In her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy refers to the infinite calculus of Spirit (see p. 209), and she no doubt uses this expression to lift thought above the sense of finity to the appreciation of the absolute, unrestricted, and unlimited nature of God, of Principle and its idea. In the Science of being, all elements of finity and restriction are removed because we are always dealing with the infinite, with that which is immeasurable, with that which possesses nothing of a finite nature.

Self-existent Mind is necessarily expressed in ideas. It knows and conceives all as ideas. The so-called human or mortal mind cognizes or conceives all things materially. Its concepts are mutable and finite. But infinity can never express itself in a finite or limited way. The very fact that the so-called things or objects of material sense can be destroyed shows that they are obviously finite.

Divine Mind knows no limitation because it is infinite. It is impossible for infinite Mind to know or have a limited concept. Everything that God, or divine Mind, knows is without limitation, and therefore every idea of Mind is infinite—unlimited, immeasurable, never finite. Mind knows no beginning nor end; so also its ideas have no beginning nor end, but have always existed in the Mind conceiving them. Because an idea of Truth, or Spirit, is eternal, it is that which possesses the only real tangibility. Spirit ensures the permanency and indestructibility of its ideas; indeed, Spirit constitutes the substance and establishes the eternal continuity of every idea of Truth.

Infinity, or God, is always one, must always be one. It does not admit dualism. One is the only measure of completeness, of perfection—the perfect, infinite One. In Science, God, or Mind, is revealed as One—one infinite, completely indivisible and all-inclusive whole. So Mind's idea is also whole, also one, but, like its source, infinite in manifestation. It is evident, then, that in considering the infinite, we are dealing with that which is one and yet that which has no limitation in power, manifestation, or expression.

Because God is One, every idea of God, or Mind, is also one; and because God, or Mind, is also infinite, every idea must be infinite. In the divine creation, or unfoldment of Mind's ideas, there is no repetition. Infinite Mind never repeats itself. If infinite Mind repeated itself, it would immediately become finite. God's infinitude is therefore revealed in multifarious ideas.

In Science, infinity and its ideas must have multitudinous expression; otherwise, we would have an evidence of limitation and God would lose His character as the infinite One. The very meaning of the word infinity implies Mind's immeasurable multiplication of its own ideas. In reality the tree exists as idea; and because it has its reality as an infinite idea, it represents Mind's glorious expression in immeasurable variety. Reasoning spiritually and scientifically from cause to effect, we are led to the conclusion that infinite Mind not only is the origin of its ideas but is the power and law expressed in their illimitable multiplication.

The basis of the infinite multiplication of Mind's ideas is indicated in the spiritual account of creation, as given in the first chapter of Genesis (11–22): "And God said. Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ... And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."

Referring to this, Mrs. Eddy writes on page 507 of the Christian Science textbook, "The tree and herb do not yield fruit because of any propagating power of their own, but because they reflect the Mind which includes all." And she continues in the following paragraph: "Creation is ever appearing, and must ever continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source. Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas material. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall to the level of a human or material belief, called mortal man. But the seed is in itself, only as the divine Mind is All and reproduces all—as Mind is the multiplier, and Mind's infinite idea, man and the universe, is the product."

Christian Science clearly explains that with every spiritual idea the seed is "in itself" because the idea is infinite and therefore must he evidenced in the multiplication of infinite identities. But even though infinitely multiplied, the eternal permanency of an infinite idea and its immeasurable identities is eternally established. Science also demonstrates that the individuality of every identity is distinct and ineradicable.

Finally, expressing God's law of spiritual multiplication, man, the compound idea of Mind, including all right ideas, is infinitely multiplied and revealed in countless individualities, each one reflecting and unfolding the one individuality, God. Referring to this, our textbook says (p. 507), "The universe of Spirit reflects the creative power of the divine Principle, or Life, which reproduces the multitudinous forms of Mind and governs the multiplication of the compound idea man."

Emphasizing and explaining your ability and mine to individually reflect and express the infinite One, which is our blessed and eternal privilege as the sons and daughters of God, Mrs. Eddy writes in "Pulpit and Press" (p. 4): "Is not a man metaphysically and mathematically number one, a unit, and therefore whole number, governed and protected by his divine Principle, God? You have simply to preserve a scientific, positive sense of unity with your divine source, and daily demonstrate this. Then you will find that one is as important a factor as duodecillions in being and doing right, and thus demonstrating deific Principle. A dewdrop reflects the sun. Each of Christ's little ones reflects the infinite One, and therefore is the seer's declaration true, that 'one on God's side is a majority.'"

Richard J. Davis