The tide had reached the full and was beginning to ebb. Far out in the cove lay a dull object which at first sight seemed to be floating in the water, but which on further scrutiny proved to be a rock protruding above the surface. As the water continued to recede another jagged bit of rock became visible at a little distance from the first, then another, and so on until a broad reef was exposed to view; and before the tide had reached low ebb it was seen that each rocky projection which, when isolated by the water, had seemed independent of the rest, rose from an underlying ledge or bed of rock which extended out from the mainland where the observer was seated.

This incident illustrates certain phases of experience encountered by the student of Christian Science. Although the ledge had been there all the while, no indication of its presence appeared so long as it remained submerged; but when left bare by the outgoing tide, its characteristic features stood forth in bold relief. Thus it is with the reality of spiritual or absolute being. As the miracles, so styled, of early Christianity had come to be viewed from the standpoint of modern religious thought across the intervening centuries of material belief and theological dogmatism, they seemed to stand out like special exhibitions of a supernatural order with no common ground to connect them with present experience. In process of time, however, a reaction of thought set in; the tide which had given materialistic interpretations the ascendency turned and began to seek more spiritual levels.

The subsidence of this material element in human concepts reached the point at length where Mrs. Eddy, who had long been pondering the question of metaphysical causation, was led in the course of experience to discover that all real phenomena of being have a common basis in divine Principle. The recognition of this fact gave assurance that the conditions which made possible the "mighty works" of apostolic times were not unique or sporadic but constant and law-governed. This assurance, substantiated by repeated demonstrations, enabled her later on to declare with authority: "Christ's Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing in all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with the Scriptures and uniting all periods in the design of God" (Science and Health, p. 271). Today, the restless, surging tide of material beliefs, human opinions and impulses, so obscures the reality of spiritual being that many are ready to deny even the existence of such a reality, while still more who recognize its existence theoretically regard it as quite beyond the range of concrete experience.

The dominant religious tendency of the period, commonly defined as scientific theism, represents the confluence of two streams of thought, viz., the higher criticism, as it is styled, which is in effect a reaction against supernaturalism, and natural science, so called, which bases its conclusions on material observation. In entering into partnership as it were with natural science, the church finds itself facing a dilemma. The implications of so-called natural science are distinctly agnostic, for, as every student of physics understands, the senses deal entirely with phenomena, effects, and impressions induced by some unknown and unexplained agency or cause. The nature of primary causation, the realm of the absolute, lies wholly outside material processes and, from the standpoint of material sense, is purely hypothetical, unknowable. One may, says natural science, entertain beliefs with regard to spiritual causation, but what evidence can be adduced to support these beliefs?

This negative or uncertain issue is directly at odds with the truth presented to the world by Christ Jesus. Strange as it may seem, the one point emphasized perhaps above all others in the recorded teachings of both Jesus and Paul, appears almost entirely to have escaped the notice of professing Christians of a later period. The basis of the demonstrations of the Founder of Christianity was, as he repeatedly declared, a recognition of the fact that God is Spirit, and that the lines of spiritual activity, which alone represent Him, run counter to the testimony of the senses in important respects. He made it clear that the absolute or spiritual, and the relative or material, at no point merge into each other; that they are not like two ends of a ladder which reaches from earth to heaven; that, however closely they may appear to approximate one another in certain aspects, the spiritual is always spiritual and the material always material, as elucidated in the parable of the wheat and the tares. He discarded material diagnosis and all determinations with regard to man and the universe which rested on the basis of sense testimony. He looked down on conditions from the vantage-point of an enlightened understanding of God as Spirit, and of the facts of existence as He decrees them spiritually. This point of view can never be gained by looking through the lens of material sense. As Mrs. Eddy says, "Delusion, sin, disease, and death arise from the false testimony of material sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image of Mind and substance with everything turned upside down" (Science and Health, p. 301).

The Prophet of Nazareth insisted in the most unqualified terms that the realm of absolute being is accessible, knowable, demonstrable to human consciousness here and now. Not only this, he also proved by his works that the knowledge his learned opponents had gained by studying relative phenomena was after all a sham, for it led them directly away from the facts of being. His knowledge of the absolute, acquired through spiritual sense, brought him into vital relation with the realm of primary causation, the noumenon of being, divine Principle, Spirit, God the Father. He spoke and acted "with authority," but this authority was not gained by studying material phenomena and their inferred laws. His life has stood out amid the surrounding sea of material beliefs because it manifested absolute being.

What we see depends on how we see; and what we experience depends on the standpoint from which we work. Humanity craves above everything else a definite knowledge of the absolute; and yet men have as a rule failed to gain such a knowledge, simply because they have sought it through relative channels. Knowledge of the absolute is the only absolute knowledge, the only knowledge that is completely self-conclusive and self-verifying. The Roentgen rays penetrate objects which are impervious to the light rays registered by the ordinary camera. The Master repeatedly rebuked his disciples for their failure to exercise spiritual perception, the faculty which brings the things of absolute being within range of human experience. It was his knowledge of the spiritual that showed forth in the signs or so-called miracles, the examples he worked out in the Science of being. It was the knowledge of the spiritual gained by John, Peter, and Paul, which enabled them to achieve results that amazed their fellows who thought and acted on a material basis. It is, too, the Christian Scientist's knowledge of spiritual law which brings about demonstrations, according to their degree, thus proving the reality of spiritual being.

This knowledge, like that of mathematics, develops to the degree that the truth is worked out in experience. In this way one not only gains an understanding of this or that particular phase of truth, but he becomes aware that all the phenomena of real being proceed from a common Principle. As Mrs. Eddy expresses it, "We must recollect that Truth is demonstrable when understood, and that good is not understood until demonstrated" (Science and Health, p. 323).