SOME of earth's wayfarers, engrossed in the pursuit of earthly pleasures and not having as yet experienced many of its pains, have not been sufficiently aroused to concern themselves as to the import of their experiences and the distinction between what is real and what is unreal. Finding themselves quite satisfied with worldly attractions, they may have become willing and thoughtless victims of materiality through the satisfaction that has apparently come to them from its pursuit. Because, however, of the inherently evanescent nature of material joys, their fickleness and limitations, and because the belief of life in matter eventually brings pain, sooner or later they cannot but question the reality of such transitory, earthly experiences.
He is indeed fortunate who at this stage of his experience is brought face to face with Mrs. Eddy's stirring statement in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 70): "Mortal existence is an enigma. Every day is a mystery. The testimony of the corporeal senses cannot inform us what is real and what is delusive, but the revelations of Christian Science unlock the treasures of Truth." In this statement one not only finds the confirmation of his own reasoning as to the delusive and enigmatical nature of what he has been experiencing, but he also finds that which can disentangle him from his dilemma and that there is available the Science of Life, which will enlighten him as to what is real, reliable, permanent, and the means of its attainment. The very term "Science" in itself may bring him some assurance; for it steadies the thought with the fact that nothing less than proof can satisfy.
In one's study of the textbook, one finds radical statements of absolute Truth, a presentation of Life which is the exact opposite of the views he has been accepting and bringing into daily manifestation. Therein he finds concise sentences setting forth the spiritual nature of real existence, the harmony of spirituality, and the eternal and unchanging nature of spiritual being. The statements therein affirm the reality and all-inclusiveness of Spirit, and the consequent unreality or nothingness of the belief in matter with its so-called pains and pleasures; the reality of that which is discerned through spiritual sense, and the unreality of that apparently perceived through corporeal sense. Radical as these new views may appear to him, and however diverse to his previous experience, he is, nevertheless, ready to start on his journey of proof as to their actuality, on his journey towards the realization of the real.
