Each morning when we get up we wash our hands and face, and often the whole body, in order to be clean and fresh. But what about our thinking? Can we be as faithful about refreshing our thoughts? Mrs. Eddy reminds us, "We need a clean body and a clean mind,—a body rendered pure by Mind as well as washed by water." Science and Health, p. 383;
This cleansing of consciousness by letting our thoughts flow from divine Mind —from an understanding of life in Spirit rather than from belief in a material body—is the essence of baptism as taught in Christian Science. It is the purifying process through which we see our own identity, and that of our neighbor, as God's perfect, spiritual child. It is an immersion of thought in Spirit's allness and goodness, which washes away the encrusted material beliefs of sin, disease, and death. It is the operation of the Christ in our consciousness, which attests our readiness to join the Church built on the divine Principle of spiritual healing as practiced by the master Christian.
Mrs. Eddy defines "baptism" as follows: "Purification by Spirit; submergence in Spirit." And she goes on, "We are 'willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.' (II Corinthians v. 8.)"ibid., p. 581;
