Unity of Good | Page 9

to break the cords of matter,
through a change in the mortal sense of things, then I discerned the last
Adam as a quickening Spirit, and understood the meaning of the
declaration of Holy Writ, "The first shall be last,"--the living Soul shall
be found a quickening Spirit; or, rather, shall reflect the Life of the
divine Arbiter.

There is no Matter
"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 matter 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