Christian Science Index for Matter with illustrations

'God is a Spirit' (or, more accurately translated, 'God is Spirit'), declares the Scripture (John iv. 24), 'and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.' If God is Spirit, and God is All, surely there can be no matter; for the divine All must be Spirit. The tendency of Christianity is to spiritualize thought and action. The demonstrations of Jesus annulled the claims of matter, and overruled laws material as emphatically as they annihilated sin.  
According to Christian Science, the first idolatrous claim of sin is, that matter exists; the second, that matter is substance; the third, that matter has intelligence; and the fourth, that matter, being so endowed, produces life and death. 

Hence my conscientious position, in the denial of matter, rests on the fact that matter usurps the authority of God, Spirit; and the nature and character of matter, the antipode of Spirit, include all that denies and defies Spirit, in quantity or quality. 
This subject can be enlarged. It can be shown, in detail, that evil does not obtain in Spirit, God; and that God, or good, is Spirit alone; whereas, evil does, according to belief, obtain in matter; and that evil is a false claim, — false to God, false to Truth and Life. Hence the claim of matter usurps the prerogative of God, saying, 'I am a creator. God made me, and I make man and the material universe.' 
Spirit is the only creator, and man, including the universe, is His spiritual concept. By matter is commonly meant mind, — not the highest Mind, but a false form of mind. This so-called mind and matter cannot be separated in origin and action. 

What is this mind? It is not the Mind of Spirit; for spiritualization of thought destroys all sense of matter as substance, Life, or intelligence, and enthrones God in the eternal qualities of His being. 
This lower, misnamed mind is a false claim, a suppositional mind, which I prefer to call mortal mind. True Mind is immortal. This mortal mind declares itself material, in sin, sickness, and death, virtually saying, 'I am the opposite of Spirit, of holiness, harmony, and Life.' 
To this declaration Christian Science responds, even as did our Master: 'You were a murderer from the beginning. The truth abode not in you. You are a liar, and the father of it.' Here it appears that a liar was in the neuter gender, — neither masculine nor feminine. Hence it was not man (the image of God) who lied, but the false claim to personality, which I call mortal mind; a claim which Christian Science uncovers, in order to demonstrate the falsity of the claim. 

There are lesser arguments which prove matter to be identical with mortal mind, and this mind a lie. The physical senses (matter really having no sense) give the only pretended testimony there can be as to the existence of a substance called matter. Now these senses, being material, can only testify from their own evidence, and concerning themselves; yet we have it on divine authority: 'If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.' (John v. 31.) 
In other words:  matter testifies of itself, 'I am matter;' but unless matter is mind, it cannot talk or testify; and if it is mind, it is certainly not the Mind of Christ, not the Mind that is identical with Truth. Brain, thus assuming to testify, is only matter within the skull, and is believed to be mind only through error and delusion. Examine that form of matter called brains, and you find no mind therein. Hence the logical sequence, that there is in reality neither matter nor mortal mind, but that the self-testimony of the physical senses is false. 

Examine these witnesses for error, or falsity, and observe the foundations of their testimony, and you will find them divided in evidence, mocking the Scripture (Matthew xviii. 16), 'In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.' 

Sight. Mortal mind declares that matter sees through the organizations of matter, or that mind sees by means of matter. Disorganize the so-called material structure, and then mortal mind says, 'I cannot see;' and declares that mater is the master of mind, and that non-intelligence governs. Mortal mind admits that it sees only material images, pictured on the eye's retina. 
What then is the line of the syllogism? It must be this: That matter is not seen; that mortal mind cannot see without matter; and therefore that the whole function of material sight is an illusion, a lie. 
Here comes in the summary of the whole matter, where with we started:  that God is All, and God is Spirit; therefore there is nothing but Spirit; and consequently there is no matter. 

Touch. Take another train of reasoning. Mortal mind says that matter cannot feel matter; yet put your finger on a burning coal, and the nerves, material nerves, do feel matter. 
Again I ask: What evidence does mortal mind afford that matter is substantial, is hot or cold? Take away mortal mind, and matter could not feel what it calls substance. Take away matter, and mortal mind could not recognize its own so-called substance, and this so-called mind would have no identity. Nothing would remain to be seen or felt. 
What is substance? What is the reality of God and the universe? Immortal Mind is the real substance, — Spirit, Life, Truth, and Love. 

Taste. Mortal mind says, 'I taste; and this is sweet, this is sour.' Let mortal mind change, and say that sour is sweet, and so it would be. If every mortal mind believed sweet to be sour, it would be so; for the qualities of matter are but qualities of mortal mind. Change the mind, and the quality changes. Destroy the belief, and the quality disappears. 
The so-called material senses are found, upon examination, to be mortally mental, instead of material. Reduced to its proper denomination, matter is mortal mind; yet, strictly speaking, there is no mortal mind, for Mind is immortal, and is not matter, but Spirit. 

Force. What is gravitation? Mortal mind says gravitation is a material power, or force. I ask, Which was first, matter or power? That which was first was God, immortal Mind, the Parent of all. But God is Truth, and the forces of Truth are moral and spiritual, not physical. They are not the merciless forces of matter. What then are the so-called forces of matter? They are the phenomena of mortal mind, and matter and mortal mind are one; and this one is a misstatement of Mind, God. 
A molecule, as matter, is not formed by Spirit; for Spirit is spiritual consciousness alone. Hence this spiritual consciousness can form nothing unlike itself, Spirit, and Spirit is the only creator. The material atom is an outlined falsity of consciousness, which can gather additional evidence of consciousness and life only as it adds lie to lie. 

This process it names material attraction, and endows with the double capacity of creator and creation. From the beginning this lie was the false witness against the fact that Spirit is All, beside which there is no other existence. The use of a lie is that it unwittingly confirms Truth, when handled by Christian Science, which reverses false testimony and gains a knowledge of God from opposite facts, or phenomena. 
This whole subject is met and solved by Christian Science according to Scripture. Thus we see that Spirit is Truth and eternal reality; that matter is the opposite of Spirit, — referred to in the New Testament as the flesh at war with Spirit; hence, that matter is erroneous, transitory, unreal. 
A further proof of this is the demonstration, according to Christian Science, that by the reduction and the rejection of the claims of matter (instead of acquiescence therein) man is improved physically, mentally, morally, spiritually. 
To deny the existence or reality of matter, and yet admit the reality of moral evil, sin, or to say that the divine Mind is conscious of evil, yet is not conscious of matter, is erroneous. This error stultifies the logic of divine Science, and must interfere with its practical demonstration.Show all