Article June 25, 1966 Issue

A Fundamental Teaching

HARRIETT M. CUNNINGHAM

After a few years of thoughtful study of Christian Science, during which time I experienced several remarkable healings, I found that there was a fundamental teaching of this Science that I understood very little. This was the fact of the nothingness of matter. The fact was logically, intellectually, agreed to fully, for the writings of Mrs. Eddy are abundantly clear in exposing it. But matter seemed to me as real as ever. I knew that I must seek a deeper, a more truly spiritual understanding, for I felt instinctively that unless I found a stronger grasp of this basic truth, my demonstration of it would be shaky. Hours of study and eager and importunate prayers were followed by some surcease of the restless yearning until one day I knew that the desire to understand is in accord with God's loving will and that in Him there is no struggle for light.

Very soon afterward it occurred to me that Jesus, in his marvelous works, had fully proved all that Mrs. Eddy says about matter, and I began a careful reading of the Gospel of John. Coming to the second chapter, which tells of Jesus' attendance at a marriage and his turning of the water into wine, I stopped to ask myself: what happened there?

Remembering that our Master was the exponent of Truth, I could see that Jesus never altered Truth. Clearly, then, the liquid had to be a thing of human thought and was therefore subject to change by the Saviour, who understood this great fact. Thus it was seen that matter, of itself, has no quality whatsoever.

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