In a sentence treasured by Christian Scientists, Mary Baker Eddy states (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 269), "Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul." Christian Scientists understand that the change made in human experience by this metaphysical process is all-important, and that it results from an increasing understanding of Soul, or God, and of the ideas which express Him.
What are the ideas of Soul? We cannot touch or see them materially because of their purely spiritual character, but we can know their nature definitely and exactly, just as we can know the nature of God. By knowing them, we experience their presence and power, the manifested power and presence of divine Love. For God's ideas are not entities separate from Him; they are God in evidence, the direct manifestations of His nature.
Let us consider, then, what appears to human sense to be home, and how it is affected through Christian Science. Viewed materially, it is a building or part of a building, equipped with material things and occupied by a human person or persons. But, generally speaking, the human sense of home is not a complete opacity to Truth. There is more or less light and joy in it, more or less peace, more or less love and inspiration; yet it is imperfect, not wholly satisfying, subject to hazards, and impermanent. It is largely made up of the objects of material sense, which, as Mrs. Eddy states, must be replaced by the ideas of Soul.
