THE beginner's first concept of the practical potentiality of Christian Science follows from his acceptance of the proposition that sin, sickness, and death are the results of fearful, sinful, and ignorant thinking. As a consequence, he begins to watch his thoughts, and to bring them into subjection to the Mind of Christ, as his reading of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, with its interpretation of the Bible, shows him how to do.
Human consciousness easily grasps this much. It recognizes that so long as the divine purpose is unobscured, and the student consecrates his effort to that purpose, his progress is sure and his mental purification certain. But he cannot continue in infant's clothes. Each advancing step is preparatory to a higher one, and demands constant clarification of thought in regard to what claims to constitute so-called mortal mind with its dream-existence, as well as to what divine Mind and its eternal realities include.
While matter is included in any premise of reasoning, progress is by way of improved belief only. To reach the understanding of divine Mind one must come into the understanding of the reflection of the one divine Mind; that is, he must actually think the thoughts which God gives. This is the same as saying that he must begin to understand infinite divine Love, manifesting itself in his sinless living.
