Chapter 1 — Explanations Introductory to Class

From Christian Science, Its “Clear, Correct Teaching” by



“There is no expedient to which man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.”

(Sir) Joshua Reynolds.

“Materialism, once a scientific theory, is now the fatalistic creed of thousands, but materialism is nothing better than a superstition on the same level as a belief in witches and devils.”

John Scott Haldane.

“Some day people will learn that material things will not bring happiness and are of little use in making men and women creative and powerful. Then the scientists of the world will turn their laboratories to the study of God and Prayer, and the spiritual forces which as yet have hardly been scratched. When this day comes, the world will see more advancement in one generation that it has seen in the past four.”

Charles P. Steinmetz.





Solomon said, “there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecc. 1: 9.) This statement is metaphysical and therefore true. In the language of to-day it means, that no one can be told one thing that he does not already know. Because infinite intelligence is omnipresent, it is the intelligence of all,therefore one and all know all. Then what seems like the learning of something new is but the focusing attention on what one already knows even though he may seem completely unaware of knowing it.

Before beginning the routine of the class, a number of points should be carefully weighed and settled. What is the purpose of any class?

Is it not self-evidently, enlightenment?

Then the purpose of a Christian Science class is to gain an understanding of what Christian Science really means and is, thus establishing a working basis for thinking.

This is the motive for your being in class. The well-springs of that motive must be sincerity and honesty, without which little progress can be made.

In order that this understanding may be available for your use, it must be orderly and natural, with no “skipping of hurdles” and no lapse in the continuity of your argument.

Each step must be taken understandingly. This can be done only if each step is based logically and inevitably on the step previously taken.




A Foundation Stone Necessary

First there must be the certain knowledge of some basic fact on which to start the structure: something so self-evident that it cannot be impugned, and so obviously true that it carries instant conviction.

Such knowing is the rock, and the only rock upon which to lay the foundation.

Then follows the orderly laying of one “stone,” (Isa. 28: 16) one established fact, upon another, each one true to the “plumbline,” (Amos 7: 8) until the structure of reasoning is complete and available for use.

Because the whole of Christian Science is correct thinking, in other words, communion with intelligence, it is understanding. Thus all laborious effort to remember is unnecessary.

Memory, as human belief conceives of it, consists of impressions, or grooves made on the brain as on a phonograph record, to be later reproduced.

Christian Science, being understanding, not a brain record, is thinking seen as action, not brain-grooves which can so easily fade.

Infinite Mind is infinite memory. It embraces within itself all knowing, which includes all memory, but this is Mind-action, not brain-action.

As in mathematics, the knowing that two times two is four obviates the necessity for remembering it. So is it with all understanding.

Knowing is understanding and includes within itself all memory.




Alone With Your Own Understanding

This class, being understanding, is your understanding. In it you are alone with Mind. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” (Isa. 1: 18)

You must be willing to accept any statement of Truth that is your own logical deduction, and unwilling to accept anything equivocal, or not clear to you, no matter from what authority it may be said to have come.

You must be convinced by your own reasoning, for you can use nothing about which you are uncertain. “Be thoroughly persuaded in your own mind concerning the truth which you think or speak, and you will be the victor.” (S. & H. 412: 7)

Conversely, you must be just as determined to keep an open mind, remembering Paul’s statement, “If any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.” (I Cor. 8: 2)

When a truth, based on your accepted premise and correctly deduced, is established, even if the conclusion disagrees with your preconceived ideas, accept it gladly and do not allow prejudice to blind you.

Conceit is fatal to progress, and as Mrs. Eddy says, “Conceit cannot avert the effects of deceit.” (No. 2: 24)

Self-opinion, except when based on reality, is valueless. On the other hand, “Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear, — this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony.” (S. & H. 323: 32)

Human opinion weighs not one iota in the scale of infinite intelligence.

Then until you have made Christian Science your own through understanding and demonstration, it is folly to discuss what you believe it to be. Furthermore Jesus said, “neither cast ye your pearls before swine.” (Matt. 7:6)

In “thy closet” (Matt. 6: 6) alone with Mind, you find your strength.

