Editorial April 14, 1956 Issue

A GREAT STATEMENT

Helen Wood Bauman

In the chapter "Recapitulation" in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy first sets forth the Principle of Christian Science, explains the problem of mankind, which is dualism, and cites the law which interprets reality and destroys unreality. Then she gives "the scientific statement of being" (p. 468), which not only sums up the basis of the practice of Christian Science, but embodies the only conclusion which can follow the logic of this revelation— that man is not material but spiritual.

"The scientific statement of being" is familiar to all who attend Sunday services in Churches of Christ, Scientist, for it is read at the conclusion of these services. It declares: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual." The truth of this great statement has been proved countless times by those who employ it in their efforts to heal the sick and sinful. It becomes a refuge to those in trouble, a comfort in their times of struggle, a strength when their faith falters.

The first sentence of "the scientific statement of being" refutes pantheism, the agelong belief that life is in matter, the fundamental error which we accept with even the slightest physical sensation. Christ Jesus included a similar refutation in his precept (John 6:63), "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." The student of Christian Science finds that when he realizes that he is in reality the conscious idea of divine Mind, entirely separate from the flesh, his health is restored, and his energies of good are quickened.

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