Mind and Its Manifestation

Albert F. Gilmore

Mrs. Eddy penned no more revolutionary words than the "scientific statement of being," which appears on page 468 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." This brief paragraph, in denying the claim of the material universe to entity and power, challenges the philosophies of all time. Of tremendous significance are these brief sentences, which posit Deity and the true creation as the entity of all reality. "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation" leaves no possibility of reality or existence apart from God and His infinite spiritual universe.

Thoughtful persons had been quite ready to conceive of the creative power as intelligent, but none before our Leader had proclaimed God as infinite and all-inclusive Mind, creator of the perfect universe of divine ideas. Mrs. Eddy's statement positively denies the possibility that entity or substance can inhere in the objects of personal sense, which in their most substantial aspects are, upon analysis, found to be but the objective forms of material belief.

On page 27 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy sets this forth in the metaphysical discussion of a stone. After stating that matter in all forms and evil of every phase are nonexistent, are nonentities and negations, she asks if a stone is spiritual, replying, "To erring material sense, No! but to unerring spiritual sense, it is a small manifestation of Mind, a type of spiritual substance." And after further stating that it has the qualities which are commonly attributed to substance, that is, that it is substantial, she writes this most instructive sentence: "Take away the mortal sense of substance, and the stone itself would disappear, only to reappear in the spiritual sense thereof."

Obviously, we can see spiritually only as we cease to see materially and, consequently, as we cease to see materially, true substance will be cognized. When, in place of a material stone, through spiritual sense we discern the spiritual qualities which belong to true substance, we are proving the allness of Mind and its manifestation. Material sense, so called, in its efforts to simulate the substance and qualities of divine Mind, presents its false evidences and testimonies, which, as Christian metaphysicians, we are in duty bound to refute, not by blindly denying their claims to reality,—although such denial is vastly better than agreement with their pretensions,—but by affirming their unreality because of our sure knowledge; and as Christian Scientists we are able to affirm that Spirit alone is substance, and that entity and reality inhere only in Spirit and its infinite universe of perfect ideas.

The student of Christian Science is aware of the necessity for constant denial of material sense testimony in order that the real may be present in consciousness. Constant watching of our thoughts is a price we pay for spiritual growth. But in view of the incalculable benefits gained through acquiring the spiritual sense of the universe, the price is not too high.

The so-called mortal mind may seem to weary and become discouraged over these constant demands, but progress Spiritward is attended by rewards impossible of evaluation in material terms.

Sometimes a mortal, failing to realize the infinite presence, complains that he has "so much to meet," that error seems completely to encompass his human experience; but such conclusions come only from failure to recognize the infinite presence of good, of Mind and its manifestation. Where divine goodness is, and it is everywhere, evil cannot be; so that belief in the presence of evil results only from our mistaken sense, terribly mistaken sense, of the absence of good.

How completely does our Leader refute the claims of matter to be substance and entity, and accordingly as being responsible for the harassments and distresses of mortals! "If Mind is within and without all things, then all is Mind," she writes on page 257 of Science and Health; and she adds conclusively, "and this definition is scientific." That which is within and without all reality encompasses all and includes all. What mortals have to meet, then, is a false sense which, mentally entertained, assumes the aspect of reality; but which, refuted and denied in the light of scientific understanding, disappears—reduced to its native nothingness.

In answer to the searching query, "Who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?" the Psalmist replied, "He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart." Speaking the truth in one's heart, that is, holding in thought only the real and true, is the sovereign remedy for overcoming the claims of evil, or materiality in all its forms. They who overcome walk uprightly and work righteousness, for to them evil has lost its seeming power. They have so spiritualized thought that erroneous beliefs are no longer entertained, but refused admission to the mental household; rejected, error loses its seeming power.

Thus do we prove for ourselves our Leader's words; and as Christian Science becomes a practical influence in our lives, we no longer cherish the belief that we have more to meet than another, for we have learned beyond the possibility of refutation that since Mind and its manifestation is all, we have only Mind "to meet." Heaven is gained in just this way.

Albert F. Gilmore

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