When Mary Baker Eddy's Miscellaneous Writings was compiled, the illuminating chapter "Testimonials" was included. Among these letters from many pioneer students of Christian Science is an account of a wife's prayerful work for her husband. The writer of the letter reported: "The wife simply recognized no reality in the belief, and, seeing only perfect being, felt no fear. She did nothing,—no 'treating' in the usual sense. There is nothing to do but to understand that all is harmony, always. He felt the presence that destroys the sense of evil, and next morning—there was nothing left to recover from." Mis., p. 420;
"Nothing to do but to understand"! No personal responsibility, no pleading with God for healing, no maneuvering to bring about results, no need of medical dosing or surgery. A person's human identification, where he lives, what his background is, his race, his income, his business connections, are of no consequence in God's sight. All that matters is how thoroughly one understands that "all is harmony, always"—the ineffable stillness of knowing God.
How keenly the letter writer had grasped the deeper significance of spiritual understanding as Mrs. Eddy taught and demonstrated it! Page after page of her writings urges upon the reader the necessity of understanding the truth of God and man to find one's way out of inharmony. At one point in Science and Health she says simply, "It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony." Science and Health, p. 390; Here, indeed, is the basis of all Christian Science healing work —the right understanding of God.
Spiritual understanding leads from the belief that God can heal us to the conviction that what He has created is not in need of help, healing, resuscitation, restoration, or improvement. It is the open door leading out of the Adam world of materiality into the inspired awareness of God's presence and all-encompassing power. "Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living," Mrs. Eddy writes, "is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth. This understanding casts out error and heals the sick, and with it you can speak 'as one having authority.'" ibid., p. 14;
Spiritual understanding as Mrs. Eddy defined and demonstrated it soars above all lesser definitions and implications of the term. In its absolute sense it is the knowledge of man's real being through which Christ Jesus instantly healed the sick and sinning. It is the unshakable awareness of spiritual power that enabled him to walk over the stormy waters; the exalted conviction that Spirit is all and matter is nothing, which brought him forth from the tomb. Obviously, then, the scriptural instruction "With all thy getting get understanding" Prov. 4:7; should hold top priority for anyone who would heal with Christian Science.
Jesus' teachings, the matchless example of his works, and the rules set forth in Science and Health indicate it is possible for a dedicated and persistent seeker to acquire an understanding of God's power so instant, so instinctive, that verbal or mental argument is not needed to make it immediately operative in human experience.
Who would not delight to have so quick and sure a means of solving problems and proving that all is harmony? Mortal mind, though, is prompt to throw up barricades and produce endless excuses. Says one, "In the face of all the terrible things happening, I could never believe that 'all is harmony.'" Another may insist that he has no religious inclinations whatever, and couldn't grasp Christian Science, or that he has too little education to comprehend the textbook or is too busy to give the time to daily study. Someone else may feel that ridicule from family or associates would be too much to stand up to, or that he is doing fine just the way he now thinks, so why change?
But there are countless individuals waiting and eager to give of their heart's willingness in order to see harmony evidenced in their lives. For these, the way is simpler if they first know why Christian Science teaches that "all is harmony, always." Another of Mrs. Eddy's pithy sentences gives the answer: "All that is made is the work of God, and all is good."Science and Health, p. 521;
Consider that word "all" thoughtfully and contemplate its immensity. Applied to God's creation, it is so vast that no mortal measurement can fathom it, no degree of human comprehension is expansive enough to take it in. Pondering the significance of the word, one begins to grasp why "there is nothing to do but to understand that all is harmony, always."
Since "all" obviously includes man, perfect in God's likeness, then clearly it is human consciousness that is in need of gaining spiritual understanding. To set out on this path of unfoldment, the seeker must be equipped with a deep and constant yearning to scale the heights, and be willing to let go of materiality on the way up.
To acquire an advanced understanding of any science, certain basic principles must be accepted upon which to build further knowledge. In Christian Science this foundation rests on these premises: God is All, He created man in His likeness, spiritual and complete, and the universe of His handiwork is not the planets and separating space of the physical universe but the sum total of His ideas—pure, eternal, unfathomably infinite.
One who accepts these facts is ready to progress in his understanding and demonstration of how they can be applied in his daily life. This progress requires purifying and elevating one's human sense of being —right where one stands, facing whatever situation confronts him at the moment. Dallying around to wait for the most favorable and least demanding circumstances only wastes time. Paul—never one to mince words—laid it on the line to the backsliding Galatians when he listed the "works of the flesh" to be avoided and the qualities included in "the fruit of the Spirit"— qualities essential for anyone desiring to understand God. "The fruit of the Spirit," he said, "is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Gal. 5:19, 22, 23.
Does this seem, to the beginner, an unlikely accomplishment? Perhaps—but spiritual understanding does not suddenly appear full-blown in one's consciousness, any more than a rose opens into full bloom without first having begun as a bud. We work diligently for understanding, pray for it, and watch our thought about the seemingly unimportant hindrances.
Daily endeavor to acquire the qualities Paul mentions readies the heart to receive Spirit. By helping us recognize what is truly needful to be done and what is a nonessential time-waster, it lightens the load imposed by time limitations. It also shows that an understanding of God is not contingent on the approval of family, friends, or associates. What is important is one's reaction to ridicule, disapproval, or opposition to Christian Science or to one's study of it. Can the ridicule or skepticism of others win one back to the old ways? Can it sully thought with resentment? Can it influence the degree of weight placed in the divine scale?
In one's study to attain clearer spiritual understanding, the question of motives comes up, as it does at all points in the study and practice of Christian Science. Is this understanding desired only to solve one's own problems? Or is there a deeper yearning to be so immersed in Truth that at any moment, faced with any kind of a situation, we will have sufficient understanding of God to heal whatever may need healing, to comfort grief, to lift up the discouraged, and to see through the fog of materiality to divine reality?
Jesus spent many hours in prayer. Though he was revealing spiritual truth never before fully known to mankind, he was also working out his own salvation. And so are we. It is our own encounter with the immortal truth of being. Regardless of whatever we may do to bless humanity, each of us is responsible only for his own realization of his unity with God, infinite Love. The paramount necessity is to have the impelling motive of desiring and seeking an understanding of God and a healing realization that "all is harmony, always"—a total spiritual experience.
