Reverently, in the opening words of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy speaks of faith. At the beginning of the chapter she quotes the words of Christ Jesus, "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith." Following this, Mrs. Eddy begins the statement of her great revelation with the beautifully simple announcement, "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,— a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love."
Christian Science treatment includes a pure dependence upon the presence and power of God. It has not an element of human will; it holds no material viewpoint. It relies upon spiritual power only. The work of the Christian Scientist is to rid his thought of the errors and fallacies which would obstruct this spiritual reliance. He is required to trust without reservation the omnipotence upon which he leans. And to do this he must be alert to detect whatever would weaken his faith, and to cherish all that will strengthen it.
The student of Christian Science has received the revelation that God is Spirit, and that man, His likeness, is spiritual. He knows through reason and revelation that Life is God, therefore endless, and that spiritual man, as God's image, is expressing now, and always, this divine and perfect Life. Christian Science shows him that the material round of supposed birth, life, and death is not true creation, but an elusive counterfeit of God's man and universe. And it sets him to work, with this knowledge, to change his own consciousness to that spiritual understanding which acknowledges only spiritual facts as real, and which correlatively overcomes the beliefs of the fleshly dream that life is involved in matter.
