When Christian Science was presented to me many years ago, I remarked to a friend, "If this is the truth, it's what I've been searching for since my early teens." I had always loved the Bible stories, especially the words and works of Christ Jesus. I could never accept the concept of a God of vengeance that doomed man to eternal punishment. Christ Jesus said (John 17:3): "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." My desire was to know God and to understand the teachings of Jesus.
I obtained a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy and began an earnest study of the Bible Lesson in the Christian Science Quarterly. I could easily agree with the teaching of Christian Science, which is in accord with the first chapter of Genesis that "God saw every thing that he had made, and ... it was very good" (v. 31). But as a new student, this question kept puzzling me: If God made man perfect, and I believed He did, how did man fall from perfection?
One evening after I'd spent some time studying Science and Health, the question came again. Then, as if a voice were speaking, the answer was clear: "Man has never fallen from perfection." I caught my first glimpse of perfect God and His perfect reflection, spiritual man, and saw the distinction between spiritual reality and the Adam-dream. This new view illumined my consciousness, and a number of minor physical problems that had been with me since childhood fell away. I felt spiritually uplifted for days.
