Article June 30, 1923 Issue

Christian Science provides an interpretation of the universe ...

Miss Ellen Graham, Committee on Publication for Lanarkshire, Scotland,—Glasgow

Eastern Argus

Christian Science provides an interpretation of the universe which is reasonable, logical, and demonstrable; but this interpretation has not hitherto been generally accepted. Human thought in its attempt to find the cause of all that exists has begun with matter, so called, or material phenomena, and endeavored to work back to ultimate cause; and the result so far has been that, according to Lord Balfour, science has explained matter by explaining it away. Mrs. Eddy takes the opposite method, and begins with the cause from which to deduce all effect. In Genesis we read, "In the beginning God;" and so Mrs. Eddy begins with God as the one and only cause of all that really exists, the Father and Mother of the universe, including man; and from this basis she interprets the universe.

In her study of the Bible Mrs. Eddy found the nature of God clearly revealed; and to aid humanity in gaining a fuller understanding of Deity, she adopted various synonyms to express God. On page 465 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" she embodies these in the following definition: "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Truth, Love." All of these synonyms are in harmony with the teaching of the Bible; and as, in the first chapter of Genesis, it is declared that God created man in His own image, it follows that the understanding of these synonyms for God must bring a clearer and higher apprehension of the real nature of man and the universe. Since God is Spirit, man is spiritual; since God is Life, man is immortal; since God is Principle, man is indestructible; since God is Truth, man must be perfect.

Christian Science explains the so-called material universe as but a false material concept of God's perfect spiritual creation, and mortal man, liable to sin, sickness, and death, as the counterfeit of immortal man, the image and likeness of God. This misconception of man with his deeds, or "old man," as Paul calls it, must be "put off" in order that "the new man," created of and by Spirit, may appear. The Bible teaches that God is All, and in all. Christian Science accepts this statement and draws the conclusion that matter, Spirit's supposed opposite, has no real existence, but is only a false sense of the true substance of Spirit.

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