Article June 6, 1914 ISSUE

Reality versus Unreality

SAMUEL GREENWOOD

Reality and unreality are terms which call for correct definition to be scientifically understood, that is, in their relation to the absolute. Reality, in the sense of eternal permanence, can be defined only in terms that relate to God and His reflection; it can have no proper definition in relation to what God is not. Christian Science acknowledges reality only in the spiritual realm and as discerned spiritually; while in human belief reality is that which is cognized through a physical sense. Turning to the Scriptures, we learn that those things which are materially seen are temporal, while the things which are not materially seen are declared to be eternal. Looking at this question, therefore, in the light of eternity, it should not be difficult to determine which are the real,—the things of Spirit or the things of matter. The inability to see spiritual things with the human eye is no argument against their reality or substantiality, in view of the admittedly transient and unreliable nature of sense-perception.

The difference between what is real and what is not real is naturally the difference between Truth and error. Christian Science covers the whole ground in showing that it is the difference between good and evil. When this fact is accepted, and good is recognized to be the final and only test of reality, it will be seen that the establishment of Christ's kingdom on earth means the establishment of the kingdom of Truth, the reign of what is divinely true, and the disestablishment of belief in evil, or the divinely untrue. Jesus plainly declared this when he said, "Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up," and also illustrated it in his parable of the wheat and the tares.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Christian Science: Its Legal Status