The Mystery of Matter
Nona L. Brooks
Mysteries,
1924.
Divine Science Federation
Int’l
3rd Printing, 1977.
Copyright Material
Reprinted by Permission
What is
matter? For ages men have asked this
question. Philosophers and scientists
have been making earnest endeavors to
answer the question satisfactorily, to
explain away the mystery of that which we
have called matter. There is always a
mystery associated with what we do not
understand--hence, the mystery of matter.
It has been a phenomenon that we have not
understood. Many scientists and
philosophers of all schools and of all
times have touched on the truth of
matter, but we as Divine Scientists
believe that there is one great step
which must be taken before a satisfactory
answer can be given by any of the
thinkers of the world. They must see God
in action as manifestation.
We are
moving toward the concept of oneness.
This is a most hopeful sign. The belief
of dualism is passing; monism is taking
its place. The concept of two powers and
two substances--Spirit and matter, one
having control over the other, is
evolving into a greater vision which is
revealing a Universe of One Substance.
Divine Scientists translate the
philosophy of monism into terms of
religion; our basis is Omnipresence. We
have taken the one great step; instead of
seeing the world as a multiplicity of
unrelated phenomena, we are seeing these
phenomena in terms of the whole.
The
dualistic conception separated the effect
from its cause, the manifestation from
its source, creation from the Creator;
hence there arose a belief in two powers,
Spirit and matter, good and evil, life
and death, sickness and health. Naturally
that which was separate from the
perfection of Spirit was thought of as
subject to all kinds of ills. Now we see
no separation in any phase of expression.
We believe in the continuity of life, and
we know that nothing is ever lost.
Although the One Substance is manifested
in myriad forms, the fundamental remains
unchanged. Natural science tells us also
that there is nothing lost in this
universe of form, and that we are seeing
the universal ether, the one substance,
in millions of forms. Is it true, then,
that the mysteries of life are only
contradictions in our thinking?
What is
called matter, Divine Science looks upon
as Substance, or Spirit visible. We shall
in these chapters use the word form
instead of matter, not because there is
any objection to calling the Substance
involved in form, matter, but because
there has always been connected with the
term, matter, a conception that it was
something susceptible to disease, decay,
and death.
At the
outset let us declare the truth of the
Universe; it is God and God in action, as
the Whole. The universe of form and force
is creation. Form and force are God in
action, the One Spirit visible. There is
no process of separation evident in all
the diversity of universal expression to
the one who sees form as Divine Idea
being expressed. The God-Method of
thinking infinitude into form, we call
the law of expression. To us law is God
in action. God is ever expressing His
Ideas in an infinite variety of
manifestations, for is not God infinite
in potentiality?
Omnipresence
is our foundation; we shall be building
from it always. It is the only one upon
which to base our thinking. If we are
true to our Basis, contradictions will
fade out of our thought process, and the
old beliefs will begin to scatter like
clouds before the sun after a summer
rain. To us who use the word divine in
relation to the science of life, the
universe of form is God in action,
Substance in manifestation, Infinite
Intelligence in expression. The new
heaven and the new earth are one;
creation is the outspoken word of God. Is
it true that a new universe is revealed
to him who sees God in action in all
manifestations?
Through the
new understanding that form is not an
outline confining a solid entity, but
according to natural science a grouping
of self-determining electrons, the
natural scientist is traveling far from
the traditional concept of an inanimate
universe. There is nothing that is not
living; all is life and activity in the
natural scientist’s concept of the
universe. In the Divine Scientist’s
there is nothing which is not perfect by
nature, since all form is God in action,
for is not Life, God in action, the
universal power? All activity is by law
in both phases of science, natural and
divine. There is no chance. Natural
science calls this the law of cause and
effect; Divine Science calls it God in
action.
