It was a cold winter morning, and I had settled on my living room floor, along with my Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, to study the weekly Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on “Spirit.” After reading halfway through the Lesson, I looked up and stared out my patio doors. My eyes became transfixed on what appeared to be smoke rising from the corner of the fence that enclosed the patio. It was rising rapidly, yet there was no fire visible. I remember momentarily thinking I smelled smoke. But did I? I wasn’t sure.
Quickly, I arose, slipped on a robe and shoes, and went outdoors. After examining the area, I found no evidence of fire or heat. In fact, all that could be seen or felt was damp wood, sunshine, and the cold morning air. I returned to the living room almost convinced that all I had been observing was vapor resulting from the morning sun shining down on the cold, damp wood.
I say “almost” because after I returned indoors and again saw what appeared to be smoke, I wasn’t completely satisfied. Had I overlooked something? So convincing were the senses, I went back outside for further investigation to determine once and for all what I was seeing. It was in fact vapor, only giving the illusion of smoke. Thus, I learned an important lesson about the aggressive deceptiveness of the material senses.
As I settled back down and resumed studying the Lesson, this part of a citation from Science and Health really spoke to me: “… the false claim of error continues its delusions until the goal of goodness is assiduously earned and won” (p. 233). One dictionary defines delusion as a “mistaken conviction,” and assiduous as “marked by … persistent application.” As I had persisted in seeking the truth (isn’t that the “goal of goodness”?) about the picture before me, I had finally become convinced of what was really going on—that there was no smoke, no fire, no danger. The belief that I was seeing smoke was replaced with the fact, the understanding, of what was actually true.
There are also a couple of interesting definitions of vapor, including “that which is insubstantial.” Certainly, the vapor was nothing in the presence of the sun. As the sunbeams persistently shone down upon the vapor, it vanished. I found the archaic definition of vapor to be even more interesting—“depressed spirits.” I had been studying the Lesson on “Spirit.” While the material senses may argue that there are also realities called “depressed spirits”—the counterfeits of Spirit—the teachings of Christian Science make clear that Spirit is a synonym for God, and that because there is only one God, there is only one Spirit.
Spiritual sense, having its source in God, sees only as God sees and testifies to His good creation.
That definition of vapor as “depressed spirits” became particularly meaningful to me during this time when a family member was experiencing a difficult health challenge. While I was visiting this loved family member, it became evident that his joy had been zapped, and in its place was a picture of depression and sullenness. This was so unnatural for this individual, because he had always expressed so much joy. I began to see a helpful analogy.
In Christian Science, we know that because Spirit is God, the word spirits can only refer to the false material belief of many human minds or personalities. A depressed state of thought is nothing more than an illusion that mind is material. We can see, through spiritual sense, the unreality of such a suggestion by realizing that Mind is God. By refusing to break the First Commandment—“Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3)—we can free ourselves from being fooled into believing the lie that there is more than one Mind. The picture of a depressed man or woman is a deception of the material senses, nothing more than a false picture camouflaging reality. I’m grateful to report that this loved one experienced a complete healing and was restored to his normal and joyful self with the prayerful treatment of a Christian Science practitioner.
As one gets a clearer understanding of God as Spirit, the All-in-all, right, scientific reasoning concludes that anything unlike God, good, must be an illusion. Spiritual sense, having its source in God, sees only as God sees and testifies to His good creation. It refutes all material sense testimony. Mary Baker Eddy sums it up this way: “Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being. Matter disappears under the microscope of Spirit” (Science and Health, p. 264).
Christ Jesus, the great Exemplar, was deliberate as to what he accepted into consciousness. Our Leader contrasts his approach with that of his persecutors: “His senses drank in the spiritual evidence of health, holiness, and life; their senses testified oppositely, and absorbed the material evidence of sin, sickness, and death” (Science and Health, p. 52). I love this imagery! Jesus “drank in”—he actively, conscientiously imbibed, through spiritual sense—what God knows about His idea, man. He did not passively accept or “absorb,” but challenged whatever material sense suggested.
Man made in God’s image and likeness does not possess a mind or spirit separate from Him. Man reflects all that God is, and God is good. Any suggestion to the contrary is just that—a suggestion of the carnal mind, which is the counterfeit of Mind. A suggestion has no power. It is only a suggestion, a lie. Man, God’s idea, does not have a mind separate from God that can either make a lie or be fooled into believing a lie. The false belief and false believer are one and the same. Both must be cast out of thought and replaced with the scientific truth of God and man. This may take some effort on our part, but just as it took persistence for me to become convinced that there was no smoke, persistence is necessary for us to see there is only one true man—the man of God’s creating.
So what can we do when error argues depression, illness, or any other malady? We can turn from the lying material senses and listen intently to God’s thoughts, divine messages or angels. And we must be “assiduous” in this endeavor. These angels are ever present to comfort, guard, and guide. As we persistently hold to the truth of God and man, the impositions of mortal mind will dissolve into nothingness—just as the vapor did as the sunbeams melted it away. We can make every challenge to our peace of mind, and to our joy, an opportunity to establish firmly in thought the omnipotence and omnipresence of God, good.
Let’s be unwilling to believe the lying material senses. As the light and warmth of God, Love, shine steadily down upon the false sense, we will see the delusions disappear.
