UNDER the marginal heading "Purity the path to perfection," Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 337), "In proportion to his purity is man perfect; and perfection is the order of celestial being which demonstrates Life in Christ, Life's spiritual ideal."
Christian Science came to one woman through a deep desire on her part to know how to pray. She was convinced that if she could learn how to pray her prayer would be answered in a way that would silence all doubt as to the efficacy of prayer. Although she had read the Bible very little, she remembered that the Scriptures say in the words of Jesus (Matt. 6:6), "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." So the Father was sought in secret, and when the time arrived to take the next dose of medicine for a physical disorder of long standing, she found herself reasoning, Why do you not trust God to take care of you? Quickly she decided to place herself in God's hands at least overnight, with the wonderful result that she was completely healed of that particular disorder. Confidence in God's ever-presence and power to heal had replaced faith in material medicine.
While it was wonderful to be able to trust God instead of medical means for physical healing, she soon found that other difficulties were coming up and she must decide whether or not to resort to her newly found faith in God for the solution of them. She had heard of Christian Science a few times prior to this and decided that surely there must be some way in which she could learn if it would afford a practical means of demonstrating her new-found faith in God.
