“Even as far back as the time of Descartes we find that he “rejected the atomic hypothesis, holding that there could be no vacuum in the universe, and making matter essentially synonymous with extension.” The most illustrious of our modern physicists, Lord Kelvin, considers ether as “an elastic solid filling all space.” If the huge cables that hold up the East River bridge in New York are composed of atoms, each revolving in its sphere as the planets and suns of the universe, and each atom in itself is a minute solar system comprising a central part, around which a thousand or many more particles revolve; then the questions arise: What is the great strength holding up that mighty structure? What is the power that holds those cables together? What is this apparently “solid substance” composing the bridge? Why do these electrons always hold their orderly positions? What is this invisible ether through which they fly with such inconceivable velocity?
To answer, we are thrown back upon the revelation of that great name, namely, the power of the great name – the will, the I will be what I will to be. The same question may be asked concerning all material substances, but there is no response from modern research but the echoing question – “What is it?”
If we take the Bible Revelation, namely, that God, in the beginning, created the heaven and the earth, and again that God created these things by a word, we then conclude that all is mind, spirit. We know that a “word” is the expression of a thought sent out by the will, endowed with the potentiality of the will. In the creation of the world this Word must have been endowed with the potentiality of the Spirit – the Will, “Yahveh.” The Word had the power in itself to make a world make itself; for, from scientific investigation, it has been shown that there is a general trend to the formative-processes in all nature.
For example, the tiny seed-germ in the earth has in it the power to gather to itself material to construct a body according to its kind, character, and quality, and this body, like all other bodies, has the power to hold its own structural integrity. The body of man, which is constantly undergoing a material change, still holds its form until the will fails, or is overcome by a stronger force, then death comes.
What is death? We say it is the absence of life; Yes. What is life? This has been the question of all the ages, and the answer has never been found. Why? Because there is no comparison. Life is, and there is nothing like it. In the Scriptures God said, “I am, and there is none like unto me”, and if God, the Soul of the universe is life, life is, and there is nothing like it; and since we can know the qualities of things only by comparison, and there is nothing with which to compare life, it is impossible to answer the question: What is life?
Tennyson realized this truth when he wrote these beautiful lines: “Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies; hold you here, root and all, in my hand, little flower – but if I could understand what you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know, what God and man is.””
Hiram Butler
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 