REFORMATION is a great step in any individual's life. It implies a radical change for the better, progress towards a goal. In Christian Science, this goal is spiritual perfection, and its attainment is through individual salvation. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 5): "Sorrow for wrong-doing is but one step towards reform and the very easiest step. The next and great step required by wisdom is the test of our sincerity,—namely, reformation."
Mrs. Eddy does not leave us in the dark concerning reformation. In Science and Health and in her other writings, she makes known to mankind the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures. She declares that God is incorporeal and therefore Spirit, infinite Mind, Life, Truth, Love, and that man is spiritual, not material, God's image and likeness, as the Bible tells us. Above all, she shows how these truths of immortal being can be made practical in human experience. If these truths were not practical, what chance would there be for reformation and ultimate salvation?
Reformation in the light of Christian Science is not a pious gesture. It is the turning away from matter to Spirit, from the mortal or carnal mind to spiritual consciousness or the Christ-idea. It is the putting into practice of the truths of being explained by Mrs. Eddy. No one can do these things with a divided loyalty. We must love God supremely before we can truly say we have taken the great step in the reformation process. The unceasing prayer which seeks to realize the truths of spiritual being taught in Christian Science and thus to demonstrate the real man's oneness, that is, his individual unity, with Deity testifies to reformation.
