EVERYONE who takes up the study of Christian Science in earnest is soon made aware that he must make a new beginning with his purposes and modes of thought. Self-love naturally rebels, and urges that the course of safety and wisdom is to leave former beliefs undisturbed. Let the tares and the wheat grow side by side, it argues: the tares will vanish painlessly when more profitable aspects of existence unfold as a result of the new search for Truth. Self-love knows how to cite Scripture upon occasion, but it cites Scripture only for its own purpose. A little self-examination reveals the fact that it is arguing in favor of some phase of wrong thinking, which it is afraid or unwilling to give up.
It is always inspiring to observe the changes in personal character which accompany conscientious resistance with the truth to the demands of this false sense of self. At times imperceptibly, at times to the accompaniment of struggle or grief, the outgrown garments of thought are discarded one by one. Purer motives come to light, and nobler actions follow in their train. Faith in God begins to lend authority to action. Unselfed purpose takes freer breath. The objects of material sense, however humanly legitimate or desirable they may claim to be, no longer figure as the full measure of man; and the Christ-model is accepted as a sufficient inspiration for every worthy achievement. Like the snowdrop, fearlessly pushing up its eager head to coax a promise from January skies, or like some lordly oak, whose roots, demanding space for growth, have twisted a massive wall out of plumb, the impulses of spirituality overcome the limitations imposed by human beliefs.
It is divine wisdom, not self-love, which safely and wisely separates the false from the real. The eternal destiny of man consists of the reflection of the divine Principle of spiritual power, intelligence, and goodness. Christ Jesus vividly arrayed the demands of Spirit in his words to Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." A marginal rendering of this Scripture, which reads "born from above," emphasizes its spiritual purport. This uncompromising declaration of the great Teacher finds no point of contact in the order of material substance or intellectual inheritance. The seed of truth planted in the timid thought of the one who sought Jesus by night eventually yielded fruit, but not until the veil of the temple of worldly wisdom had been rent. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 15) our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has tenderly described the correction of purpose which human thought must undergo. Here she says: "The new birth is not the work of a moment. It begins with moments, and goes on with years; moments of surrender to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, heaven-born hope, and spiritual love."
