IN the face of world unrest and insecurity, this age is indeed blessed in having the complete explanation of the scientific method which Jesus used in his healing work, and concerning which he said: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth."
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, in her great textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," thus defines "Holy Ghost" on page 588: "Divine Science; the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love;" and many thousands of students are proving this definition to be true by the healing effect that Christian Science is having on their lives. Christian Scientists do not accept Mrs. Eddy's teachings blindly, but are putting them to the test in the Scriptural way indicated by Paul when he said, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." In humble and, possibly, trembling hope, the beginner assumes the truth of some statement from Science and Health, and then tests its practicability, somewhat in the same manner that a child learning to swim casts himself on the water, uncertain whether or not it will bear him up. When the student of Christian Science finds that the statement just quoted from the textbook actually stands the test of practical use, and that thereby he receives some definite good, perhaps in physical healing, relief from sorrow, or a lightening of despondency, he is thereby encouraged to pursue his study, proving each step, and thus gradually gaining the assurance that Science and Health and Mrs. Eddy's other writings, together with the Bible, really do present and elucidate the Science of being.
Once the student has reached the point of discerning that the demonstration of Christian Science means not only his individual rescue from the ills "that flesh is heir to," but the ultimate salvation of the whole world, he desires, with eagerness and consecration of purpose, to reach the divine heights of spiritual understanding whereby he will be best fitted to serve his fellow-men. What is the method, he asks himself, whereby I may attain the realization of Truth? The way was fully illustrated by Christ Jesus, the Way-shower, who said, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." It is obedience that enables us to translate affirmation into realization. The temptation may come to regard Christian Science as an intellectual study, merely something to be discussed and argued about; but if one is content to be only philosophically interested in it, one is not actively engaged in acquiring that demonstrable knowledge of the power of God that destroys evil.
The claims of evil are not really capable of any accomplishment. No claim of evil can affect the operation of the laws of Mind, deflect the love of our Father-Mother God, or paralyze omnipotence; but human thought and action, which are unloving and unscientific, cannot act as a channel for divine power. And to call one's self a student of Christian Science without earnestly endeavoring to bring "into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" is to aspire to the name of discipleship while at the same time clinging to so-called mortal mind or matter. It is just this indulgence of material sense which prevents one from "knowing the unreality of disease, sin, and death," as Mrs. Eddy says in "Unity of Good" (pp. 9, 10). Materiality cannot know or utilize the laws of Spirit.
Spiritual man neither expresses, nor experiences, nor desires error. He is always entertaining, obeying, and enjoying divine ideas, which are ever present and ever active. In the infinite round of eternal being no will is done, no will is known, no will exists, but that of Spirit. Obedience to the divine will sustains men. Jesus said, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me." To mortal belief, matter is fundamental and evil natural; but material sense has no divine credentials; and the business of every student of Christian Science is to reach, through obedience, that state of spiritualized consciousness which is above the belief in evil.
A mere mechanical repetition of the scientific statement that evil is unreal has no power to heal the slightest ill. Only the practice of atonement—the constant endeavor to live at-one with God—can enable one to prove the power and presence of divine Principle, and bring the realization of the unreality of evil. The infinity of Spirit necessarily implies the ever-presence of good; and the humble-minded and faithful can avail themselves to an ever increasing degree of the unchanging and mighty laws of God. As we progress in our study and application of Christian Science, our sense of the allness of God, of the boundlessness of spiritual good, will grow clearer and stronger. Though Truth can never alter in quality or quantity it must be universally, and individually, sought, learned, and used. Thus, to human sense it will increase in extent and influence, until the happy time shall come when the present harmony of man and the universe, under the supreme government of divine Love, is made plain, and is fully demonstrated.
Blessed are they who see, and yet who believe not!
Yea, blest are they who look on graves, and still
Believe none dead; who see proud tyrants ruling,
And yet believe not in the strength of evil;
Blessed are they who see the wandering poor,
And yet believe not that their God forsakes them;
Who see the blind worm creeping, yet believe not
That even that is left without a path.
