Article July 14, 1906 Issue

Materiality Unreal

A. D. PACKARD.

Human theories spring from a basis of belief instead of a basis of truth. Christian Science, on the contrary, begins with demonstrable truth, and admits only logical deductions therefrom. Human thought takes on diviner hues in proportion as it accepts the facts of Science in place of its own beliefs. The superstructure built on a false premise is well likened to the house built on the sand. Its apparent solidity is unreal, and either time or accident, to both of which it is subject, insures its ultimate destruction.

The basis on which human reasoning has reared itself, and on which it depends, is the assumption of substance-matter, but this belief in and of itself could produce nothing, for even human reason will not accept organized or unorganized dust as causation. It recognizes the necessity of intelligence, and tries to combine the two opposite elements of mind and matter, and thus arrives at the belief in mortal man, embodying qualities antagonistic to each other,—a combination of intelligence and non-intelligence, Spirit and matter, good and evil. Reason on the human plane does not accept either unalloyed evil or unalloyed matter, but theorizes their union with Spirit; which is as illogical as the union of ignorance and knowledge. Mortal man thus conceives of himself, and how can this concept result but in its own destruction, even as a kingdom divided against itself? That man is wholly material is an impossibility now generally admitted. Mortal man realizes the necessity for good, but seeking it through material sources, his sense of it must of necessity be imperfect. Like children learning to walk, we distrust the omnipotence of Spirit to sustain us, until, by degrees, we place our affection and trust in more spiritual lines, when, being more nearly normal, they bring out harmony.

Through the study of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, we learn that the amalgamation of such opposites as intelligence and non-intelligence, good and evil, Spirit and matter, is an impossibility and exists only in belief. To the unawakened thought this union and its discordant manifestations seem to be real; but an awakening has begun in Christian Science, and it is the coming of Christ, Truth. The dawning of this saving truth seems slow to mortals, but as we begin to see that the supreme governing, all-inclusive cause of all reality is Spirit and not matter, we learn the falsity of material pleasure and pain; then they lose their power over us; for the strength of sin is the supposed pleasure of sin, and when we find that there is no real pleasure in it, we naturally forsake it.

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