In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy asks the question, "Can matter drive Life, Spirit, hence, and so defeat omnipotence?" Science and Health, p. 357; In the same book she writes, "Matter has no life to lose, and Spirit never dies." ibid., p. 275; Matter cannot drive Life hence and cannot defeat divine all-power. Matter cannot drive Life away because matter has not brought Life here. God, Life, is here because it is God's eternal nature to be all-present.
The same is true of man, Life's individual representative and expression. Matter cannot drive man away because matter did not bring man. Man is present because Life, Spirit, has created him and placed him where he is. Man is here, not by the will of matter or of a chain of mortal, material ancestors, but by the will of God, man's only true origin and parent. Therefore, man cannot be sent or driven away by matter or any material condition.
For the Christian Scientist this is no mere theorizing. He speaks of what he knows and has in a degree proved. John writes in his first epistle, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; . . . that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." I John 1:1, 3;
