Article August 24, 1918 Issue

"Shall the dust praise thee?"

HORTENSE W. LEWIS

Christian Science reveals to mankind the very nature of God as Spirit, and man as His spiritual likeness. Why then write about dust? Why think about it? Why, indeed? Why have daily dusting in house and office? Why use vacuum cleaner, brooms, and what not? The answer is, To remove the dust; to clean the house. Back of the use of the vacuum cleaner, underlying the use of the duster, is the recognition that to mortal sense there is something valueless, something which needs to be, and must and can be, removed.

In Christian Science we learn what it means to be God's image and likeness, what it means for man to be so like God, so to express the divine nature, that we cannot think of God without thinking of man, cannot think of Mind without thinking of man, the expression or manifestation of Mind. Through Christian Science the glory, might, beauty, majesty, power, perfection, immutability, and allness of divine Principle are revealed; and as one studies and works, spiritual facts are understood; one's grasp of spiritual reality grows greater and greater; and along with this perception of the real and eternal there necessarily come the discernment and the detection of the false, material, and untrue. Could anyone detect an error in mathematics unless he knew mathematical facts? That two plus two equals five may seem true to one who knows nothing of mathematics; but the mathematician cannot be deceived by any such statement, for he knows that two plus two is invariably four. So in Christian Science, with the recognition that Life, substance, and intelligence are spiritual, comes the discovery that there can be no intelligence, substance, or life in, or because of, or as, matter; indeed, as the spiritual foundation of all things is understood, the belief of material foundation, cause, and structure appears as mental dust to be cast out of the house, cast out of human consciousness as worthless, valueless.

On page 584 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy defines dust as "nothingness; the absence of substance, life, or intelligence;" and surely nothingness is not that which can satisfy or attract man, or which can frighten man as the reflection of intelligence, the expression of substance, and the evidence of Life. Dust is valueless to man, but in Genesis we read that God said to the serpent, "Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." "And dust shall be the serpent's meat," is the statement made by Isaiah. It is only as we become conscious of the somethingness, indeed the allness of the spiritual, of Mind and its manifestation, that we detect the deception of that serpent, which is fully defined on page 594 of Science and Health for our enlightenment and protection.

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