The insistence of Christian Science upon the necessity of giving up our material concepts of God and man has its warrant in the Scriptures, a fact which carries weight with many even before they see scientifically the reason for leaving the imperfect in order to gain the perfect. In the prophecy of Isaiah we find the statement, "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create." If to this we link Mrs. Eddy's statement concerning man, — that he is "the compound idea of God, including all right ideas . . . that which has not a single quality underived from Deity" (Science and Health, p. 475), we shall begin to see why we may "rejoice forever" in knowing that which God creates. The spiritually scientific revelation of God which has come through Christian Science truly meets all human need, for at one stage of our growth God may be best understood as divine Mind, and at another as Life, while at another we may best understand God as Truth or Love. As we gain a clearer understanding of our textbook we see that these terms, like rays of light, blend as one in divine Principle, and in the measure that Deity is thus understood the old concepts of God, and man disappear, and with them the varied manifestations of error, known to mortals as sin, disease, and death.
Referring to our work in Science, which awakens the consciousness of God's perfect creation, a student writes: "I have thought that if we were always obedient to the teaching, 'The former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind,' we would not so often bring up past errors, our own and those of others, and we would be much nearer the realization of 'the new heavens and the new earth.' To recall error seems very much like keeping a bad negative and printing pictures from it; then wishing the pictures could be done away with, when the remedy would be found in destroying the negative with the wrong impression."
In spite of the mortal tendency to keep and use the mental "negative" which gives a false and distorted view of God and man, Christian Science is doing wonders in revealing God and that which He creates, — that which brings joy and gladness because it manifests only the nature and qualities of God, good. As students, we may forget that we live in a very progressive age, a time when a rapid change is taking place in our method of doing things, which of course implies a corresponding change in thinking about things. How great this change really is, we perhaps do not appreciate, but the all-important consideration is, whether the change in our views is in harmony with the law of progress, whether our thinking and our doing bring joy and gladness to ourselves and others, thus witnessing to the heavens and the earth of God's creating.
