Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, an American authoress, once wrote: "To wrench from the ores of the earth, the treasures of the sea, the elements of the air, the secret of their functions and their affinities, the laws of their being, the springs of their action—this is very noble and very good. But it ends where it begins—in matter; and matter is matter and not man, despite the Darwins, and Tyndalls, and Huxleys; and one may know all that is to be known about matter and nothing that need be known about man."

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, drew attention to this statement in an early issue of The Christian Science Journal. It would naturally have appealed to the author of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" because she had previously defined man in this textbook in terms of Spirit, not matter. There she writes (p. 475), "Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements." And she continues, "Man is spiritual and perfect; and because he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so understood in Christian Science." By thus defining man, Mrs. Eddy followed the footsteps of the Way-shower, Christ Jesus, who said (John 6:63), "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing."

The distinction between the material and the spiritual is clearly marked in Christian Science. What, then, it may be asked, is the material, or matter sense of man, which seems so insistent in human experience? For further elucidation of this we shall find it helpful to turn to the definition of "matter," as given on page 591 of Science and Health, which in part reads: "Mythology; mortality; another name for mortal mind; illusion; intelligence, substance, and life in non-intelligence and mortality."

From this definition we learn that matter is not just "stuff," but includes erroneous beliefs of many descriptions. Among these beliefs is mythology. It may therefore be helpful to examine briefly the subject of mythology, for in so doing we shall be better able to put matter where it really belongs, namely in the realm of fiction.

As is well known, mythology comprised the religious beliefs of the ancient world and was primitive mortal man's way of explaining material phenomena. The primitive savage looked out on a world of nature and endeavored to account for it. Behind the rushing wind he felt action. The waters moved, the clouds sailed across the sky—in all things he was aware of life and movement. To account for this he peopled the world with spirits or gods.

According to the Encyclopedia Americana the mythmaker was the primitive philosopher, physical scientist, and religionist of his period. He observed certain natural phenomena and endeavored to account for them by means of a fable or imaginative story.

The myth is a purely imaginative tale created in an effort to explain an event or something which has actual existence. The spirits and gods set up in primitive mythological tales were given names and supposed personalities; thus in Greece the sun became Helios and later Apollo, and the moon became Selene and later Artemis. Myth was added to myth until racial mythologies were constructed and invested with supposed power and authority. But their personalities were entirely imaginary and their so-called power was a myth.

We can see why Mrs. Eddy was led to define matter in part as mythology. Matter is a mythical sense of substance entertained by the mythmaker, mortal mind. The original substance, which is Spirit, has seemingly been forgotten, and a fictitious sense of substance has taken its place. Matter is, so to speak, a fiction about a truth. In truth there is no substance-matter, because substance is Spirit.

We live in Spirit, not matter. Spirit is our only real substance. When this is understood, we shall gain dominion over space, time, and circumstance. Mrs. Eddy defines "substance" thus in the Christian Science textbook (p. 468): "Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay." And she goes on to say, "The spiritual universe, including individual man, is a compound idea, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit."

Let us think of the practical application of these wonderful definitions. Disease, for instance, claims to take place in matter, but since matter is a myth and all is Spirit and spiritual substance, what becomes of disease? There can be no disease, for in truth it has no matter in which to exist.

The realization which replaces matter, the fictitious belief concerning substance, with Spirit, the only true substance, will immediately heal disease, whether it be chronic, organic, or functional. We can rejoice in the discovery that our true substance is Spirit, and thus be more ready to give up the mythological fable of the centuries which binds men to material beliefs and thus limits them in all directions. We have learned through Christian Science, or the Science of Christ, what true substance really is, and it rests with each to demonstrate it up to his highest understanding.

Robert Ellis Key