"The material so-called gases"

THOMAS C. ELLIOTT

The writer of this article found it necessary to follow a course of instruction on Air Raid Precaution with a view to qualifying as an Air Raid Warden. The first lecture attended was a condensed restatement of a previous series, and the instructor devoted the whole of the time available to the subject of gas attacks, classifying all the known types of gas according to their supposedly injurious effects.

No student of Christian Science will be surprised to hear that immediately on returning home the writer took up our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, with a view to counteracting the vivid impressions of the lecture. The book was opened, apparently at random, to page 293, and the first word to meet the eye was "gases." Startled to see this word standing out boldly on the page, to the momentary exclusion of all else, the writer felt a wave of gratitude for its qualifying adjectives, "the material so-called gases and forces;" but immediately the thought came that the word "gases" had not, when Science and Health was written, assumed the sinister association attached to it in more recent years. Following at once upon that thought came wonderful enlightenment.

The instructor in the course of his lecture had divided the gases used in warfare into four categories, according to the type of damage they are reputed to inflict, and it was suddenly seen that Mrs. Eddy has classified "the spiritual forces of divine Mind" in four categories. The sentence runs thus: "The material so-called gases and forces are counterfeits of the spiritual forces of divine Mind, whose potency is Truth, whose attraction is Love, whose adhesion and cohesion are Life, perpetuating the eternal facts of being."

The instructor, working to a classification generally adopted in England, had dealt in his first category with the gases reputed to cause temporary blindness. The Christian Science textbook summarizes all so-called gases and forces as "counterfeits of the spiritual forces of divine Mind, whose potency is Truth." It was at once remembered that "Truth is the light which dispels error" (ibid., pp. 282, 283), and it was seen clearly that no claim of obstruction to sight could stand before this assertion of reality.

The second category presented, comprised those gases which claim to induce "panic fear," the expression used being, "They make you want to run away." The second attribute of the spiritual forces given by Mrs. Eddy is that their "attraction is Love." With what words other than "attraction" and "Love" would it be possible to show more completely the counterfeit nature of the claims of "panic" and "fear"?

The instructor's last two groups of gases claimed to be more deadly than the others, and more difficult to dispel. Of the third it was said that they cling or adhere to whatever they touch, and that this persistency, giving them time to work, makes them particularly injurious. Of the fourth group we were told that they not only cling to that which they touch, but penetrate deeply into it and commingle with it, whatever its nature, remaining supposedly potent for destruction over long periods.

Now Mrs. Eddy's last two attributes of the spiritual forces of divine Mind are "adhesion" and "cohesion," and, understood in the light of Christian Science, they provide the antidote for the supposed claims given above. Those "spiritual forces ... whose adhesion and cohesion are Life, perpetuating the eternal facts of being," are a complete and utter reversal of the claim of "the material so-called gases" whose adhesion and cohesion had been represented as perpetuating that which injures and finally destroys.

On page 585 of our textbook our Leader speaks of "Christian Science, with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold." All students of Christian Science have proved many times the truth of these words, and in this way the loads of apprehension and fear have been lifted that seemed at times to bear so heavily upon them and their fellow men. In this particular experience, the sequence of thought and the methodical destruction of the claims of mortal mind in the exact order of their grouping and presentation, were proved to be an outstanding justification of the claim that "divine Science, rising above physical theories, excludes matter, resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of material sense with spiritual ideas" (ibid., p. 123).

It is one more evidence of the way in which the spiritual understanding of our Leader, transcending time and circumstance, helps us to unsee that which the material senses present, and to reach through to the eternal verities beyond. It is in fact a fulfillment of the Psalmist's assurance, "There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling."

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