SOMETIMES one may hear it said, "I tried Christian Science and it didn't heal me." Such a remark sounds as though the speaker had experimented with some widely advertised drug without benefit. But Christian Science is the law of God, and one does not successfully try, experiment with, or spasmodically turn to law. Even the law of our land is available only through obedience thereto, and no demands may be made on it otherwise. Moreover, ignorance of law in no way lifts the penalty for breaking it.
If knowledge of the demands of civil law is important for the well-being of humanity, how much more necessary to human progress must be the understanding of the demands of divine law. Those who live close enough to God to obey the First Commandment find His promises already kept. Far from being a mere philosophy, Christian Science is the only real Science and, being Christian, is practiced in accord with the Golden Rule. It is completely revealed in its textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy.
The effects of understanding and living Christian Science are more far-reaching than physical comfort and the acquiring of things. Healing of physical distress is indeed but an outward sign of spiritual understanding of God—a call to greater spiritual attainments. Once having experienced the proof of God's healing presence, one is confronted with the duty of meeting divine demands—demands which no one else can meet for him. Salvation from sin, sickness, and death depends upon the purification of human consciousness and is an individual demand.
The key to meeting all the demands of Christian Science may be found in our Leader's command (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 210), "Beloved Christian Scientists, keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them." Honest self-examination, combined with a determined effort to rid consciousness of fear, hatred, pride—or whatever the errors by which one is individually beset—to make room for loving-kindness, humility, and unselfed, pure affection, is a warfare full of blessed experiences. The least spiritual understanding is God-protected and, if faithfully cherished, reveals clearer and clearer glimpses of one's true selfhood as the son of God, untouched by mortal beliefs. Divine Love encircles the newly awakening thought and gently carries these lambs in its arms. If the sheep, the more experienced students, lag or go astray, divine Love brings them back with its compelling rod.
In spite of the fact that the path which Jesus said would lead to life is unselfed, straight and narrow, one finds this way entails no sacrifice of good. The physical senses will deny this statement, claiming that Science is unnecessarily arbitrary. So why not ask ourselves right now what a sense of being physical has ever done for mankind except to sink it deeper into the Adam-dream of materiality. What can the so-called physical senses possibly know or wish to know of infinite Mind, Life, or Love? Nothing! Let us then give no heed to the serpentine arguments of evil. After mortal mind has had its say, the fact remains that whatever we relinquish for the sake of a better understanding of God was never worth having.
Jesus said (Luke 9: 23), "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." He was our Way-shower, and only as we live in strict obedience, to the demands of his teachings will permanent healing of human discords be realized.
Jesus' first requirement was denial of self, that is, denial of a selfhood apart from God, content with popularity and comfort, working perhaps with the letter of Science without striving for the quickening, healing understanding of Spirit. Jesus' second requirement was daily proof of man's at-one-ment with God through Christianly scientific healing of oneself and others.
That these two demands bring healing was proved by a student of Christian Science who awoke one night suffering severe pain. At first she felt frightened and alone, but upon turning prayerfully to God as the ever-present Father and Mother, lovingly caring for man and the universe, she perceived that the divine demand was to deny a selfhood apart from God which could either impose or experience suffering. Immediate obedience to this demand and the realization of her spiritual at-one-ment with all-harmonious divine Love brought instant healing.
The Bible furnishes many useful examples of meeting scientific requirements. Joseph, for example, did not give in to discouragement and defeat when he was imprisoned, but rather met the divine demand that he keep his thought loving and ready to serve. Thus he was prepared for a position of authority in Egypt and was able to help his people in time of need. Obedience to the divine demand to go forward—to lift thought above fear and human limitations —delivered the children of Israel from the pursuing Egyptians. Samuel, obeying the divine demand to consecrate himself, was filled with heavenly inspiration which enabled him to recognize the God-appointed king over Israel. When Saul was journeying to Damascus to persecute the Christians, the gentle, urgent voice of the Christ came to him with such startling clearness that it was heard by those who were with him. Through strict obedience to its divine demands, he became one of the world's greatest spiritual leaders.
Our thought should not be unheeding, offended, or rebellious when meditation on our Leader's writings reveals sterner demands for spiritual living. On the contrary, it should embrace the courage, patience, and loving-kindness required to radiate good under every circumstance; to allow justice, mercy, and sincerity to govern all human associations, whether of a business, social, or domestic nature. Such an attitude seeks and finds the peace and quietness which are neither impressed nor disturbed by the boasts of mortal mind. It abides in and demonstrates good, the natural habitat of man, made in God's likeness. All who have achieved quietness and confidence in good may gratefully say with the Psalmist (18:20), "The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me."
The precepts of Christian Science are meekly received by those who love God, and to those who desire to obey them its demands do not seem unreasonably severe. No person makes these demands. In fact, no person can usurp this authority, for all right demands are divine demands and come directly from God.
Although we are filled with deep and unceasing gratitude to the three great spiritual leaders for revealing the demands of God, it was not Jesus who demanded that we be born again. It was not Paul who demanded that we be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It is not Mrs. Eddy who demands that we relinquish a false sense of man as depraved, sick, sinning, proud, and lustful and know him as the son of God. Now, as then, it is the forever Christ insistently demanding that human consciousness acknowledge Spirit as the only power. It is Christian Science urging its adherents to present themselves before a needy world as followers of Christ Jesus in every way.
In these words of our Leader there is great inspiration to prepare ourselves for wholehearted, loving obedience to each divine demand of Science as it is revealed to us (Miscellany, p. 134): "The unprecedented progress of Christian Science is proverbial, and we cannot be too grateful nor too humble for this, inasmuch as our daily lives serve to enhance or to stay its glory. To triumph in truth, to keep the faith individually and collectively, conflicting elements must be mastered. Defeat need not follow victory. Joy over good achievements and work well done should not be eclipsed by some lost opportunity, some imperative demand not yet met."
