The right understanding of God and man as revealed in Christian Science and confirmed by proofs of healing establishes spiritual conviction. The earnest student of the Bible and of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy soon becomes impressed by the finality with which the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science writes. His yielding to spiritual facts is an expression of understanding instead of believing, accepting instead of contending, of promptly obeying instead of delaying. Recognizing divine guidance, he demonstrates the power and presence of God. In the consciousness of real manhood, he realizes the unreality of sin, sickness, and death.
Spiritual conviction is imparted by divine Mind to all who understand the truth of God and man and the nothingness of error. When the seeker for ever-present spiritual light becomes definitely convinced that he has this light, there is established with him an anchorage derived from an infallible starting point, which is divine Principle, God. The Bible says of God (Deut. 32:4), "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he."
In reply to his opponents to whom spiritual truth was unknown, Christ Jesus said (John 8:46, 47): "Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God." This rebuke was directed against mortals and the error by which they are deceived, against beliefs which did not influence Jesus but which, if accepted, tend to mesmerize and turn attention from spiritual reality to sin, sickness, death, and other discords.
Recognizing the Master's pattern of redemption from evil, one may ask himself just what he has been accepting as convincing argument. Does the argument pertain to perfect God and perfect man in God's likeness and to what God truly is and does as infinite Mind, Life, and Love? Or does it present only matter and evil, under the mistaken theory that there is nothing beyond that level of belief which can be convincingly known? What was convincing to Christ Jesus surely should be fixed conviction with all his followers. Jesus saw the fleshly beliefs constituting mortal mind as ignorance of reality and as being forever separated from God and His idea, man. Being unreal, mortal beliefs cannot abide in the presence of divine understanding and actual spiritual conviction.
In Science and Health our Leader writes (p. 90): "The admission to one's self that man is God's own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea. This conviction shuts the door on death, and opens it wide towards immortality." Our Leader's words lead to the proof that man is the reflection of Spirit and cannot express any qualities unlike God.
The truth of God and man, as made known in Christian Science, is the first and governing consideration in all Christian Science activity. Without the conviction of God and man as divine Principle and idea one's thought deviates from the essence of the Science of being, and ensuing effects are on a material basis. Christian Science cannot be used as a means for manipulating mortal affairs according to material desires or planning. Science is the means of doing the will of God, Love, whose eternal design is free from the limitations of matter and evil. In Christian Science one looks for complete redemption from sin and accepts no mortal mind self-justification.
From their study of the Bible in the light thrown upon it by Science and Health, many for the first time learn that mortal discords can be overcome by denial, because they are not from God. Christian Scientists deny error, not as though they opposed something actually existing, but by knowing the unreality of such beliefs as heredity, lack, sickness, and death, and Truth's superiority over them. Divine Mind establishes spiritual conviction patterned after pure, immortal reality. Thus, where true understanding and spiritual conviction abide, one involuntarily rejects matter and evil.
God's idea, man, is not associated with or related to anything mortal. Immortality and mortality, life and death, good and evil, are opposites; and they are forever without affinity. If one's concept of Christ's Christianity rises no higher than good human conduct, however commendable, this concept is not the higher atmosphere in which spiritual understanding and conviction are possible here and now.
In the twenty-fourth chapter of Luke we read that Christ Jesus, after the resurrection, met two of his followers on a walk to Emmaus and afterwards met with his disciples. The Bible records that in each instance Jesus imparted to them spiritual understanding. Previously he had said (John 14:26), "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." In her book "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 109), "If nineteen hundred years ago Christ taught his followers to heal the sick, he is to-day teaching them the same heavenly lesson."
Jesus unfolded the Science of being, the pure truth, without beginning or ending. These healing illuminations are in no manner dependent on time, place, doctrine, creed, or human personality. This imperishable light is for all who seek for it with all their heart. Mrs. Eddy's studious, unselfish preparation enabled her to grasp this living truth, the pure and ever-available Science of being, which the Master's words and works impart to his disciples in all times. To all of the dear ones who turn to God through Christian Science there appear infinite light and immovable spiritual conviction.
In 1888 Mrs. Eddy delivered an address at an open meeting in Chicago, and a Boston newspaper reported that many healings took place during the address. Eleven healings were actually verified. In this address, included in "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mrs. Eddy, we find the following steadfast conviction expressed (p. 101): "If God is All, and God is good, it follows that all must be good; and no other power, law, or intelligence can exist. On this proof rest premise and conclusion in Science, and the facts that disprove the evidence of the senses." Understanding, conviction, finality, become real to one through Christian Science.
