Christian Science, being the Science of harmony, must of necessity relate to every phase of life wherein man seeks the achievement of perfection. Harmony furthers progress, just as a smooth rail facilitates travel. While it is true that a majority of people become interested in Christian Science because of the physical emancipation it brings, it is also true that many come to its study because of the freedom from bondage in circumstance and in environment which it offers. Perhaps a lack of health and physical strength is of all things the most serious handicap to endeavor, yet there is another kind of defeat of achievement known as "being out of place." There are those who are not in their natural orbit of mental capacity. There are those who are failures in the sphere in which they are placed, who could have won honor and success in a vocation adapted to their talents. Some have their calling close in upon them by what is called fate; some have the ideals of parents thrust upon them, and some choose their own calling. It is to the crushed life as well as to the depleted body that the Science which holds out emancipation, appeals. We want the truth, which to know, shall make us free,—free from every wrong condition. We want the Science of emancipation. Man thirsts for liberty. A religion which offers only endurance of sickness and bondage does not go far enough, for it is written "the truth shall make you free."
The great difference between Christian Science and other forms of faith lies in that Christian Science offers the "ounce of prevention" as regards both disease and slavery. It not only frees the slave, but it keeps him free through his understanding of the cause of his bondage.
We learn that as a man thinketh so is he. We learn that wrong thinking produces all wrong living, wrong physical conditions, and that it also places one in a wrong environment. When this is perceived, procedure becomes intelligible, and we are enabled to take the first step in all healing,—diagnosis. We must first see wherein we violate law, before we can cease sinning. Ignorance is no protection in civil law, neither is it a protection in spiritual law. Beginning with the recognition that all bondage is the outward effect of an inner mental causation, self-help is at hand. Emancipation of thought (freedom earned through right-thinking) is the one process in Christian Science.
