Article November 11, 1922 Issue

On page 335 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,"...

Louis E. Scholl, Committee on Publication for the State of Washington,

Seattle Union Record

On page 335 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy says: "Reality is spiritual, harmonious, immutable, immortal, divine, eternal. Nothing unspiritual can be real, harmonious, or eternal. Sin, sickness, and mortality are the suppositional antipodes of Spirit, and must be contradictions of reality." Such a definition of reality shows, of course, that reality is the exact opposite of materialism. Many philosophers have earnestly endeavored to get "down to facts in the mood of reality," and have used their highly trained intellects to try to solve the problem of life. They have written volumes, and have evolved many theories of life; but it can be truly said that not one of them has aided a single individual to freedom from sin and along the highway of peace and holiness, except in so far as he has directed him in the way which Christ Jesus taught. Jesus never for a moment taught us to think of God in terms of flesh and blood; for, as he said to the woman of Samaria, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

The coming to consciousness of man's true identity as the image and likeness of God, and of knowing that all reality is spiritual and not material, is what is changing, not only the individual, but also society. This new consciousness makes for better working conditions and improves circumstances, making them commensurate with man's progress toward health, happiness, and prosperity. With splendid insight into the problem of so-called evil and its solution, Mrs. Eddy says on page 338 of "Miscellaneous Writings," "He who first brings to humanity some great good, must have gained its height beforehand, to be able to lift others toward it." Saving society as a mass, without regenerating the individual, has ever proved a futile task. Just as a fountain can rise no higher than its source, so society can rise no higher than its individual members have attained.

A materially thinking world has always thought of science in the sense in which the schools use the word, as applying to matter phenomena. Mrs. Eddy has not used Science in this way or in an artificial sense; for she gave us a definite rule to follow, that we might scientifically understand more clearly, and so demonstrate in everyday practice the life which Jesus lived and taught. She declared him to be "the most scientific man that ever trod the globe" (Science and Health, p. 313); and Jesus said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

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