The Real

Duncan Sinclair

The real is what mankind has been reaching out for with painstaking effort since ever it began to question as to the why and the wherefore of existence. But alas, the limitations of the human mind, so called, have been all too evident to the thinker. How often has he stood in abject impotence before the data with which material sense, purporting to be true, has furnished him, totally unable to find a clue to reality—that is, to absolute Truth! Speculation as to the nature of the real has indeed been rife enough in every philosophical school; but can it be said of any one of these that it has dared to advance beyond the theoretical into the realm of demonstrable truth?

It is interesting to note that philosophical speculation has gone on side by side with revelation. For while philosophers have questioned and argued and theorized, religionists have prayed and had divine Truth revealed to them. It is therefore to the latter one has to go for the solution of reality. It is to them one has to turn if he would be enlightened on the nature of God and His creation. What then is the position to-day? Briefly, that the world is in possession of a vast store of spiritual treasure which has accumulated throughout the centuries, including the revelation of God and His law which has come through the Hebrew prophets and Christ Jesus, and in these later days through Christian Science.

In Christian Science the climax of revelation has been reached; and here also is to be found preserved and cherished the spiritual truth perceived by the prophets and by Christ Jesus. Christian Science, the discovery of Mary Baker Eddy, was indeed made possible by the revealed truth of the Bible. Mrs. Eddy acknowledged the fact when she wrote that "the Bible was her sole teacher" (Science and Health, Pref., p. viii). And the Bible remains an honored and faithful guide to the Christian Scientist in his study of reality and in his endeavor to gain the spiritual understanding which overcomes the unreal.

On page 277 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes, "The realm of the real is Spirit." Then she proceeds to refer to the unreal in the words: "The unlikeness of Spirit is matter, and the opposite of the real is not divine,—it is a human concept. Matter is an error of statement." There one has a definite pronouncement on the real and the unreal: Spirit is real; matter is unreal—a declaration which is a challenge to every believer in the reality of matter, to every believer in the reality of material sense, to every believer in the reality of material phenomena. However meagerly the truth of the allness of Spirit and the nothingness or unreality of matter may as yet have been demonstrated by students of Christian Science in general,—and that is not admitting that a great many splendid demonstrations over material sense have not been made,—the great truth of Spirit's allness stands revealed and ready to be demonstrated as it was by the master Metaphysician, Christ Jesus, when he healed all manner of disease and sin, overcame the belief of death and, later, ascended.

But of what value to the individual is the understanding that Spirit is real and matter unreal? some one perhaps asks. Can it help him with the problems of life? Will it heal him of sickness or aid him in getting rid of sin? An understanding of the truth will certainly do these things. The moment one begins to understand something of the real, that moment he has started on the journey out of the unreal, out of materiality, out of the falsities of material sense. To him John's vision becomes a present possibility. He can now echo in some degree the apostle's thought: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea," because Spirit has been revealed to him as the only real, and matter, with all its erroneous attendant beliefs, is seen to be unreal and temporal.

An understanding of the nature of the real is all-important in spiritual healing as taught by Christian Science. For what is so-called sickness? Our Leader answers the question when she writes on page 229 of Science and Health, "It is the transgression of a belief of mortal mind, not of a law of matter nor of divine Mind, which causes the belief of sickness." Then she straightway points to the cure: "The remedy is Truth, not matter,—the truth that disease is unreal." No law of God causes or supports sickness, which is a false belief of supposititious mortal mind. As God—Spirit, Truth, Life, Love—is realized to be the only real, and disease seen to be unreal, the hypnotic spell is broken and healing takes place.

Never in the history of mankind has the real been so clearly discerned as to-day through Christian Science, and never before, in consequence, has the power of God been so universally available in the solution of life's many and varied problems.

Duncan Sinclair

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The Ethics of Christian Science

March 27, 1926

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