It is vital
that you and I get the truth of form
firmly fixed in our thought. A new
universe is being revealed by natural
science as a unity of Being, expressing
by a unity of law. Divine Science is
revealing a Universe that is God and God
in action--a Universe in which there is
nothing but God--a Universe which is God
and God-Idea in expression. Form cannot
by this concept be susceptible to
conditions of inharmony. All of us who
have thought of matter or form as opposed
to and unlike Spirit have been worshiping
other gods besides the One. As a result
of misconception as to the nature of form
we have thought of our flesh as liable to
many ills--sickness, poverty, sin, death,
loneliness. We have, of course, conceived
a partial God; a great power, it is true,
but one limited by another power which
men have called evil. The concept of
separation is responsible for the
misconception, evil, in the thought of
men.
There are
those who say in regard to this universe
of form that all visibility is unreal; in
fact, that it does not exist. This we do
not accept. We see the visible as Mind in
action, and we see that like its Source,
the visible is perfect by nature. We
declare that right thinking leads to
realization of perfection, and that the
truth of life is revealed to the man with
the single eye. If thine eye be single,
if it sees only the One Presence and One
Power at work in the universe of form,
thy body shall be full of health; thy
thought shall be filled with light.
Since God is
omnipresent and includes all as well as
being the Creator of all, creation is by
its very nature, whole and good. God sees
only wholeness; he is infinitely
conscious of His creation, for is God any
less a creator than He was in the days
when the wise man of old said of Him,
"And God saw everything that he had made,
and behold, it was very good"? In the
Infinite there is no past or future;
there is only the living present--the
Now. There is no place for a false
creation in a universe of form that is
Infinite Mind in action; there is no
false world except in man’s
misconception. Let us clear out our
subconscious; a mental house-cleaning is
a valuable exercise in this day and age
of the New Revelation.
We are
perfect and complete in God; all form is
Substance in action. God is expressing as
living form; these living forms, then,
are Divine Ideas in manifestation. Do you
see that all life is one? When we are
true to Omnipresence, we see that there
is no place, not a dot on earth or in the
heavens, the size of a pin point, where
God is not. Substance--God--is
everywhere; hence, activity, Substance
expressing as form, is the universe of
form and force. Where the Spirit is, and
it is in all places at all times, there
is freedom, love, health, power, truth,
life, joy.
We no longer
dwell on imperfection; we do not think of
form as something played upon or molded
by individual mind; we know form as
Infinite Substance in activity. We agree
with the natural scientist in his
conception of form or matter as a mode of
intelligent motion. We see this motion as
God Activity. The vibration of the
natural scientist is the Divine Activity
of the Divine Scientist. It is
God’s method of expression.
There are
various beliefs about the relation of
Mind to its manifestation. Some people
say that if we keep our thinking true the
body will respond. There is much danger
attendant upon this conception--the one
of giving too much power to what men call
the human mind. Those who believe that
everything depends upon their mental
power, naturally become too strenuous in
their efforts to bring about the desired
conditions, and employ formulation and
suggestion. The method is wrong; it is
not based upon principle, but on
opinions. We go through life contending
with two powers. Mind and body become
separated in our thinking, and there
follows a struggle which emphasizes the
power of the mentality. We think in terms
of a material force and of a spiritual
power, and we are placing our faith in
both. This kind of thinking gives rise to
a dualistic conception, and to a practice
of mental suggestion which is often
harmful. There are times when we seem to
experience an absence of God in our
lives, when we allow ourselves to form
thought habits of mental and
autosuggestion. Divine Science teaches
that the body, a God-Expression, is
perfect by the nature of its Source. We
teach the eternal perfection of all
manifestation or form. This assertion of
the eternal perfection of form we base
upon the fact of the perfection of God,
the Father. Since form is God’s
creation, it is not affected by human
conception about it. The body, as
God’s manifestation, can be neither
repaired nor impaired by human
effort.
The moment
we take our stand in Omnipresence, the
One Universal Power and Presence of
perfection, we see everything in terms of
its nature; there is only One Substance
to him who sees. He is seeing God in
action; God is ever thinking himself
forth as the universe of form according
to a pattern in Divine Mind. Perfect Idea
is resting eternally in God-Mind, and is
also expressing as visibility. It
manifests as perfect form. The
Aristotelian philosophy teaches that the
universe is a thought in God-Mind--God,
The Thinker--His Thought, The Universe!
