Scientific Theism MARY BAKER EDDY          In the May number of our Journal, there appeared a review of, and some extracts from, "Scientific Theism," by Phare Pleigh.          Now, Phare Pleigh evidently means more than "hands off." A live lexicographer, given to the Anglo-Saxon tongue, might add to the above definition the "laying on of hands," as well. Whatever his nom de plume means, an acquaintance with the author justifies one in the conclusion that he is a power in criticism, a big protest against injustice; but, the best may be mistaken.          One of these extracts is the story of the Cheshire Cat, which "vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone." Was this a witty or a happy hit at idealism, to illustrate the author's following point? —          "When philosophy becomes fairy-land, in which neither laws of nature nor the laws of reason hold good, the attempt of phenomenism to conceive the universe as a phenomenon without a noumenon may succeed, but not before; for it is an attempt to conceive a grin without a cat."          True idealism is a divine Science, which combines in logical sequence, nature, reason, and revelation. An effect without a cause is inconceivable; neither philosophy nor reason attempts to find one; but all should conceive and understand that Spirit cannot become less than Spirit; hence that the universe of God is spiritual, — even the ideal world whose cause is the self-created Principle, with which its ideal or phenomenon must correspond in quality and quantity.          The fallacy of an unscientific statement is this: that matter and Spirit are one and eternal; or, that the phenomenon of Spirit is the antipode of Spirit, namely, matter. Nature declares, throughout the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, that the specific nature of all things is unchanged, and that nature is constituted of and by Spirit.          Sensuous and material realistic views presuppose that nature is matter, and that Deity is a finite person containing infinite Mind; and that these opposites, in suppositional unity and personality, produce matter, — a third quality unlike God. Again, that matter is both cause and effect, but that the effect is antagonistic to its cause; that death is at war with Life, evil with good, — and man a rebel against his Maker. This is neither Science nor theism. According to Holy Writ, it is a kingdom divided against itself, that shall be brought to desolation.          The nature of God must change in order to become matter, or to become both finite and infinite; and matter must disappear, for Spirit to appear. To the material sense, everything is matter; but spiritualize human thought, and our convictions change: for spiritual sense takes in new views, in which nature becomes Spirit; and Spirit is God, and God is good. Science unfolds the fact that Deity was forever Mind, Spirit; that matter never produced Mind, and vice versa.          The visible universe declares the invisible only by reversion, as error declares Truth. The testimony of material sense in relation to existence is false; for matter can neither see, hear, nor feel, and mortal mind must change all its conceptions of life, substance, and intelligence, before it can reach the immortality of Mind and its ideas. It is erroneous to accept the evidence of the material senses whence to reason out God, when it is conceded that the five personal senses can take no cognizance of Spirit or of its phenomena. False realistic views sap the Science of Principle and idea; they make Deity unreal and inconceivable, either as mind or matter; but Truth comes to the rescue of reason and immortality, and unfolds the real nature of God and the universe to the spiritual sense, which beareth witness of things spiritual, and not material.          To begin with, the notion of Spirit as cause and end, with matter as its effect, is more ridiculous than the "grin without a cat;" for a grin expresses the nature of a cat, and this nature may linger in memory: but matter does not express the nature of Spirit, and matter's graven grins are neither eliminated nor retained by Spirit. What can illustrate Dr. —— 's views better than Pat's echo, when he said "How do you do?" and echo answered, "Pretty well, I thank you!"          Dr. —— says: "The recognition of teleology in nature is necessarily the recognition of purely spiritual personality in God."          According to lexicography, teleology is the science of the final cause of things; and divine Science (and all Science is divine) neither reveals God in matter, cause in effect, nor teaches that nature and her laws are the material universe, or that the personality of infinite Spirit is finite or material. Jesus said, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." Now, what saith the Scripture? "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."   "Scientific Theism" by Mary Baker Eddy Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 216 - 219

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