Christian Science came into my life at a time when all the material joys and aids that I had been looking to for happiness and security had failed me, and I was learning that "trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff,—a broken reed, which pierces the heart" (Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, p. 66).
I began my study of Science by pondering the chapter on Prayer in the textbook, Science and Health. Here I found Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, telling us that God is Principle. She writes on page three: "Shall we ask the divine Principle of all goodness to do His own work? His work is done, and we have only to avail ourselves of God's rule in order to receive His blessing, which enables us to work out our own salvation."
Here was a revolutionary idea to me— that God is Principle. My orthodox religious background had explained God as Love, but I had seen hate; God as Life, but I had seen death; God as Spirit, but I saw nothing but matter. But the thought of God as Principle opened a new world to me. The fact that a principle underlies and governs music, mathematics, and physics was clear to me, and logic would indicate that divine Principle must surely underlie and govern man and the universe also. Principle, I realized, could have no valid opposing force. Only ignorance of Principle causes mistakes or misconceptions.
