Article October 29, 1904 Issue

The Vanity of Matter

SAMUEL GREENWOOD.

The Hebrew king who has since been called the "wise man," tested to its fullest extent the ability of the world and the flesh to give pleasure and satisfaction to mortals. His abundant wealth and high position gave him every opportunity to fulfil the heart's material desires, and he seems to have traversed every avenue which holds allurement for mankind. The final verdict of his experience should therefore have weight with those who are likewise tempted with the glamour of "a beautiful lie" (Mrs. Eddy in Unity of Good, p. 66). In summing up his exhaustive experiments with materiality, this wise man pathetically confesses his disappointment at finding in material things only vanity and vexation. No one who aspires to a life above the animal and earthy has ever questioned Solomon's decision, though he may consider materiality as a necessary condition of human existence.

Christian Scientists, believing that nothing real can be vain or vexatious, and that no necessity of man's existence can mock and befool him, are striving to discern man as the spiritual idea or emanation of Spirit, not matter; hence that spiritual man is the only really substantial man, neither sensible in matter nor to matter, but living and moving always in the consciousness of God, infinite Spirit.

The Christian Science teaching that matter is nonsentient, and, in the absolute, scientific sense, non-existent, is commonly misunderstood and misapplied, though human experience abounds with evidence in support thereof. Mortals must be willing to see things as they are and not as they seem, if they would understand truth. The materialists who make merry at times over the statement of the unfeeling nature of matter, should be ready reasonably to defend the logic of their own beliefs and to prove by demonstration the superiority of their human science of sensitive matter over the divine Science of infinite Mind. The man who would fain have us thrust a pin in the body to prove the sensibility of matter, might tell us how a pumpkin, for example, receives the thrust without pain or protest. The pumpkin is believed to be alive, yet gives no sign of consciousness or feeling. To exist thus painlessly in matter is surely enviable to those who uphold its dignity and divine right. But, alas, for the price of mortal knowledge!—the unfeeling pumpkin is transformed into a pie and eaten, and lo, a pumpkin no longer, it becomes a part of mortal man, and feels at last. A doubtful promotion truly, from peaceful ignorance to painful knowledge.

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