HUMANITY has ever been seeking a savior. From the earliest times it has made an effort to effect its release from bondage and limitation. Its struggle has been unceasing and, for the most part, disappointing. Its failure to gain the long-sought goal of peace and satisfaction is an irresistible proof that it has not sought aright. Considering the constant failures of the past,—yea, also of the present,—the outlook from a material standpoint is dark indeed. It is here that Christian Science comes to us with its blessed benedictions, dispels our darkness, and reveals unto us a ray of sure deliverance.
The dictionary defines alchemy as "the medieval chemical science whose great object was to discover the universal cure for disease and means of indefinitely prolonging life." This, alchemy hoped to accomplish by the use of the juices of plants. It still claims to be the basis of some modern material methods of healing, although these no longer confine their researches, but have gone far afield into the mineral and animal kingdoms. Could anything better illustrate why the world is still searching for the "universal cure"? Is it not evident that if we are to obtain different results, we must turn our gaze in a different direction, and search in another realm? We know that everything in the material realm claims to be in a constant state of flux or change. So long as we continue to look to matter,—which by its very nature is unstable, unsatisfying, and constantly changing,—we cannot attain to that abiding health, harmony, and peace which heretofore we have so diligently sought in vain. We cannot find the eternal by looking to that which is impermanent, the abiding by depending on that which is ever varying, or gain harmony through that which constantly manifests discord and inharmony.
Here Christian Science comes to our rescue, transforms our thinking "by the alchemy of Spirit," to use Mrs. Eddy's words in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 422), and eradicates from our experience everything that is unlike good. Christian Science begins at the beginning, by showing us the true nature of God, the one and only cause. Even the most primitive peoples have had some concept of a cause or creator. Looking about them and beholding material things, they were led to the inevitable conclusion that there must be some power that had brought everything into being. The nature of this power, it is true, has been the subject of the most grotesque theories and vague conjectures. If there is any one thing for which the students of Christian Science are increasingly grateful, it is the fact that through it they have learned the character of true causation; for every other religion, philosophy, or theory in the world believes in a cause which produces both good and evil.
