The renowned physicist, Dr. Albert Einstein, has proclaimed that time is the fourth dimension. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, states (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 22): "Christian Science translates Mind, God, to mortals. It is the infinite calculus defining the line, plane, space, and fourth dimension of Spirit." Mrs. Eddy discerned Spirit's timeless, measureless infinity, wherein there is no matter.
Divine Science demonstrates the infinite calculus of Spirit, which proves the nothingness of matter and the allness of God. Spirit, God, occupies all space. It is all substance, all-power, omniaction, omniscience. Then, in real being, time and matter are nonexistent. Our Leader says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p.475), "To infinite Spirit there is no matter,—all is Spirit, divine Principle and its idea." This truth of divine metaphysics utilized heals the sick, reforms the sensualist, raises the dead, and establishes universal harmony. It demonstrates Life in Christ.
False education leads men along the road of material beliefs, a way which mortals often travel until Christian Science completely reverses their erroneous thinking. Then through spiritual understanding they walk in the way of Spirit, Truth, and Love. The true and highest education is in understanding the substance of Mind's spiritual ideas—the joy, love, purity, and intelligence that constitute them.
Mrs. Eddy's challenge of the validity of matter draws retort from believers in physical science, scholastic theology, and materia medica. Without matter, physical science has neither time nor atom, false theology has no god, and materia medica has neither flesh nor medicine. Jesus of Nazareth proved the nothingness of both time and matter. Through his knowledge of the infinitude of Spirit he was enabled instantly to change water into wine, heal the sick, raise the dead, and control the winds and the sea. Moreover, he demonstrated imponderability and annulled time when he passed through closed doors, walked on the water, appeared immediately on the other side of the lake, and demonstrated the laws of Spirit, which brought about his own resurrection and ascension.
Understanding "the line, plane, space, and fourth dimension of Spirit," we can demonstrate the reality of the timeless, matterless universe of Mind. Thus we shall do the greater works which Jesus prophesied would be done with the coming of the Comforter, or divine Science. Metaphysical Science is destined to annul all claims of time and matter, sin, disease, and death, annihilate the bestial fury of mortal mind, the cause of all discord, disaster, pestilence, and wars, and obliterate the entire history of error's dream narrative.
It is most helpful to study Mrs. Eddy's definitions of the words matter, mortal mind, and time, found in the Glossary of Science and Health. They explain the futility of believing, fearing, honoring, and worshiping what Spirit cannot cognize. The sick-bound are in a state of mesmerism or day-dream, wherein disease and pain seem to be in matter. Mesmerism is the frail web of mortal illusion holding its victim in bondage to the false testimony of the material senses. Suffering and restriction cease when the victim awakens from error's dream. Discordant conditions of matter are but shadows of mortal belief which flee before the sunlight of Truth. Beliefs in cancer, tumor, consumption, heart ailment, false traits of character, vanish when the substance of the divine ideas actually abiding in consciousness is fully understood. The angels of God's presence, such as purity, righteousness, and inspiration, spiritualize human thought; and the harmonious omni-action of Spirit is manifested in the normal, healthy action of mind and body. Eventually, through the demonstration of Spirit's supremacy, all matter will disappear.
The sinner must understand, love, and honestly desire to witness to his pure spiritual selfhood before he will surrender the mythical claims of mortal existence and his satisfaction in matter. It is utterly impossible to overcome evil, indulgence in matter, without a wholehearted love for and obedience to the satisfying things of Spirit. When one is tempted by false appetite or passion, there must be persistence in realizing divine ideas which annihilate sin. The same is equally true of the sick. There must be an unconditional surrender of all belief and faith in medical diagnosis and material remedies before the healing Christ can appear. We must recognize the satisfying substance of spiritual qualities ever present to heal and redeem, and witness to our true-manhood and womanhood as the reflection of the Father-Mother God.
It is impossible for the real man to be separated from his perfect, harmonious being in Spirit. Man's existence is timeless— eternally spiritual. Man is ageless, as the unchangeable idea of the divine, infinite Being. He forever includes and manifests, by reflection, all the faculties and functions of Mind. The truth of man as a divine idea in Mind refutes the validity of error's claim to entity and power. It demonstrates man's absolute freedom and immunity from all the ills of the flesh. Neither cause nor effect can be in matter—in that which never existed. The understanding of pre-existence —of man's eternal coexistence with God— made Jesus mighty, and it will make us mighty also. When humankind universally understand and obey God as the only Mind, the suppositional mind with all its evil potentialities of hate, fear, corruption, lawlessness, will be destroyed by Christ.
The substance of Mind, Spirit, is the only force, wisdom, and presence. Practicing the unadulterated doctrine of Jesus of Nazareth as reiterated in Christian Science annihilates the evil-mindedness of paganism, atheism, and other isms. The problem of the ages—the phenomena of mortal mind and organized matter, and the origin of mortals and evil—is solved by demonstration of the infinite calculus of Spirit. An understanding of spiritual Life and true causation completely wipes out all belief in evil, time, and matter.
In referring to the five physical senses, Mrs. Eddy states in "Rudimental Divine Science" (pp. 5, 6): "Accepting the verdict of these material senses, we should believe man and the universe to be the football of chance and sinking into oblivion. Destroy the five senses as organized matter, and you must either become non-existent, or exist in Mind only; and this latter conclusion is the simple solution of the problem of being, and leads to the equal inference that there is no matter."
Adherents of Christian Science virtually say I am prepared and want to prove to the whole world that there is no matter. However, one or two healings are not sufficient. Ours must be an hourly and daily experience of knowing spiritual truth. The solid conviction of Spirit's omnipresence and omniaction comes through constant communion with God. The mist of materialism is destined completely to be dispelled by the light of spiritual understanding in divine Science. Isaiah prophesied (41:15, 16): "Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel."
Understanding the allness of Spirit and the nothingness of matter is the real work set before every adherent of Christian Science. The demonstration of divine Science is the sovereign panacea for every claim of life and existence in matter. Individual salvation and the growth of the Christian Science movement depend upon our seeing man and the universe as wholly spiritual, entirely apart from matter, and our reflecting the divine nature without wavering. Unless we realize the allness of Spirit and the nothingness of matter, scientific healing cannot take place. Time, matter, and mortal mind are nonexistent factors in the infinite calculus of Spirit. Science knows only spiritual enlightenment and spiritual sense.
An understanding of the infinite calculus of Spirit is the only hope of universal salvation. Spiritualization of thought alone demonstrates this higher rule of divine metaphysics. The scientific fact that there is no matter is understood and acknowledged when thought blends with the infinite. Spiritual understanding reveals the omnipresence and eternality of Spirit, the nothingness of matter and time. Spirit is forever All-in-all.
