Editorial December 23, 1922 Issue

Spirituality versus Materiality

Albert F. Gilmore

When a famous head master of the University School of London, no doubt in a spirit of jocularity, uttered his celebrated interrogatives and answers which, to many, have seemed so obvious as to be trite, "What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind," he came nearer the truth than probably he himself surmised. In the light of the teachings of Christian Science, he expressed fundamental facts; for not only is Mind—that is, God—never matter, but matter and divine Mind are contraries, having no common denominator. It is little likely, however, that this famous scholar had grasped the truth as revealed by Mary Baker Eddy, or that he was thinking of aught but the human or mortal mind. In the latter case his conclusions were quite erroneous. Accordingly, it is to be assumed that he had not learned that God, infinite Spirit, being All, there is in consequence no reality in matter. No more, it is probable, did he glimpse that other important fact, correlative to the statement that divine Mind is All, namely, that mortal mind, being the supposititious opposite of divine Mind, has no existence in reality. Furthermore, as we learn in Christian Science, mortal mind and matter are one; that is, matter is mortal mind's subjective state. This fundamental truth is revolutionizing the thought of the world and, in consequence, mankind is slowly perhaps, but surely, changing its basis of thinking from matter to Spirit,—that is, from the belief of physical man as the real man to the recognition of man as spiritual, the image and likeness of God. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 173), Mrs. Eddy succinctly declares, "Matter is Spirit's contrary, the absence of Spirit."

No problem of the ages has been more of a stumbling-block than the determination of what reality is. The common acceptance of the testimony of the so-called physical senses that matter is real substance, carried through to its logical conclusion, precludes the possibility of God, Spirit, as infinite Being, or it appears to put Deity into matter. The former would, of a necessity, posit matter as something additional to Spirit's infinity, manifestly a paradoxical situation; the latter theory would spiritualize matter. With the materialist, who insists upon matter as substance, the teaching of Christian Science may seem contradictory, definitely opposed to what he is pleased to call human reasoning. Yet those learned men, philosophers and scientists, who seek the source of life in matter, search in vain; and not a few, convinced of their inability to find a solution, have turned away, perhaps after a lifetime spent in this bootless quest. Looking in the wrong direction, one does not find the right answer to his question, "What, whence, where?" On page 261 of the Christian Science textbook, Mrs. Eddy has said, "Fixing your gaze on the realities supernal, you will rise to the spiritual consciousness of being, even as the bird which has burst from the egg and preens its wings for a skyward flight."

Yet, how important it is that mankind should gain spiritual understanding, the truth about God and His perfect universe! Starting with wrong premises and applying false rules, one can by no possibility arrive at right conclusions. If one accept as final and unavoidable his apparent immersion in a world of materiality, what hope has he of breaking its mesmeric bondage in order to escape its inevitable doom? Matter's only prospect is destruction; for it can by no means avoid the penalty of its own falsity, its simulation of divine energy and substance. So perfectly did Jesus draw the distinction between Spirit and matter that there seems to be little need for misunderstanding. To Nicodemus, coming to him at night, he explained, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit;" and he added this meaningful sentence: "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." How could he have set forth the situation more explicitly? What but the thought of spiritual awakening—the new birth—could he have wished to convey in the terse statement, "Ye must be born again"? Nicodemus, evidently failing to grasp Jesus' teaching naturally, it would seem, voiced his wonderment, "How can these things be?" and the great Teacher proceeded to unfold to him the great love of God for man.

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