Frequently harassed mortals are heard to exclaim: "I don't know which way to turn. There's no way out!" There are few who have not at one time or another found themselves groping in the darkness of such perplexity. Because of the unselfed lifework of Mary Baker Eddy, glorious awakening and relief await such sufferers. To the many who are struggling with all forms of human dilemmas and distress, Christian Science declares unequivocally that there is a solution to every human problem and reveals the way to find it.
Christian Science teaches that God, good, is All; that He is infinite, perfect Spirit, the only creator; and that man is His spiritual and perfect image and likeness. It is impossible that God could have created anything unlike Himself. Since there cannot be more than one creator who has created all, it follows logically that that which is not good is without a creator and therefore does not exist. Thus disease, lack, loneliness, and all other forms of adversity, being unlike God, are conditions which have no actual existence. They are but a mistaken sense of existence entertained by mortal mind, the carnal mind, which Paul tells us "is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7), and which is nothing but a counterfeit of the one Mind, God.
When this carnal mind declares that an unsolvable problem is present, it is only describing its own false sense of existence. Because it cannot see the way, it announces, "There is no way out." Mrs. Eddy states in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 54), "The carnal mind cannot discern spiritual things." Actually, the way out is present at all times and always may be found if one turns confidently and understandingly to God.
The Bible assures us (I Cor. 10:13), "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." This does not mean that God sends the temptation or trial. It means that the problem which seems to confront us is only a temptation to believe the carnal mind's misrepresentation of the good that is already present. A way to escape always exists, because God is infinite, omnipresent divine Love.
The Bible abounds in situations where to the carnal mind, or material sense, there was no way out, but where deliverance was proved to be at hand when right-thinking men depended wholeheartedly upon God for help. Consider the Israelites on the shore of the Red Sea, an expanse of water before them and Pharaoh's hosts in close pursuit. To material sense there was no way out, because material sense, believing only in the false laws of matter, never heard of water rolling back to make a passageway to the opposite shore. Yet that is exactly what happened when Moses turned to God. What is more, the Israelites not only crossed in safety, but crossed on dry land.
Then there was the widow oppressed by debt who turned to Elisha for help, thus evidencing her reliance on God. Her debts were paid with the proceeds from the sale of oil, which multiplied as she poured it from the one pot that she had. To material sense this was an unheard-of and impossible solution, yet not only were her debts all paid, but there was a balance left over to meet her living expenses.
Likewise, there were the three Hebrew youths who were cast into the fiery furnace for refusing to worship false gods. The furnace was heated seven times hotter than usual. Material sense, knowing nothing outside and beyond its own limited and false beliefs, certainly would say that there was no way out of that predicament. Yet we know that there was. As a result of their steadfast reliance on God, the understanding of the Hebrew youths was so enlightened that Nebuchadnezzar saw a fourth form "like the Son of God" as a personal presence with them. The flames did not consume them; moreover, there was not even the smell of fire on their garments.
In these experiences, and in many others like them which are also related in the Bible, may be discerned the operation of divine law. Law is the expression of Principle, God. Principle is demonstrable, infallible. Principle by its law preserves all of God's creation. In God's perfect universe there is no element of loss or destruction. There are no problems in infinity. It is human ignorance of God and His law which causes mortal discord. The way out is not to attempt to change perfection, but to change from material ignorance to a perception of this perfection. Regardless of the conditions confronting us humanly, we must look away from them and know that God's law of preservation is in operation for us now. We only retard the solution of our problems by constantly regarding and rehearsing them. As Mrs. Eddy counsels (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 65), "We must not consider the false side of existence in order to gain the true solution of Life and its great realities." The way to solve human problems is to turn from fretting over material discord to contemplating spiritual reality.
Man is not and never can be involved in a problem. This truth understood and confidently declared includes the solution and consequent right human adjustment of whatever distresses mankind. A problem is simply a phase of the misconception of God and man, cause and effect. All that is necessary to solve any problem is to know that there is in the true idea of God and man no problem and to understand the reason why. Herein is the solution.
In a dictionary the word "solution" is defined not only as "act or process of solving a problem," but also as "the condition of being dissolved." In other words, a problem for which we have found the solution is dissolved; and that which is dissolved, destroyed, was never actual, but only a false belief about an actuality. It is this false belief which is corrected, or healed, by Christian Science. It is important to understand that duality is never involved in metaphysical healing. There are not two realities, one calling itself a problem and the other calling itself the solution, but one only, the spiritual fact as to God and man. The right idea of being which heals the belief in a problem brings out the solution.
The greatest and most glorious proof of the ever-presence and omnipotence of God to heal and save His own was given us by Christ Jesus, the Way-shower. The cruel elements of mortal mind which crucified Jesus could conceive of no outcome of such an evil act but death to him, consternation and heartbreak to his followers, and an ignominious end to all that he taught and sought to establish on earth. Yet exactly the reverse took place. His reappearance in the flesh, proving death to be powerless, so strengthened and reassured his followers as to establish his teachings forever. Not only that, but his resurrection and ascension were the culmination of so complete a demonstration of Immanuel, or "God with us," as to eventuate in the revelation of Christian Science. The Master foresaw this and revealed it to his disciples on the eve of the crucifixion when he said (John 16:7), "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you."
That Christian Science is the promised Comforter is gratefully acknowledged by an ever-increasing multitude of Christian Scientists, who have learned that in its teachings is to be found the solution to all human problems, because it reveals God's ever-operative law of present perfection and how to apply it. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy states (p. 231): "God is not the author of mortal discords. Therefore we accept the conclusion that discords have only a fabulous existence, are mortal beliefs which divine Truth and Love destroy."
This inspired statement of our Leader's makes it clear that the way out is not to believe that man has a problem and then to try to solve it, but to know that there is no problem in Love's universe. God is never in a quandary or entangled in a predicament; and nothing is happening to man, God's spiritually perfect witness, except what is of God's doing. Mortals and their heartaches and suffering are the carnal mind's objectified misconceptions of life and man.
By the sincere, persistent study and application of the truth about God and man as taught in Christian Science, we may prove for ourselves that there is always a solution—a way out. We shall solve the problems occurring in our human experience in the exact degree that we understandingly refute and reject the carnal mind's misconceptions and see in their stead the perfect, painless, present reality of God's spiritual universe and man.
