It is divine consciousness, not matter, that is primordial substance. The mission of Christian Science is to destroy progressively the sterile, limiting, disease-producing belief that intelligent life is merely the culminating product of material evolution. This Science has come to reveal to humanity that real consciousness is spiritual, self-existent, and that intelligent knowing is much more than a function of highly developed animal life.

Mrs. Eddy comes to the point directly when she says: "All consciousness is Mind; and Mind is God,—an infinite, and not a finite consciousness. This consciousness is reflected in individual consciousness, or man, whose source is infinite Mind. There is no really finite mind, no finite consciousness."  ^{Unity of Good, p. 24;}

This statement is based squarely on the Biblical account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis, which states that God formed man in His image and likeness. In faithfully adhering to the Scriptures Mrs. Eddy made no apologies or concessions to mistaken scientific and theological theories, but through many cases of spiritual healing she proved the truth of man's perfect, harmonious, spiritual origin and consciousness.

All human limitation and suffering stem from a false concept of consciousness, or mind. The carnal, or mortal, mind rejects the truth that man is the idea of divine Mind, and thus imprisons itself within its own false belief. The material body, although it seems to exist of itself, independent of the mortal mind beholding it, is really the subjective state of this mind and therefore subject to its beliefs, fears, and iniquities. These errors disturb the material consciousness and its embodiment and produce the organic or functional abnormalities that we call disease.

Healing is attained as one rejects a body-centered, personal sense of mind, with its topsy-turvy thoughts, and humbly acknowledges himself to be the tranquil, serene, harmonious manifestation of omniscient divine Mind. Mrs. Eddy asks the question, "Then is mind or matter the intelligent cause in pathology?"  ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 108;} Her answer is, "If matter, I challenge matter to act apart from mind; and if mind, I have proved beyond cavil that the action of the divine Mind is salutary and potent in proportion as it is seen to act apart from matter."

In absolute fact, the infinite Mind, or divine consciousness, is All, total, and therefore can know nothing but its own presence, power, and perfection. Obviously, then, it cannot be conscious of a seeming opposite, matter, for matter is a delusion of the limited material senses and possesses no life, intelligence, substance, form, or power to act. Disease, being a phase of this delusion, is also unknown to the All-Mind, for this supreme and only consciousness is the very source of radiant strength, harmony, and well-being. As the prophet Isaiah puts it, "Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come."  ^{Isa. 45:24;}

As one becomes aware of the primacy of true consciousness and blends his thinking, in quality, with divine Mind's concordant attributes, the natural divine harmony floods his thought, rules out negative mental impressions, and adjusts what needs adjusting in his experience. The stillness, tenderness, purity, integrity, and joy of divine Love wipe out the discordant, turbulent action of mortal thought and its effects upon the body.

Mrs. Eddy writes, "To gain a temporary consciousness of God's law is to feel, in a certain finite human sense, that God comes to us and pities us; but the attainment of the understanding of His presence, through the Science of God, destroys our sense of imperfection, or of His absence, through a diviner sense that God is all true consciousness; and this convinces us that, as we get still nearer Him, we must forever lose our own consciousness of error."  ^{Un., p. 4;}

Some years ago the writer was healed of recurring colds when he saw that his trouble was not physical, not the result of contagion or fluctuating temperature, but was in fact the externalization of his hurried, impatient, irritated thought. As he learned to purify and quiet his thought in "a diviner sense that God is all true consciousness," he became more serene, patient, unhurried; and the periodic bouts with sickness disappeared.

Christ Jesus taught that the kingdom of God has no material connotations. He knew that it is not a place, a thing, or a set of human circumstances. He said, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." ^{Luke 17:20, 21.} The Master saw this kingdom as a state of divine consciousness, and he maintained this inner light by a humble acknowledgment that God was indeed his consciousness, his Mind, the divine Principle of his every thought and act. He is our Way-shower; and if we too yield to the one Mind as our consciousness and Life, our human experience will show forth all the health, harmony, longevity, and abundance that is our birthright as sons and daughters of God.

Alan A. Aylwin