There, “in the secret place of the most High,” (Ps. 91: 1) your conclusions are your own. They are the truth to you because you have deduced them logically, not because the Bible or Science and Health has stated them.

Nothing is true merely because some one has said it or because it is in a book. All that constitutes the truth is its own inherent truthfulness.

Then the truth of Christian Science must be established independently of what Mrs. Eddy or the Bible has said. It must be discovered as fundamentally true.

As this is done, it will be found that the statements in the Bible and in Science and Health are true, not because they are in these books but because they are true in themselves.

Because they are true, they are in these books.These books are a record of the truth, and are therefore to be earnestly studied.




The Importance Of Words

Another fact to be understood is that no word, no combination of letters has any meaning to you unless it conveys something to your thought.

Only as a word gives impulse to your thought does it have any value for you.

Therefore, in using words, it is far betterto find your own word, one that does definitely define something to you, than to adopt another’s word that does not give impulse to your own thought.

Jesus said, “When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” (Matt. 6: 7)

Nothing is gained by the mere language you use.

Jesus also declared, “I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” (Matt. 12: 36, 37.)

Use, then, only the words which you understand. That gives account of them and justifies them. In turn, they give the right impulse to thought and you speak as one having authority and not as the Scribes and Pharisees. You think with authority also.

Avoid giving theological meanings to words, which may lead only to ecstasy of thought. Simplicity in words makes them more forceful.

Jesus’ words were simple and direct, and al-ways powerful.

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address lives and is quoted because it is simple, direct, and sincere.

To be direct and sincere one must have definite conviction. “Sincerity is more successful than genius or talent.” (’00 9: 18)

An honest Christian Scientist cannot remain a belief Scientist nor a faith Scientist: he must be an understanding Scientist, knowing what he knows.




What Does The Term Christian Science Signify?

Christian means pertaining to the Christ.Jesus declared of the Christ, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (Jno. 14: 6)

Then the Christ is the truth, and therefore,the term Christian must mean “pertaining to the truth.” Science means exact knowledge. The word is derived from the Latin scio, I know.

Hence Christian Science means exact knowledge of the truth; in other words, right knowing.

Right knowing is what is meant by the word intelligence, another name for Mind. This we shall prove is synonymous with the word God. Thus we shall find Christian Science to mean God.

Speculation no more enters into the study of Christian Science than into the study of mathematics. Understanding alone counts: therefore, “With all thy getting get understanding.” (Prov. 4: 7)

“Reason is the most active human faculty.” (S. & H. 327: 29) Reason establishes every step in Christian Science.

Reasoning brings forth all opposing arguments and meets them with the true arguments, exactly as right mathematical reasoning meets every mathematical problem.




Certain Statements Examined

Let us now examine certain of Mrs. Eddy’s statements and see if we can accept them through our own reason, wholly apart from the fact thatit was Mrs. Eddy who made them. She says,

“That glory only is imperishable which is fixed in one’s own moral make-up.” (My. 122: 5)

“Moral” means pertaining to action with reference to right and wrong, and refers always to the mental rather than to the physical.

Sin is considered a wilful mental act, a moral offense under the control of the individual, as contrasted to sickness, which is commonly, though erroneously thought of as physical, hence outside of mental control.

However, is it not a fact that that which you understand is alone truth to you — in other words, that which is mental or moral, and so fundamentally right, “imperishable”?

Nothing physical is “imperishable.”

Mrs. Eddy’s statement, then, means that the only glory that is imperishable is that glory which is established as understanding and is one’s very own and so constitutes “one’s own moral makeup.”

Again she says,

“The infinite will not be buried in the finite; the true thought escapes from the inward to the outward, and this is the only right activity, that whereby we reach our higher nature.” (My. 159: 14)

The only thought that has permanency with you is the one that begins in yourself and is understood by you.

You may recall, as an act of memory, things which you have been told; but until you understand them, you do not actually know them. They cannot unfold into further understanding unless they begin in yourself, in what you comprehend.

Beginning in your own comprehension, they escape from the finite, the inward, the lesser, to the outward, the greater, even as two times two escapes from its first limited sense of being just four, to the larger sense of two times two billions being four billions and so on to infinity.

So it is with all thinking, and particularly with that thinking which deals with man’s relation to his divine Principle.

