Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 312), "Our theories are based on finite premises, which cannot penetrate beyond matter." That man is a limited, circumscribed, material being, subject to chance, change, and eventual destruction, and that divine help comes only as the result of imploring prayer, are the "finite premises" upon which false theories concerning God and man are usually based. As these theories cannot reach higher than their source, it must be evident that they "cannot penetrate beyond matter;" neither can they surmount or overcome adverse material conditions which are believed by mortal mind to be incurable or impossible to correct.
Christian Science teaches that God, divine Mind, is the source of all real being, and that Truth governs its every activity. Consequently, as we advance in our understanding of Spirit, Truth, and strengthen our comprehension of its infinite manifestation, man, we are enabled to see the falsity of limiting, material premises, to penetrate the restricted view of God and man which materiality presents, and to discern our real, unlimited spiritual selfhood, which reflects God. We then see that man is not a finite, circumscribed, material being, but a spiritual idea, God's image and likeness, Truth's expression, having by reflection infinite capacities and capabilities. This is the view of man which Christian Science presents, and which the student strives constantly to prove.
Our need, then, in order that we may overcome any sense of error or limitation, whether it appears to be within ourselves or connected with surrounding circumstances or conditions, is to abandon erroneous "finite premises," and thus permit Truth to penetrate our consciousness. Like the sun bursting through heavy clouds, this influx of Truth, because of its infinite nature, supplants the erroneous belief of darkness or limitation with the satisfying sense of possessing all that God gives. It brings the true Science of health, harmonious action, and the glorious sunshine of peace and contentment.
