Article December 10, 1932 Issue

Christian Science and Our Problems

WALTER H. PUGH

The method of working a problem in mathematics is similar to the method used in working out problems in Christian Science. In mathematics, one begins by gaining an exact understanding of its rules, and by applying them without the slightest deviation one arrives at the correct answer. It should be noted that the right answer has always existed. We do not, therefore, have to make it, or force its conclusion, but discover it through the correct application of the rules.

Let us suppose that, for some reason, we did not arrive at the correct answer. We may have been in a hurry; we may have been inattentive; we may have been ignorant of some rule and so made a mistake. What is to be done about it? We must clarify our understanding of the rules, and, with the conviction of the truth of these held foremost in thought, start at the beginning and go over every operation. The light of this understanding uncovers the errors one by one and corrects them; and when they are all corrected the forever correct answer stands forth. During these operations we do not plan the answer to be so and so; we do not force it to appear, although we do enforce the rules.

Let us apply this method to a problem to be solved in Christian Science. We must begin by gaining an understanding of the divine Principle and rules of this Science. "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." So we read in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 465). Mrs. Eddy tells us much more in detail about God in her writings, and so this definition can be amplified. Thus God, Mind, is expressed in spiritual ideas, and these ideas are man and the universe. On page 112 of Science and Health we read, "From the infinite One in Christian Science comes one Principle and its infinite idea, and with this infinitude come spiritual rules, laws, and their demonstration, which, like the great Giver, are 'the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.'"

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