Many years ago, while living in a far-off country, I had what now seems to me an uplifting vision. One night I had barely put my head on the pillow when I suddenly visualized myself standing on a mound. As I stood there, it seemed that everything within view was moving swiftly away —huge buildings, small houses, everything—and as I continued to look, I felt that my own body was moving away with all the other things, yet I still stood on the mound.
Being a keen Bible student and having read that everything physical would eventually pass away, I gave the vision no more thought, although it stayed with me. This experience occurred at a time when I was fervently searching for the truth of being. Some years later I was introduced to Christian Science. My first impulse was to brush it aside, but an inner voice was insistent that this Science is the truth.
Christian Science, discovered and founded by Mrs. Eddy, teaches that the body and all matter are mental concepts in mortal mind. The real man, created in the image of Spirit, God, is forever reflecting God's omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, and omniaction. The unreal or counterfeit passes away as a fleeting shadow, and this passing away takes place in individual human consciousness when thought is spiritualized daily through communing with God. Mrs. Eddy writes, "Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth." Science and Health, p. 14;
The destruction of matter's conditions can be swift and sure because matter is nothing; but its nothingness must be proved, and can be, through the understanding of the Christ, Truth, active in human consciousness. Jesus knew the nothingness of matter and of its inventor, mortal mind, the false mind of mortal man. He said of the devil, or evil: "He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." John 8:44; And in Science and Health, in what she calls "the scientific statement of being," Mrs. Eddy declares: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." Science and Health, p. 468;
When we deny matter's existence and affirm God's allness consistently and persistently, we rise above material sense into spiritual sense, which leads to higher consciousness and a better understanding of God. This spiritual sense, or sense of Soul, is substantial and eternal.
Soul is one of the seven synonymous terms Mrs. Eddy uses in defining God, good. The others are Spirit, Mind, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love. Each of these terms comprises all the others, and the real man is the reflection of God as defined by all of them.
As understood in Christian Science, Soul is Mind, God. Some of its qualities are joy, satisfaction, stillness, peace, strength, health, harmony, and immortality. Man reflects the Mind which was in Christ Jesus, and as we know this, we can express the qualities of Soul and of all the other synonyms.
Soul, God, sustains man's individuality and is man's Life. Christian Science teaches that all real sensation is in Soul, not in the mortal, material body, and when thought becomes more and more spiritualized, human consciousness yields to the divine Mind, and mortal mind with all its suggestions of false sensation begins to disappear.
One day while cooking I inadvertently poured boiling oil onto my foot instead of into a container. Not losing a moment, I reached out in prayer to God, mentally using "the scientific statement of being." It seemed a long time, but it was only a few moments that I was "absent from the body, and . . . present with the Lord." II Cor. 5:8; Except for the oil that I wiped off my foot, there was no sign of a lie calling itself an accident or a burn.
When we wake to know that matter is a human concept—a picture in mortal mind that can be proved unreal by replacing the erroneous suggestion with the spiritual fact —this awareness will give rise to spiritual growth. For the true concept—the real man, God's child—is constituted of love, purity, harmony, bliss, and is imperishable. Holding these qualities in thought, we find them becoming evident in our practical experience, shutting out diseased thoughts of hatred, malice, envy, jealousy, revenge. Mrs. Eddy writes, "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts." Science and Health, p. 261; Separating the real from the unreal leaves one free to receive Mind's inspiration and destroys the discords of sense.
The truths of Christian Science must be imparted from a spiritual standpoint—not by talking rightly and living wrongly. The practitioner should speak as a representative of divine Mind. An Old Testament prophet represents God as saying, "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Isa. 55:11.
Christian Science is a practical religion. It is mankind's salvation, and it is right at hand. As the student continues with the diligent study and practice of Science, the spiritual senses will subordinate the material senses until consciousness becomes completely spiritual. This is resurrection and ascension!
