Mrs. Eddy has many good things to say about experienced Christian Scientists. She expected much more of them than she did of the world in general. Her writings make clear that she wants each student of Christian Science to prove the truth of what he is studying by his own practice of it. There is no dreamy-eyed expectation that one who has not practiced what he has learned can immediately bring out the entire example of our Way-shower, Christ Jesus. Discussing the importance of being spiritually reborn, she writes: "The new birth is not the work of a moment. It begins with moments, and goes on with years;... moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, heaven-born hope, and spiritual love."Miscellaneous Writings, p. 15.
The mere passage of time is not what helps us gain spiritual understanding. Rather, each moment in which we truly surrender to the divine consciousness enables us to prove more of who we already really are as the image and likeness of God. These are moments of being spiritually reborn. Without this surrendering of the mortal selfhood in exchange for the true consciousness of Mind, many years of studying Christian Science and attending church will not give us genuine experience in Christian Science.
It is important that we understand the difference between the human and the divine, or absolute. Metaphysical work, healing prayer, is based on absolute truth. It does not try to combine the spiritually true with what seems true to the limited human sense of things, although metaphysical work does embrace the human with its healing effects.