Let us be well content in the assurance
that all form is a thought of God, for He
that keepeth the world as Idea in
Mind-Universal is living us now; there is
no instant of separation. Substance is
Spirit; Spirit in action is Creation;
matter or form is Substance or Spirit in
action.
The analogy
between what we call natural and what we
call Divine Science is heartening.
Natural science speaks in terms of
varying rates of vibration; Divine
Science accounts for the vibration by
seeing it as God-Activity. God is
expressing, as the tiniest particle and
the mightiest solar system; hence we are
conceiving the immediacy of God as well
as the universality. We see God as the
Infinite Being who is including men and
all other forms of manifestation in His
love. The old human conception of
separation and limitation is truly giving
place to the consciousness of the
universality of God in the hearts of
men.
Whereas, the
word matter has implied inactivity and
inertness; in the newer modes of thought
it implies continuous activity; and to
the Divine Scientist it is form, God in
manifestation. The rock by the wayside
was dead to the thinker of old, but man
was alive. The loveliest flower that
grows was thought of as insensitive, and
unconscious of its surroundings, while
the animal was supposed to be capable of
feeling. Everything which did not have
the sense organs with which men and
animals are equipped was thought to be
lacking in the power of consciousness.
The thought habit of separating differing
expressions in the world grew in
proportions until it proclaimed dead
matter and living substance. Today when
we say, I, we include the whole. All life
is one. Body is one with Spirit; it is
whole, beautiful, and wonderful in its
mechanism. There is truly one body in
Christ. Let us glory in the universe of
form which God is creating, and know that
he who loses his limited conception of
matter or form for truth’s sake,
shall find all life--forms one. He shall
see God in action.
Why do we
speak of matter? Why not think and speak
only of God? It is through our
understanding of form that there comes
release from bondage--the bondage of
sickness and sin. When we see that form
is perfect activity, that it is the
God-Mind in manifestation, we are free
from world opinions about ourselves and
about all other forms of God-Expression.
You see, I am sure, why the mystery of
matter has persisted so long. It had its
inception in a dualistic conception of
the universe. We have emphasized the
outer and minimized the inner values for
so long that the old mysteries have quite
a hold on our thought today.
The poet
says that, if we understand the flower in
the crannied wall, we should understand
God and all things. As we come into an
understanding of the simplest
expressions, the Universe is revealed as
one. We are beginning to see truly--to
see God in action. In a universe in which
we can interpret form as Spirit made
manifest or visible, a universe wholly
one, there are not two powers or two
substances; but there is Substance and
motion. There is only God and God in
action. That which we think of as evil is
only the result of our imperfect concept;
thought images become very real to us.
Let us be careful which kind of form.
What I believe I shall see. Just so long
as we hold a belief in the imperfection
of form, we shall see imperfection
everywhere. Let us endeavor to raise our
thinking out of the current of personal
opinions ever flowing around us. He that
sitteth in the heavens, in the harmony of
the realization of oneness, laughs at
appearances. He sees them in their true
perspective.
Divine
Science teaches eternal progression;
there is no final revelation. The Spirit
of Truth is our guide. Natural science
begins at the visible and works toward
the invisible, the cause; Divine Science
begins with the invisible and works from
Cause to effect, but it sees these as
one. Both groups see the unity of the
Universe of form and force. The natural
scientist is telling us that the nature
of matter is continuous activity; the
Divine Scientist says that this activity
is God in action. There is no mystery
about matter to us; God is Creator and
Creation. Just as the light of far away
stars reaches us after centuries of
traveling through infinitude, unchanged
in its constituent elements, so today the
light of the truth of Being that has
shone from the universe of form and force
through the ages, uncomprehended by the
many, seems to be growing brighter,
because we are beginning to see with the
eye of Spirit. The consciousness of
Omnipresence is the light of the world,
and the mystery of matter is solved.
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Mysteries
Table of
Contents
(Formerly at
Northwoods Divine Science Resource
Center)
