Although this fact is not generally acknowledged, it is none the less true that the teachings of Christian Science have operated to liberate and change the thinking of men in all fields of human endeavor, of philosophy, therapeutics, and science. No concept of the human mind has been more radically changed by the teachings of Christian Science than has its concept of substance. But while physical scientists are gaining many clearer concepts of substance as mental, they have not yet visioned the reality of substance as it was demonstrated by Christ Jesus.

On page 257 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes, "Mind creates His own likeness in ideas, and the substance of an idea is very far from being the supposed substance of non-intelligent matter." Jesus always went beyond a humanly mental concept of substance to the actual spiritual idea—whose source is very substance itself. To him Spirit and its ideas were actual substance, and matter purely an illusion of the senses. This enabled him to go through what appeared to be substantial matter doors, and to roll away the stone from the tomb.

Again, on page 475 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy, defining man, says. "He is the compound idea of God including all right ideas." Man, then, lives, functions, and is manifested as idea, not as a physical organism, and he is maintained forever safe, eternal, and indestructible in the infinite Mind of which he is the expression. True substance spells safety. Everything that is worthy of love, that we prize and praise, is utterly safe in the substance of Mind, incapable of being impaired, lost, or separated. There can be no separation in omnipresence. Love is omnipresence, and Love, while individualizing, unites, never separates, its ideas.

To be vitally conscious of divine ideas and actively expressing them is to be substantially-minded, and we need never doubt that this truly substantial, dynamic thinking will be shadowed forth in an abundance of that which to the human mind is substance. Job was described as the greatest of all men of the East, because his substance consisted of thousands of sheep and camels, oxen and asses. This material sense of substance had to be taken away until Job gained a true concept of values and acknowledged God, Spirit, as the source and substance of all good. This transformation of his thinking could include no material sense of loss. We are told that Job had "twice as much as he had before."

Substance is never inert, unconscious. On page 103 of "Miscellaneous Writings" our Leader states, "In Science, form and individuality are never lost, thoughts are outlined individualized ideas, which dwell forever in the divine Mind as tangible, true substance, because eternally conscious.'" It is clear, then, that one cannot dwell merely in human mental concepts of spiritual ideas, but must live and embody those ideas in their veritable substance. One is required to love and to live love— to be indeed the reflection of Love divine. He is required to live intelligently as the reflection of divine intelligence. He cannot live intelligently from the standpoint of life in matter.

One is required to reflect the substance of peace in peaceful living; the substance of joy in joyful living, of honesty in honest living and dealing. He is required to reflect the substance of purity in scientific thinking and living, the substantial affluence of Soul in affluent living. He is required to be active, reflecting the vitality of Life divine, alertly conscious of his true being, the manifestation of substantial divine ideas.

A right concept of substance is a most important factor in the healing practice of Christian Science. It is readily seen that as there is no such thing as matter substance, sickness and disease are not existent in matter—not a condition of matter, but entirely a mental state, a false sense of life and identity, always and only an illusion to be dispelled by the light of Truth and Love. This was proved to a Christian Science practitioner who had been called upon to bring healing to a young child who was suffering from a diseased condition of the spine and a poisoned system, which curtailed her activity and threatened her life.

In working on this case the practitioner found a verse from the Bible coming continually to her thought: "Honour the Lord with thy substance." On pondering the meaning of this verse she saw that that was what she was called upon to do in this case of the sick child. To have sick, suffering matter as a reality was surely not honoring God with her concept of substance, not obeying the First Commandment and acknowledging His allness. Correcting this she turned away from the false sense, and consistently acknowledged as real only the substance which exists as the expression of Spirit, pure, perfect, incapable of poisoning or being poisoned. In this light of Truth and Love, of true substance which honors God, Life was seen instead of death, perfection of form instead of deformity, the law of Love instead of hate. So the little child whom Satan, error, had bound was made free and restored to beauty, to normal and healthful activity.

This is practical proof that what is called matter is not substance to obstruct the manifestation of Mind, nor intelligence to hinder the activity of Spirit. As there is only one Mind there is only one substance, not two, one acting and one acted upon. Perfect Mind expressing itself in perfect ideas is substance.

Margaret Morrison