Persistently throughout the ages, men have sought for a remedy for human discord, a method by which bodily strength and health may be gained and retained, and whereby longevity may be increased. Elaborate systems of medicine and hygiene have been formulated with this purpose as their sole objective. And yet disease and disability, sorrow, sin, and poverty, still stubbornly persist in human experience. May not the failure to meet and overcome these conditions be due to the fact that man has been quite universally regarded as a material, not a spiritual being, and that research and experimentation have, therefore, been based almost entirely upon this assumption? Had the words of the Psalmist, "It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect," been heeded, would not mankind long since have found deliverance from the discordant conditions that have been so large a part of human experience?
Christian Science, departing from the commonly accepted theory concerning man's origin and nature, accepts without reservation the Scriptural declaration that man is made in the image and likeness of God, Spirit. The adoption of this true view of man revolutionizes human thinking, establishing an entirely new basis for thought and action. The remedy for all human discord is seen to be, not in material means and methods, but in spiritual understanding, and there is no temptation to seek elsewhere than in divine Mind for a solution to human problems.
Mary Baker Eddy, in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 259), offers in the following statement the correct foundation for right, scientific reasoning: "The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration." It is this flawless logic of Christian Science which first attracts many earnest thinkers to its teachings. Understanding of the divine Principle, and faithful application of the spiritual law here presented, soon convince the student that he has indeed found the antidote for the doubt and unsatisfied longing that have often attended spiritual research. If at first a tendency remains to turn to any but the divine source for surcease from any phase of human inharmony, that inclination speedily vanishes.
