MERELY to state that Christian Science is founded upon so distinctive a basis that it is necessarily differentiated from all other philosophies and religions does not carry conviction. Similarly, to assert sweepingly that the divine Principle underlying it constitutes the one and only true God makes no great appeal, unless there is unfolded a concept of God which is dearer than any that has before been entertained; for, ignorant though he may be of the fact, a mortal's right activities are conditioned upon his individual understanding of God; and no true reform can be consummated save through a transformation of thought originating in a clearer knowledge of what God really is.
From this standpoint it may be seen that what a mortal may take delight in thinking of emotionally as his God may not be the god he really worships; for though he may subscribe to a well-defined creed, yet, despite this fact, the god that he really worships, acknowledges, and obeys is that—whatever it may be— to which in his thought he gives power. As Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 239): "To ascertain our progress, we must learn . . . whom we acknowledge and obey as God."
Therefore, although he may declare that he is ascribing all power to God, the unenlightened mortal may still be at the beck and call of a thousand and one springs of action, every one of which he has, consciously or unconsciously, invested with more actual power in his thought than any mental image of a deity he may either have visualized as God or be denominating by that term. This argument may be amplified by an example. Suppose in a mortal's experience some misfortune overwhelms him, maybe an accident or sickness, a loss or business reverses. Whither does he turn in his distress? To a drug, to surgery, or to some other material mode, in order to obtain release from his woes? Specifically, it matters not one iota to which of these he may turn; for behind the act in every such case lies precisely the same motive, namely, belief in the power of matter to assuage human ills. And whithersoever he turns for redress or for aid, for surcease or for sympathy, this it is which for that season constitutes for him his god.
