Editorial November 29, 1930 Issue

Choosing the Real

Duncan Sinclair

Christian Science teaches the truth about reality, and thereby enables its students to distinguish between the real and the unreal. And to be able to distinguish between the real and the unreal is the first step antecedent to choosing the former. What, then, is reality? Mrs. Eddy says with regard to it on page 472 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "All reality is in God and His creation, harmonious and eternal. That which He creates is good, and He makes all that is made." Her words remind one of the pronouncement regarding creation to be found in the thirtyfirst verse of the first chapter of Genesis: "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

God and His creation, then, constitute reality. And since God is infinite Spirit, infinite good, His creation, which consists of spiritual ideas, must, like its creator, be perfect. Whenever God and His creation are understood, that is, whenever reality is known, one is able to perceive the nature of unreality, so called. Thus, since God is infinite Spirit, nothing unlike Spirit can be real; hence, what men call matter is unreal. Again, since God is infinite good, nothing unlike good can be real; hence, what men call evil—evil in its every phase—is unreal. In this way Christian Science empowers its students to draw the clearest possible line of demarcation between the real and the unreal, between reality and unreality, and so prepares them for the choosing of the real.

How, next, is this understanding to be utilized? First, it is of inestimable value for the sinner to know that evil is unreal; for as he sees this he cannot fail to perceive, at least to some extent, the absurdity, the futility, of continuing to indulge himself in that which has no real existence. And probably it will quickly dawn upon him that since the evil he is believing in and practicing is unreal, he cannot possibly be deriving any real pleasure from it. So, having his eyes opened to the illusory nature of evil, and also to the fact that indulgence in evil cannot bring him any real satisfaction or pleasure, he should turn from it with disgust, and with the earnest desire to allow good alone to reign in his thoughts.

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