The Principle of Christian Science is eternal and unchanging; its truths are eternal facts which can never vary from their inherent perfection. The application of this fact to human lives and conditions is according to immutable law, and the salvation and healing which it brings can only come in obedience to this law. What is called a human consciousness is made up of finite and ofttimes erroneous beliefs. When a spiritual idea appears, it begins to renew, regenerate, and redeem the false human sense, and salvation is begun; the individual has started on his journey to the Father's house. He has become what we call a Christian Scientist, and progress is made only as he gains and retains the divine ideas. He has begun his journey, as Mrs. Eddy puts it, "from sense to Soul" (Science and Health, p. 48). As they become established in consciousness, erroneous beliefs disappear.
Each individual human consciousness is a different phase and condition of mortal thought. The ways and processes by which each comes out of itself are as different and varied as the individual. As the true idea of life and man appears, the false beliefs about them begin to recede in an orderly and logical manner. An erroneous belief must, however, recognize its own falsity before it is ready to disappear. There is no hard and fast rule for the order of this recognition; it varies with the individual. Because one person has followed one order or line in his recognition and redemption of false beliefs, is no reason why he should demand that every other person must follow that same order.
There is a tendency sometimes among Christian Scientists to criticize each other for what they may do and may not do in human affairs, and its indulgence becomes a very subtle form of evil. It may be often a matter of habit, or it may be carelessly and thoughtlessly indulged in, but nevertheless it is not the righteous judgment which Jesus urged upon his followers. Much criticism comes as a result of different ideals or standards. Mortal mind has no absolute standard in anything. The proof of its finiteness is its inability to maintain any oneness of idea. Absoluteness, or oneness, is the prerogative of divine Mind. All that obtains in the human mind is a divided and relative concept. The only test of values of any nature whatever is one thing compared with another; weight, measure, time, and money are all relative. There are as many standards of beauty, taste, form, even right and wrong, as there are individuals; the individual's ideal is a constantly changing quantity, and in order to be an improving one it must be continually approaching the one perfect idea.
