Article September 11, 1926 Issue

Love and Reason

Ralph J. Carney

Christian Science promises so much that is of inestimable value to mankind that the human mind often temporarily rejects it for no other reason than that according to this so-called mind it is too good to be true. But this very brilliancy of promise is what most attracts those who apprehend even slightly the fact that this promise has its basis, not in words merely, but in works. The statements of Christian Science are ever capable of proof in the most practical and helpful manner in everyday life, however unbelievable they may seem to one who has not yet gained an understanding of their foundation in eternal Truth.

The complete and perfect proof of the absolute reality and allness of good and the utter nothingness of evil is always just at hand. This proof is, however, recognized but faintly by mankind in general; in fact, it is understood and acknowledged only by degrees by the most consecrated and untiring seeker. Nevertheless, the absolute verity that God, good, is the only power and presence, the only substance and Life, is instantaneously provable throughout every moment of time and in every point of space. Mrs. Eddy declares on page 264 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being. Matter disappears under the microscope of Spirit. Sin is unsustained by Truth, and sickness and death were overcome by Jesus, who proved them to be forms of error. Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love." And she gives "Spiritual proofs of existence" as the marginal heading of this paragraph.

The certainty that Spirit and its perfect ideas are the only realities of being, and consequently that matter and its seeming effects of sin, sickness, and death are unreal, came to Mrs. Eddy through the reconciliation of reason to the spiritual revelation of the true nature and character of God and of man in His image and likeness. Through her right reasoning and her spiritual-mindedness Mrs. Eddy brought about multitudinous demonstrations, or proofs, of the fundamental statement of revelation, namely, that God is entirely and eternally good. These proofs took the form of the healing of very many cases of disease and sin, and even the raising of the so-called dying to instantaneous health; and she states (Science and Health, p. 109) that it was "through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration" that she won her way "to absolute conclusions" regarding the Science of spiritual healing. And she makes it plain throughout her writings that it is through "revelation, reason, and demonstration" that every student of Christian Science may and must likewise reach the final and absolute certainty within his own innermost consciousness that divine Mind is, indeed, All-in-all, and matter naught—that which seems to be, but is not.

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