Opposites ANNIE M. KNOTT, CSD         It is very generally admitted by thinking people that Spirit and the flesh are opposites, and that they are exclusive the one of the other. Here it may be said that throughout the Scriptures the flesh represents what we are accustomed to speak of as matter, and this will explain Mrs. Eddy's insistence that good can never be predicated of matter. Did not Paul say in his epistle to the Romans, "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing"? We need not, therefore, wonder when he says, "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." He does not, however, leave us to the despair which might come to us with such a pronouncement, for he immediately adds, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you."          Those who come to Christian Science for healing soon feel the necessity for a deeper acquaintance with this infinite subject of Spirit and spiritual things. They also find that the fleshly mind, termed in Christian Science mortal mind, objects greatly to being ruled out by the declarations of divine Science, so it contends for the substantiality of matter, failing to see that by this contention it only rivets more firmly upon the victims of material belief the fetters of sin, disease, and death. Christian Science, however, leaves us in no doubt as to the fact that if we would realize and express the freedom which Christ Jesus offered to humanity it must be by knowing the truth, that is, the truth which declares the allness of Spirit and spiritual law and the nothingness of belief in matter and its supposed laws.          It goes without saying that the sick cannot be healed nor sinners reformed on any other basis than that of the allness of Spirit, God, and the understanding of spiritual law, and at this very point it becomes clear that inasmuch as Spirit and matter are opposites the spiritual method of healing practiced and taught by Christ Jesus is the opposite of any and all methods which are based upon the supposition that matter is real and substantial. A careful study of the wonderful works of Christ Jesus, commonly called miracles, shows plainly that they would have been impossible if matter had been real and substantial. A diseased condition of the human body argues for the existence of material law and its slow operation, whereas the many cases of instantaneous healing by the Master, as recorded in the gospels, show unquestionably that when the mistaken belief in matter and material law was swept aside by the understanding of Spirit and spiritual law on the part of Christ Jesus the disease was no longer in evidence. This is specially illustrated in the healing of the lepers, concerning which we read that on one occasion at least Jesus put forth his hand and touched the man who, according to material sense, was leprous, thus disregarding the asserted law of contagion and proving its nothingness (the nothingness of all material law, indeed), when the man's healing immediately resulted.          It is true that at this period the desired healing does not always immediately follow the declaration of Truth as in Jesus' own work, but innumerable instances of such healing go to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the spiritual law by which Jesus healed "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease" was discovered by Mrs. Eddy and is explained in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and all her other writings. On the plane of mortal belief nothing is perhaps more tenacious than the conviction that matter is real and substantial and that we cannot escape from its limitations, at least until we pass through the experience called death. This will be readily seen if we assume the case of an individual who, according to medical opinion, is seriously or even hopelessly ill. Someone recommends Christian Science at this point, and the patient and his relatives begin to weigh the question according to their religious and medical views. The situation, then, becomes a choice, on the plane of belief, between Spirit and matter, or between God and matter.          Apart from Christian Science most religious people would firmly believe that they could have God and matter, that is, a material body and material remedies being the basis of activity, God recognizing both and operating through both of these. The fact that the flesh and Spirit are opposites, as Christ Jesus taught and as Paul insisted, seems to be quite overlooked until Christian Science comes with its demand that the allness of Spirit be recognized and relied upon, not alone when healing is needed, but at all times. If Christian Scientists were asked if they have wholly risen above the flesh or matter, the answer would certainly be, No. It is nevertheless true that in large measure they discard the belief in matter when they accept on the basis of Principle the allness of God as Spirit, and the fact that man as God's likeness is necessarily spiritual, not material. The process of proving this at every point is to the human sense a somewhat slow one, but at every step of the way the most wonderful lessons are being learned while the perfect man and his spiritual possibilities are being sought after.          The important consideration for us, then, is the extent to which we have risen above materiality and realize and express spirituality, and the necessity for this was clearly stated by the Master when he said to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Paul says that "to be spiritually minded is life and peace." The Christian Scientist knows that spiritual-mindedness means health, strength, and harmony, and that it brings each day new and wonderful possibilities on the side of good. On page 33 of our textbook we read: "When the human element in him struggled with the divine, our great Teacher said: 'Not my will, but Thine, be done!' — that is, Let not the flesh, but the Spirit, be represented in me." Christian Science makes it clear that we can only follow Christ Jesus to the extent that our lives express this holy aspiration, and to the extent that Spirit is represented in and by us the struggle which results from belief in the reality and presence of opposites ceases and we are ruled not by matter or material law but by Spirit, God, alone.   "Opposites" by Annie M. Knott, CSD Christian Science Sentinel, November 2, 1918

 

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