NEW YEAR'S DAY is a suitable time for one to consider progress. Many people are aware that the progress of humanity out of the limitations imposed by matter depends upon a correct understanding of matter. Today's great expansion of power, movement, and communication has come though the analysis of matter as congealed energy. Greater progress is foretold as matter is more accurately understood and its energies are brought under the control of intelligence.
If the lessons of the Bible were grasped, it would be more widely seen that matter can be properly subjugated only by the omnipotence of Spirit. Elijah, prefiguring Christian Science by his subjugation of matter, did not find power in the forces of nature—wind, earthquake, fire—but in a still small voice. Mary Baker Eddy says in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 310), "Matter is made up of supposititious mortal mind-force; but all might is divine Mind." The great Biblical characters progressed out of material limits because they knew that power belongs to Spirit, God, and not to Spirit's opposite, matter, which plainly embodies all limitation, evil, disease, and death.
Christian Science links true progress with a right analysis of matter. In fact, the entire demonstration of Science rests upon the understanding of these two leading factors: the allness of Spirit, Mind, and the nothingness of matter. Until one learns that matter can be reduced to "mortal mind-force," or human will, and that human will is the suppositional opposite of the divine will, he makes little progress out of traditional limitations of power. Through spiritual revelation Mrs. Eddy learned that the "mortal mind-force" which constitutes matter is mythical and can be dispelled by real intelligence. This knowledge led her to the use of spiritual power in the healing of sin and disease such as the world had not seen since the days when Christ Jesus demonstrated the Science of Christ and comforted mankind through his scientific knowledge of substance. Mrs. Eddy's discovery of the nature of matter has brought to the human consciousness progress which is not yet fathomed.
Mrs. Eddy writes in "Unity of Good" (p. 35): "I ask, Which was first, matter or power? That which was first was God, immortal Mind, the Parent of all. But God is Truth, and the forces of Truth are moral and spiritual, not physical. They are not the merciless forces of matter." Then she goes on to explain the forces of matter: "They are the phenomena of mortal mind, and matter and mortal mind are one; and this one is a misstatement of Mind, God." The entire realm of matter has been built up on the misstatement of Mind, and there is no intelligence in a misstatement. Only by returning to a true statement of Mind can the power of Spirit be revealed to mankind and the illusion which obscures the realm of reality be destroyed.
It is startling to realize that Christ Jesus accomplished through spiritual power alone all that the physical scientists are attempting to accomplish today through matter. The physicist seeks to eliminate space by increasing speed; whereas Jesus moved himself and the ship he was on instantly by means of divine law. The physicist communicates through radio and other material modes; whereas the Master read thought and reached his absent patients mentally and spiritually. Jesus healed the sick, the blind, the dumb, the insane, the sinner, and he raised the dead; but he did these things by spiritual methods instead of by drugs, electric shocks, serums, or surgery. He walked on the water, thus canceling gravitational force, which the physicist is seeking to control. He changed water into wine, but the transmutation was effected by means of Spirit, not by atomic regulation. He multiplied the loaves and fishes, but not by cultivating hybrid grains or by improving methods of hatching. How clumsy even improved material ways seem when compared with the spiritual!
The fact that the Master taught disciples to demonstrate the power of Spirit is evidence that his great works are possible to anyone who manifests the Christly nature, which overrules matter. Speaking from the standpoint of the Christ, the Master said (Matt. 28:18), "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Only self-imposed limitations of belief deprive one of man's God-given heritage of Christly power. Mrs. Eddy says in "Retrospection and Introspection" (pp. 56, 57), "Divine Science demands mighty wrestlings with mortal beliefs, as we sail into the eternal haven over the unfathomable sea of possibilities."
It is important for us to know what is going on in the world today and to understand what the physicist, through a more correct analysis of matter, is doing to expand the era in which we live. But it is infinitely more important that the Christian Scientist learn to analyze matter as falsity, as counterfeit force, and then to exchange that false force for the true energy of Spirit, which is supreme over every material belief. What both physicist and Christian Scientist need is a metaphysically correct understanding of matter. Both must learn that "mortal mind-force" is a myth. Then the wonders of today, wrought in the material realm, will be superseded by the wonders of divine power.
The Christian Scientist may not be demonstrating fully "the unfathomable sea of possibilities" at the present stage of his progress. He may not be walking the waters, feeding the multitude, turning water into wine, or moving instantly through space. But he is growing steadily in moral and spiritual might and is thereby advancing toward the period when the law of Spirit will be demonstrated as supreme in the control of all that he is conscious of. The Scientist is learning, through his correct evaluation of matter, to be healthy himself and to heal others. He is learning to destroy sin in himself and in others by the same correct evaluation of matter. He is learning to control his occupation, his supply, his mental atmosphere, his environment—all through his understanding of Spirit's allness and matter's unreality.
Through spiritual progress the power of Mind will eventually be fully demonstrated. Matter with its so-called forces will be subjugated to the great purposes of Deity until its falsity is entirely proved. Progress and the understanding of matter as nothingness go hand in hand, and they will continue to do so until the complete disappearance of the illusion of matter, which has claimed to limit and delude thought. Human will, expressed as matter, will yield to the divine will, and the unlimited movement of Mind will be recognized as reflected by man, Mind's immortal idea.
