In "Science and Health with Key I to the Scriptures" (p. 470) Mrs. Eddy has written: "The standard of perfection was originally God and man. Has God taken down His own standard, and has man fallen?" She satisfactorily answers this question in the next paragraph, where she says in part, "God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection, man, remains perfect." All working Christian Scientists hold their mental gaze to this eternal fact. Their joy is in living and demonstrating this truth of being each day, and the smallest proof of this Principle is treasured, for each proof, great or small, paves the way for still more fearless reliance on God's power and presence.
The student learns early that his great need is to gain a right mental outlook; and many who have accepted Christian Science are day by day attaining a fuller realization of perfection. This Science separates the dross from the gold. In the student's daily rounds he strives to reflect that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus." Clad in Love's panoply, he is able to fight against and destroy any suggestion of evil. All seemingly insurmountable tasks then become light and joyous, for no honest undertaking is too great for achievement when one knows that all intelligence and power belong to God and are reflected in man. This progress is the result of the daily study of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook and of gradual growth in spiritual-mindedness.
Christian Science teaches its adherents how to "pray without ceasing." Spiritual communion with God is true mental work. "Effectual fervent prayer" does not entreat God to carry out some human desire or willful plan. Rather does it cause one quietly to listen for and accept right ideas or spiritual intuitions, thereby conforming to God's will. All good is forever established in Mind, but we need to become receptive to this good. It is essential to affirm and reaffirm the truth about God, man, and the universe, and it is just as essential to deny every claim of an opposite power or presence. The understanding prayer necessitates transformation and purification of the thoughts and actions of the individual, and this will eventuate in the recognition of perfection. The one who hourly talks with his heavenly Father and is conscious of man's inseparability from God, at all times finds a saving and ever-ready maintenance. His ills are more quickly overcome; the attacks of error become less alarming, as he grows in "the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
