Creation

THE earnest student of Christian Science is impressed with the simplicity of Truth as revealed by Mary Baker Eddy in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," as well as her other writings. Truth must answer all questions, from the most insignificant to the most profound, and Christian Science, the revelation of spiritual truth to this age, meets the needs of all states and stages of thought, from that of the innocent child to the bewildered adult steeped in the false education of materiality. Brilliant physical scientists of to-day are searching in and examining matter in all its phases, seeking information as to what constitutes life, but Mrs. Eddy has attacked the problem from a very different standpoint, and the world is fast discovering that her statement that God is Life is not only accurate but demonstrable. Mrs. Eddy begins with incorporeal God, Spirit, supreme, infinite intelligence, and finds man and the universe His spiritual image and likeness, in accord with Scriptural authority. Material scientists begin with a material universe and material man and seek to find their cause. The minute examination of matter, however, discloses nothing from which to account for life or its greatest jewels: love, mercy, goodness, morality, and the other limitless attributes of God. good.

Mrs. Eddy tells us in her writings, and verifies her statements with Scriptural authority, that creation is complete. God's work is done. But this material world is not that spiritual creation which God called good. Even physical scientists admit that there is no surety that that which is comprehended by the five physical senses is real. Mrs. Eddy says decidedly that it is not real. The material universe, including the human body, is counterfeit of the spiritual reality, a manifestation of an erroneous mental concept. What, then, of the real universe and real man? Of these we can know no more than we know of God. It is therefore a question of understanding, consequently a mental problem. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 67) in answer to the question "Do you believe in translation?" Mrs. Eddy says: "If your question refers to language, whereby one expresses the sense of words in one language by equivalent words in another, I do. If you refer to the removal of a person to heaven, without his subjection to death, I modify my affirmative answer. I believe in this removal being possible after all the footsteps requisite have been taken up to the very throne, up to the spiritual sense and fact of divine substance, intelligence, Life, and Love. This translation is not the work of moments; it requires both time and eternity. It means more than mere disappearance to the human sense; it must include also man's changed appearance and diviner form visible to those beholding him here."

A common error of human existence has been to associate knowledge of God with the experience called death, a general belief being that a clearer knowledge of God is obtained after death. In the light of Mrs. Eddy's statement as quoted above, it is clear that death will not necessarily affect one's knowledge of God or His creation. Such knowledge is clearly a matter of spiritual comprehension, to begin here and now and continue progressively without regard to the belief called death. All that really exists is already intact and spiritually complete. Creation consists therefore of the revelation of the reality of spiritual things. A man, seemingly having accepted as true an erroneous concept of creation, including himself, must drop these beliefs through enlightened thinking, reflection of Truth, and spiritual revelation, to a point where the spiritual reality of all things becomes apparent and natural. Comprehension of Spirit, God, to the extent that all error disappears as consciousness, destroys belief in matter, sin, sickness, and death. To the student of Christian Science, creation is the constant revelation of spiritual Life, Truth, substance, and intelligence, God, in the exact proportion that he individually comprehends and makes use of the truth. Thus creation continues forever, God being infinite and consequently never fully comprehended. It will be seen, too, that earthly time enters into creation only to the extent that the belief of matter or error exists. Hence Mrs. Eddy's reference, in the paragraph quoted, to the fact that this change which "means more than mere disappearance to the human sense" requires "both time and eternity." Our problem, therefore, is not with matter but with the spiritual understanding of those Godlike qualities which constitute the real creation, man and the universe in the image and likeness of divine, infinite Love.