"TO those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings." The weary sojourner, perhaps ill, depressed, and discouraged, who opens for the first time a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and reads these inspiring lines with which Mrs. Eddy begins the Preface to this textbook, has come upon a guidepost along life's journey which, if heeded, will lead him out of material bondage to the heights of spiritual freedom.
What a glorious comfort it is to know that all of us, regardless of the progress we may already have made along the way, may, each day, each hour, of the sometimes trying journey, lean upon the "sustaining infinite." At all times we may derive from it wisdom for the intelligent handling of our affairs, strength for the performance of tasks given us to do, and love with which to deal compassionately with our fellow men.
No one escapes the problems incidental to traveling this earthly highway. Christ Jesus did not. The very clash between spiritual evidence and material sense testimony presents a problem common to all of us; and it is one we must solve in our own consciousness. In one individual's experience, the difficulty may be physical illness; in another's, domestic or business inharmony; in still another's, a lack of the necessary and common comforts of daily living. But in each case the seeming cause is the same, namely, the belief in matter as a substantial entity.
