When the sunshine of the spiritual broke through the material shadow that lay over the world, ignorance received its first jolt for many centuries. To the world's amazement, this check was administered by a woman, Mary Baker Eddy, through a book, and in being both a key to the Scriptures and an analysis of the falsity of mankind's reasoning, the Christian Science textbook contains a collection of the most forcible words and phrasings to be found in literature. While the various angles of the educational value of Christian Science convey ample food for profitable thinking, the present purpose is to consider the healing power of the textbook and its unusual vocabulary, for it is only when the study of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" starts, that the student gradually begins to realize how wrong and restricted is even the best education when based on material hypotheses.

Outside the focus of Christian Science, research is on an unstable foundation; matter, as an unexplained and undefined "something," is its chief plank. Matter belief's tenacious foothold in the human consciousness permeates, influences, and molds a mortal's every thought. The effects of study and the results of applying its Principle are more perceptible in the attention devoted to Christian Science than in other branches of learning. In no other direction of inquiry is progress from problem to problem so convincing and determinate, nor is the ultimate as indisputably defined; neither is the reward for sincere endeavor so tangible as that which follows a comprehension of the logic and method of the operation of spiritual law.

Mrs. Eddy herself has told of the handicap of language in which to explain spiritual law, and the surprise of it is that she was so successful, surrounded and handicapped as she was by this restriction. In "Retrospection and Introspection" she says (p. 27): "As sweet music ripples in one's first thoughts of it like the brooklet in its meandering midst pebbles and rocks, before the mind can duly express it to the ear,—so the harmony of divine Science first broke upon my sense, before gathering experience and confidence to articulate it. Its natural manifestation is beautiful and euphonious, but its written expression increases in power and perfection under the guidance of the great Master."

It will be confirmed by all students of Christian Science that, by reason of systematic study, those words and phrases which, at first, may have seemed confusing, abrupt, abstract, and revolutionary, become clear, understandable, full-rounded, blending into a complete, harmonious unit, so that the more devotedly we study divine metaphysics, the more thoroughly we understand and are able to interpret the truth spiritually instead of materially, and this, in turn, frees us from any handicap of language.

We now arrive at the point which discloses Mrs. Eddy's surprising command of language for the purpose of divine revelation. An example of the wisdom in her choice of words will be seen in her use of the word "error." Outside of Christian Science, error is accepted as a "real mistake." Not only does the textbook teach that a mistake cannot be real, but emphasizes that a mistake has no power to be other than what it is, error, or the absence of Truth. Etymology shows that the word error is derived from the verb errare, meaning, to wander vaguely, without definite goal. Again, the word "infinite." Outside of Christian Science, how many of us understood this word in its absolute and logical meaning? We admitted that while God is infinite, there may be much of the finite in the divine plan. Mrs. Eddy was the first to emphasize and insist upon God's allness. God, Spirit, being All, infinite, boundless, and immutable, He could not be anything but All-in-all, and could not create, control, direct, or express the finite and mutable.

Indeed, sincere and persistent consideration of each unusual word and its unusual association throughout all of Mrs. Eddy's writings is of vital importance to a clear and comprehensive understanding of Christian metaphysics. To the Bible and Science and Health, the student will add a reliable dictionary. Recognition of this aid to a correct interpretation of unusual words is noticeable in all Christian Science reading rooms, where an excellent dictionary is available. Reference to these etymological authorities to substantiate Mrs. Eddy's ofttimes revolutionary phrasings serves to clarify our own interpretation, and as we continue, the activities of this right reasoning will be manifested in the subjugation of wrong, material reasoning. Thus will the tenacity of mortal foundations yield to the spiritual. When we can spontaneously think in spiritual terms, various phases of educational lack and limitation are healed. Exaggeration in the use of words and thoughtless voicing of extravagant and glib phrases give place to temperance and conservatism. The student becomes a better thinker, a better writer, a better talker, and a more intelligent listener, and he finds himself endorsing the exclamation of Job, "How forcible are right words," "words of truth and soberness" such as Paul boldly spoke forth.