An Age of Chemistry

Chemistry , as it is ordinarily thought of, deals with the transformation of matter, and whatever is material is, of course, the very opposite of the truth as revealed in Christian Science; but as Mrs. Eddy says on page 195 of Science and Health, "Whatever furnishes the semblance of an idea governed by its Principle, furnishes food for thought. Through astronomy, natural history, chemistry, music, mathematics, thought passes naturally from effect back to cause." What is humanly called chemistry is, then, but counterfeit of infinite Principle and its infinite spiritual idea. Because the divine Mind manifests itself as an infinity of spiritual action, suppositional mortal mind claims to produce a multitude of formations and transformations in its belief of matter. Christian Science improves such a belief by giving unlimited spirituality in place of a sense of limitation. Thus it is reason for gratification that limitations in chemistry, for instance, are giving way through research and alert application of what is discovered. In one sense, earthly counterfeits are not facts at all, but in another sense even "the semblance of an idea" must point to the infinity of the truth. That is why the suppositional mortal mind's concepts classified as chemistry are interesting.

When chemistry is dealing with mortal mind's beliefs in inanimate matter it is more interesting to the student of Christian Science than when it is dealing with what are called organic concepts, for a chemical reaction is not life and never can produce or constitute life. Real Life is wholly spiritual because it is the divine Mind including its manifestation as idea. This one true Life with its health, which consists of orderly spiritual action, can never be improved, regulated, or affected in any way by chemistry, because it exists quite apart from any belief of matter. The branches of chemistry, therefore, which deal with medication or with the attempted application of material elements to the processes of life, have nothing in common with Christian Science, in which the understanding of divine Mind as controlling its idea and sustaining harmonious action is the sole effective remedy. Beginning on page 124 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says: "The elements and functions of the physical body and of the physical world will change as mortal mind changes its beliefs. What is now considered the best condition for organic and functional health in the human body may no longer be found indispensable to health. Moral conditions will be found always harmonious and health-giving. Neither organic inaction nor overaction is beyond God's control; and man will be found normal and natural to changed mortal thought, and therefore more harmonious in his manifestations than he was in the prior states which human belief created and sanctioned."

That which applies to man must apply, in the last analysis, throughout the universe. Thus, sooner or later, it must be seen and proved that all the manifestations of Life are really nourished by Mind and not by matter. In proportion as this is understood now, the sense of nourishment, whether of men, women, and children, of animals, or of plants, is improved because of the subsiding of the beliefs in lack of sustenance. Each one who considers this truth thoroughly will find himself proving it in ways that he perhaps had not thought possible. Christian Science, thus, does not think of research and practice in chemistry as futile or unnecessary, but broadens the scope of the research by showing the true idea in place of the counterfeit. In the end the belief in reactions and transformations of matter has to give way to the infinite variety of Spirit and its idea.