The study and application of Christian Science develops the conviction that material pleasures are mythical in their claim to value, and that real pleasure is immaterial, God-given. The spiritual fact involved has been more or less clearly glimpsed by religious teachers and thinkers from remote times, material pleasure being classified by the Preacher as "vanity and vexation of spirit."
In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," under the marginal headings "Mythical pleasure" (p. 294) and "Immaterial pleasure" (p. 76), Mary Baker Eddy makes clear the distinction between "pleasures and pains of matter" and "sinless joy." In the practice of Christian Science it is found that a strong belief in some material or physical pleasure, resisting the purifying and healing power of Truth, may delay healing. Many students of Christian Science can testify that the healing of a belief in material pleasure, through the spiritual understanding that Christian Science brings, has borne a definite relation to their relief from physical pain and discord.
The student of Christian Science may well examine the nature of the pleasures that engage his interest to find whether they are helping or hindering him in his demonstration of spirituality. He may also profitably ponder what practical steps he can take toward rejecting the myth of material pleasure for enduring "immaterial pleasure." It is proverbial that material pleasures bring satiety, weariness, boredom, and are sometimes coworkers with malice, rivalry, evil speaking, immorality.
