"KNOW, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love," writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 3 of "Pulpit and Press." Her statement might be considered as the last word in the Christian Scientist's religious culture. Moses signified nothing else in presenting the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Through learning to understand and obey this commandment we learn to demonstrate the truth of our Leader's words.
There are no exceptions to the rule that requires us to pass through the entire process of spiritual development, to prove our divine inheritance. The journey may be long, but each step must be taken, and sometimes retaken. Calmly, methodically, persistently pursued, however, each advance made with—not before or after —God, the journey will proceed harmoniously.
The novice in Christian Science is apt to imagine that he can quickly master the entire subject by "cramming"—recollections of school days and pending examinations leading him to suppose that he is treading on familiar ground. Instead, his earnest application carries him, after prolonged study, to a mount of revelation, where his spiritual sense takes a deep breath of the celestial, his inward vision glimpses an unexplored expanse, and he goes back to his books with the reflection, "Now, I see Christian Science in an entirely different light, and I must repeat my studies with this enlarged view." After he has met with similar episodes again and again, the student finally concludes that any subject which has the ability to renew itself indefinitely, must require eternity to grasp it in its entirety.
