MANKIND has long sought health in every direction and by every means conceivable to the so-called human mind. Nothing has been too unpleasant to take inwardly; nothing has been too painful to endure in the ever changing field of surgery; and no deprivation has seemed too great for men to accept as the road to health. The tragic sadness of it all deeply impresses one enlightened by Christian Science as he realizes that practically all of this seeking has been in vain, because of mankind's belief that health is primarily a condition of a physical organism or of a material body.
To approach the subject of health by studying or treating diseased bodies is much like repairing the ceiling of a room damaged by water from a leak in the roof, and then stopping one's efforts before stopping the leak. Until the leak is discovered and perfectly repaired, we may certainly expect further damage to the ceiling. Until the nature of health is understood, men will not experience true health, and the seeming causes of disease will not be removed. It would seem obvious, then, that mankind's first step toward freedom from disease is to learn what health is, the laws governing it, and the method of conforming to those laws.
Health is the opposite of supposititious disease; and as untold years of study and experimentation with diseased bodies, by hundreds of thousands of sincere men and women, have failed to give permanent health to mankind, let us turn away from diseased matter and contemplate its opposite, Spirit. Immediately we have to consider the Christian Science definition of Spirit, as given on page 594 of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, where we read: "Spirit. Divine substance; Mind; divine Principle; all that is good; God; that only which is perfect, everlasting, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite." This brings us to absolute Truth, to perfect Mind, where divine Principle is recognized and understood as the cause and creator of man.
