It is one thing to say matter is unreal, so let it have its day; and very much another to say matter is unreal, so it has no real day. The first view looks at all the unsolved problems in the world and says in effect: "That's just matter. Matter is unreal. It will all go away someday when everyone realizes the truth." The second view refuses to believe that there can be anything present but spiritual perfection, leaving problem-bound matter out of the question.
Of what practical use is it to deny matter so completely? Only this: for more than a hundred years Christian Scientists have shown that this denial—dependent on and combined with the inspired recognition of God, or Spirit, as All—carries evidence of its correctness. The intensity of belief in matter is lessened. We call this effect a healing. The word "healing" is only a shorthand term—one that closest approaches what actually happens. In actual fact, sick matter is not made well. There is no matter. The belief in matter has been lessened, because the consciousness of the reality of Spirit has greatly increased. To consider a difficulty in this context is to defuse it from the start. Then, dispassionately, calmly, the specific truth needed to counteract the difficulty can be recognized as the only reality at the very point where a problem was believed to be.
To valiantly say there is no matter and then struggle to impose some truth on one's consciousness is one thing. To act from the conviction that because Spirit is All a struggling lesser intelligence is impossible is quite another. "All" is a big word. It doesn't leave any corner anywhere for anything else. Not the most microscopic place in the universe is left out by the word "all." "Whither shall I go from thy spirit?" the Psalmist considered. "Whither shall I flee from thy presence?" Heaven, hell, "the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." Ps. 139:7, 9, 10; Because of this allness, there is in reality nothing but the evidence of Spirit everywhere. Man and universe are the evidence of Spirit. Matter is never the evidence of man. There is no matter.