That which constitutes the “I” or consciousness of the individual — in other words, the “inward,” can never rest in the finite or limited sense, but must ever reach out to oneness with the infinite, the “outward” or unlimited. Thus is the higher nature reached.

“We must resign with good grace what we are denied, and press on with what we are, for we cannot do more than we are nor understand what is not ripening in us.” (My. 195: 13)

In mathematics, the only thing one is deniedis the point he does not grasp. He is denied nothing he understands. But he can utilize no fact he does not master.

It is exactly the same in the Science of being. You can use only what you understand; therefore, you are spontaneously denied what you do not understand.

What constitutes your being?

Certainly you would not say it is your body.

So it must be your understanding. Therefore,it is your understanding that constitutes your real entity; in other words, what you are.

You can press on with what you are, with what you understand, because that constantly unfolds to you.

Its basis is Mind, infinity. Therefore,it keeps “ripening” within you.

You gladly “resign” the rest, that which you do not understand, and therefore cannot utilize.

“We understand best that which begins in ourselves and by education brightens into birth.” (My. 253: 26)

This statement again brings home the fact that understanding is not something that is told you, but something that is based upon and developed from that which you know and which by application “brightens into birth.”

It is permanently yours, dependent upon nothing outside yourself, outside your consciously being, your communion with Mind.

However small the beginning, its growth will be “sturdy, and its maturity undecaying.” (S. & H. 463: 16) “The burden of proof that Christian Science is Science rests on Christian Scientists.” (My. 158: 17)

Again using mathematics as a basis of comparison, the burden of the proof of mathematicsrests with the mathematician. He shows forth mathematics. Without him, it would be unknown.

Without the Christian Scientist to prove it, Christian Science would be unknown.

But this point must be emphasized: it is the “proof” and not the fact of Christian Science that rests with the Christian Scientist.

The fact stands irrefutable, regardless of any so-called proof; but without the ChristianScientist to show it forth, the fact would not be known.

The “burden of proof” implies the necessity of being a consistent Christian Scientist so that the truth of Christian Science may be seen and known. That “burden” consists of merely being man.

“Again I repeat, person is not in the question of Christian Science. Principle, instead of person, is next to our hearts, on our lips, and in our lives.” (Mis. 135: 2)

Person does not enter into the consideration of any question in Christian Science.

But this does not mean that Christian Science, as Mind, does not appear as person. That is to say, we interpret it as person in the same way that we interpret music as notes. But we must see through this appearance, or interpretation, to the Principle underlying the outward expression or interpretation appearing as person.

The entertaining of a finite or personal sense separates one spontaneously from Principle, the infinity that is Mind.

“Remember, it is personality, and the sense of personality in God or in man, that limits man.” (Mis. 282: 4)

If you personalize two times two is four, and think of it as a thing instead of as idea, does not that instantly limit your use of it?

The value of mathematics to you is its everpresence with you, occupying no space, and yet always available for your use in the way most suited to the need of the moment.

Personalizing, in other words, outlining, limiting, or forming a finite sense of either God or man, has the same effect in the Science of being that it has in the science of numbers. It finitizes your sense of it and makes its use impossible.

“To impersonalize scientifically the material sense of existence — rather than cling to personality — is the lesson of to-day.” (Mis. 310: 7)

The one need for the thinker today is to impersonalize his sense of person, to dematerialize his sense of things. Only in doing this is he released from the finite sense of being with its picture of sin, disease and death.

In every new invention, thought breaks through the fetters of limitation, and invariably less and less matter accompanies the improvement.

Thought cannot be unfettered until it finds Mind as All-in-all.

A material or finite sense of existence must be exchanged for the spiritual or Mind-sense.

“To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal,is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science.” (My. 160: 5)

In the realm of music, the musician keeps his ear in constant accord with the correct tone. A true musician is never off the key.

This individualizes for him the power of music.

In like manner the true Christian Scientist finds the one Mind as the All-mind, as his Mind, as his “key” that individualizes for him the infinite power of Mind and maintains him “in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal.”

This constitutes the Christian Scientist.

