THE theory and practice of Christian Science are, of course, inseparable. The theory includes an understanding of the nature of God as primal cause and of the continuing, uninterrupted relationship that exists between God and man. The practice is the effective application of this understanding to the needs of mankind.
It is impossible to apply what one does not understand. That is why Christian Scientists turn their thoughts to God, Spirit, with ever-increasing consistency, that they may acquaint themselves with the spiritual facts of being. Then they reason from the basis of these facts to the human situation, keeping in mind at all times the perfect control that God exercises over His creation. Through this spiritually scientific practice, human experience is brought into accord with Truth and Love to the end that error is disposed of in human thought, fear is removed, and the harmony of being is maintained or restored.
"The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing," writes Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health (p. 259), "includes a perfect Principle and idea,— perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration." This understanding holds to the fact that Soul, the creator and preserver of identity, includes spiritual man as its expression forever. By reason of the ever-operative and undeviating law of Soul every faculty of man's being exists at the standpoint of perfection. As human thought recognizes this fact and submits to it, a change for the better occurs in every phase of human experience.
