In all science, law and its demonstration are never divorced. In this inheres its distinction, its usefulness, and its irresistible strength. However much talked about, an ideal or a principle which is assertedly believed in but which is not lived, speedily falls into desuetude and disrespect. This has been the one abiding discredit of Christian history, that men have championed a godliness which they have not exhibited, and it was this shortcoming in the leaders of the chosen people of God which elicited from the Master that stinging rebuke, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation."
Preaching and healing are indissolubly associated in Christian Science, as they were in the ministry of Christ Jesus and in his injunctions to his disciples. We can conceive that all sickness might be immediately cured by one who had a sufficiently clear realization of Truth, even as the Master seemed to emit an all-healing radiance; nevertheless, it is manifest that in the uncovering of error (together with its correction through Scripture exposition), which enters into the present practice of Christian Science, we come upon a third factor that must certainly be reckoned with, namely, the patient's mental attitude, his need of instruction. The cause of disease, all abnormality, being mental, it is logically clear that there can be no permanent healing apart from that transformation of thought which means education, and this fact has tremendously to do with the determination of what constitutes an adequate equipment for the demands laid upon us as Christian Scientists.
As all know, a teacher must understand his subject, be in command of the principles and rules with which he has to do. More than this, he must apprehend the nature of the error to be removed. Respecting this, Mrs. Eddy has said that "a knowledge of error and of its operations must precede that understanding of Truth which destroys error" (Science and Health, p. 252). No small part of the error thus to be known is the mentality of the patient, the form and covering under which falsity has succeeded in deceiving him, his point of view, his habits of thought and the one best way of correcting them. In a word, the effective Scientist must be a pedagogue, have the ability and the technique first to solve the patient, as a necessary preliminary to the solution of his problem.
