All men have debts to pay. Many people feel heavily burdened by their debts, and some are disturbed when these are not promptly paid by friends or business associates who are indebted to them. Christian Science reveals to all men the sure way of canceling all debts promptly, effectively, and harmoniously.
What is the one great debt which all men owe? It is stated in the First Commandment (Ex. 20:3), "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." We pay this debt only as we love God, Spirit, above all else and recognize creation as spiritual, supplied with the unlimited resources of divine Love. Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, calls upon us to pay our debt to God continually. She writes in the Manual of The Mother Church (Art. XVII, Sect. 2), "Gratitude and love should abide in every heart each day of all the years." And she shows us in the statement which follows this command that we can pay our debt of gratitude and love by following in the Christlike way as lived by Jesus and clearly explained in Christian Science. Indeed, we cannot pay our debt to God in full unless we daily acknowledge the great gifts which have come to us through Jesus and his faithful follower, Mrs. Eddy.
In the Lord's Prayer we are told to pray (Matt. 6:12), "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." And in Christian Science we learn clearly that forgiveness is more than the mere act of canceling a debt, whatever its nature. Forgiveness requires spiritual activity. Even people who have paid a debt of money in full, or who have forgiven a fault or have been forgiven, may still have a sense of indebtedness, a lingering feeling of self-righteousness or self-depreciation. True forgiveness, or the cancellation of the indebtedness, requires the understanding that man is forever spiritual and never subject to the enslavements of mortal beliefs—lack, inharmony, misunderstanding.
