Editorial October 16, 1937 Issue

Indestructible Substance

George Shaw Cook

People generally believe that substance is something materially tangible; that it can be weighed and measured; that it occupies space, and so forth.

Christian Science teaches that substance is the exact opposite of what it has generally been considered to be. It shows us that substance is Spirit, Mind, Truth, Love. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 335): "Spirit is the only substance, the invisible and indivisible infinite God. Things spiritual and eternal are substantial. Things material and temporal are insubstantial." Therefore, that which is truly substantial is invisible to the material senses. It cannot be seen with the eyes, or felt with the hands. Real substance is materially intangible. And this teaching is in harmony with the declaration of Paul in his second epistle to the Corinthians: "The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

That which is temporal, destructible, does not express the nature of Spirit, divine Mind, which is eternal and indestructible, and therefore it is not, in the true sense of that word, substantial. Therefore, matter is not substantial, even though to mortal sense it appears to be so. Mrs. Eddy makes very plain the real nature of substance on page 468 of Science and Health, where she says: "Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are substance, as the Scriptures use this word in Hebrews: 'The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.'"

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