Article March 2, 1935 Issue

Dynamic Words

EMMA EASTON NEWMAN

To live surrounded by those who believe intensely that matter is lasting and actual, and yet to realize consistently and demonstrate progressively that matter is but a vagary of belief—without foundation because Spirit, God, is All—is the task set for Christian Scientists. We have accepted as the rock foundation of our thinking, and as the only basis on which we can hope to make demonstrations, that succinct summary of the case for Spirit versus matter known as "the scientific statement of being." It was given to us and to the world by Mrs. Eddy and is found on page 468 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."

In the early presentation of Christian Science, the opening words, "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter," generally aroused definite antagonism. Even people who had been healed through another's realization of the truth contained in this statement often fought the assertion, contending that it was self-evident that matter was real because it could be seen and felt. Others at first accepted the statement on faith because of the proof of healing that was theirs.

Now there has come a change. The leaven of spiritual truth is permeating the lump of human thinking, and physicists claim to be making what are hailed as great discoveries of the nothingness of matter. These more or less recent findings are extremely interesting to the Christian Scientist, because he realizes that they were not arrived at until our Leader's discovery of matter's unreality had been given to the world. Her discovery was made on the basis of Christ Jesus' teaching and demonstration, unveiling a practical application to the healing of human woes which the physicists ignore. Jesus' entire human experience, beginning with the virgin birth and ending with his complete triumph over material belief at what is called the ascension, was a progressive proving of the truth which is summed up in "the scientific statement of being." Walking on the water, he refuted so-called laws of gravitation and ponderosity. Feeding the multitudes with what was evidently intended for a limited meal, he transcended the material sense of quantity and fulfilled the law of supply and demand.

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