JESUS said, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." In the textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, are these words (Pref., p. vii): "Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-stone to faith. The only guarantee of obedience is a right apprehension of Him whom to know aright is Life eternal."
To the average beginner in the study of Christian Science there is perhaps no greater surprise than to learn that what he knows about God has a vital bearing on all of his everyday affairs. The writer more than once asked herself how could what we know or believe about God have anything to do with our health, our happiness, our success in business, or our relations to our fellow men? A little self-examination as to what we really have believed about God and man's relation to Him reveals how very much there is to learn about God before we can understand the abject poverty of the uninstructed human mind, which ignorantly worships it knows not what.
Most beginners in the study of Christian Science have either been healed by it or have known some one who has experienced this blessing, and so the study is taken up with a keen desire to know God in such a way that He may be to the student what He is to one's neighbors or associates,—"a very present help in trouble." As this new and true concept dawns upon him, he is filled with a longing to put into practice what he has learned, with the hope that he may be able to obey our Master's command to heal the sick.
