Although Christian Science deals with profound basic truths relating to God and man, Spirit and matter, its teachings are not mysterious or difficult to understand. Just as the science of mathematics or the science of music has a principle and rules, so Christian Science has a divine principle and rules. This Principle is God, infinite Spirit or Mind. Christian Science teaches that man is the immortal and perfect idea of this Mind and therefore includes no material element or quality. In God's realm, which Jesus referred to as the kingdom of heaven, there is no space for matter or evil to occupy. The very expression "kingdom of heaven" implies the existence of a divine government where order, peace, and harmony prevail under divinely established laws.
The rule of Christian Science is that one obey these laws. These laws require that we put out of consciousness everything that is unlike God, good. Otherwise we cannot enjoy the blessings of the kingdom of heaven. Material sense testimony, for example, is speculative and subject to change and chance, and so it must be excluded.
Matter, however described, cannot be the expression of the one Spirit, or Mind, which is God, for matter is always the exact opposite of Spirit. Jesus' teaching on this subject was specific. He said (John 6:63), "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." And having thus disposed of matter as nothing, he added a clear explanatory description of real substance: "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." These words which Jesus spoke pointed out the importance of God-derived qualities, such as purity, receptivity, compassion, meekness, righteousness, mercy, forgiveness, love.
