often appear to be human because men are not awake to recognize that spiritual characteristics are man's because he is the reflection of God, the image and likeness of divine Mind. They often do not associate honesty, integrity, kindness, judgment, alertness, intuition, and substantiality with divine Principle, with God, their real source, but are inclined to glorify personal self whenever these qualities are in evidence.
Jesus' feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and a few fishes was simply the objectification of his consciousness of God's infinite presence, which evidenced itself in abundance. To the disciples and the multitude, substance appeared in a form they could understand and use in human experience. But to Jesus, it was never matter; it was simple proof of God's love and provision for His children.
The life, strength, activity, health, and spiritual wealth of which man is the constant recipient as God's reflection are indestructible, spiritual, infinite, and eternal. They constitute one's real being, and nothing can hinder this flow of God's love to man. In infinite Love, which fills all space, there is no atrophy, inaction, or overaction, no helplessness, no age, no insecurity, no disease or death. Never was one of God's children blind, palsied, deaf, or diseased, for God's creation is as eternal and as perfect as God. Our constant realization of this fact, our awareness of it, holds us in health, harmony, and perfection. The conscious realization of the all-inclusiveness of Mind, of Spirit, of the all-presence of Soul, is revitalizing, sustaining, and is constantly unfolding. God cannot be expressed without us as perfect ideas. Without His likeness or expression, His creation would be incomplete.
Jesus said that to know God is eternal life. He also said (John 8:51), "Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death," thus emphasizing that life is eternal and is divinely mental, and that death, which is the opposite of eternal Life, God, is a false assumption. That which, to mortal sense, seems to be a person afflicted with disease is actually the son of God, a divine idea, expressing the attributes of God. Instead of thinking that a material person has come to us to be healed, we need to see that a loving, ever-living idea is present to be recognized. Again and again, when confronted with humanity's need, Jesus lifted his eyes in prayer, and the true meaning of the power and presence of God, the light and love, no darkness can obliterate, was revealed.
We should not contemplate in horror a world fraught with disaster, war, and tragedies shrouded in gloom, staging on its surface destruction, wretchedness, incongruity, and unhappiness. Only by knowing that there is but one creator, one creation, one governing Principle, can men and nations be delivered from their foreboding fears and mistrust. The world seems to be morally and mentally paralyzed, oblivious to the presence of Love and eternal Life, and this condition must be healed. Let us be awake and know that a claim of mass mesmerism, of a malicious mortal mind, cannot blind us to the fact that God is the only Mind, the only presence and power.
There is no paralysis of good in God's infinite kingdom. Let each one of us realize that as God's reflection he lives in the affluence of Spirit and is one with the inexhaustible, omnipresent source of intelligence, strength, freedom, ability, inspiration, and supply. Jesus rebuked the storm and said (Mark 4:39), "Peace, be still"; but he first had to become conscious of the infinity of God and the ever-presence of spiritual peace before he could speak with authority and command the waves. When we gain this spiritual realization, we too can express our God-given dominion and speak to the waves of error with power and authority.
