Article June 2, 1917 Issue

Science Absolute

JEANIE F. GIBB

"Science is absolute and final," Mrs. Eddy says on page 99 of "Miscellaneous Writings." To beginners in the study of Christian Science the absolute truth about God and man as taught in Science and Health is apt to seem somewhat cold, and to some people almost repellent. To them it speaks of a God who has no knowledge of human affairs, and the question put by many is, "How can God help us if He knows nothing about us and our troubles?" The belief in a God who "knoweth our frame," and who "pitieth his children," is much more comforting to them than is the understanding of God as one who as the prophet Habakkuk declared is "of purer eyes than to behold evil;" but while they cling to their old belief their progress in the understanding of divine Truth is slow.

The first improved belief which comes through continued study of the text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, is that God is really a God of love, who sends not sometimes good and sometimes its opposite, pain, sorrow, and all sorts of evil,—so-called "blessings in disguise,"—but only good to His children. Yet this improved belief is not absolute Science, for along with it goes the belief in a material universe and a material man, and a God who though Spirit yet has in some mysterious way a knowledge of matter and regulates the affairs of a material universe. Complete and permanent healing cannot be done on any such basis of thought.

But as one goes on studying the text-book and putting into practice the understanding of Truth thus acquired, it gradually becomes clear to him that God, who is Spirit, can have no knowledge of matter, for God can have no material senses by which to cognize it. Step by step, slowly or quickly, according to the tenacity with which he holds on to the material senses, he rises to some knowledge of absolute being,—"Spirit possessing all power, filling all space, constituting all Science" (Science and Health, p. 110); and then he feels like the traveler who after a long and toilsome ascent has reached the mountain top.

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The Golden Thread
June 2, 1917
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