No human hypotheses, whether in philosophy, medi-
[pg 026]
cine, or religion, can survive the wreck of time; but [1]
whatever is of God, hath life abiding in it, and ulti-
mately will be known as self-evident truth, as demonstra-
ble as mathematics. Each successive period of progress
is a period more humane and spiritual. The only logical [5]
conclusion is that all is Mind and its manifestation, from
the rolling of worlds, in the most subtle ether, to a potato-
patch.
The agriculturist ponders the history of a seed, and
believes that his crops come from the seedling and the [10]
loam; even while the Scripture declares He made “every
plant of the field before it was in the earth.” The Scien-
tist asks, Whence came the first seed, and what made
the soil? Was it molecules, or material atoms? Whence
came the infinitesimals—from infinite Mind, or from [15]
matter? If from matter, how did matter originate? Was
it self-existent? Matter is not intelligent, and thus able
to evolve or create itself: it is the very opposite of Spirit,
intelligent, self-creative, and infinite Mind. The belief
of mind in matter is pantheism. Natural history shows [20]
that neither a genus nor a species produces its opposite.
God is All, in all. What can be more than All? Noth-
ing: and this is just what I call matter, nothing. Spirit,
God, has no antecedent; and God's consequent is the
spiritual cosmos. The phrase, “express image,” in the [25]
common version of Hebrews i. 3, is, in the Greek Tes-
tament, character.
The Scriptures name God as good, and the Saxon
term for God is also good. From this premise comes
the logical conclusion that God is naturally and divinely [30]
infinite good. How, then, can this conclusion change,
or be changed, to mean that good is evil, or the creator
[pg 027]
of evil? What can there be besides infinity? Nothing! [1]
Therefore the Science of good calls evil nothing. In
divine Science the terms God and good, as Spirit, are
synonymous. That God, good, creates evil, or aught
that can result in evil—or that Spirit creates its oppo- [5]
site, named matter—are conclusions that destroy their
premise and prove themselves invalid. Here is where
Christian Science sticks to its text, and other systems
of religion abandon their own logic. Here also is found
the pith of the basal statement, the cardinal point in [10]
Christian Science, that matter and evil (including all
inharmony, sin, disease, death) are unreal. Mortals
accept natural science, wherein no species ever pro-
duces its opposite. Then why not accept divine Sci-
ence on this ground? since the Scriptures maintain [15]
this fact by parable and proof, asking, “Do men
gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” “Doth a
fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and
bitter?”
According to reason and revelation, evil and matter [20]
are negation: for evil signifies the absence of good, God,
though God is ever present; and matter claims some-
thing besides God, when God is really All. Creation,
evolution, or manifestation—being in and of Spirit,
Mind, and all that really is—must be spiritual and [25]
mental. This is Science, and is susceptible of proof.
But, say you, is a stone spiritual?
To erring material sense, No! but to unerring spiritual
sense, it is a small manifestation of Mind, a type of spirit-
ual substance, “the substance of things hoped for.” [30]
Mortals can know a stone as substance, only by first ad-
mitting that it is substantial. Take away the mortal sense
[pg 028]
of substance, and the stone itself would disappear, only [1]
to reappear in the spiritual sense thereof. Matter can
neither see, hear, feel, taste, nor smell; having no sen-
sation of its own. Perception by the five personal senses
is mental, and dependent on the beliefs that mortals [5]
entertain. Destroy the belief that you can walk, and
volition ceases; for muscles cannot move without mind.
Matter takes no cognizance of matter. In dreams, things
are only what mortal mind makes them; and the phe-
nomena of mortal life are as dreams; and this so-called [10]
life is a dream soon told. In proportion as mortals turn
from this mortal and material dream, to the true sense
of reality, everlasting Life will be found to be the only
Life. That death does not destroy the beliefs of the flesh,
our Master proved to his doubting disciple, Thomas. Also, [15]
he demonstrated that divine Science alone can overbear
materiality and mortality; and this great truth was shown
is by his ascension after death, whereby he arose above
the illusion of matter.
The First Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other [20]
gods before me,” suggests the inquiry, What meaneth
this Me—Spirit, or matter? It certainly does not
signify a graven idol, and must mean Spirit. Then
the commandment means, Thou shalt recognize no
intelligence nor life in matter; and find neither pleasure [25]
nor pain therein. The Master's practical knowledge
of this grand verity, together with his divine Love,
healed the sick and raised the dead. He literally
annulled the claims of physique and of physical law,
by the superiority of the higher law; hence his decla- [30]
ration, “These signs shall follow them