St. Paul's admonition to put off the old man and put on the new, is realized and exemplified to a marked degree by those who come into Christian Science from a worldly or godless life. The man who begins to experience a sense of mental or bodily suffering arising from worldly or sinful conditions, habits, appetites, and beliefs, but who is under the mesmeric belief that there is still pleasure or profit to be obtained in the indulgence of sinful appetites, the pursuit of material pleasures, will sooner or later come to the realization that there is no true pleasure in such a life; for it often brings with it sorrow and disgrace, loss of position, money, and friends, and the repentant man, after repeated trials and failures to shake off the bad habits, turns as a last resort to God.
Perhaps some good friend who has been waiting for "God's opportunity" speaks to him of Christian Science, and as it offers a hope of release from his bondage, he begins to take treatment and to read "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. A conflict arises at once in his thought. Worldly associations, thoughts, and habits have made him a scoffer, or at least a doubter of religious truth. In many cases he recalls professed Christians who were companions with him in transactions which would not bear analysis, and whose lives were not in accord with the teachings of the Master. He recalls the quarrels and disputes which exist in many churches, and he hears preachers and members of churches maligning those who do not believe as they do. He sees pomp, display, and ceremony crowding out the simple teaching and practise on which Jesus founded his church and of which he said, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." In every-day life he sees church-members struggling to get money, place, power, and social position, and he can but think of the craftiness, dishonesty, and trickery which he has so often seen displayed in business and political life. Furthermore, he recalls numbers of good men and women who in the business world have been the prey of the unscrupulous and designing, and who in many cases were wrongfully deprived of their property, and he reasons that their goodness and simplicity made them easy victims to their dishonest neighbor.
All these things pass in review, they all seem real to him, and he questions if evil is not more powerful than good. Arguments present themselves against dependence on spiritual means for relief; but the voice of Truth, speaking to his awakened sense, urges him to try Christian Science. Again, mortal belief says, "How can I overcome these evil tendencies, habits, and appetites? I have tried again and again to break off this bondage, but to no avail." Perhaps he has been led to believe that these tendencies were fastened on him by a law of heredity or prenatal influence; and he asks, "How can I escape from the environment and association of years?" believing all the while that these associations are necessary to his business success.
