The Scriptural statement, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh [matter] profiteth nothing," evidently means that Spirit is the only animating element of existence, and both primarily and finally the only real basis of health.
Every individual character, like the individual John the Baptist, at some date must cry in the desert of earthly joy; and His voice be heard divinely and humanly.
In the teachings of Christian Science as to the unreality of all material existence and its diseases, it uses the word unreal in the sense of knowing that God is not the author of anything but the good and harmonious, and that His works are as perfect and immortal as Himself.