When the first joy of release from disease or mental suffering comes to us, bringing with it a sudden perception of the potentialities of Christian Science, we feel assured that never again can we be utterly cast down. But as the days go by this happy exaltation may seem to dim, and the conditions which have long been grievous in our human experience may once more claim our attention. Thus are we driven to make practical application of the gospel of Love.
We read in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 494), "Reason, rightly directed, serves to correct the errors of corporeal sense;" and on page 173, "Human reason and religion come slowly to the recognition of spiritual facts, and so continue to call upon matter to remove the error which the human mind alone has created." We discover that while we have grown away from the use of matter as medicine, it cannot be said we have entirely overcome material thinking. It is only in Christian Science that we begin to learn how to reason properly, and to recognize the influence of thought. We soon find that indulging the drifting and migratory impulses of mortal mind increases discord, and that puzzling questions must be thought out in a logical, orderly way.
In addition to entering upon this rebirth, to advance in Christian Science we must accustom ourselves to new words and new mental processes. We may begin our daily study a little abashed at the word "reason" as demanding a mental activity which often seems beyond our present ability. But we have been engaged previously in arguing from a material basis, as illustrated in the many wrong conclusions at which we had arrived, and which are manifested in bodily ills and mental dissatisfactions. When we come to Christian Science, we have reached the point of getting acquainted with God and our real selfhood.