“Christian Science is absolute; it is neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing towards it; it is at this point and must be practiced therefrom.” (My. 242: 5)

Just as mathematics is the same yesterday, today, and forever, never behind the point of perfection nor advancing towards it but always declaring two times two to be the same four, so the Science of being is intact and whole.

There is no advancing towards wholeness. It is already a fact; and just as mathematics is applied from the standpoint of absoluteness, so must Christian Science be applied from the same standpoint.

It does not bow down to human desire or weakness. Every thought must be brought into obedience to the truth of being.

Christian Science yields to nothing. It never changes. It stands as the perfection of all being, now and always. It reveals perpetual wholeness.

“Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man’s dominion over the whole earth.” (S. & H. 14: 25)

No human concept enters into your consideration of mathematics; neither can it enter into your understanding of Christian Science.

Human belief has to take off its shoes before entering the holy place of spiritual understanding. Materiality must give place to “the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold” (S. & H. 585: 11) before the portals of Christian Science are entered. Unwillingness to do this defeats progress, for “whoso builds on less than an immortal basis, hath built on sand.” (Hea. 1: 8.)

“Every step of progress is a step more spiritual. The great element of reform is not born of human wisdom; it draws not its life from human organizations; rather is it the crumbling away of material elements from reason, the translation of law back to its original language, — Mind, and the final unity between man and God.” (Peo. 1: 2)

“The Christian Scientist is alone with his own being and with the reality of things.” (01 20: 8)

You must be willing to abide alone with Mind, with all that Mind includes and is, just as you must abide alone with the principle of numbers if you are to progress in mathematics.

Into this aloneness that is isness, nothing can enter. It is the solitude of Mind embracing all.It is not emptiness, but the satisfaction of allness.

You are always alone with consciousness — with your own consciousness, and with all that consciousness is.




What Do These Statements Mean?

Summed up, what do all these statements mean?

They emphasize the fact that you are required to be materially selfless, to accept onlywhat you know, what you understand. You are to disregard what you have merely believed or had faith in because you accepted its source as humanly authoritative.

You can apply all that you understand; andwhat you understand constitutes what you really are.” Into this understanding no personal or finite sense enters.

As the High Priest, the true sense of being, alone entered the Holy of Holies, so you are always alone in the Holy of Holies with your ownconsciousness, with what you admit consciousness to be.

With this foundation upon which to stand, one can go forward and establish what Christian Science is and what it teaches.




Steps Of Procedure In Class

The natural order followed by a class in Christian Science is: first, it establishes the true; second, it defines and analyzes the false; and lastly, it shows how the true is the positive and the false is the negative aspect of the same truth which, when reversed, leaves “nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.” (S. & H. 340: 29)

Under the first, or true sense of being, is found what is termed God and what God is God to;in other words, God and His man and all that this includes.

Under the second or false sense of being, we deal with the negative or suppositional opposite of God, called evil and its man.

The final step shows that the negative or opposite must have that which it negatives or is opposed to.

Therefore the negation exists only as a negative definition or proof of the positive which is true.

When this is understood, thought turns spontaneously to the true and abandons the false sense that would have two realms, one good and one evil, one to be attained at some future time, the other to be combated as a reality now.

This is the true sense replacing the false sense of the negative, leaving the clear understanding that “the reverse of error is true.” (S. & H. 442: 18) This is the quickening spirit that abandons the “first man Adam,” leaving only perfection, with its “last Adam.” (I Cor. 15: 45)

This constitutes Christian Science and its practice and follows the order of the Bible.

In the first chapter of Genesis, there is given the true picture of creation, God and His perfect man.

The second chapter portrays another picture, that of the so-called Lord God, and his man formed of the dust of the ground — the exact opposite of the first account of creation, wherein man is portrayed as the image and likeness of Spirit.

The remainder of the Bible is devoted to showing how this suppositional creation, with all its false beliefs, is scientifically replaced by the understanding of the true creation as the only reality.

The Bible ends with the book of Revelation, in which is forecast the destruction of all evilthrough the “little book,” (Rev. 10: 2) which is to rule “with a rod of iron.” (Rev. 12: 5)

This “little book,” Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, is showing to the world that the false sense of being, and all that it includes, inevitably disappears with the realization that the real and true is All-in-all.



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Love is the liberator.