When I discovered the power of Spirit 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.