SOME persons when taking up the study of Christian Science with a desire to begin its demonstration, have a sense of perplexity as to what course they should pursue. This is often due to the mistaken impression that there is a secret in Christian Science which must be learned by the uninitiated in order to become a successful practitioner. While the healing of Christian Science is the direct result of prayer in its highest and most sacred sense, it is not at first easily comprehensible by one whose thought of prayer has not risen above personal appeals to a distant and changeable deity. This sense of mystery will vanish when it is learned that Christian Science is no more secret in its method than is mathematics. Each requires study and application for the mastery of its rules, but the way is open for all who are willing to learn. The only initiation required by Christian Science is the purification of thought and life. Beginning with the desire for righteousness and purity, and persevering in their accomplishment, there is nothing to hinder the success of even the dullest student.
Christian Science is the reversal of all materially educated thought, for its premise is the infinitude of divine Spirit, the one God, and its conclusion, the spiritual nature of all created things. Coming from opposite conditions of thought and training, the student begins his study in a state of ignorance. This is the beginning of the new birth, the emergence from material belief into spiritual understanding wherein mortals first begin to know God and man aright. They can bring nothing of material wisdom into this new world of Spirit, and they can take nothing out of it through the sophistries of human science. The clinging to theories which are the opposite of Christian Science teaching will not forward one in its understanding, for it is evident that the incorrectness of material beliefs must be seen to gain a scientific knowledge of spiritual truth. This spiritual kingdom, wherein man realizes harmonious being, cannot be taken by violence, nor by the intensity of desire to be where we have not climbed, or to know what we have not learned. Sincerity of purpose and the willingness to work and wait, will do more for the student than ages of sighing over difficulties or a lack of understanding.
The way to begin in Christian Science is with the first thought of Truth which appeals to the learner as reasonable and right, and its utilization in present experience. The whole trend of Christian practice is to spiritualize thought, to cultivate the spiritual sense and dispel the material. The first step towards the demonstration of Christianity, or Christian Science, is the effort to make practical even in the simplest degree the supremacy of good over evil, the spiritual over the animal, in human consciousness. The removal of a toothache on the basis of perfect God and perfect man is as scientific and Christian, in its degree, as the healing of a leper or a lunatic.
