A RELIGION involving through demonstration a positive experience of the power of good, may be relied on; whereas a theoretical religion may be subject to constant change, and if changeable it has no basis—is without Principle, and therefore unreliable. The latter may afford a temporary sense of satisfaction to the believer in its doctrines, but it means inevitable stagnation.
A practical system of religion must be one whose teachings its followers understand. Without understanding there can be no progress toward the object which all Christians should ever keep in view, namely, the attainment of the Mind of Christ. The followers of such a religion should be constantly enriched with a consciousness of the power and availability of good, as well as with a lively interest in the salvation of mankind through the right understanding of the atonement of Christ. This consciousness is an impulsion which fully saves, and which reconciles men to God by healing both sickness and sin.
Experience resulting from a demonstrable knowledge of true being is immeasurably more valuable than unnumbered theories which are devoid of demonstrable truth. While Christian Science is a system based upon truth, it still remains only a theory to the one who claims to have accepted it, until through his own experience he has proven its verity. With the first proof there is put into immediate action a mighty transforming influence, which begins to unfold to the one receptive to it the uplifting and everlasting fact that man is the reflection of divine Mind. As this truth reveals its healing harmonies to him, he feels as though a discordant thought could never occur to him again. He must see, however, that the great verities of Christian Science must be proven by him before they have been made his own, and that the experience gained through the overcoming of false beliefs constitutes his growth and is a joyous process.
