IN Christian Science we learn that a condition of thought which seems to separate man from his Maker is indigenous to the material concept of existence and handicaps one at every turn. It makes him subservient to family traditions and associations, to inherited tendencies, to various physical weaknesses, to insufficient wealth or to undesirable abundance, to race, age, history. Where there is comparative freedom from these limitations, the individual may seem to possess unusual development along certain lines,—intellectual brilliancy, ability to accumulate wealth, inventive genius, or distinction in lines of art; but where he is notably bound by these limitations, we find sequent stupidity, sin, disease, and poverty.
Christian Science has come, as its greatest demonstrator proclaimed, to set the captive free, to break every yoke. In defiance of the material law which mankind has imposed upon the race, the Master broke these limitations for all who were willing to be released from their bondage. Nevertheless, it is impossible to leap out of these conditions at a bound; we must advance by progressive steps. The first step, however, is now possible, and the next step can always be taken in its turn without hindrance or delay.
When called upon to solve a problem in arithmetic, the mathematician will tell you first to state your proposition correctly, and then find the solution for it by mathematical rules. Likewise in spiritual healing, or the right adjustment of any situation by the right adjustment of thought, the first step is to gain a correct estimate of the case, to diagnose the situation. To be able to do this, to uncover the mental ailment which estranges one from his birthright of dominion, may often require great courage, courage that is the result of the discipline which holds one up to a high standard of right thinking. It requires not only the scientific and metaphysical understanding which can discern the difficulty, but the humility which can separate it utterly from the personality concerned, and consider only the necessity of replacing the false with the true. Such humility succeeds in casting out of one's own eye the beam of self-consideration, which manifests itself as timidity, self-exaltation, or depreciation. It is the attainment of this humility, this release from the habit of considering a question from the standpoint either of myself or of thyself, and its study from a purely impersonal basis, which constitutes the healing demanded by the Master when he said, "Physician, heal thyself."
