In Genesis it is written, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Interpreting the above statement, Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 502): "The infinite has no beginning. This word beginning is employed to signify the only, —that is, the eternal verity and unity of God and man, including the universe." To begin rightly, then, is to acknowledge God, Spirit, divine Love, as the only creator, spiritual man as the only man, and Mind's spiritual universe as the only universe—all of them permanently perfect.
Of what avail are these spiritual facts to heal the ills of mankind? The persistent effort to grasp and acknowledge them brings about a mental transformation whereby discord gradually gives way to harmony in human thought and experience. The truth is always at hand to rectify wrong thinking and to fructify every righteous effort. To material sense it may seem a long way to the demonstration of spiritual perfection; but it is a clear way, divinely trodden by Jesus and illumined by the revelation of Christian Science; and it holds the secret of emancipation from evil. In order to tread this way of spiritual demonstration triumphantly we have to abide in the light of good and to prove that we are not children of darkness or depression, but children of light and joy. The promise holds good for all: "In thy light shall we see light."
The understanding of Christian Science and its application is our most prized possession: it is our safe conduct on earth and our passport to heaven. We should therefore protect this understanding from every thieving suggestion of its loss or its impracticability in daily life. We should constantly examine ourselves to make sure that our hold on Christian Science is firm, not vacillating, and that our practice of its teachings is progressive. Remembering that Truth's own invulnerability to error renders an individual equally invulnerable in the ratio of his reflection of Truth, we should be stanch defenders of the rights of man and stanch deniers of the belief in evil.
