One day a cook who had been very successful in making cakes turned out a cake that was a failure. On reviewing her recipe to find out where the fault lay, she discovered that she had omitted a spoonful of baking powder in the batter. Although she had used the finest ingredients otherwise, she found that her cake was worthless because of the lack of a fraction of a cent's worth of leavening. The science of chemistry demands absolute obedience to its laws if one is to be successful in its use, be it cooking or chemistry of any sort. It makes no difference whether one leaves out an ingredient purposely, carelessly, or ignorantly, it matters not if the ingredient be a small or large one, neglect in following the recipe will result in failure.
In the same way the rules of the Science of Christianity—Christian Science—must be faithfully obeyed if the use of this Science is to result in demonstration. No willful or ignorant omission of its rules, even in little things, is allowable.
If an earnest Christian Scientist occasionally finds a problem in his experience which does not yield, he does not blame the Science of Christianity for his failure any more than a cook blames the science of chemistry for her failure. Instead, the Scientist prays humbly and earnestly that whatever he needs to do or think about a certain situation may be revealed to him. God, Mind, is always communicating with His idea, man, and the Scientist cannot help hearing this divine guidance when he is humble enough to listen for it. Furthermore, he does not consider any situation as too small to bother about. Well does he know that it is "the little foxes, that spoil the vines" (S. of Sol. 2:15). Mary Baker Eddy states in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 118), "To obey the principle of mathematics ninety-nine times in one hundred and then allow one numeral to make incorrect your entire problem, is neither Science nor obedience."
