What is encouragement? Is it based on belief in the fleeting and changeable, or on an understanding of the facts of the eternal and changeless? Have any found enduring encouragement in anything that works on the so-called material emotions? Have any failed to find encouragement in the true understanding of God, perfect substance, and of man, God's idea? Christian Science invites consideration of these questions, knowing that the opposite of encouragement is mentally wrong, and, like all that is different from God, may be readily overcome by the seeking and accepting of divine reality.
A common error with many, including the professed followers of Christ, is that of limited expectation of good from Christ's Christianity. Too often is expressed the belief that Christianity is effective for good up to a certain point only, as, for instance, in rightly preparing one who is about to die, while it is forgotten that Christ Jesus overcame death. Also, too often the belief is expressed that mortals are born subject to adverse conditions and material laws, and that discouragement thus appears to be inevitable some of the time.
Now Christian Science is the Science of Christ. Revealing God as embracing all reality and power, and matter and evil as having no power or reality, Christian Science at once points to spiritual freedom, wherein are no material limitations. There are many who, having studied Christian Science, gladly proclaim that never before had they even faintly realized the unlimited possibilities for good in human affairs flowing from a correct understanding of God and man.
