The Christian Scientist is engaged in gaining an ever clearer understanding of what constitutes his true being from the standpoint of spiritual truth. Early in his study of the Scriptures and of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, he achieves a constantly growing understanding of God's allness. He learns that God is infinite Spirit, or divine Love, and that, in reality, he himself is the image or reflection of that Love; hence he is spiritual, complete, and immortal. He learns that his identity is individual and distinct, partaking of the nature of God and reflecting the capacities inherent in divine being.
To human sense, however, man appears to be mortal and imperfect; therefore to realize one's true selfhood it is necessary to separate one's thoughts of self from the kind of ego or personality which mortal sense presents, and to identify oneself only as God knows man. This identity includes nothing material, physical, or finite; and the understanding and demonstration of this true individuality in human experience is the open door out of the beliefs of materiality and suffering.
In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy gives a simple and scientific guide to the perception and expression of true selfhood in the unqualified answer to her own question: "How shall we reach our true selves?" She says (p. 104): "Through Love. The Principle of Christian Science is Love, and its idea represents Love. This divine Principle and idea are demonstrated in healing, to be God and the real man." She then adds: "Who wants to be mortal, or would not gain the true ideal of Life and recover his own individuality? I will love, if another hates. I will gain a balance on the side of good, my true being. This alone gives me the forces of God wherewith to overcome all error."
