In metaphysics there are two distinct systems of thought, one of which must be true and real and the other false and unreal; the two positions are in contradistinction one to the other, and hence a third theoretic system, a combination or compromise of the two, is unreasonable, impossible, and untenable. Upon the premise that matter is all-in-all, and that the five physical senses furnish the only testimony upon which to base accurate deductions, all the so-called sciences have been formulated. This position, when accepted in its entirety (which must be done in order to accept its deduced sciences), reveals the existence of substance or cause, found abstract from matter, as an impossibility. . . . This position precludes the presence of Spirit, Mind, or intelligence, apart from matter. All is physical and of the material senses. There can be no force nor power without matter, no spirit, no God, no unseen intellectual agency sustaining and maintaining the universe, that is not inherent of substance-matter. An inquiry into a cause or creator outside of matter is an illusion, a seeking for something that has no existence. All things are physical and mechanical, not mind nor mental. This material monistic philosophy had as its chief exponent in modern times, Auguste Comte, who was a student of the ancient schools of Protagoras and Heraclitus. It is the position of the atheist. It can go no farther than human reason and is not subject to pure philosophy or true theology. There can be no continuity of spiritual or mental existence, since a succession of monistic physical phenomena is the ultimate of all materialistic action. There can be no God, no prayer. There is no problem of future existence, for there is no existence without matter, and the material man with the mortal mind is the highest exposition of all substance-matter. Materialism, pure and simple, and atheism are catalogued in the same concept of human investigation and existence.

The second school of thought accepts the other position, that Spirit (God) is All-in-all; that God is, of His very nature, substance, eternal; that His whole creation, of which man is the highest ideal, is spiritual. Theoretical logic or the theology of religion has attempted to establish a dualistic school of thought, which finds its adherents among those who seek a union or compromise between a materialistic and a spiritual creation. It presupposes that matter and spirit both exist, are eternal, and have equal or comparative reality. The doctrine of the union and nature of matter and spirit is seldom attempted and never made clear. Advocates and students of philosophy, chemistry, astronomy, materia medica, and all the so-called sciences, rarely accept the theory except as a belief, and all experimentation is in the line of materialism. These so-called scientists refuse to accept as testimony any deductions not derived from matter, and centuries have been given to experiments in trying to find life, spirit, intelligence, as not only existing in matter, but also existing as matter. The effort has been to find life or spirit having form, outline, and mobility, rather than to seek life or spirit as existing independent of matter.

This dualism always partakes of some form of pantheism, and upon this dualistic basis rests polytheism, spiritualism, hypnotism, theosophy, telepathy, animal magnetism, mesmerism, etc. This dual position is responsible for much of the philosophy of materialism and the theology of religion of the present era. Little or no effort is made by the so-called scientists to reconcile revelation or religion with what is called the physical sciences, and theologians often accept the physical sciences with a theological interpretation that is at great variance with the recognized process of determining results in material science. In fact, the natural or material scientist has met and almost eliminated the arguments of his opponents, yet humanity clings to the innate conviction that there is a God and that revelation and religion are necessary. At the same time the belief in the necessity for sin, sickness, and death remains as a part of the dualist's creed. This position proclaims God as the author of good and evil, health and sickness, and makes life and death coexistent in matter. This double attribute is pantheistic rather than Christian. God is recognized as being "in" things,—God in nature, therefore God in the mountain, in history, in peace, in war. Likewise, according to the dualist, God is in health, in sickness, in life, in death, in calamities of nature, even in sin. God creates sickness and then makes medicine to cure sickness. He brings suffering, according to this belief, and wills that medicine should fail, in order to punish His child for disobedience. This contradictory position leads its advocates to believe in fate and predestination, and asks us to bow our heads in humble submission to a dualistic God, a God of life and a God of death. The history of theoretic religion shows a strange and unreasonable commingling of materialism and sensualism with pious reverence. With the two opposite and conflicting pathways no definite end can be reached. All systems of dualism teach life in matter and make God responsible for all physical and moral evil, and the only escape is by a process of natural laws, or by a regenerative and supernatural grace administered by a priestly mediator.

The second and higher school of thought is in ultra contradistinction to atheism and materialism. It establishes its fundamentals upon the first command of the Decalogue. It teaches that God is Spirit. That His creation, including man made in His image and likeness, is spiritual and not material; that God is All-in-all, and that He is the only cause, the only force, the only power; that He is the only creator, hence the Father-Mother-substance of all creation; that He is eternal, hence real and unchangeable. God being the only cause and creator, matter has no real entity and exists only to mortal concept. It is a physical phenomena of which the physical senses alone bear testimony. The physical senses being a creation of materialistic causes, their testimony cannot be true, because they testify to the unreality of the eternal and only First Cause and creator. This physical testimony is therefore an illusion—a shadow of the real substance—a belief of something which has no real existence, was never created, has no place nor power, and cannot of its own assumed nature have eternity. Hence matter is no more real than the belief or illusion concerning it. It is the human concept or projection of the testimony of physical phenomena and has no existence in the spiritual kingdom of infinite intelligence. This position is spiritual monism: one God, one creator, the eternal One, who is Spirit, Life, Mind, intelligence; one creation, spiritual, which reflects Life, Mind, intelligence. This is the basis of all true religion and pure philosophy, free from any taint of materialism. It is the fount of every pure inspiration, and makes revelation a stepping-stone to spiritual consciousness and understanding. God is the only substance and reality. This underlying secret runs all through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. This is the only basis from which a correct understanding of an all-wise, all-powerful, all-loving, unchangeable, infinite heavenly Father can be gained. It is the basis of holy healing by prophet and apostle. It is the foundation-stone upon which the Master stood and wrought his wondrous works. This latter position of spiritual monism finds its basis of support in the Bible, in the words and deeds of prophets and apostles, in Christ's teachings and works, in history, in reason, in spiritual consciousness and in individual experience. It is exemplified in works rather than in words. Its proofs are in results rather than in theory. It is the philosophy of facts rather than philosophical theorizing. . . .

This higher spiritual scientific position is the one taken by Christian Science. The world is indebted to Mary Baker G. Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, for the clear apprehension and perception of a revealed Science, the Science of infinite God. It is the rediscovery, the revealing again of the old-new Science of Christ and the early prophets. It is not a religion of beliefs and theories; it is a revelation of understanding and a demonstration of works. It casts out both sickness and sin by the same method. It destroys the beliefs in and of matter by supplanting them with the understanding of infinite intelligence. Christian Science has brought a new-old religion; a new school of scientific metaphysical philosophy which reveals infinite substance; a new interpretation of life, a life that is not dependent on matter, hence is deathless; a new love, a love that knows not hate; a new truth, a truth that is changeless, and that makes free; a new God, or, if you please, a newer, higher, and holier conception of a loving heavenly Father, who created everything spiritual and good, who knows no evil nor matter, who brings no calamities, and "who healeth all thy diseases" without any material (matter) remedies.