Christian Science is the gospel of divine sonship. It reveals the oneness, goodness, perfection, and infinity of God, Spirit, Mind, and proves that man in the divine likeness cannot be other than spiritual or less than perfect. This real man is incorporeal, for he embodies the qualities of God and not the false concepts of mortal mind; he is loving and beloved, for he is the expression and object of infinite Love; and he is divinely innocent, for he is the idea of his divine Principle, God, who is "of purer eyes than to behold evil."
When the nature and inseparability of God and man dawn faintly in human consciousness, this spiritual illumination is manifest as healing. The new student of Christian Science experiences wonderful freedom and joy. Although he may have a very imperfect understanding of the allness of Spirit and the nothingness of matter, he is learning that in his real being he is the child of God, and so begins to prove his God-given dominion over the ills of the flesh.
It is not uncommon for one who has reached this stage of spiritual growth to desire to share his newfound treasure with all mankind. With a zeal not yet restrained by wisdom, he may recount his experiences to all and sundry. Then, as the carnal mind is stirred to resist Truth, there may come to him a time of testing, when problems seem multiplied and a mental state of confusion and anxiety seems about to crowd out joy and gratitude. The time has come for the student to learn something of animal magnetism, in order that he may understand the spuriously mental nature of matter and evil, and ascend a step toward the comprehension of the omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniaction of Mind, God.
