In the Preface to the textbook of Christian Science. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p vii), we read: "The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling away. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-stone to faith." So the world at large is beginning to realize more and more that the truth or foundation of living is to be found in the Bible. It has always been there, and to-day thousands are grateful that with the textbook of Christian Science they are beginning to read the Bible with interest and understanding and are able to discern its spiritual import. Step by step with this knowledge of Truth we begin to free ourselves from the mesmerism of mortal mind and so-called material things. It is necessary to know the Science of being in order to solve the problems which confront us daily; and as we gain this understanding we have learned to differentiate between believing and knowing. It is not merely believing that counts but knowing the truth that frees us from evil, inharmony, and the ills of the flesh.
In Proverbs we are told, "With all thy getting get understanding." Through the clear understanding of the truth of being we glean that there are no material beliefs to wrestle with and no material man to heal or regenerate; consequently there are no material needs to meet, for there is no matter. Infinite Mind has provided for and given man all there is, and as we seek the one Mind this truth becomes apparent to us and we leave the wilderness of warring beliefs as did the children of Israel and occupy "a land that floweth with milk and honey." There is nothing outside the realm of infinite Mind, no other plane of existence, and nothing opposite or opposed to Mind, since God fills all space and there is no place where He is not. The time is at hand when we must reject all that is unlike God good, and think more of the spiritual, for Spirit is God and God is All. The need at present is to realize and accept the truth that man is spiritual and perfect now, and all there is belongs to him now, and it is not matter or material things but substance, the essence of Spirit.
Knowing every problem to be mental, we find it necessary to heal the thinking in every instance; so the realization of the divine presence and power brings about true healing. The supposititious mortal consciousness is false and without intelligence or power to handle or reverse right understanding of the facts of being, which always heals. When we make this truth ours by expressing it in our daily living it is proof that we no longer accept as real the suggestions or illusions of the physical senses, since matter is unknown to Mind, God. We are constantly learning that what to us seems real and beautiful is but our improved understanding and acceptance in our progress from matter to Spirit, for what we accept with the physical senses is but the counterfeit, and not the counterpart of God's creating.
