Article May 30, 1914 Issue

In a recent issue I notice the kindly inquiry from "Mortal Man"...

John W. Doorly

Bradford (England) Argus

In a recent issue I notice the kindly inquiry from "Mortal Man" in reference to the teachings of Christian Science with regard to matter. He seems to feel that Christian Scientists, because they deny the reality of matter, also deny the existence of birds, flowers, trees, etc., and asks if they do not believe in the first chapter of Genesis.

Your correspondent will undoubtedly be pleased to know that Christian Scientists believe absolutely in the first chapter of Genesis, and understand it so clearly that they find it to be one of the most powerful arguments in favor of Mrs. Eddy's teaching that being is "very good" and is spiritual. They are convinced that the first chapter of Genesis and the first five verses of the second chapter are the revelator's record of his perception, through spiritual sense, of the true facts of being, of being in its true and perfect state, facts which had always coexisted with God when the "Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground."

The very next verse in the second chapter, that is, the sixth verse, will give your correspondent the only explanation there is of material being: "But there went up a mist from the earth." This mist is the ignorance of false material sense which records a second account of being, into which matter enters, and man, the image and likeness of infinite Spirit, is cooped up in a belief of finite dust, while Adam the sinner, that is, the type of mortal man, has the supposed privilege of naming the birds, beasts, etc., which God had already created and called "very good." This suppositional false sense of true being is the only hell there is or can be, and it is the so-called material sense of creation. Jesus gave the remedy for this false sense when he said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Undoubtedly the truth of being can make free only from a false sense of being.

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