Whoever thinks of Christian Science as presenting to the world intangible ideals does not understand what tangibility consists of, for to think in terms of material things is not to know reality. It is easy enough to show conclusively that matter or any material thing is but a concept of an utterly hypothetical mortal mind. The physicists have long since done this by resolving matter into atoms and electrons, and electrons into positive and negative activity in the ether, which is itself a hypothesis of a logical impossibility. The ether, like electrons and atoms, is merely a concept in a hypothetical mortal mind, and is being accepted as such by thinkers more and more generally nowadays. Of course the supposition that there is a mortal mind is impossible in the realm of reality, where the divine Mind with its idea is provably all that exists. The whole belief in matter thus is resolved into sheer illusion.

All that a man has of anything, shelter, food, clothing, health, pleasure, or anything else, is his concept of it. It in no way diminishes the tangibility of real experience to resolve it into thought and replace the human thought with the spiritual idea, for all through earthly history mortals have been in a world of thought where every incident, every sense impression, has been a registering of thought in mortal mind. The supposed tangibility of mortal concepts has always been a fictitious tangibility of mortal concepts. Christian Science replaces the mirage with the absolute reality of the divine Mind and its idea, thus taking away from a man nothing of shelter, food, pleasure, and so on, but giving the true idea in Mind in place of illusory mortal concepts.

The feeling of health, vigor, and control which a man proves for himself through the understanding of Christian Science is neither animal nor vague and indistinct. It is perfectly real because it is spiritual, existing indestructibly in the one true Mind of which the genuine man is the idea or activity. Just so, the experience of true spiritual abundance, of right work or service, of infinite variety of satisfaction, is not imaginary and nebulous. The conscious expression of the divine Mind which is demonstrated through the practice of Christian Science is the living which satisfies because it is actual as no mortal dream of wealth or enjoyment could ever be actual. The idea, the spiritual order of which infinite Mind is conscious, is indeed tangible in the true sense.

On page 269 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, "Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul." The work of each one turning to Christian Science, then, is to prove that the true man is right now living in Mind, and that for him spiritual idea is the whole universe, infinitely manifest, if we wish to put it so, as spiritual ideas or the infinity of idea. Continuing, Mrs. Eddy says: "These ideas are perfectly real and tangible to spiritual consciousness, and they have this advantage over the objects and thoughts of material sense,—they are good and eternal." The infinity of spiritual idea, including the true variety which is all that can satisfy, is indeed tangible to the divine Mind, God, which is the only Mind there is to be conscious of anything. Infinite idea or manifestation is the effect, and infinite Mind, or God, is the one cause. "Ideas," Mrs. Eddy says again, on page 279 of Science and Health, "are tangible and real to immortal consciousness, and they have the advantage of being eternal." This sentence is at the beginning of a paragraph of which the marginal heading is "Spiritual tangibility." Each one is privileged to prove for himself that Mrs. Eddy's words are true.

Though a man may think that, at the best, he has realized only glimpses of spiritual tangibility, the fact is that the only man there is, the real expression of divine intelligence, is constantly experiencing Spirit, Life, Principle, for he lives and moves and has his whole being in the divine Mind. Knowing only Mind and what Mind includes, he finds in Mind the reality of which any human sense of things is counterfeit. It is impossible to think of any human concept, any positive quality, any condition of existence, without there being the reality in place of it. The spiritual reality cannot possibly be humanly outlined, however, for it is the infinite effect of infinite cause. Any name for a positive condition, entity, or quality, rightly used must be a name for this one cause and effect, for the divine Mind manifest as spiritual idea. The use of all sorts of names for Mind and its manifestation is not confusing to the one who is considering the spiritual fact in place of the suppositional mortal opposite. Because Mind is actually infinite, it infinitely unfolds.

The infinity of Mind and its idea may, of course, appear to the one seeking the truth as a multitude of good experiences. The sense of many is, however, but the human counterfeit of the infinite unity of the one creator and one creation. Mrs. Eddy states it unmistakably on page 264 of Science and Health, where she says: "As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible. When we realize that Life is Spirit, neither in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness." This reality, even though it may not seem distinct to the one who is just beginning to turn consciously to Principle as the source of all good, becomes clearer in proportion as one is consecrated in putting into practice all that he learns of it through the study of Christian Science. As he goes forward, he begins to see that all the absolute reality of past, present, or future, is idea in Mind, quite apart from material sense testimony. Thus he awakens to the truth that man's whole living always has been in Mind, not matter, and he proves in the present just so much of the unlimited possibilities of entirely tangible eternity.

Gustavus S. Paine.