Have you allowed unreasoning bias or some undefined prejudice to keep you from reading and studying, in connection with your Bible, Mary Baker Eddy's great book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"? If so, you are not only excluding yourself from beautiful literature, but shutting the door on vital truth—the truth about God and man which Jesus promised would make make free. One who turns to these inspired pages with open mind will soon be convinced of two facts: first, that the writer of such a book must have been a spiritually-minded, God-fearing, Christloving woman; and secondly, that if her interpretation of the Bible is true, Christian Science is the long-looked-for Comforter, or "Spirit of truth," destined to liberate and save the race.
Some people frankly aver that they do not wish to think too deeply about their religion; others admit that they are afraid to reason about their inherited creeds, lest their faith be shaken. Again, one ofttimes encounters men and women unwilling to face that spiritual light which will uncover and rebuke some hidden sickness or sin. A notable instance of this is recorded in the twenty-fourth chapter of Acts. A governor, Felix, sent for the Apostle Paul to gain firsthand information about the new Christian faith. And as Paul "reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." How sad is the spectacle of one held in the binding, unwilling or afraid to seek the light of spiritual truth! There is no record in the Bible that Felix ever again sent for Paul.
Someone said to a Christian Scientist: "Frankly, I don't want to think too deeply when I go to church. I applaud the sentiments of the hard-working farmer who maintained that on his day of rest, all he asked when he went to church was to be allowed to settle back in the corner of his pew, 'lay up his legs and think o' nothing.'" But was there ever a time when thinkers were more needed than at this confused, fearsome hour? Today and tomorrow the men and women who are learning to think constructively, who, scorning the limitations of mortal sense, are continually reaching out to Mind for fresh, inspirational ideas, these are they who will ever be in demand as executives and valued workers. Therefore, should not the mentally alert truth-seeker rejoice in finding on the first page of the Preface to Science and Health an invitation to think? We read; "The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and timehonored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity." The scholarly Theodore Parker once said, "The books which help you most are those which make you think the most."
