"There is no Matter."

Alfred Farlow

Nebraska State Journal

If critics would be patient until they understand the exact meaning of the proposition, there is no matter, they would find it more acceptable. The difficulty lies in the fact that they do not understand what Christian Science gives in return for what it repudiates. This Science does not teach that the visible universe is an illusion, but that each created thing, from the least to the greatest, is real, though not what it seems to the concept of those who have not learned to regard it from a spiritual viewpoint.

It is said, "If we know anything at all about anything at all, it is through the aid of these five senses or a part of them, and we have no other means of knowing or assuming to know." This is an admission either that we can never know anything beyond materiality, or that there is nothing to know outside the material, and that "death ends all."

Jesus declared, "God is Spirit." The senses, to which our friend credits so much, declare, "I do not see any spirit, hence I do not believe there is any spirit." One cannot believe in immortality, in Spirit or spiritual creations, without setting aside the testimony of the personal senses; and if one may be permitted to accept testimony contrary to the senses sufficiently to believe in the reality of Spirit, there is no reason why one should not be able to indorse all the teachings of Christian Science.

Jesus declared, "When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth." Nothing short of science can impart knowledge, and we therefore conclude that Jesus meant that when a spiritual understanding concerning the truth, in contradistinction to a materialistic sense thereof, comes, you will be guided into all truth.

One may learn something from the external, material sense of the world by means of the personal senses, but the understanding of the spiritual and eternal things—the things which must govern our future welfare—must be obtained spiritually; hence the declaration of our Lord, "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Jesus said, "God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship spiritually" (Twentieth Century New Testament). How can we do this without understanding spiritually?

Alfred Farlow. In Nebraska State Journal.

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