Regardless of how sophisticated or how simple our life style may be, as long as our basis of thinking and living is material, we will have only a very tenuous hold on happiness, peace, and harmony. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "The realm of the real is Spirit. The unlikeness of Spirit is matter, and the opposite of the real is not divine,—it is a human concept. Matter is an error of statement. This error in the premise leads to errors in the conclusion in every statement into which it enters." Science and Health, p. 277.
It is mankind's ignorance of Spirit— and of man's relation to Spirit as its perfect, spiritual idea—that causes the insecurity and uncertainty that characterize much of society today. Largely submissive to a view of creation from which the presence and power of Spirit are almost totally excluded, human thought is mesmerized by an unreal, destructive, and destructible material sense of existence.
There is no security in the material sense of existence. Its every element is subject to decay and discord. Sooner or later all that it includes must end. But man is actually spiritual, the image and likeness of God, who is Spirit. Our true identity is the reflection of Spirit. If man and the universe were material, the best we could hope for would be a precarious, temporary sense of security, which at any moment could be annihilated. Our genuine, spiritual individuality, however, can never be destroyed, for its permanence and security rest wholly in the substance of Spirit.
