Of utmost importance in any given line of thought is its beginning. The fundamental premises determine the conclusions at which right reasoning arrives. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, struck at the root of all false teaching when she said in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 428), "The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man is, not shall be, perfect and immortal." There could scarcely be a greater divergence from that than the false belief that man has fallen from the presence of God, that he has departed from goodness and purity and is wandering in the byways of sin and sickness, needing to be purified and saved from all that is unlike God. Starting from the false premise that man is both spiritual and material, and can become impure or sick, how can one gain the correct concept of man? One must learn always to think of man as the spiritual, perfect idea of God. In Christian Science the real man is understood to be wholly spiritual, for in the first chapter of Genesis it is written, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."
If we accept this correct starting point for our thinking about man, we shall not make the mistake of imputing to him any of the errors with which mortal mind has attempted to sully the image of the creator. One who is endeavoring to overcome some wrong belief, such as sin or sickness, will find that the first necessity is to start with the correct foundation for his thinking. Starting with the irrefutable facts that God is perfect and that man is the image or reflection of God, how can we do otherwise than arrive at the conclusion that man is perfect?
One student found his work in Christian Science greatly improved when he thought of all good as belonging to God. He thought first of the synonyms for God used in Science and Health—Life, Truth, Spirit, Principle, Mind, Soul, Love. Then he enumerated qualities of God, such as goodness, purity, strength, power, mercy, and many others. Having meditated on the qualities of the creator, he saw that of necessity these must be expressed by man, created in God's likeness. Therefore, he was correct in claiming them as his heritage as a child of God. Since God is the Father of man, man is the expression of God, divine Mind. Having a right concept of man, as spiritually mental, the student claimed spiritual qualities and thoughts as his own, by reflection. Thus he identified his true self with all that is good, and as dissociated from all evil belief. All that he claimed as his spiritual inheritance was based on the real man's nature as God's reflection. He saw this as equally true of all his fellow men.
