Any act or experience by which one is purified is a form of baptism. Purification of thought is precedent to spiritual understanding, and therefore in order to heal through Christian Science it is necessary to purify thought, motive, and action. Baptism as understood in Christian Science is not an abstract idea, nor is it just a symbol of repentance or purification. It signifies a change of thought from the material to the spiritual and includes the recognition of God as Spirit and of man as made in His image and likeness.
Christ Jesus submitted to the material rite of baptism as practiced by John the Baptist, who was a witness to, or forerunner of, the Christ. In doing so, Jesus said (Matt. 3:15), "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." From this statement of the Master's it would seem that he made a concession to the material rite of baptism, not merely to conform to the customs of the times, but to show that the doctrine of repentance as preached by the Baptist is a necessary step in the regeneration of mankind.
In an article entitled "Pond and Purpose," to be found in "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 203-207), Mary Baker Eddy deals with the subject of baptism in considerable detail. She points out the various steps or stages of baptism, ranging from the use of water as a cleanser to the metaphysical idea as a purely mental or spiritual experience. In this article our Leader describes three degrees of baptism. She names the first the baptism of repentance and describes it as a state in which human consciousness becomes aware of its own errors and struggles to be saved.
