In the quest to progress in the spiritual understanding and demonstration of Christian Science, the chapter entitled “Christian Science Practice” in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy is an indispensable resource. It provides inspiration and guidance.
The first few pages of this chapter hold special significance. Recounting the story of Jesus, Simon the Pharisee, and a certain woman, as told in Luke’s Gospel, they highlight the spiritual qualities of thought a Christian Scientist should be entertaining (see Luke 7:36–50 and Science and Health, pp. 362–364).
Mrs. Eddy retells how Jesus was Simon’s honored guest, and how the woman (thought by some to have been Mary Magdalene) appeared, breaking rabbinical law. How she washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and anointed them with a costly oil, using her long hair to wipe them; and how the compassion which Jesus expressed rebuked the unfeeling, judgmental reaction of Simon. Then Mrs. Eddy reveals to the reader the reason for beginning the chapter with this biblical event. She writes: “The benign thought of Jesus, finding utterance in such words as ‘Take no thought for your life,’ would heal the sick, and so enable them to rise above the supposed necessity for physical thought-taking and doctoring; but if the unselfish affections be lacking, and common sense and common humanity are disregarded, what mental quality remains, with which to evoke healing from the outstretched arm of righteousness?” (p. 365).
