There are two species of investigation in the realm of consciousness; the one is genuine, the other is a counterfeit. The honest investigator cares little for what the subject of his investigation claims, but more for what it really does. He holds firmly to the rule laid down by the great Wayshower, "By their fruits ye shall know them." He seldom if ever steps aside to listen to hearsay testimony. What he is after are facts, since facts can always be substantiated. The honest investigator on any plane of human activity is never classed as a denunciator or defamer. He is after the truth, and nothing short of the truth will satisfy him. He ever holds himself open to the recognition of that which is useful, practical, good, pure, and true. Above all, he goes to the fountain-head of reliable information, thereby placing himself in a position to judge accurately, without prejudice or partiality.

The honest investigator of Christian Science comes face to face with true meta-physics, not physics. He must always be fortified with meekness, humility, and justice. He will never work to sustain his own misconceptions — based always upon sense testimony; but instead to eliminate them, and to keep his mind open to the recognition of that which is intended to instruct rather than to amuse the human mind. The first and most natural query on his part will be concerning an authorized text-book upon the subject, and not some one's published criticism or pretended exposition of Christian Science. He will be too wise and too practical to imagine that a hurried or casual reading of any such work could in any sense of the word constitute a thorough investigation of its subject-matter. He knows that it will require study to lay hold of spiritual truths and to present them intelligently to others. However adverse these truths may seem to his own former habits of thought, he will recognize the necessity of making practical application of the truth before even venturing an opinion concerning it.

The text-book will tell him that because God is omnipotent, this great spiritual fact can be proven in the healing of disease; and so he begins to find out how its application can be made. He may remark to himself, as is often the case, that he has believed for years that God was all-mighty, but never before has he been told that he could make practical use of this fact in bringing about the cure of disease. "If this be true, I certainly want to know it," he further observes; and this must always be the attitude of the honest investigator. He continues to ponder and to reason, and soon he arrives at the inevitable conclusion that good is omnipotent, and because good has all power, there cannot possibly be any opposing power.

Then it is that he begins to surrender, perhaps a lifelong educated belief in evil, and to claim with his whole heart and soul the positive and absolute supremacy of good. The signs follow which the great Teacher said should follow all who spiritually understand his word. He does not stop with one demonstration, but tries again and again, until thoroughly convinced that he has the "pearl of great price," and the whisper of the serpent, "It would have been so anyway," is thoroughly silenced. He has found a demonstrable Principle, applicable to every necessity and emergency, and because he has proven it true in one or more instances, he knows that further growth in application will prove it true in greater things.

An honest investigation of Christian Science is so simple, and often so quickly attained, that many there be which stumble and fall at its very threshold. True it is that some individuals seem slow to grasp its fundamentals and to overcome the deep-seated beliefs and habits of long standing; but if these individuals are true to their highest sense of right, be their discernment of truth ever so meager, they are bound to reach the coveted goal of Spirit. Their textbook comforts them with the assurance, born of actual experience and understanding, that "nothing but wrong intention can hinder your advancement" (Science and Health, p. 326). Those who stumble and fall are those not bent upon a thorough, painstaking investigation of the subject. "I don't believe it" is too liable to hold sway with them.

This mental marauder was never known to investigate anything, and happy the man who detects and silences this thief of mortal mind before assuming to enter upon an honest investigation of Christian Science. Otherwise he will be hounded at every turning-point with the very suggestion which keeps him from proving the truth of that which he is studying. Science and Health states that "proof is essential to a due estimate of this subject" (p. 341), and the learned critics who attempt to define Christian Science without proving it true in one single case of healing, would save themselves much trouble and open the way for many of their hearers to understand Truth much sooner, were they to remember this all-important fact. Remember it they must before they can be classed as sincere and honest investigators.

Strange it is that some such appeal to anything and everything purporting to explain Christian Science, without touching the Christian Science text-book, and then tell their listeners that they have thoroughly investigated the subject. They sometimes assume that about the only fountain-head for information is the adverse criticism of some student who has failed to understand Christian Science. What moral right has any professor of religion to accept the hearsay testimony of the avowed enemies of Christian Science and then hand it out as the fruits of honest investigation? Would they be just as willing that critics should consult with infidels and agnostics in order to form a just estimate of the Christian religion? Would they be willing that these critics should ignore the Bible, or misquote it, in order to present true Christianity to the world? Would they call this honest investigation?

Science and Health gives a definition of "honesty" which every professing Christian on earth would do well to ponder; one which is doing much to lift thought into a higher sense of what this word means. It says on page 453, "Honesty is spiritual power. Dishonesty is human weakness, which forfeits divine help." Are we then, as professing Christians, truly honest until we believe sufficiently in the omnipotence of God to heal sickness as well as sin for ourselves and others? Can one assume the mental attitude that Christian Science is a mere vagary of the human mind, not attempting to prove it true in the healing of disease, and ever merit the benediction, "Well done, good and faithful servant," and expect to be thought sincere and honest? Honest investigation of Christian Science will never rest upon the plane of blind human belief. The so-called physical senses will never be able to grasp spiritual truth.

It is the province of Truth to correct and nullify sense testimony, never to accept it as reliable or spiritually true. The honest investigator will therefore "prohibit" himself "the childish pleasure of studying Truth through the senses" (see Miscellaneous Writings, by Mrs. Eddy, p. 309), and will strive to cultivate the higher or spiritual sense in man, through which sense alone all that is good, pure, true, and real passes from God to man.