Recently a mother asked a friend who is a Christian Scientist: "How can I tell my child that there is no matter? This would be too frightening to him. Because of this I find myself avoiding certain passages Mrs. Eddy gives us in the Christian Science textbook, such as 'the scientific statement of being.'" This statement on page 468 of Science and Health begins with the words, "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter."
The friend, discerning that the fear was really the mother's, replied that the mother herself must be thoroughly convinced of the nature and reality of spiritual substance. In the measure that she understood what real substance is, fear in denying the existence of the illusion called matter would disappear for both her and her child.
The mother's question points to an underlying fear which students of Christian Science, young or old, must deal with: the suggestion that the denial of matter may deprive one of something necessary or good. The basic facts which show this claim to be false are simple and comprehensible even to small children.
