The basic teaching of Christian Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, the only Mind, and therefore the Mind of man. Perhaps one of the first things grasped by the beginner in the study of this Science is the fact that man has not a personal, private mind of his own, but, in his real being, is coexistent with and a reflection of the one infinite Mind, God, as sunbeams, individually and collectively, are a reflection of the sun. Nothing is more vital to the student of Christian Science than to understand that God is cause, and His idea, man, is effect; and, further, that the eternal coexistence of God and man, cause and effect, constitutes perfect spiritual being.
Mary Baker Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 467, 468): "Reasoning from cause to effect in the Science of Mind, we begin with Mind, which must be understood through the idea which expresses it and cannot be learned from its opposite, matter. Thus we arrive at Truth, or intelligence, which evolves its own unerring idea and never can be coordinate with human illusions."
It is only an unreal, supposititious mortal consciousness that posits two bases of being, two points of view, matter and Mind. One who understands in Christian Science that Mind, Spirit, Truth, alone is real endeavors consistently to claim this one Mind as his only source of intelligence and perception. Acknowledging the premise that Mind, God, is the center and circumference, the within and without, of being, he also sees the impossibility of a supposed opposite, matter, having presence or actuality.
