High up on the foremast of most ships, near the masthead, is the crow's-nest, where the lookout is stationed. It is the duty of the lookout to scan the horizon for whatever may appear as help or hazard to navigation. From this vantage point he is able to see what those on a lower level are not aware of. This is highly important, for the appearance of a lighthouse when none is expected indicates that the ship's course needs correcting; rocks point to imminent danger; a derelict, to the need for careful steering.
To climb to the crow's-nest of spiritual observation is the way out of the beliefs of the flesh, the way of salvation from the tormenting impositions of carnal mentality, such as pain, fear, lack, death, and other undesirable conditions. Christian Science teaches the necessity of perpetually occupying the lookout post and shows mankind how to climb to this spiritual vantage point. The ascent is purely a process of spiritual enlightenment. Spiritual ignorance propagates sin, suffering, disease, and death, while Truth is the light, or intelligence, of Mind which destroys the errors of sinful sense. When the rays of Truth penetrate the darkness of mortal belief, sin and suffering cease and harmony is restored.
The basic error to be destroyed is the belief that man has an existence apart from God. Involved in this error is the supposition that God is not the only creator, but that matter, or so-called mortal mind, is a creator capable of producing something which God could not, namely, a sinful mortal. This error says that man begins as a material embryo, inhabits a material body, sins and suffers in that body, and at last dies out of it. This error presumes that the so-called laws and forces of the material universe are God-ordained and supported and that man is subject to them.
