Christ Jesus showed mankind the way out of a limited sense of being, and Mary Baker Eddy discovered the positive rule used by Jesus. The affluence of God, or abundant supply of good, is fully explained in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." Here, speaking of knowing God spiritually and not materially, Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 140), "We shall obey and adore in proportion as we apprehend the divine nature and love Him understandingly, warring no more over the corporeality, but rejoicing in the affluence of our God."
However, do we obey and adore God unless "we apprehend the divine nature and love Him understandingly"? To the question, "What is God?" Mrs. Eddy gives the following conclusive answer (ibid., p. 465): "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." This definition clearly explains God's divine nature and enables us to love Him with understanding.
In order to conceive of God's affluence it is necessary to give up mortal beliefs of every name and nature and to entertain spiritual thoughts. Through devious means the five material senses may try to entice mankind away from the immortal idea of God and of man as God's reflection. However, Mrs. Eddy plainly states the Christian Scientist's position when she writes in our textbook (ibid., p. 262): "We cannot fathom the nature and quality of God's creation by diving into the shallows of mortal belief. We must reverse our feeble flutterings—our efforts to find life and truth in matter—and rise above the testimony of the material senses, above the mortal to the immortal idea of God."
