Christ Jesus' victory over death on the cross proved for all time the total unrelatedness of Life to destructible matter. His entire three years' mission was devoted to making plain that man is spiritual and therefore immune to matter's so-called laws. Jesus' consciousness of his God-given power over the illusion of life in matter enabled him, when speaking of the temple of his body, to say (John 2:19), "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Mary Baker Eddy writes of this in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 27,) "It is as if he had said: The I— the Life, substance, and intelligence of the universe—is not in matter to be destroyed." Man is indestructible because he is spiritual, not material. The theory that matter is real and that it mingles with mind to form mortal man was supposed to have been first voiced by the talking serpent in the Biblical account of material creation. Christian Science categorically denies this supposition and calls upon its students to prove by demonstration that the so-called material creation is a myth.
We prove matter unreal by impeaching the testimony of its witnesses, the physical senses. A simple experience proves the fallibility of mortal sight when that which appears as solid matter to the naked eye loses some of its solidity and is seen as porous under the microscope. Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 264): "Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being. Matter disappears under the microscope of Spirit." That it also tends to disappear under the material microscope is added evidence of its insubstantiality.
Christian Science teaches that fear, a direct cause of disease, results from one's accepting as real the false impressions of the physical senses and that it is overcome by correcting these false impressions. Becoming convinced of matter's unreality is a major step in the destruction of fear. Another unfailing antidote for fear is spiritual joy.
The Bible is full of exhortations to rejoice. Primeval harmony is described as a time when "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). Joyousness is essential to harmony. The ideal state of man as the reflection of God's being is one of boundless bliss.
The joyous message of man's indestructibility came to me again and again following an accident, in which I was struck by an automobile while crossing a street. Upon my regaining consciousness, this statement from Science and Health came distinctly and repeatedly to my thought (p. 76): "The sinless joy,—the perfect harmony and immortality of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness without a single bodily pleasure or pain,—constitutes the only veritable, indestructible man, whose being is spiritual."
A practitioner was immediately asked to help me, and I was taken to the home of a Christian Science friend, where I was given the most loving care. During the ensuing period, the thought that I was none other than the indestructible man, whose being is spiritual, kept occurring to me constantly. In six days I was able to go home. In ten days I was able to go to my office and resume work.
About two weeks later, one who knew that the front of the automobile had been considerably damaged said to me, "You must have bones of iron!" Total blindness in one eye had cleared up immediately. Severe face, scalp, and leg wounds healed quickly and perfectly without scars, and there was no bad aftereffect of any kind.
It is clear that God's man has never suffered any violence. Destructible materiality is not the prelude to indestructible spirituality, nor is it an interlude or interpolation. Vulnerable material existence remains forever a myth, or false theory of life, wholly apart from and never crossing the threshold of reality.
Matter must be dispossessed of its imaginary power and being. According to Science, there is no matter to assert itself either as evil or as good. All true being is the reflection of God. Dire necessity often becomes a blessing in disguise when it compels one to make vigorous efforts to find safety from the storm in the haven of Science.
Every component, function, and condition of the real man originates and remains in Spirit; thus its perfect and uninterrupted continuity is assured. The Psalmist saw this and declared (Ps. 139: 16), "Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." God's indestructible man is not composed of material integrants, but of spiritual phenomena, which abide forever in the creative Mind.
It is important to see that man is not indestructible Life itself, but the image of Life, God. He is effect, not cause; idea, not Mind. He is immortal manhood characterized as the ideal man, the beloved son. Man in God's likeness is invincible, inviolable, inextinguishable. He is stable and changeless. His stability is founded on the Rock, Christ, perpetuated in good. He reflects the vitality of Life, the strength of omnipotence, the assurance of Truth.
Man lives in the vast forever of Life, in which and of which God is the sole creator and governor. Man's is a mental realm in which all things are favorable. There is no night there; dark days are unknown, and no inhabitant says, "I am sick." Divine law maintains man's equilibrium and mental poise at all times. There is no war or danger in the realm of Mind. Mind's climate is always kind. It includes no storms, no freezing, no burning. God governs, holding all in the bonds of Love and harmony forever.
Would we live in this realm of Mind's indestructibility? It is here now, right where we are, and only the distorting lens of material sense makes it appear otherwise. We do not need to be deceived by matter's illusions any more. God's glorious, spiritual creation is a fact, and we belong to it as indestructible spiritual ideas.
