Christian Science is the most simple and practical teaching which engages the attention of mankind, although to those of opposite view it may seem at first sight to be vague and visionary, if not impossible. Goodness and love are elemental qualities of being, without which even the human sense of existence would be a blank, and yet to the purely sensuous thought these essentials of true manhood are as mere abstractions. In like manner the human mind, looking upon all things as material, may regard Christian Science as mystical and impracticable in this present world; whereas this teaching so clears the thought that mortals may perceive and appropriate the truth of man's spiritual being while yet sojourning in the flesh. In its operation and effect Christian Science is as simple and potent as the action and influence of goodness and love on human character and conduct. The importance of gaining an understanding of its teaching is commensurate not only with the splendor of its promise and the large measure of their fulfilment, but with mankind's desperate need.

Christian Science practice has no alliance or kinship with the occultism of the human mind, nor with any of its hypnotic or suggestive mental methods. In simple phrase it is the reformation of wrong ideals, the correction of mistakes, the rearrangement of thought to conform to the acceptance of the Divine supremacy and of man's spiritual perfection in the likeness of God. Any seeming difficulty in understanding this process lies wholly with mortals' unwillingness to learn and be governed by these truths. The threshold of the understanding and demonstration of Christian Science is the desire and readiness to give up the delusions of evil for the reality and permanence of good, the human material ideal for the spiritual Christ-ideal, with all that this implies. When the heart is glad to lay upon the altar all that would oppose or subdue the spiritual nature of man, the Science of Christianity is easily learned.

On the plane of human experience nothing is simpler or of more natural performance than the reversal of an exposed falsehood, the correction of an error, and the reordering of one's affairs in harmony with discovered truth. This is not regarded as impracticable, nor does any one question the effectiveness of the change resulting therefrom. The first thing one usually does, upon learning that he has been deceived in any course, is to seek the truth and adjust his thought and conduct to it, no longer considering his former belief true or real. He applies the truth, discovered by himself or another, to what had been falsely believed, and the result corresponds to the corrected belief. This is universally considered to be the natural and right thing to do in the ordinary affairs of life, then why should the same method be looked upon askance when used in Christian Science for the reclamation of the sick and the sinner from the false state into which their erroneous beliefs have led them.

There is no other successful way to treat a mistake than with the truth. Every schoolboy is aware of this unexceptional rule. An error has no right to exist or continue its delusions, and no one desires it to do so unless he is dishonest and hopes to profit thereby. The difficulty generally seems to be in perceiving that all human discords are mistakes, and in treating them accordingly. Yet if God and His works are accepted as the standard of truth, it should not be hard to conclude that evil, with its array of dire conditions, is a mistake, a state of things that does not result from Truth nor lead mortals thereto. If the wretched moral and physical conditions prevailing among men must sometime be worked out of and overcome before men can be wholly good and pure and Godlike, it should not be hard to conclude that they represent an erroneous and not the true state of being; that is, that they result from the mistake of humanity, from wrong methods of thinking, and their consequent errors of believing. Then why not treat them as mistakes? Why not antidote them with the truth of being, even as goodness and love, if allowed to control thought, overcome evil and hate? Sickness must be as much of a mistake as is sin, for both proceed from the same false material premise, and both are healed through Christian Science by the application of the one truth.

A traveler who discovers that he is on the wrong train, does not reconcile himself to his false position by reflecting that because the engine and the speed and the train seem real and tangible, it must be true that he is there, and that although he will suffer much inconvenience he cannot alter his course, but must continue to the end of the road. Instead, he gets out at the first opportunity and takes the next train back; he corrects his mistake. The discovery that he is going the wrong way makes it possible for him to rectify his mistake, whereas his ignorance or denial of this would perpetuate his error and its consequences. Then what of him who is on the wrong road mentally and morally, the results whereof are apparent in sin and suffering? When he discovers his error is there no remedy therefor, no truth of the right way for him to apply without going on to the end of his wrong course? Does not the true road exist for him at the moment he discovers his mistake, and is there no means at hand whereby he can get back to the right starting-point? Does Christianity provide in this present world no return journey from the errors of the flesh and evil back to the truth of being and to God?

If one's ideal of life is wrong, if it leads him into error and sin, can it not be corrected as surely as that God is good and truth is true? Does not the fact that God is, that truth is, bear with it the possibility that one can forsake his false position and reform his way (thoughts)? All reform work, all Christian effort is based on this possibility: without it mortal man has no hope, while with it he may recover himself and establish his thought on the truth. Christian Science may well be called the hope of the race, for it has taken this possibility out of the realm of abstract logic and brought it into the range of every one's understanding and ability, making plain and practical the Christ-method whereby mortals may correct their errors, forsake their unrighteous thoughts, and come naturally into a more harmonious and spiritual sense of existence.

Considered in its broadest application, Christian Science practice is the correction of mistakes, the redemption of humanity from false conditions, the eradication of sin and disease from human experience because of their untruthfulness. The presence of an error is detected by results. A mistake has occurred in the working out of a student's problem when the answer is wrong. And likewise a mistake exists in the human concept of being when the result is a sick and sinful sense of man. Then how else can this error be corrected, and the resultant sin and sickness be removed, except through gaining the true idea in its place, the idea which Jesus represented, and upon which all his teachings and works were based? The working out of one's salvation according to this rule is as simple and effective in practical Christianity as it is in practical mathematics, a conclusion which the successful healing and reformatory work of Christian Science fully justifies.

Christian Science necessarily rests upon a spiritual basis, the basis that Being is Spirit and that His creation is spiritual and good; the basis of the divine fatherhood and man's spiritual sonship. As the individual wakens to perceive his error, to recognize that he is on the wrong course, this truth is ever ready to help him on his return journey. It is the Christ knocking at the door of the human heart. The mortal who hears and understands this knocking, becomes aware how cold and poor and mean is his material thought-dwelling; and he opens the door at once if he is wise. Why should he remain shivering and suffering in his wretchedness, when his door opens from the inside, and the redeeming Truth waits for admission? Why should he believe that he must continue in his miserable habitation until it decays and crumbles upon him, before the Christ can help and save him, while his angel visitant waits perennially for the opening of the door that he may enter and illumine and regenerate thought and being?

The opening of the human thought-door to the Christ-truth is Christian Science in operation. As thought welcomes this divine guest, the errors that formerly held sway begin to disappear, and the result is seen outwardly in improved moral and physical conditions; the individual becomes more loving and just, more harmonious and successful in all that pertains to his existence. This proves the position of Christian Science, and works for human betterment and salvation. Errors that are corrected cease to exist; and the results that flowed therefrom, no longer having a source of supply, also cease to exist. Mankind will continue to sin and suffer, sicken and die, in their material sense of being, so long as they believe life to be something apart from God. Is it not time that this error of the ages be uncovered and rebuked, and mortals be shown their way to freedom,—to health and righteousness and eternal life? To do this was the mission of Jesus; and it is the mission of Christian Science.