Article September 26, 1931 Issue

Statement of Truth

JESSIE L. REMINGTON

In consulting the Concordances to "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and the other writings of our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, one finds that the word "statement" is frequently used. The word as used by her brings out the thought of base or foundation.

Treatment in Christian Science, as all its students know, is based on the understanding of the allness, ever-presence, and perfection of God, good, divine Mind, and of man as God's reflection; that is, on the understanding and affirmation of absolute truth. No admission that good or truth is relative, not absolute, can enter real treatment in Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy did not invent the truth of the perfection of man, but through study and revelation she discovered, and uncovered from the dust of centuries, the truth of the Master's sayings, "I and my Father are one;" "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," and saw their logical relation to the declaration in Genesis that man is made in the image and likeness of God.

The word "misstatement," too, figures to some extent in the expounding of our Leader's meanings. Concisely she writes, "Matter is a misstatement of Mind" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 174). The positive truth and the negative nature of evil are further unfolded in "the scientific statement of being," to be found on page 468 of Science and Health. This "statement" commences with a denial: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter." This marvelous utterance of our Leader forcefully and swiftly cuts away at the outset all justification for dependence on matter. To rely on matter, then, as an aid to Spirit, is thus an absurdity. In apprehending this, one advances mentally, and begins to be untrammeled, unconfused, free. The mental shackles drop away, and progress is assured.

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