HUMAN experience seems so fraught with affliction manifested as sin, sickness, and sorrow, as limitation and lack, as disease, discord, distress, and death, that a large part of the endeavors of mankind has been directed to overcoming these afflictions, or the minimizing or postponing of them. However, in spite of many impressive human inventions, these efforts have not reached the root of mankind's troubles for the simple reason that men have mistakenly regarded matter as both the cause of and the cure for their afflictions, and hence have not turned to God as they should to supply their spiritual, business, and bodily needs.
The spiritual revelation which came to Mary Baker Eddy, and which she shared with the world in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," imparts the correct concept of God and the universe, including man, and also the explanation of evil as unreal; these successfully strike at the root of humanity's afflictions and point the way to freedom. This is indicated in a succinct statement on page 390 of the textbook, wherein its author speaks out of her own experience in these words: "It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony." After her discovery of Christian Science, and before writing Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy had found that the understanding of God had healed her, and had enabled her to heal others of all manner of diseases, as well as to liberate the sin-bound. In addition to the great healing and reformative works wrought by Christian Science practitioners, because of their right understanding of God, many other cases of regeneration and healing have been realized solely as a result of the correct concept of God gained from the study of Science and Health.
In this connection a statement by the prophet Isaiah is of particular interest. Referring to the chastening experiences of the children of Israel, he wrote, "In all their affliction he [God] was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them." The word here translated as "afflicted" has the root meaning of "narrowed," which leads us to see that, although God was not afflicted or narrowed, the Israelite's concept of Him was erroneous, and therefore narrowed or limited; and this occasioned their troubles. But the infinite love of God was shown to them, for "the angel of his presence"— the divine message witnessing to the omnipresence of good— "saved them" repeatedly from the discords which attended and attested their false sense of Deity.
