THERE are very few who realize that Christian Science demands perfect exactness of statement, and what is more, scientific thought-processes, which are always in harmony with the requirements of divine Principle. Too long has religion been coupled with mere belief or blind faith. This has been admitted by many of the world's best thinkers, but strangely enough, even devout Christians have failed to see that the words and works of Christ Jesus furnish the only basis for Science which is worthy of the name.
It cannot be denied that sincere efforts have been made to discover a relation between material law and order, and spiritual law, which deals with immortal issues, but no encouragement for such attempts is to be found in the Scriptures, which declare that Spirit and the flesh (or materiality) are opposites, "so that ye cannot do the things that ye would," to quote St. Paul. Christian Science makes no compromise with mortal belief, which would fain rear a spiritual structure upon a material foundation, as if matter could ever be the basis of divine law and order; it holds fast to the premise of man as a spiritual being, governed by spiritual law, and from this basis it finds a satisfactory explanation of the miracles of Christ Jesus and his students.
Here be it said that at no point is it possible to ignore the absolute divine Principle upon which all the teachings of Christian Science are based, for otherwise no right conclusion could ever be reached. Students of what is called natural science are led to believe that correct conclusions are reached only through acquaintance with material phenomena, and they are agreed that observations of this nature must be made with the utmost accuracy. It is, however, not at all likely that they would concede the same with respect to Spiritual Science; indeed the tendency has been to deny that there is or can be a science of Spirit, but Mrs. Eddy was willing that her teaching should stand or fall upon the fact of such a science. She maintained from the start that God, His law, and His spiritual creation could be known by man and that they must be spiritually discerned. On page 127 of Science and Health she says, "If God, the All-in-all, be the creator of the spiritual universe, including man, then everything entitled to a classification as truth, or Science, must be comprised in a knowledge or understanding of God;" and on page 112 we read, "As there is but one God, there can be but one divine Principle of all Science; and there must be fixed rules for the demonstration of this divine Principle."
