The necessity of relinquishing all belief in matter and material things as actual is paramount in the demonstration of Christian Science. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy we read (p. 552): "Mortals must emerge from this notion of material life as all-in-all. They must peck open their shells with Christian Science, and look outward and upward."

This Science states in unequivocal language that God, infinite Mind, or omnipresent Spirit, and His infinite manifestation, or expression, man and the real universe, are the only reality and that nothing exists outside of Him. It teaches that God, the sole creative Principle, conceives, maintains, and preserves His infinite universe, including man in His image and likeness. It further declares that God's creation reflects the substance of Spirit, partakes of its nature and attributes, and eternally exists as spiritual idea. From this premise it follows that matter and mortality, being contrary to and utterly at variance with Spirit, have no creator, no sphere of action or operation, no substance, no space for existence, no reality. Matter, then, is not an entity. It is an erroneous conception of material sense, an illusion of so-called mortal mind.

Because this teaching is utterly opposed to what most of the world considers basic, it appears to be revolutionary to the materialist. But a growing dissatisfaction with the hitherto blind acceptance of matter as entity is being evidenced in the progressive thinking of an increasing number of men and women all over the world, including that of many leading physicists and physical scientists. An example of this is the statement made by Dr. Edmund W. Sinnott, Dean of Yale's Sheffield Scientific School, and quoted by the editor of The Christian Science Monitor in an address at Northwestern University. Said Dr. Sinnott, "Matter in the old sense indeed has ceased to be."

There is a growing conviction among many thinking individuals that matter and all things mortal have no actual existence as objective reality, and that humanity must turn to things of Spirit for its verities, indeed for its destiny. But by far the larger portion of mankind, not yet having reached this state of thought, and still clinging to a matter world and a mortal selfhood as the all-in-all of existence, is perplexed and fearful.

The foundation on which men have built their lives and their universe has been proved impermanent and unsafe. This, together with their ignorance or unwillingness to place their reliance on God, Spirit, has caused some to cast about frantically for greater forces of matter to quell the threat of calamity, whereas others have abandoned themselves to the doom which they believe is inevitable. Is there a solution to the problem for the panic-stricken segment of mankind, or must it continue to be helpless and hopeless? Can it find release from its self-constructed labyrinth of fear, or is extinction its only end, oblivion its certain destiny?

Christian Science, the Comforter promised by the Master, comes with the assurance born of demonstration to show mankind how to save itself from the dire results of its own ignorance and how to attain the "peace of God, which passeth all understanding" (Phil. 4:7).

Students of Christian Science learn that all that is actually going on is omnipotent Spirit eternally expressing itself in absolute harmony, orderliness, and progressive activity; that all real being is in God, divine Mind, and exists as spiritual idea, as the expression of this Mind, eternally reflected by man, God's compound idea. Whatever seems to be appearing as chaotic disruption, fearful mortality, a subversive element, or hostility, is but a misinterpretation of the true facts of being. These are false, aggressive suggestions, which Christian Science refutes with incontestable logic and disproves through the demonstration of the truth of being.

As the study of divine Science is pursued, it will be learned that the real man is not a mortal, existing within the confines of a section of space called a material world. He is never a helpless victim of ruthless destructive forces. It will be seen that spiritual man, one's true being, dwells eternally in absolute safety, in the loving atmosphere of infinite divine Mind, and is not now and never can be in danger of any sort. The only danger there seems to be is the belief that man is material and lives in matter.

In Science and Health (p. 485) Mrs. Eddy instructs us, "Emerge gently from matter into Spirit." And she adds, "Think not to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come naturally into Spirit through better health and morals and as the result of spiritual growth." It is to be observed that she does not say to emerge from matter slowly. Time is not a factor in this emergence. We gain the understanding of the true facts of being as quickly as we give up the falsities of mortal belief. And it is well actively to know that no mesmeric suggestions, presenting themselves as our thinking, can delay this spiritual ultimate.

The transition from a material to a spiritual viewpoint of man and the universe—the realization of the kingdom of heaven—may be accomplished in an orderly, step-by-step procedure without the sudden disruption of our natural surroundings. This change need not he brought about by a cataclysmic upheaval, but may come naturally and harmoniously as we relinquish materialistic thinking, based on the evidence of the senses, for spiritual knowing, which is Mind's reflection of its own self-knowledge.

Those who have, through Christian Science, gained some measure of this understanding have begun to shake off the shackles of carnal consciousness, emerge from the hypnotic beliefs of mortality, and enter into the paradise of Soul, man's native habitat. This is coming "naturally into Spirit," and is evidenced by a more healthful, more moral, and more harmonious present experience, which is but the promise of things to come. A businessman proved this in a most practical way. He was an executive in a large organization and had been in that capacity for many years. Due to a change in policy within the company with which he was not in agreement, conditions became quite intolerable. Being a student of Christian Science, he applied the truths he had gained from his study to the situation with which he was confronted.

After a number of months of diligent prayer, during which time there was seemingly no progress, an angel thought came to his consciousness. He perceived that the solution to the problem was to be found outside of it, and that in order to heal the discord he must become free from the belief that he was in a material position. He reasoned that position, in order in be real and actual, must exist as idea, not as a material place; and that man, being compounded of all of Mind's ideas, includes position as part of his being. Position, there-fore, is in man and not man in position. Very shortly thereafter he was invited to discuss a connection with another concern, which he eventually accepted and which proved to be most harmonious and profitable.

The giving up of the belief of a material basis of existence is never the relinquishment of anything real. It is but the emerging from darkness into light. Christ Jesus said (Matt. 19:29), "Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life."