Article June 30, 1917 Issue

Writing in the Express, a critic asks, "How, please, does...

Robert S. Ross

Buffalo (N. Y.) Express

Writing in the Express, a critic asks, "How, please, does Mrs. Eddy know that Spirit never created matter or that God could create nothing without using His own essence as the material?" We answer, for the simple reason that because God is Spirit, His creation must be and is spiritual. Spirit can no more create its opposite, matter, than light can produce darkness or good produce evil. Jesus said: "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." Translating Jesus' words into modern English, they would read, "Like produces like."

Farther along the same critic asks, "How does Mrs. Eddy know that mind and matter are so opposite that both cannot be real?" We answer that because God is Spirit, changeless and indestructible, matter, Spirit's diametrical opposite, must reasonably and necessarily be both changeable and destructible. Now we know that nothing which is subject to change and decay is real; therefore we conclude that Spirit alone is real, because Spirit alone is eternal. If Spirit, God, is omnipresent, reason and revelation tell us that matter is nowhere present, for two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

According to the latest conclusion of materialists, the electron or ether void is fundamental; therefore matter is now believed to be an aggregation of ether voids called electrons. Physicists have come to this conclusion through reason supplemented by experiments. Not so very long ago Mr. Balfour went so far as to say that physicists were explaining matter by explaining it away. It is only a question of time when the world will be compelled to admit that Mrs. Eddy's teaching about matter is the correct one, namely, that matter is simply mortal belief objectified. On page 220 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "Mortal mind produces its own phenomena, and then charges them to something else,—like a kitten glancing into the mirror at itself and thinking it sees another kitten."

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